Gianni Versace's murder case - A detailed case overview

Gianni Versace was shot outside his Miami Beach home on July 15, 1997, in a targeted attack that ended the life of a 50-year-old designer at the height of his influence. Police quickly tied the murder to Andrew Cunanan, then a fugitive already linked to a string of killings across several states.

Oxygen has late-night reairs this week. On Wednesday, September 10, Dateline presents The Death of Gianni Versace at 3:00 am and 4:00 am. Two days later, on Sunday, September 14, at 2:00 am, Oxygen runs the documentary Killing Versace: The Hunt for a Serial Killer.

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Gianni Versace case background and context

Gianni Versace was an Italian couturier known for bold shows, celebrity clients, and a growing global brand. He lived part-time at Casa Casuarina on Ocean Drive with long-time partner Antonio D’Amico.

A Versace brand fragrance. Gianni built the brand. (Image via Pexels)

Versace had returned to Miami days earlier and was keeping a routine that included a morning walk for magazines. According to the FBI, Versace was shot twice in the back of the head at close range as he returned from a nearby café, and the suspect fled into a parking garage where a stolen truck connected to an earlier homicide was found.

Witnesses reported two quick shots. First responders transported Versace to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The scene drew intense media attention, but investigators focused on physical evidence left behind.

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Gianni Versace investigation and motive questions

Evidence at the nearby garage, including a stolen vehicle tied to the New Jersey homicide, quickly gave detectives a suspect name. A regional and federal manhunt followed, with tips arriving from around the country. The overarching motive remains unsettled.

Per TIME (2018), investigators have never proven why Versace was targeted. Vanity Fair reported eyewitness claims that Versace and Cunanan briefly crossed paths years earlier in San Francisco, while the designer’s family has said they never met.

What is clear from the record is a rapid series of killings, swift identification of a suspect, and a search that ended only after the houseboat standoff concluded with the suspect’s death.

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Timeline of the Andrew Cunanan murders

In late April 1997, Jeffrey Trail was bludgeoned in Minneapolis, and days later, David Madson was found shot near East Rush Lake.

On May 4 in Chicago, real estate developer Lee Miglin was bound and stabbed inside his garage, and his Lexus was taken.

Five days after that, New Jersey cemetery caretaker William Reese was shot, and his red pickup was stolen. CBS News detailed how the stolen vehicles, clothing, and documents created the linkages that eventually pointed to Cunanan.

Once in South Florida, Cunanan stayed in budget hotels and moved within beach neighborhoods. He pawned a stolen gold coin under his own name a week before the shooting, a misstep that generated paperwork police later recovered. On July 15, 1997, Versace was killed at the mansion gate.

Entrance to the Versace mansion where Cunanan shot Gianni Versace. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Eight days later, on July 23, 1997, the hunt ended when Cunanan died by suicide on a houseboat north of Ocean Drive, the same handgun at his side that had been used in several of the murders.

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Where to watch the Gianni Versace case

Oxygen’s schedule includes Dateline’s The Death of Gianni Versace at 3:00 am and 4:00 am on Wednesday, September 10.

The network then airs Killing Versace: The Hunt for a Serial Killer on Sunday, September 14, at 2:00 am. The special revisits the spree, the Miami investigation, and the final hours on the houseboat.

The Death of Gianni Versace: A Dateline Investigation (originally aired April 28, 2017) is available on Peacock Premium and Peacock Premium Plus, and also streams on fuboTV, NBC, and The Roku Channel with ads. The title is listed for free on Spectrum On Demand.

Killing Versace: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is a 2018 documentary special that can be purchased digitally on Fandango at Home.

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