As if the typical true crime murder documentary doesn’t give us enough of a pause to stay awake at night, Hulu is bringing audiences a new reason to keep their eyes open all through the darkest hours. The streaming service has announced the premiere date for their new documentary, Dead Asleep. The movie, which is under the direction of documentarian Skye Borgman (Abducted In Plain Sight), will bring into question one defendant’s claim that he was sleepwalking when he murdered his best friend.
The film will follow the events leading up to and following the murder of Brooke Preston at the hands of her close friend, Randy Herman Jr. The trailer recounts the adventures of the childhood pals after they relocated to Florida in a search for something new and exciting. All the fun comes to a screeching halt when we hear a 911 call in which Herman Jr. alerts the voice at the other end that not only has someone been murdered, but that he was the murderer. To the untrained eye, the case seems to be open and shut, but in the trailer, we hear from public defender Joe Walsh, who says that there was just something not right about the case. Herman Jr. showed signs of remorse right off the bat and seemed to not recall the events that took place, something that Walsh describes as “profound amnesia." Along with this missing memory surrounding the happenings of the slaying, Walsh says that there was no evidence to indicate a motive or drive for Herman Jr. to commit the heinous crime.
Driven by this curiosity, the defense team begins to look into Herman Jr.’s past history involving sleepwalking. Viewers will hear from both Herman Jr. and members of his family including his mother who claims her son has a lengthy history of walking in his sleep. Dead Asleep will also be using never before shared insight and interviews with both defense and prosecution attorneys, journalists who worked closely with the case, forensic psychiatrists, and world-renowned experts in the field of sleepwalking to tell the story behind the violent murder and the defensive push that was to follow.
True crime fans are sure to be tossing over all the twists and turns of this documentary when it lands on Hulu on December 16. Check out the trailer for Hulu's Dead Asleep below.