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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.

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She's the media relations specialist at the Collier County Florida Sheriff's Department.

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And this is the first that we've heard of a law enforcement agency using a podcast to help solve a case.

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The Collier County Sheriff's Office is a law enforcement agency in southwest Florida under the direction of Sheriff Kevin Rombosk.

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And the sheriff wants to use the podcast to communicate directly with residents and the public at large.

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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.

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So here's our interview with media relations specialist from the Collier County Florida Sheriff's Department, Christine Gill.

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Christine, tell us why you decided to use a podcast for this case.

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Well, it was my chief's idea to do a podcast, Chief Stephanie Spell.

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And she oversees what is our media relations department that interacts with journalists mostly from day to day.

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But she also oversees community engagement, which interacts with the public.

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And she listens to podcasts herself.

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So this is something that she enjoys.

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She appreciates the platform.

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We talked a little bit about what we would focus on, what that would look like and what we would use it for.

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And we decided that the case of this hiker was a good one to start with because it wasn't a crime.

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And so we could lay all of our cards on the table.

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And because it was an open case,

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it was something that maybe something could actually come of, you know, an emphasis on it.

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It wasn't as if we were just going to revisit a closed case or, you know,

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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,

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but the perpetrators behind bars already.

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In this case, we need answers.

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And we knew it was an interesting case that people had kind of kept up with.

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And we thought that if the right person listened to the podcast, that maybe we could actually solve a case that way.

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So tell us a little bit about the case that you have in this three episode podcast.

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Sure. So unless you guys are paying attention to what's going on in Collier County,

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you might not have heard of this one, although there is a lot of interest in it from the hiking community and from

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different spots along the Appalachian Trail, especially in Georgia.

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But we had a hiker whose body was found in the summer of 2018 in Big Cypress National Preserve.

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And it was near the 63 mile marker of Tamiami Trail, which is what spans from Miami to Tampa.

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And so it was a remote area out there.

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And he was found at a campsite by some other hikers who were just going out for like a day trip.

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He must have been discovered pretty quickly after he passed away because his body was a good shape.

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And we were able to get some identifying information off of him, including like fingerprints.

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We knew what his hair and eye color were, things like that.

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He had a bunch of gear with him that looked pretty unique.

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And pretty soon after our detectives were called out, they knew that this was not a suspicious death.

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It was likely a natural death.

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And so we quickly put together a composite based on the remains to try to identify him.

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And you would think with all of that kind of information, you know, with a very accurate composite,

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with the fingerprints and with some identifying hiking gear and things that you would be able to figure out who someone was rather quickly.

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But the truth is we're going on like nine months now and we still haven't.

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But what was interesting about it was people did recognize this person based on that composite.

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And they had hiked with him and they knew him only by his trail name, which was mostly harmless.

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So we were able to talk to a lot of members of the hiking community and kind of piece together his backstory,

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which is pretty vague and where he would have gone through on the trail over about a year of hiking.

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But we still don't have his actual name.

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So forgive me if this is a dumb question, but if you have a person that you have their body,

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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.

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Right. So we got a lot of questions about that and you kind of answered your question yourself.

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But, yeah, our second episode focuses very heavily on what's possible with DNA and what some of the limitations are.

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So you're absolutely right. You can extract DNA from anything and everything,

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but unless you have something to compare it to, you can't make a positive ID.

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So at the time of the podcast, the DNA was still pending and I'm not sure where that's at now.

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The medical examiner submitted those samples and things,

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but it hasn't necessarily been run through any databases yet.

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The information that we did have from him, his biometrics, meaning like height, weight, hair color, eye color,

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the fact that he doesn't have any tattoos, the fact that he had like an abdominal scar,

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and then his dental records and his fingerprints have all been uploaded into some of the most common databases shared by most law enforcement.

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The one that most people are familiar with because it's public is called Nemus.

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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?

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And we're able to really quickly rule that out because if that person is already in Nemus,

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they've already been compared to our guy several times.

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Our detectives are still running checks on those databases.

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And then when it comes to DNA, we explored a lot of interesting things on that end.

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And like I said, the second episode, especially as it relates to things like the Golden State Killer,

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which is the case that most people I think are familiar with when it comes to how DNA was used to solve it.

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So you launched the podcast and did you get any reaction?

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How did you hear from people?

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How did you get the word out that there was a podcast?

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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.

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So they were some of the first people that listened to it, that wanted to share it with people that they knew.

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So initially when we posted this podcast online and through the normal channels like iTunes,

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a lot of our listeners are actually in the Georgia area, which like I said,

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was where some of his most well-known sightings were before his death.

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So the hiking community definitely shared it.

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Anytime I reached out to someone to interview them, I made sure that they had the link.

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And then we went through like a lot of our normal channels like Facebook and Instagram to get the word out kind of locally.

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But we're about 7,000 downloads now of those three episodes.

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And we didn't really know how well it would do, but we think that number is pretty good.

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Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's great.

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People are still kind of picking up on it.

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So, you know, like you're calling us now, but it's been out I think for like a month now.

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So people are still kind of like discovering it and the case is still unsolved.

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So we're hoping that that number just keeps going up.

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So now do you plan on using the podcast for other cases?

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Yeah, so I'm working on like a second kind of topic now.

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I don't know exactly what it's going to look like.

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But one of the issues that our sheriff is passionate about is mental health

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and how that relates to our jail population.

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So a lot of times here in the county and everywhere really, folks will be arrested for a crime and they'll be jailed,

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maybe released or sentenced somehow.

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But maybe they re-offend or maybe in the course of any of those interactions with law enforcement,

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one of our guys realizes that this is a person that actually has mental illness.

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And one of the things that's unique to Collier County and I think is newer in a lot of jurisdictions

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is what we call mental health court.

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So when we can, we will divert people who qualify through that channel.

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And it really offers a lot of tools for folks that have mental illness,

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just happen to come into contact with law enforcement,

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but are not necessarily like the kinds of criminals that we think of when we think of criminals.

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These are just people that need help and mental health court helps them in a variety of ways,

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not just treatment, but making sure that they're coming in to their mental health court appearances weekly.

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It gives them mentorship and support.

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It helps them with everything down to finding a place to live.

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So the next couple episodes are going to kind of focus on what our agency does in that area.

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But I think in the future, depending on the type of case, we might revisit a specific case

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or we might do more of like this kind of thing where we focus on a topic that we're passionate about.

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So are you doing the interviews on the phone and then you're recording them

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and then you're editing all the interviews together for the podcast yourself?

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Tell us how you're doing that.

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Yeah, so that's what I ended up having to do for that first one,

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just because like I said, a lot of the folks that I interviewed were not local.

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But when we decided to do this, we got the kind of equipment that we would need to also do

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kind of like a small physical studio space as well.

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So we have like a couple microphones and things that we use.

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I did a couple interviews this morning where I actually sat down with people.

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So they're in-person interviews. Obviously, the audio is always better.

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Yeah, so I do those interviews.

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I have a journalism background, so that makes that part of it easy.

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And afterwards, it's just kind of like getting all your interviews done

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and then figuring out how you're going to best tell the story so it makes sense.

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And so it's engaging.

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What is the editing software that you use?

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I used Pinnacle, which is a video software.

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But I think I might switch to something simpler.

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Like, I don't know, we talked about Adobe, which we also just happen to have.

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But they're all best for video, you know.

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So, I don't know, they're all kind of clunky to me.

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So that's what I was going to ask you next, what your background was.

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It's clear that you know what you're doing with this podcast.

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Thank you.

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Yeah, so I went to school for journalism and minored in creative writing.

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And I came down to work at the Naples Daily News,

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where I was at for about five years.

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I covered a bunch of different stuff there, but I also briefly covered crime.

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And then ended up coming here to work for the Sheriff's Office in Media Relations,

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where a lot of the skills obviously translate.

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So I think what I'm doing with the podcast is a lot like what I've done with written stories.

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It's just now everything's recorded and you get to have that added experience

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of kind of hearing people talk for yourself.

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Plus you get to tell the story exactly the way you want to get it out there.

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What is the difference for you now with this job compared to when you were working for the newspaper?

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Because I don't want to make it seem like this,

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but it really can be two different sides of offense at times.

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Yeah, for sure.

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It was definitely an adjustment, but we've always had a good relationship down here with the Sheriff's Office.

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It's not always the case, like as a reporter, that local government agencies,

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especially law enforcement, works with you.

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But Florida has a very broad public records law,

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so it makes everything kind of like out in the open for everyone.

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I think everybody is pretty much placed by the rules.

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The best part about now working here for this agency and doing something like this though

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is that a lot of detectives and people who maybe wouldn't have made the time in the past for a reporter,

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maybe we would have passed on their written responses to questions or something,

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now they have a little more time to sit down with me, which is nice.

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So they've been really accommodating that way because they know that these are the types of stories and messages

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that we're trying to get out that are going to further our agency's actual work, which has been great.

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Have you ever heard of other law enforcement agencies doing what you're doing?

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We haven't, no, and it's kind of hard to say if we're the only one or something like that,

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but I think we probably would have heard of someone by now.

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I've never heard of it.

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It's new to us.

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Thanks very much for your time.

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Yeah, thank you.

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Again, our thanks to Christine Gill from the Collier County Sheriff's Department

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for telling us all about their podcast, which is called Sworn Statement.

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Check out the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Pocket Cast, SoundCloud,

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or if you're sitting in front of your computer, search for the Collier County, Florida Sheriff's website,

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and you can listen there.

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If you believe your show should be in the podcast business journal spotlight,

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contact me directly by email at edryantheditor at gmail.com.

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That's edryantheditor at gmail.com, and we'll be back soon

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with another edition of the podcast business journal spotlight.