- "Devil Mom". Oh dear god, "Devil Mom". So much that even Steve ended up breaking down after giving the aforementioned "mother" the calling out she deserves.
- Any time a picture of an abuse or murder victim (especially a young child) is shown in a case in which one of the guests is believed or indicated by LDT to have been responsible for the abuse or murder. A recent (2016) example is the episode "Could a Mother Kill Her Own Child?
", in which a young woman named Monique claimed innocence in the brutal beating of her two-year-old daughter Kelsy (whose injuries, the coroner determined, were so severe they were the equivalent of being hit by a car traveling at 35 mph, the beating causing such severe internal bleeding that the child was vomiting black fluid before she died), despite the fact that she had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and served 16 months in jail. Monique sobbed hysterically (and mostly without tears) through the entire segment (comforted by her mother, who was buying her act hook, line, and sinker), especially after Steve announced she'd failed her LDT, but the real tear-jerker moment was when a photo of adorable little Kelsy was shown on screen, not to mention that, in a true miscarriage of justice, Monique served only 16 months for a crime she evidently caused or helped cover up (and she had the nerve to complain about people calling her a baby killer, to which Wilkos replied, "If the shoe fits"). Steve was particularly outraged at Monique's light sentence and thundered that she ought to be serving 60 years in prison. - In "A Father's Rage After Results" a father was so adamant that his brother was innocent of touching his daughter that he actively tried to attack his wife, who was saying the daughter said this. When he found out the results, he tried to murder his brother, yelling and crying and openly admitting to believing his daughter. Steve reassured him that he was not at fault for this and told him not to let his rage take over, but he could feel it along with the guilt. It's hard to see your family be guilty, especially of hurting your child, but what's worse is when you realize you didn't stop it in time.
- Similarly, "Jailed for Life" is about a mother who is now in prison for life because of her complete obliviousness as to what happened to her child, Lattie. She was somehow unaware that her 4-year-old boy had been burned, scalded, beaten, and killed because his mother's boyfriend thought he was a homosexual. A grown man tortured and killed an innocent 4-year-old because he thought the child was gay.
- The saddest part is that when he demanded that the woman apologize to her dead son for failing him, the woman responds with the most bland, uncaring, and nonchalant "I'm sorry, Lattie", and Steve actually storms out of the room.
- The saddest part is that when he demanded that the woman apologize to her dead son for failing him, the woman responds with the most bland, uncaring, and nonchalant "I'm sorry, Lattie"
- In situations that can also make the viewer become angry, one can't help but feel sorry for the innocent parent(s) or relative(s) of a molested child being subjected to bellowing laughter from the audience, reveling in the misfortune of the guest(s) when they find out that the suspect wasn't telling the truth. Especially when the innocent parent or relative is so overcome with anguish that he or she literally falls to the ground - having the moment of your emotional breakdown nationally televised is not easy.
- Whenever someone doubts the legitimacy of a child saying they were abused, not accusing the parent of coaxing but outright saying the young child is lying. There was one episode where a father or uncle was being accused of touching his daughter or niece, and the aunt who was defending him came out and said point-blank, "You know this girl has lied before." And then she was shocked when he failed, and she didn't really apologize for saying her niece was lying about child molestation!
- Some guests have been utterly failed by the U.S. justice system, imprisoned for years, and made to register as sex offenders for a crime they never committed; even after passing the lie detector test, resulting in an emotional scene with their loved ones on the stage and consolation from Steve, it will still be difficult for them to legally clear their name and virtually impossible for them to throw off the social stigma. Examples include Akeem from May 2016, who, unable to afford a lawyer after a relative accused him of molestation, had been railroaded into accepting a plea bargain, and Bryan from a month earlier, who narrowly fell foul of "age of consent" laws with a girl whom he did not know was just two years younger than him.
- In one episode, a former marine named Damien comes on to clear his name of possessing child pornography on his laptop; he claims a virus had downloaded it onto his laptop and he only discovered it when he took it to a shop to get it repaired. It's obvious from the beginning that he's lying through his teeth, but the saddest part is with his girlfriend Caitlyn. She also came onto the show and stood by his side for the entire episode, saying that she pretty much gave up everything, including family and friends, to defend him. Come time to reveal the results of his polygraph test, Dan comes onto the stage and reveals that not only was Damien not given a test, but he confessed that the child porn was his and no virus had caused it to appear. Caitlyn then slaps him hard across the face and immediately drops to the ground in tears. The anger and hurt in her as she talks to him afterwards are tragic to see, especially knowing that her trust in him cost her everything, and she even openly admits to looking like a fool for believing him. What's worse is that Damien doesn't seem to show any genuine remorse for his actions, instead insisting he did have a virus on his laptop and that he lied to Caitlyn to "protect her"...though Steve knows the real reason he lied is cause he didn't want Caitlyn to break up with him and leave him on his own. Some people will attack her for staying with someone who's guilty - in fact, Steve himself will often attack a person for staying with a guilty person if he believes he or she condoned the guilty party's actions by doing nothing - but there are people who will defend a person who committed a crime who legitimately believe their friend/lover/relative is innocent when in most cases, like this episode, they aren't, and she learned that the hard way.
- Usually Steve would mercilessly berate guys like Damien for committing awful crimes like the one Damien committed but this time Steve sounded more like a disappointed dad than angry because he truly wanted to believe Damien only for it to be found that he was living a lie and Steve flat out told Damien there was no way of getting around this and that he would have to pay for his transgressions.
- In a subsequent re-airing of the story, Steve revealed that Damien had turned himself over to the authorities and was serving a five-year sentence for child pornography.
- The episode "My Sister Was Found Dead... Did You Kill Her?" has a truly gut-wrenching results sequence - with the audience completely absent (having been removed from the studio into another room to avoid having a riot potentially break out on the results being read), as well as the accused having been removed as well, the brother of a murdered woman and his fiancée both receive the results they had been dreading. Completely unable to make any noise bar a completely broken whimper, the man's face dissolves into tears as he weakly walks about the stage turning over the chairs gingerly. Her sister was so shocked she shakingly asked if maybe he failed for another reason only for Steve to reveal that's not the case.
- The story of Pennsylvania toddler Arabella Parker, a three-year-old who was beaten so badly that part of her brain had to be removed - allegedly because she wouldn't eat her dinner. The girl's mother, Samantha, admitted that her ex-boyfriend had beaten and even tried to kill the child on several prior occasions but that she had done nothing because she was scared of him. A lie detector test revealed that Samantha had no part in causing the girl's injuries, but Steve roasted her so thoroughly for her failure to protect her daughter that she fled the stage in tears. Steve followed her and continued to berate her while she continued to deny any responsibility for Arabella's injuries. Tragically, Arabella's condition did not improve, and after the show, the girl passed away two days after being taken off life support. Both Samantha and her ex-boyfriend were subsequently charged with homicide.
- The early episode "I Hate You, Daddy" featured a pre-teen girl (known as "Emma" - not her real name - and filmed only from behind) who brought her biological father on the show to confront him about sexually molesting her. She was unable to keep her composure and began crying hysterically while reading her prepared statement, at one point sobbing so hard she was unable to speak, which made her father's reaction all the more unsettling and upsetting: he showed little to no reaction to his daughter's allegations, nonchalantly brushed her off as a liar, and acted smug and sarcastic through the whole segment. This made his daughter so angry that she continued to repeatedly scream at him at the top of her lungs and yell at him that she hated him and wanted him out of her life. She also managed to tearfully thank Steve for being the only one who cared enough about her story to want to help her, and she was bravely supported by her grandmother who also believed her despite the lies Emma's father had spun to the rest of her family. Incidentally, Emma took a lie detector test and passed, showing that she was telling the truth, and her father failed his test.
- The story of Emmett is VERY heartbreaking. His daughter contacted Steve to find out the truth about her father, as her mother had convinced her he had molested her as a child and that is why they had to leave. The Awful Truth is told by the man himself: the poor guy was just a normal (and apparently very loving) husband and father who came home from work one day to find his family gone and his house virtually barren, as his bitch of a wife had reportedly wanted to end the relationship but instead of... you know, getting a divorce, she did the next best thing and left abruptly, spinning a horrible lie about him for good measure. He made numerous attempts to reach out to his wife to connect with his child, but he was rebuffed or just ignored each time, and they constantly moved so he couldn't get to them directly. He even sent dozens of letters to his little girl and wife over the years, desperate to contact them, but his wife hid the letters from his daughter to convince her he didn't care. When she found the letters and confronted her mother (who of course told her it was for her safety), she met with Emmett in order to find the truth. Emmett passed his lie detector test and finally reunited with his daughter (and by extension eradicating the lies his wife told about him from the public eye). Tragically, it doesn't change the fact that he missed the best years of his daughter's life over a lie that never needed to be told in the first place.
- Another early episode, titled "A Stormy Past," featured a young woman named Stormy who wanted to clear her name of sexually molesting two of her foster siblings when she was 15 and they were four and five. A sexual abuse survivor herself, Stormy had been taken in by her grandmother as a foster child, only to be accused of molestation. She said she admitted to the molestation only because she was told she could go home afterward. Instead, Stormy was placed in juvenile detention for seven months, during which time no one from her foster family ever visited her, which convinced her that her grandmother only cared about the paycheck she got as a foster parent and not about her. Steve believed Stormy's story and was proven right when she passed her lie detector test, but Stormy's grandmother and foster sister (both filmed only from behind) were unmoved, with the grandmother continuing to insist Stormy was guilty because of the admission she'd made and refusing to apologize to Stormy for the hell she'd put her through. At this, Steve outright called the grandmother a bitch (unbleeped), chided her for not investigating any other possible molestation suspects besides Stormy, and threw her out of the studio.
- One of the most heartrending moments of Stormy's interview was when Steve told her he believed her, and Stormy gave a relieved shout that sounded like a cross between a sob and a laugh, to thunderous applause from the audience.
- In "Childhood Abuse" a mother comes on calling her daughter a liar for saying that the mother's boyfriend at the time molested her. That she was doing it for attention and pretty much her opening statement is her saying she refuses to believe her. She comes out on stage yelling and accusing her of faking and even says their relationship is over after the results come out. The daughter passes, obviously. Then the mom's results come out, and it turns out she fully knew her boyfriend touched her daughter, covered up for him, and even admitted to believing she knew her daughter was telling the truth for years. Yes, that's right, she knew her daughter was telling the truth, knew it happened, and stayed with the guy in question, but she refused to admit it and gaslit her daughter for years! The daughter's face was heartbreaking, she looked like she was stabbed in the chest, and she seemed to think her mother only saw her as a liar, but in reality, her mother was sticking up for the abuser. Even after her daughter cuts off contact, she still makes her daughter the bad guy before Steve rightfully kicks her ass off stage. Steve even admits this is the saddest set of results he's ever read.
- In one of the more disturbing episodes, a man accuses his girlfriend of having a sexual affair with her own mother! At first, the boyfriend seems like he might be crazy and making random accusations, but as the episode goes further, it's soon shown his accusations might ring true. Steve actually doesn't reveal the results to the audience of the girlfriend's test but shows them to the boyfriend, and it's strongly implied she failed and had been sexually abused by her own mother. The girlfriend is in tears at this point, and the boyfriend sadly leaves her, admitting this is too much to handle. The mother never came on, but during the credits, a message from her is played, and the boyfriend confirms he was right and she was lying. That's right, it was basically revealed that a woman was being raped and sexually abused by her own mom!
- In the episode "A MOTHER TOO HORRIBLE TO FORGIVE?" A mother named Tabitha refused to believe her daughters about the abuse they endured by her husband, Jose. He had sexually abused all her daughters, but she was still married and living with him. She already came out screaming and shouting and was unlikable, but it got worse from there. She shouted at the daughter who couldn't appear on stage and was there by Skype, "It takes two to tango! Why didn't she stop it!" Fully revealing she thought her daughters came on to her adult husband and blamed them for what happened to them. Steve rightfully called her out and said "It takes two to tango even if it's a child?" Even when her daughters passed she still didn't apologize. Then her results were revealed she let the abuse happen and other family members had told her about the abuse, but worse she had called CPS on her daughter about being on drugs, which could've gotten her daughter's kids taken away. Tabitha was on drugs when her kids were being abused and used it as a weak excuse. Steve rightfully stated she wouldn't leave him, her daughter brought up that she still slept in bed with him and then he kicked her off stage.
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