An online article caught my eye – “Pinnacle Man, Found in Cave Nearly 50 Years Ago, Has Been Identified.”
Back in 1977, two hikers found a man’s frozen body in a cave in eastern Pennsylvania.
No one came forth to claim the young man’s body, so his paperwork moved to the cold case file. But thanks to Ian Keck, a trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police Department who used “old-fashioned police work,” the man was identified as Nicholas Paul Grubb.
These are the kinds of cases that fascinate me, and there’s plenty of these kinds of unsolved mysteries on crime podcasts.
My son Nick said he loves listening to “who-dun-it” podcasts while driving, so I tuned into one and listened to at least three of the shows. Full confession – I’m a long-time fan of crime shows.
Back in the 1970s, Peter Falk starred as Lt. Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Columbo had a disarming way to lull the murderers into believing he was an inept, forgetful detective. I never missed an episode.
Similar to “Columbo” was “Quincy” with Jack Klugman as a medical examiner who couldn’t resist investigating mysterious deaths. His energy was contagious and fun.
My sister wouldn’t miss an episode “Starsky & Hutch,” mostly for the two gorgeous stars instead of the somewhat weak scripts they were assigned.
All of these shows had likeable main characters, interesting story lines and the cases wrapped up in a nice, neat package in 60 minutes.
That’s not always the case with true crime podcasts.
First, they’re all based on real cases. Many have been covered on television programs like “48 Hours” or newspaper stories, and the podcast hosts cite where they got their information.
I tuned into one of the most well-known podcasts from National Public Radio. “Serial” was a 12-part podcast about a young girl, Hae Min Lee, who was murdered. Police arrested her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder.
Years later, Sarah Koenig’s detailed reporting was the reason the case was reopened and Syed, who’d been in jail, was released.
Over the next two weeks, I listened to all 12 hours of Koenig’s award-winning podcast. I was curious to hear more crime show podcasts, and was surprised to find there are quite a few choices out there.
The top-rated podcast is “My Favorite Murder.” Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark talk about true crimes that are compelling and cover a variety of cases. Warning – there’s a lot of profanity along with, of all things, laughter.
On two of my favorites, “Crime Junkie Radio” and “Southern Mysteries,” the hosts give their own impressions of what happened in the cases. Many times, they’re critical of law enforcement, but they usually give them credit for working with the resources they had at the time.
So much has changed over the years.
These days, there are cameras mounted outside almost every home, on every street corner and in and outside of most businesses. People can be tracked by cell phone tower pings, having their vehicle tagged on highway monitors or on individual cell phones.
But years ago, that wasn’t the case. Police cases were solved by detectives running down every clue in person or on the telephone, painstakingly trying to uncover “whodunnit.”
For some of the old cold cases, modern technology allows detectives to run DNA analysis. They can now examine fibers and hair that were found and preserved from the murder scene to help pinpoint the guilty parties.
Listening to how detectives follow leads, whether it was in the 1940s or last week, is fascinating and a different break from the same-old, same-old top 40 songs.
The next time you’re stuck in traffic, folding clothes or taking a car trip, find a crime podcast and become your own Columbo.
You’ll be hooked, just like me.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.