How police in US are using the power of podcasts to crack unsolved murders

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.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.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."