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Police in the US are making their own true crime podcasts - will it help catch killers?
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Sheila FlynnColorado
Getty Images
Peter Chadwick with the wife he killed, Quee Choo Chadwick
Peter Chadwick had been on the run for nearly four years, charged with murdering his wife, when California police launched a podcast about the crime.
He was captured in Mexico 10 months and 20 days later.
Karen Schepers had been missing for more than four decades when another police force, in Illinois, debuted the first episode of a podcast last year about the cold case - and her body was found at the bottom of a river within weeks.
Now Colorado investigators are hoping to bring in elusive tips about a 10-year-old unsolved murder, too. The Aurora Police Department (APD) released its own podcast this summer in an attempt to achieve justice for Chelsea Yasser, 21, who was found fatally stabbed in a shopping centre parking lot in 2016.
As the barrelling behemoth of true crime content continues to flourish, police departments across the US and abroad are turning to podcast production for help solving cold murder cases and other investigations.
Aurora Police Department
The unsolved murder of Chelsea Yasser, 21, is the subject of a new police podcast
"The true crime genre - whether it's TV, whether it's podcasts, whether it's books – I mean, it's wildly popular," says Joe Moylan, Aurora Police Department's public information officer. "And we absolutely were deliberate in trying to tap into that broader audience."
The phenomenon is still in its infancy and brings its own benefits and pitfalls - but experts believe the trend will grow.
"I think it's a tool that everyone will eventually embrace," says Michael Alcazar, retired NYPD detective and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. True crime podcasts can air inaccurate information, he says, but this way police get to control what is out there and seek new tip-offs.
Aurora Police Department
Aurora Police Department interviewed its own officers for the White Whale podcast
There were already plenty of podcasts featuring former detectives discussing cases or policing issues, says Alyce McGovern, associate professor in criminology at University of New South Wales in Australia, where law enforcement has also begun dipping its toes into podcast production.
But it's rarer for police department-produced podcasts to focus on cold cases and solicit tips, as the California, Colorado and Illinois departments have done.
The police programmes are episodic in nature, outlining the crimes, victims and investigations with narrative panache and interesting details - much the same way that groundbreaking true crime podcast Serial did when it debuted in 2014.
Elgin Police Department
Karen Schepers was missing for more than 40 years until her body was found in 2025
In Aurora, police hoped to produce a podcast that was equally engaging - and would prompt listeners to come forward with any relevant information.
The killing of Chelsea Yasser has been described by the podcasters as the "White Whale", of Moby Dick fame, given how long it has haunted investigators.
Yasser was fatally stabbed after getting into a minivan that pulled up in the parking lot; she collapsed moments after leaving the vehicle. Grainy surveillance footage captured the rocking van as the assault took place, but the images were not clear enough to discern a face and DNA recovered from under her fingernails matched no one in the system.
As the APD released the podcast in June, detectives were testing the DNA using new forensic genealogy technology, and the programme updated listeners about...