Meshel Laurie - CSI Told You Lies: Giving Victims a Voice Through Forensics

CSI Told You Lies is a gripping account of the work of the forensic scientists on the frontline of Australias major crime and disaster investigations. They are part of the team at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM), a state-of-the-art facility in Melbourne. VIFM is a world-renowned centre of forensic science, and its team members have led major recovery operations over the years, from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires to the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014. VIFM forensics experts have also played pivotal roles in some of Australias highest-profile homicide cases, including the Frankston Serial Killer, the murders of Eurydice Dixon and Aya Maasarwe, and the arrest of convicted serial killer Peter Dupas.

Join Meshel Laurie as she goes behind the curtain at VIFM, interviewing the Institutes talented roster of forensic experts about their daily work. Her subjects also include others touched by Australias major crime and disaster investigations, including homicide detectives, defence barristers and families of victims as they confront their darkest moments.

After reading CSI Told You Lies youll never read another homicide headline without wondering about the forensic pathologist who happened to be on call, the evidence they found and the truth they uncovered.

So, why true crime?

Im still astounded that anyone finds my foray into true crime odd. I was never asked Why daytime television? or Why breakfast radio?, or about anything else Ive done over the course of my career, with such a sense of incredulity. Actually, I lie. So, why Buddhism? was big for a while, because Ive written a few books on that topic too.

What can I say? I guess I have broad tastes and I like to keep busy.

I started podcasting around 2006 with the guys I was doing a radio show with, and then, in 2014, I decided to start a podcast of my own so that I could interview people for longer than the three minutes our FM radio station allowed. I called it The Nitty Gritty Committee .

When I interviewed local true crime author Emily Webb in September 2016, podcasting was still very low-key, although there had already been two significant developments that had changed the course of the medium forever. The first was the Apple podcast app, which had just appeared on our iPhones one day whether we liked it or not, and the second was a certain true crime podcast from 2014.

Traditional media increasingly contends that consumers have shrinking attention spans (hence the three-minute radio interviews). That may be, but we also have ever-expanding commutes, whether we use cars or public transport, which makes the repetitive, old-school radio formula of time, temp, and traffic reports pretty uninspiring. Weve also been conditioned over these many years to abhor a vacuum cleaner. Personally, I cant conceive of cleaning the house unless Ive chosen an entertainment option up to the task of distracting me. The selection will often take far longer than the chore itself, but Im not going in without one.

We have an insatiable appetite for entertainment, but more than that, we now want to experience exactly the content we feel like experiencing in the format that suits the activity were pairing it with and the environment were in. For those of us who enjoy documentaries and longform journalism but dont have a lot of time to sit still and watch or read something, the podcast was an absolute life-changer. No peak-hour commute, waiting room, solo trip or boring chore has ever been the same.

In 2014 journalist Sarah Koenig introduced the world to Hae Min Lee in the weekly podcast Serial . Hae was a senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore in 1999. Like many of her friends, including her former boyfriend Adnan Syed, Hae kept secrets from her strict immigrant parents as she tried to navigate life as an American teenager, all of which made for compelling fodder when Koenig came to investigate Adnans conviction for Haes murder.

Week after week, Serial unfolded in meticulous detail. It was at times a story of typical (if cringeworthy) teenage drama and intrigue. We felt the flush of first love in Haes swooning diary entries detailing her devotion to Adnan. We admired the convoluted ingenuity they employed to speak nightly on the home phone without Haes mother ever knowing, despite the many obstacles shed placed in their way.

In the end, though, none of it mattered for the two young people at the heart of the story. Neither of them could be protected by their parents from the evils of the world, and neither would graduate high school alongside their classmates. Hae would be discovered in a shallow grave in Baltimores Leakin Park, a notoriously popular site for the dumping of bodies, and Adnan would spend the rest of his life in the prison system for leaving her there.

For her part, Sarah Koenig did much more than just recount this tragic story. She presented many disturbing failings in the investigation, the case against Syed and the defence provided for him by his attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, who was subsequently disbarred following complaints from multiple clients.

Rather than pander to an imagined audience of goldfish-brained listeners who couldnt possibly sit still and focus for more than a couple of minutes, Koenig and her team dived deep on the details and demanded that we keep up.

Serial has been downloaded roughly 175 million times (and counting). It has spawned several spin-off documentary series and books, and the world still seems split down the middle as to the guilt or innocence of Adnan Syed.

As for the attention span of the audience, the passion and clarity with which every aspect of evidence and testimony continues to be debated by fans of the podcast is truly peak internet, not to mention the hours invested in understanding cell-tower ping technology as it stood in 1999. To google the Nisha call, the Best Buy payphone or Jay Wilds is to plunge oneself down a rabbit hole for experienced players only. Beginners questions will not be tolerated.

Serial changed the media landscape in many ways, but the choosing of a true crime story was surely no accident for Koenigs seasoned team. When considering this audacious project, they no doubt hedged their bets on the naturally engaging nature of the true crime genre. Why is it so engaging? Because at the end of the day its about the explosive emotion that lurks within us all. We fear it and were fascinated by it.

Someone wrapped their hands around Hae Min Lees neck and strangled her to death within minutes of engaging with her that day. An 18-year-old schoolgirl. She could only have arrived at their meeting minutes before the attack. Did they plan it? Is that why they asked her to meet them? Or was it an argument that quickly spiralled out of control? What could possibly have precipitated such violence? Whomever is responsible, these questions still remain.