This even turned out to quite the fiasco, we arrived to Schwab auditorium and the doors were locked. Luckily someone conveniently opened the doors and we slipped in. Apparently the even pulled much more interest than was expected. Once inside, greeters were blocking the doors to the auditorium, and they basically were telling everyone the auditorium was full and we either had to stand in the waiting area and listen or leave. Despite this, a few passionate fans of Sarah tried to barge through, ultimately being kicked out by the aggressive greeters, but luckily we were able to stay in the waiting area and hear the presentation over the loudspeaker.
Overall, I felt that this event was very enjoyable and provided a unique perspective on police reports. The story she told involved a police investigation of a man that started as a missing person’s report who was eventually found dead. A repair man stumbled upon his body in a park when he was using the bathroom in the woods, and immediately reported it to the cops. As to be expected, this immediately drew a lot of interest to him, and he was questioned. He told officers that he was driving home and had to pee, but they were skeptical due to the fact that the body was almost 200 feet from the place he stopped his car, and hidden under a log opposite the road, therefore there was a high probability he knew what he was looking for.
They then questioned him about bottles found near the scene of the crime. The repairman was really into drinking beer, but upon pressuring admitted that he drank whiskey and rum when he was in the car. Ironically, this made him seem more innocent, as the bottle was brandy. The main reason he was being so aggressively questioned however was due to his criminal history. He had been caught multiple times for streaking, the most recent of witch involved flashing a women who turned out to be an officer and then running off. The officer however proceeded to take clothing from the mans car, and the man was caught when he reported the clothing missing.
However, in the end this man end up being found innocent. An initial polygraph revealed that he was lying, but after a second polygraph, when he didn’t seem nervous, he was found to be innocent. In the end the man wouldn’t talk to Serial and the case is still open I believe.
The most interesting part I found about this presentation was the way in which the speaker described gathering the information. She said she went through stacks of reports and was able to recreate the story in an entertaining way by noticing very small details within the reports. I was amazed about how much skill it took to reconstruct a small story like this. I believe the speaker said she went through almost a thousand pages of police reports to craft the 30 minute podcast. I also thought it was funny how serious she said her fact checker took reports. She said basically every one of her reports was corrected even more so than when she worked for a science journal I believe she said. Overall, the experience was enjoyable however.
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