My name is Ed Ryan and this is the podcast business journal spotlight in the PBJ spotlight today is a show called sworn statement sworn statement is a podcast hosted by Christine Gill.
She's the media relations specialist at the Collier County Florida Sheriff's Department.
And this is the first that we've heard of a law enforcement agency using a podcast to help solve a case.
The Collier County Sheriff's Office is a law enforcement agency in southwest Florida under the direction of Sheriff Kevin Rombosk.
And the sheriff wants to use the podcast to communicate directly with residents and the public at large.
In the first three episodes of sworn statement, the sheriff's department is asking for help in identifying a hiker who was found dead in the Big Cypress National Preserve in July of 2018.
So here's our interview with media relations specialist from the Collier County Florida Sheriff's Department, Christine Gill.
Christine, tell us why you decided to use a podcast for this case.
Well, it was my chief's idea to do a podcast, Chief Stephanie Spell.
And she oversees what is our media relations department that interacts with journalists mostly from day to day.
But she also oversees community engagement, which interacts with the public.
And she listens to podcasts herself.
So this is something that she enjoys.
She appreciates the platform.
We talked a little bit about what we would focus on, what that would look like and what we would use it for.
And we decided that the case of this hiker was a good one to start with because it wasn't a crime.
And so we could lay all of our cards on the table.
And because it was an open case,
it was something that maybe something could actually come of, you know, an emphasis on it.
It wasn't as if we were just going to revisit a closed case or, you know,
something like some of these two crime podcasts do where they'll kind of retell the story of like some kind of a gruesome murder, you know,
but the perpetrators behind bars already.
In this case, we need answers.
And we knew it was an interesting case that people had kind of kept up with.
And we thought that if the right person listened to the podcast, that maybe we could actually solve a case that way.
So tell us a little bit about the case that you have in this three episode podcast.
Sure. So unless you guys are paying attention to what's going on in Collier County,
you might not have heard of this one, although there is a lot of interest in it from the hiking community and from
different spots along the Appalachian Trail, especially in Georgia.
But we had a hiker whose body was found in the summer of 2018 in Big Cypress National Preserve.
And it was near the 63 mile marker of Tamiami Trail, which is what spans from Miami to Tampa.
And so it was a remote area out there.
And he was found at a campsite by some other hikers who were just going out for like a day trip.
He must have been discovered pretty quickly after he passed away because his body was a good shape.
And we were able to get some identifying information off of him, including like fingerprints.
We knew what his hair and eye color were, things like that.
He had a bunch of gear with him that looked pretty unique.
And pretty soon after our detectives were called out, they knew that this was not a suspicious death.
It was likely a natural death.
And so we quickly put together a composite based on the remains to try to identify him.
And you would think with all of that kind of information, you know, with a very accurate composite,
with the fingerprints and with some identifying hiking gear and things that you would be able to figure out who someone was rather quickly.
But the truth is we're going on like nine months now and we still haven't.
But what was interesting about it was people did recognize this person based on that composite.
And they had hiked with him and they knew him only by his trail name, which was mostly harmless.
So we were able to talk to a lot of members of the hiking community and kind of piece together his backstory,
which is pretty vague and where he would have gone through on the trail over about a year of hiking.
But we still don't have his actual name.
So forgive me if this is a dumb question, but if you have a person that you have their body,
you can't do a DNA test and determine what that is or they have to be in a certain database in order for that to work.
Right. So we got a lot of questions about that and you kind of answered your question yourself.
But, yeah, our second episode focuses very heavily on what's possible with DNA and what some of the limitations are.
So you're absolutely right. You can extract DNA from anything and everything,
but unless you have something to compare it to, you can't make a positive ID.
So at the time of the podcast, the DNA was still pending and I'm not sure where that's at now.
The medical examiner submitted those samples and things,
but it hasn't necessarily been run through any databases yet.
The information that we did have from him, his biometrics, meaning like height, weight, hair color, eye color,
the fact that he doesn't have any tattoos, the fact that he had like an abdominal scar,
and then his dental records and his fingerprints have all been uploaded into some of the most common databases shared by most law enforcement.
The one that most people are familiar with because it's public is called Nemus.
And so a lot of times people will submit like a photo of someone who's a hiker and they'll say, oh, is this your guy?
And we're able to really quickly rule that out because if that person is already in Nemus,
they've already been compared to our guy several times.
Our detectives are still running checks on those databases.
And then when it comes to DNA, we explored a lot of interesting things on that end.
And like I said, the second episode, especially as it relates to things like the Golden State Killer,
which is the case that most people I think are familiar with when it comes to how DNA was used to solve it.
So you launched the podcast and did you get any reaction?
How did you hear from people?
How did you get the word out that there was a podcast?
Yeah, like I said, a lot of the people that I interviewed, a lot of people who our detectives interviewed were folks that this guy hiked along the trail.
So they were some of the first people that listened to it, that wanted to share it with people that they knew.
So initially when we posted this podcast online and through the normal channels like iTunes,
a lot of our listeners are actually in the Georgia area, which like I said,
was where some of his most well-known sightings were before his death.
So the hiking community definitely shared it.
Anytime I reached out to someone to interview them, I made sure that they had the link.
And then we went through like a lot of our normal channels like Facebook and Instagram to get the word out kind of locally.
But we're about 7,000 downloads now of those three episodes.
And we didn't really know how well it would do, but we think that number is pretty good.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's great.
People are still kind of picking up on it.
So, you know, like you're calling us now, but it's been out I think for like a month now.
So people are still kind of like discovering it and the case is still unsolved.
So we're hoping that that number just keeps going up.
So now do you plan on using the podcast for other cases?
Yeah, so I'm working on like a second kind of topic now.
I don't know exactly what it's going to look like.
But one of the issues that our sheriff is passionate about is mental health
and how that relates to our jail population.
So a lot of times here in the county and everywhere really, folks will be arrested for a crime and they'll be jailed,
maybe released or sentenced somehow.
But maybe they re-offend or maybe in the course of any of those interactions with law enforcement,
one of our guys realizes that this is a person that actually has mental illness.
And one of the things that's unique to Collier County and I think is newer in a lot of jurisdictions
is what we call mental health court.
So when we can, we will divert people who qualify through that channel.
And it really offers a lot of tools for folks that have mental illness,
just happen to come into contact with law enforcement,
but are not necessarily like the kinds of criminals that we think of when we think of criminals.
These are just people that need help and mental health court helps them in a variety of ways,
not just treatment, but making sure that they're coming in to their mental health court appearances weekly.
It gives them mentorship and support.
It helps them with everything down to finding a place to live.
So the next couple episodes are going to kind of focus on what our agency does in that area.
But I think in the future, depending on the type of case, we might revisit a specific case
or we might do more of like this kind of thing where we focus on a topic that we're passionate about.
So are you doing the interviews on the phone and then you're recording them
and then you're editing all the interviews together for the podcast yourself?
Tell us how you're doing that.
Yeah, so that's what I ended up having to do for that first one,
just because like I said, a lot of the folks that I interviewed were not local.
But when we decided to do this, we got the kind of equipment that we would need to also do
kind of like a small physical studio space as well.
So we have like a couple microphones and things that we use.
I did a couple interviews this morning where I actually sat down with people.
So they're in-person interviews. Obviously, the audio is always better.
Yeah, so I do those interviews.
I have a journalism background, so that makes that part of it easy.
And afterwards, it's just kind of like getting all your interviews done
and then figuring out how you're going to best tell the story so it makes sense.
And so it's engaging.
What is the editing software that you use?
I used Pinnacle, which is a video software.
But I think I might switch to something simpler.
Like, I don't know, we talked about Adobe, which we also just happen to have.
But they're all best for video, you know.
So, I don't know, they're all kind of clunky to me.
So that's what I was going to ask you next, what your background was.
It's clear that you know what you're doing with this podcast.
Thank you.
Yeah, so I went to school for journalism and minored in creative writing.
And I came down to work at the Naples Daily News,
where I was at for about five years.
I covered a bunch of different stuff there, but I also briefly covered crime.
And then ended up coming here to work for the Sheriff's Office in Media Relations,
where a lot of the skills obviously translate.
So I think what I'm doing with the podcast is a lot like what I've done with written stories.
It's just now everything's recorded and you get to have that added experience
of kind of hearing people talk for yourself.
Plus you get to tell the story exactly the way you want to get it out there.
What is the difference for you now with this job compared to when you were working for the newspaper?
Because I don't want to make it seem like this,
but it really can be two different sides of offense at times.
Yeah, for sure.
It was definitely an adjustment, but we've always had a good relationship down here with the Sheriff's Office.
It's not always the case, like as a reporter, that local government agencies,
especially law enforcement, works with you.
But Florida has a very broad public records law,
so it makes everything kind of like out in the open for everyone.
I think everybody is pretty much placed by the rules.
The best part about now working here for this agency and doing something like this though
is that a lot of detectives and people who maybe wouldn't have made the time in the past for a reporter,
maybe we would have passed on their written responses to questions or something,
now they have a little more time to sit down with me, which is nice.
So they've been really accommodating that way because they know that these are the types of stories and messages
that we're trying to get out that are going to further our agency's actual work, which has been great.
Have you ever heard of other law enforcement agencies doing what you're doing?
We haven't, no, and it's kind of hard to say if we're the only one or something like that,
but I think we probably would have heard of someone by now.
I've never heard of it.
It's new to us.
Thanks very much for your time.
Yeah, thank you.
Again, our thanks to Christine Gill from the Collier County Sheriff's Department
for telling us all about their podcast, which is called Sworn Statement.
Check out the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Pocket Cast, SoundCloud,
or if you're sitting in front of your computer, search for the Collier County, Florida Sheriff's website,
and you can listen there.
If you believe your show should be in the podcast business journal spotlight,
contact me directly by email at edryantheditor at gmail.com.
That's edryantheditor at gmail.com, and we'll be back soon
with another edition of the podcast business journal spotlight.