Podcast aims to take bite out of crime

Jul. 22—The folks at Odessa Crime Stoppers are expanding their repertoire and creating podcasts featuring missing people and unsolved homicides.

Back when Crime Stoppers began 39 years ago, they relied on newspaper articles, TV news and radio spots to ask people for help in solving crimes. In more recent times, they've created their own website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Starting this fall, CEO Susan Rogers said the nonprofit will begin airing at least one 20-25 minute podcast per month. With the help of local law enforcement, Crime Stoppers have already identified the first six cases, three Odessa Police Department cases and three Ector County Sheriff's Office cases.

The name for the podcast? Behind the Line.

"We're going to start out probably dropping one once a month for a few months until we make sure we've got all the glitches out. I'm sure there'll be a few," Rogers said. "We've got all of our equipment purchased. We've got everything ready to go. In the end, we're hoping to drop an episode twice a month and at some point, we've got cases that will be multi-episodes and we will drop those all at one time. So you can binge listen to those, we won't make you wait two weeks apart. Some of them we're gonna have anywhere from five to eight episodes."

The idea for the podcasts came from ECSO Deputy Ryan Kelly, a nine-year veteran of the department who was assigned to Crime Stoppers several months back.

Kelly, 29, remembers when Crime Stoppers used to feature the Crime of the Week back in the '90s. Shortly after he started his new assignment he began putting together and posting old unsolved crimes to YouTube.

"I figured with my generation, we're better off doing things that are internet-based," Kelly said.

That's when he pitched the podcast idea to Rogers.

"I said, 'You know, a podcast would be a great thing to do with some of our cases. Let's see if anybody has done any of these,'" Rogers said.

They quickly discovered hundreds of crime-related podcasts, including some that featured Odessa cold cases, although some of them included erroneous information, Rogers said.

Odessa Crime Stoppers' podcasts will feature interviews with local investigators, crime scene technicians, witnesses and family and friends of the victims, Rogers said.

"We're going to talk to anybody that we can make contact with that is willing to come on the podcast. We're hoping to get a different view," Rogers said. "With a lot of the podcasts, you can obviously tell that they've done their research. They've gotten it from newspaper archives, but because of the graciousness of law enforcement around here, they have agreed to speak with us."

The podcasts will also have an educational bent to them, she said.

"We're hoping that it's going to be different than most podcasts that are out there because we're going to have interviews with experts in different fields," Rogers said. "We had Pat Harris come in and talk to us. He retired from OPD. He was in their criminalistics division. He came and talked to us about the advancements of DNA from the DNA that they had back early on to touch DNA now and what little specimens it takes now to be able to do that."

Many of the area's unsolved cases go back to the '60s, '70s and '80s and so many things have changed since then, Rogers said.

"Due to the advances in technology, there may be new leads in cold case investigations, not only advanced DNA analysis, but latent print evidence, trace evidence and tool mark advancements all offer the potential for new clues in old investigations," said Texas Ranger Jeffery Strain, who is with Company E, the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program.

You can tell how old people are just from the comments they make after listening to the various podcasts, Rogers said.

"Because they're saying, 'Well, why didn't they read DNA? Why didn't they run this?' when it's a 60 year old case? You want to say, 'You know, DNA was not a thing in the 60s. It was barely a thing in the 60s and it certainly wasn't used by law enforcement,'" she said.

She also hopes that time itself will also play a factor for some people.

"I think people as they age, they mature and they grow up and they have families and they start thinking about the things that happened when they were younger," Rogers said. "If they were a witness to something back then and they were afraid to say something about it, maybe now they're older and they have a family they'll understand what closure is for families. Maybe there's more likelihood they'll want to come talk to us about it or give us some information."

The amount of time that has passed can also work in Crime Stoppers' favor in other ways as well.

"We've advanced. We can literally take tips without ever speaking to you at all. We have an app. You can do it through the website. We pay our rewards through the app so that we don't ever make contact. We never hear your voice. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore."

Crime Stoppers paid for the recording equipment through fundraising and will pay for the podcasts themselves with a bit of advertising, Rogers said. The podcasts will be free for listeners, however.

Listeners will be provided links to the Odessa Crime Stoppers' web page and social media so they'll be able to check out pictures of the victims and crime scenes and maps, Rogers said. So many of the businesses from back in the day are no longer around, she said.

Rogers and Kelly are hopeful the podcasts, which will be available on multiple platforms, will lead to some big breaks.

"At the end of the day, we want to solve cases and bring closure to the families," Kelly said.

"The beauty of the podcast is you got reach across the world. When we're talking about these cold cases, which I think the oldest one I have from OPD is from 1962, there's no telling where those people are, where the witnesses are, where the family members are," Rogers said.

There's nothing better than helping families, she said.

"It's an incredible feeling to be able to be someone that helps get that solved for someone. All we do is take the information. The credit goes to all these law enforcement agencies because they're the ones that do the footwork. We just put it out there and ask for the information and they take it and run with it. But it's nice to be a little part of that when it works out."