ABC Owned Television Stations is expanding its investigative slate with a trio of December 21 documentaries on Hulu. WPVI Philadelphia premieres No Good Deed: A Crowdfunding Holiday Heist that day, “about what started as a heartwarming 2017 holiday story that turned into the biggest scandal in GoFundMe history,” according to WPVI.

No Good Deed updates viewers about Johnny Bobbitt Jr., a homeless man who gave his last $20 to help a woman, Katelyn McClure, who ran out of gas. McClure created a GoFundMe page to help him out of homelessness. As the story went viral, McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, raised around $400,000 for Bobbitt.

But social media posts revealing luxury spending sprees, parties and gambling prompted WPVI investigative reporter Chad Pradelli and Special Projects producer Cheryl Mettendorf to investigate. McClure, D'Amico and Bobbitt were all in on the scam. “A fallout ensued, eventually exposing the Good Deed as a lie that defrauded GoFundMe and thousands of kindhearted supporters,” said WPVI. 

Pradelli and Mettendorf are co-executive producers on the hour-long documentary. "Acts of kindness bring out the best in people but this is a story that brought out the worst," said Pradelli.

KTRK Houston releases a new episode from its Texas True Crime series December 21. Texas True Crime: The Candyman Murders is about a case that haunted Houston nearly 50 years ago. ABC13 reporter Jessica Willey revisits Dean Corll, known as the Candyman, who tortured, raped and killed at least 28 boys and young men.

Earlier this year, KTRK released all episodes from Texas True Crime and season two of its Unsolved series on Hulu. There are 13 total documentary episodes.

"Deciding to share these locally produced true-crime stories on Hulu is indicative of the demand we are seeing from viewers who are obsessed with the content," said Wendy Granato, president and general manager of KTRK. "It also speaks to the experience of our reporters, whose work gives a voice to the victims." 

Also on December 21, KABC Los Angeles releases Unsolved LA: The Disappearance of Mitrice Richardson on Hulu. It is about a 2009 case involving a young woman who vanished near Malibu Creek State Park. 

In the hour-long special, KABC’s Veronica Miracle looks into the unsolved case. Richardson appeared to have a mental health crisis that led her to county jail before she went missing. “Controversy ensued regarding how she was released in the middle of the night with no phone or car and vanished,” said KABC. 

Richardson’s remains were found 11 months later in a canyon. ■ 

ABC Owned Stations Group said it has launched an update to its local news apps that emphasizes live streaming and adds features that drive more viewer customization.

Among the new features, My News lets viewers pick topics and locations they are most interested in following, and a new personalized alert system allows users to opt-in have info on specific topics and locations pushed to them.

The updated local news apps also provide exclusive live video streams, including live news broadcasts, and are now placed more prominently and are available as users navigate through other news content. Viewers also have the ability to toggle between live streams.

Other components include Top News (a curated view of the day’s biggest stories, with breaking news that auto-plays when the app is opened), Explore (a deeper dive into topics such as sports, entertainment and weather-related events, with access to as many as 15 locations), and Weather (dedicated coverage on local weather conditions).

"This is our boldest refresh to date, designed and modernized for the mobile news consumer," Wendy McMahon, the recently announced president, ABC Owned TV Stations Group, said in a statement. "With ‘My News,’ viewers can have a personalized local news experience, programming a feed and opting into alerts around the issues and areas that are most important to them.  The video offerings are also more robust - enabling our audiences to always be connected to the local brands and content they trust.”

ABC Owned TV Stations include WABC-TV, New York; KABC-TV, Los Angeles; WLS-TV, Chicago; WPVI-TV Philadelphia; KGO-TV, San Francisco; KTRK-TV, Houston; WTVD-TV, Raleigh-Durham; and KFSN-TV, Fresno.