Published on: December 19, 2025, 10:22 AM.

Updated on: December 19, 2025, 10:45 AM.

• The Christmas Eve episode of Zak Bagans’ “Ghost Adventures” was initially planned for release in May.
• Its airing was delayed due to its guest, true-crime author Jillian Lauren, becoming embroiled in a true-crime situation herself.
  
• This episode delves into the rumored paranormal occurrences related to Lauren’s donation of a serial killer’s ashes to Bagans’ Haunted Museum in Las Vegas.

While we are not admirers of Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum in Las Vegas—having previously debunked two of its exhibits, namely a haunted wine cabinet and a haunted guitar as complete fabrications—this Christmas Eve episode of Bagans’ Discovery+ series, “Ghost Adventures,” piqued our interest due to its unintentional connections to a true-crime narrative.

Entitled “Midnight at the Museum,” this episode was initially scheduled for May 2025, but plans shifted dramatically when true-crime author Jillian Lauren became a headline herself—charged with the attempted murder of a peace officer after a violent encounter with Los Angeles police.

Lauren, who was previously married to Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, was shot in the shoulder in her Eagle Rock front yard after allegedly refusing to drop her weapon during an unrelated manhunt in April 2025.

Questionable Credibility

This episode reportedly revolves around the remains of Samuel Little, deemed by the FBI as America’s most notorious serial killer with a staggering 93 confessions.

After Little’s death in 2020, Lauren became the sole beneficiary of his ashes and personal effects, which included troubling hand-drawn portraits of his victims.

Little had developed a bond with Lauren during interviews for her 2023 book, “Behold The Monster: Confronting America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer,” and named her as the sole heir in his will.

The episode, filmed in November 2024, investigates the alleged paranormal phenomena reported by Bagans and his museum’s staff members following the acquisition of Little’s ashes to their eerie collection—which also features some of Charles Manson’s cremated remains—as of September 2024.

The unsettling aspect of this episode lies not in Little’s notorious past or the supernatural angles but rather in the psyche of Lauren prior to her own fall from grace into criminal notoriety.

Subsequently, prosecutors downgraded Lauren’s charges to assault and negligent discharge of a firearm, allowing her to evade incarceration after a judge approved a diversion program for mental health evaluation.