How police in US are using the power of podcasts to crack unsolved murders
Houghton and Vartarian had just been assigned to Elgin's new cold case unit in 2024 when the chief informed them that the job would also
Houghton and Vartarian had just been assigned to Elgin's new cold case unit in 2024 when the chief informed them that the job would also involve podcasting. "We're already starting this new unit," Houghton recalls. "Why are we adding something else new on top of that?" Houghton and his partner begrudgingly began figuring out how to arrange episodes and soon discovered the process was also helping them structure the investigation. They formed different theories about what had happened to the missing 23-year-old, and each theory naturally formed an episode. The podcast not only generated tips but also gave the detectives more ways to find leads.
They started going through posts on social media about their own programme. "They'd say, like, 'Oh, my mom worked with this person, or I live in this neighbourhood and I remember this.'" The detectives ultimately solved the case through old-fashioned policework; one of their theories had been that Schepers had crashed her car and ended up in the river. They had found a 1999 local newspaper story claiming that police had searched salvage yards by helicopter as well as dragging the Fox River but there was no evidence the latter had happened. And they did not shy away from telling listeners this.
So the department brought in a search company with the latest sonar technology as well as divers - and they found Schepers and her car at the bottom of the river in March 2025. Now they're on the third season of the podcast. They shook up the format for the second, focusing on homicides, but have returned to a missing persons case. Houghton acknowledges that "it is a lot of work - it takes a lot of time and effort". As other departments navigate those budgetary and resource issues, however, there's a consensus that podcasts as an investigative tool will be seen more frequently.
If police departments can find the staffing to sustain it, podcasting could help in both recruitment and staff retention, says Janice Iwama, associate professor in American University's department of justice, law and criminology. It gives listeners the chance to learn more about what policing is really like, from the mouths of working officers. Generational change could also fuel the trend, says retired NYPD Detective Alcazar, because younger police officers will be more ready to embrace the opportunities presented by podcasts and social media. "That's their world," he says. "That's what they're most comfortable with."
The BriefWire