In the Dark is an investigative podcast produced by APM reports, a part of American Public Media. Reporter Madeleine Baran digs deep into a familiar case and one that only gained notoriety after the podcast.
The first season investigates the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, and ironically was being aired when Jacob’s killer made a plea bargain and confessed to the crime. To anyone not from Minnesota, Jacob Wetterling was THE missing child case. For twenty-seven years, every few years a story ran in local media on the case and any updates that were known. Because of that case many sex offender registration laws were passed. In the Dark actually came across Danny Heinrich, Jacob’s killer, as a possible suspect. In addition to the Wetterling case, the podcast dives deeper into the power of sheriffs in small towns, history of the Stearns County Police Department, and the general lack of accountability when cold cases don’t get solved.
What chilled me was the observation that if someone dies in a hospital, there is a review process. Procedures are scrutinized, and the question is asked—was there a way to prevent this? Can we change how we do things to prevent this from happening again? We have no such process for police departments. If an investigation gets bungled, no one goes back and say: what training did the officers have that could be improved? What procedures does the department have for investigating crime that could be changed, based on research and knowledge we have learned through the years? I personally don’t see that as assigning blame to a particular person, but with all that law enforcement in entrusted with, I do think saying we know better ways of conducting investigations now than twenty years ago shouldn’t be controversial.
The second season focuses the trials of Curtis Flowers. In small town Winona, Mississippi four employees were gunned down at the Tardy furniture store in the 90’s. Curtis Flowers, a black man in his twenties at the time of the murders, was tried six times for the crime. Two trials were hung juries, and the remaining four guilty verdicts have been overturned by higher courts.
All the evidence against Flowers falls apart upon scrutiny, and In the Dark discusses the racial past of the small town, and the power held by a District Attorney. At this point, there is no mechanism in place to remove a DA except by vote, or to remove a case from DA they have not requested. International listeners wrote in with shock that in the United States DAs are not appointed.
In the days of talking about police reform, this podcast is even more relevant and thought provoking. It doesn’t tackle the issue directly, and the focus is on explaining how things are and why its so hard to change as opposed to suggesting solutions. But that is what this podcast sets out to do, and it does it well. A couple of episodes that feel like tangents actually do tie in to the overall narrative In the Dark tells quite well.
Second season Part II is Coronavirus in the Delta. The reporters are still able to do reporting while social distancing, and made episodes about the area of Mississippi they became familiar with through reporting on the Flowers case. While not as tight of a narrative, it is still informative about how people we rarely hear about are being effected by the coronavirus and our current global pandemic.
I highly recommend In the Dark. It is engaging true crime storytelling that offers a peak under the hood of both the reporting process and our criminal justice system. Episode 8 of second season a reporter collects all jury records for the DA shows how much footwork and labor is required to get the information analyze it. Also, hiring experts to review and explain all the information they have uncovered has to be a huge expense. This podcast is especially relevant in our current climate of racial justice and demand for police reform.