Podcast spotlights missing persons
WELSH - A police officer here is using her personal time to produce the podcast “Never To Be Seen Again,” which focuses on missing person cases from around the country.
Twelve-year law enforcement veteran Laura Janise said throughout her life, cold cases grabbed her attention. Last year she began listening to cold case and true crime podcasts, but many focused on unsolved murders rather than disappearances.
“I felt there was a window for a new podcast, and that it was something that was needed,” Janise said.
As a law enforcement officer, she said, she feels cold cases involving missing persons are particularly difficult for families because there is no avenue for closure.
“When you are listening to podcasts or watching shows that focus on murder cases, it’s immediately gratifying when the killer is identified,” she added. “But you can’t forget about these missing people. They don’t hold less value because they have not been found.”
Janise recorded her first podcast in December, which was released Feb. 1. She did not tell many people about her project at first.
“I want to keep this separate from my job,” she explained. “This is not a project that is connected to my job with Welsh Police Department, but my experience does help me in reviewing these cases. Our chief, Marcus Crochet, was one of the first people to listen and encouraged me to keep going.”
Crochet said he is proud of Janise and believes what she is doing could help solve a cold case one day.
“People don’t just vanish,” he said. “Some make themselves disappear but they are never fully gone. After a while, when leads grow cold, sometimes people can lose their focus. Having someone like Laura revive interests in these cases makes solving a case a possibility.”
Her goal is to feature missing persons cases in each state, rotating which state is covered each week. She visits sites such as Doe Network and The Charley Project, among others, to look at cases she would like to feature. She then looks for as much confirmed information as she finds available online.
“There are a lot of places where people discuss cold cases, too, like on the ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ website and Reddit’s ‘Unresolved Mysteries’ page,” she said. “But I do not consider discussions to be fact unless a person claims to have spoken directly to someone involved with the case, and their statements match up with everything else I have found.”
Unfortunately, she said, many cases do not have ample information available online.
Just this week Janise gained distribution status for her podcast. “Never To Be Seen Again” is now available on Spotify, Google Play, Blinker, Pocket Casts and Anchor. She is currently waiting to hear from Apple.
Janise’s podcast can also be found at its Facebook page, “Never To Be Seen Again.”