OCCULT KILLINGS, PRIVATE EYES, AND RELEASING A CRIME SCENE - 051

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transcript:

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This week on The Writer's Detective Bureau, occult killings, private eyes, and releasing a crime scene. I'm Adam Richardson, and this is The Writer's Detective Bureau.

Welcome to episode 51 of The Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime-related fiction. This week, I would like to thank Gold Shield patrons Debra Dunbar from debradunbar.com, C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, Larry Keeton, Vicki Tharp of vickitharp.com, Dharma Kelleher of dharmakelleher.com, Chrysann, Jimmy Cowe of crimibox, and Larry Darter for their support. I'd also like to thank my newest Coffee Club patrons, Ann Bell Feinstein, Zara Altair, and Terry Thomas, along with all of my longtime Coffee Club patrons for their support. You can find links to all of the writers supporting this episode in the show notes at writersdetective.com/51. To learn about setting up your own Patreon account for your author business, visit writersdectective.com/patreon. ​

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We are about two and a half weeks away from the one year anniversary of this podcast. It's amazing how quickly this year has flown by. So August 6th is the big day, and I will be doing some giveaways as a thank you to you guys for listening. So be sure to listen to episode 53, which will drop on August 2nd, for the details on how to enter for a chance to win a few different gifts just as a thank you for listening to the podcast. You do not have to be in the United States to win. I will send you your stuff wherever you are in the world. I will also announce the entry details in the APB email that will be going out on August 1st.

So if you are new to the podcast or haven't subscribed to the APB mailing list yet, the APB is a once a month email from me that is just a handful of curated links, the things that I think you will find useful for crime fiction writing. It'll be things like news articles for story inspiration or white papers from think tanks about technology or best practices for investigations or just blog posts from writing experts, things like that. So if you're interested in getting an email from me only once a month, you can join by going to writersdetective.com/mailinglist.

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This week's first question comes from Mark Salis. Mark writes, "Hello there. I need to know anything and everything about investigations regarding cults. How do the investigators proceed when a crime scene for a murder has evidence of ritualistic and occultist practices? Is it okay to bring in consultants to cases like that, such as people who understand religious and esoteric symbolism? Thank you so much."

Thanks for your question, Mark. Yes, the detectives definitely could reach out to experts in ritualistic or occult practices relating to the murder, but it would not be a primary thing on their to-do list. They're still going to do the typical things that happen in that first 48 hours. Doesn't mean that they won't contact them in the first 48, but the presence of some sort of occult influence, it could very possibly speak to the motive of the murder, but it doesn't severely change the way a murder is investigated.

So these consultants or subject matter experts would not be brought out to the crime scene or anything like that. They may be shown specific articles of interest or articles that were seized as evidence or even potentially some pictures of the crime scene, but they would not be brought in as if they're a new member of the investigative team. But don't let reality get in the way of telling a compelling story by any means.

In any "who done it" murder, the investigative team will hold back the disclosure of some aspect of the case. They use it as a way to vet whether or not a potential suspect actually has firsthand knowledge of the crime...                                                                     Continue reading...