How police in US are using the power of podcasts to crack unsolved murdersMore police departments are trying to invigorate unsolved murder or missing cases through the power of podcasts.12 hrs ago

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.

“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.

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.

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 other new lines of enquiry.

The department has issued appeals for information on the Yasser murder before, but the podcast can cast a far wider net for witnesses and tipsters, Moylan says.

“If you weren’t watching the news that night when it happened, or if you didn’t pick up a newspaper, you might not know anything about this case, so we wanted to tap into that broader audience.

“Assuming that the suspect is still alive and out there somewhere, they could be anywhere in the country.”

The podcast had been downloaded 7,184 times by the end of July, according to APD – yielding several tips, including one which investigators continue to pursue.

Most departments don’t have the staff, budget or time needed to produce podcast content, nor do they have the equipment or expertise.

Others hold off for fear of repercussions, lawsuits and civil liability, says retired detective Alcazar.

In California, Newport Beach Police Department’s podcast about the fugitive Chadwick, for example, was not without controversy. The millionaire was introduced to viewers in Episode 1 as “a man who killed his wife in the peaceful coastal community of Newport Beach, California in October 2012”.

Chadwick had been charged and pleaded not guilty, but not tried – yet the podcast made no use of the word “alleged” and called the millionaire a “murderer”. Critics argued that it flew in the face of innocent-before-proven-guilty parameters and that the job of police was to investigate, not adjudicate.

The podcast was produced and hosted by public information officer Jennifer Manzella, who defended the choice at the time, saying police “put out the same kinds of statements all the time”.

She tells BBC News that she was trying to balance telling the story in an engaging way without jeopardising the investigation.

After Chadwick’s August 2019 apprehension, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison – where he remains.

Manzella says it wasn’t a direct tip from the podcast that led to his capture – but it undeniably helped because it put pressure on Chadwick while on the run, making him more likely to make mistakes.

And investigators were able to obtain warrants and extraditions “in record time” because of the awareness – the podcast hit Number 24 on the iTunes chart.

In the wake of the podcast – and Chadwick’s capture – she got calls from other departments and agencies interested in producing something similar.

But not everyone has been behind the idea.

“I initially was not really interested in it,” says Detective Andrew Houghton – and now podcast co-host – at Elgin Police Department in Illinois. He worked on Elgin’s 2025 podcast Somebody Knows Something alongside Detective Matthew Vartarian with assistance from a local radio station.

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.”