The In the Dark podcast is a 9-part series that unpicks the kidnapping of 11 year old Jacob Wetterling in St. Joseph, Minnesota and why it took 27 years to catch the killer. The podcast gathers information from every available source related to the case in order to try and unravel what happened that night and the 27 fruitless years that followed. I listened to the first episode which explained the entire crime and started to dive into the confusion on the night of the kidnapping and it was really intriguing and very well made.

There is one female presenter who provides guidance for who is talking and overall narration for the episode. It contained a mix of News clips about the case, statements from police officers and investigators involved in the case, phone and in-person interviews with Jacob’s parents, old phone calls from the night of the kidnapping and some transitional and atmospheric music. Leading up to the interview with Jacob’s parents, which was done by the same presenter, you can hear some murmuring in the background as the presenter describes what Jacob’s parents look like in the foreground audio, this is presumably audio from before the interview that sets the casual tone of what the conversation will be. I did find it hard to keep up with who was talking at times as there were so many male voices that could have been Jacob’s father or another police officer.

In conclusion, this podcast contained many layers of content that needed to be balanced in order to come across as cohesive which for the most part it triumphed at. However, sometimes it can across as quite confusing.

Sam