Podcasts have become widely popular within the past couple of years. After listening to many podcasts driving back and forth from New Jersey to URI, I thought I’d share my top three favorite mystery/true crime podcasts.
Serial: Season 1
Serial is probably the most popular true-crime podcast out there and was the first podcast I ever listened to. Season 1 investigated the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. After going missing one day after school, an investigation began, hoping to find her. About a month later her corpse was discovered in Leakin Park. Lee’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Masud Syed, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Syed was found guilty of Lee’s murder on February 25, 2000, but still pleads his innocence to this day. Serial looks into the case of Hae Min Lee’s murder, hoping to find out more information and get more closure on this interesting case. The host, Sarah Koenig, speaks directly with Adnan Syed throughout the podcast over the phone. With the popularity of the podcast rapidly growing, Judge Martin P. Welch granted Syed’s motion for post-conviction relief, setting aside the original conviction and calling for a new trial due to ineffective assistance of counsel. With the new information found during and after the podcast, many believe that Adnan was falsely convicted of murder. Time to find out what you think.
S-Town
S-Town starts in 2012 after an antiquarian horologist by the name of John B. McLemore sent an email to the staff of the show This American Life asking them to investigate an alleged murder in his hometown of Woodstock, Alabama, a place McLemore claimed to despise. After a year of exchanging emails and several months of conversation with McLemore, producer Brian Reed traveled to Woodstock to investigate. After a tragic event occurs while the podcast was still in production, Brian Reed is sent on a new mission to figure out the truth.
Someone Knows Something: Season 2
The second season of Someone Knows Something follows the disappearance of Sheryl Sheppard in Hamilton, Ontario. Sheppard went missing on January 2, 1998, two days after her boyfriend, Michael Lavoie, offered a proposal of marriage on a live TV broadcast. With no arrests, no real clues, and no sign of Sheryl for almost 20 years, everyone is still looking for answers. With some assistance from Sheppard’s mother, Odette Fisher, David Ridgen looks into the case as well as the backgrounds of both Sheryl and Michael, who has been the only person the Hamilton Police Service has named as a suspect in Sheryl’s disappearance.