A Forensic Detective's Diary

Karen Smith has received rave reviews from CrimeCon attendees since her first appearance at CC18 in Nashville. Since then, the forensic investigator, crime scene reconstructionist, blood spatter expert, and all-around wonderful human has spoken about her work at almost every CrimeCon event. Now she’s coming to CrimeCon 2020 in a new role: that of podcaster. It’s been our pleasure to partner with Karen on her new venture titled CrimeCon Presents Shattered Souls: A Forensic Detective's Diary . The first two episodes will debut at CrimeCon 2020 in Orlando.

How does a forensic investigator become a true crime podcaster? It turns out that the new role is a more natural fit that one would expect. “I have a background in radio,” Smith explains. Prior to her career in law enforcement, Smith was a news director for a syndicated morning show in Jacksonville, FL. “It was a rip-and-read situation,” she says, explaining that she would find stories from the AP newswire and read or summarize them on air. Along the way, she met and befriended several law enforcement officers and would go on frequent ridealongs. “That’s how I got into law enforcement. Then I fell into forensics. Now I’m coming full circle back to radio, essentially!”

In Shattered Souls , Smith recounts the cases that have haunted her during her career as an investigator. Her goal is to illustrate to listeners what forensic investigators encounter and deal with in the course of their workday. “I kept a running log of all the calls I went on,” she says. She used the logs to write a manuscript about her life as a crime scene investigator, but never had it published. “It was mostly for myself, anyway,” she explains, “but it has been the best resource as I’ve branched out into podcasting. I read a chapter two or three times, take myself back to the scene, remember the feelings, then try to convey the emotion in my voice as I record each episode.”

The emotions are intense. “These are the cases that have stuck with me,” Smith says, and I can hear it in her voice. “There’s a case from 15 years ago that I still have nightmares about.” She recounts others that have impacted her over the years, especially that of a young man gunned down as he worked in a bodega. “He was behind what was supposed to be bulletproof glass. Turns out it was just plexiglass.” She describes his parents’ anguish when she had to tell them their son was dead. “His mother ran to me, scratched my face and screamed ‘Not my son!’ All I could say was ‘I’m so sorry.’” Her voice trails off into a distant thought: “Her scream will stay with me until the day I die.”

Forensic investigators are often the unsung heroes of law enforcement; we know the perpetrators, the victims, the prosecutors and attorneys, Smith explains, but never the people behind the scenes. “There are no commendations in the field,” she says. For example, she cites the recent case of Cherish Periwinkle, a young girl who disappeared from Jacksonville in 2013. Her body was discovered hours later in a creek. “She was in water, covered with pavement, and the forensic detective, Kim Long, was still able to find a DNA profile, which is amazing,” says Smith. “But we don’t hear about her. We hear about the perpetrator.”

There are also scant resources to help CSIs and forensic investigators deal with the trauma and emotional stress of working these gruesome cases. Smith describes a crime scene at which first responders and firefighters were offered counseling to help process the tragedy. “CSIs are never offered such services,” she explains.

Shattered Souls touches on this unfortunate aspect of the job but Smith also discusses concepts that forensics nerds will love such as bullet trajectories, blood spatter analysis, crime scene reconstruction. “I want the podcast to be emotional but also educational,” Smith says. “Overall, though, I want listeners to realize that the people doing the hands-on work are people, too, and the effects of the job don’t stop when we leave the crime scene.”