The original web sleuth

The body of a young woman is found wrapped in a tent in Kentucky, US, in the 1960s. Nobody knows her name. The police can’t identify her, so the crime goes unsolved. She becomes known as ‘Tent Girl’. But 30 years later, a local man called Todd Matthews becomes obsessed with finding her true identity and has as a new tool at his disposal: the internet. Who was the Tent Girl? After Todd’s story, hear producer Alice Fiennes in conversation with true crime expert Rachel Monroe. They discuss how people like Todd used the internet in the 1990s to investigate crimes, and the perils of online communities identifying the wrong suspect like the chaos in the post-Boston Marathon bombing.

Home Sleuth brings you true crime stories from citizen investigators taking justice into their own hands. An unidentified murder victim, a schoolteacher’s suicide, the brutal dismembering of animals. The police have investigated these cases, but our sleuths aren’t content with the answers. They begin their own search for justice. Over five episodes, we hear the gripping story of the role that home sleuths play in investigating crimes and mysteries, from the original internet sleuth in the 1990s through to present-day true crime YouTubers. In most true crime podcasts, a presenter tells you where the story is going. This time, we break the mould. The sleuths present their own stories. After each episode, the series producers sit down with true crime expert Rachel Monroe to examine what the case can tell us about the wider world of true crime. Why do ordinary people dedicate themselves to these investigations? Is it ethical? What does it say about our obsession with true crime? Home Sleuth is a Furrowed Brow production for BBC Sounds. Created and produced by Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon. Associate producer - Brenna Daldorph. Sound Design by John Scott. Fact-checking by Arthur Gompertz. Editorial consultation and additional sound design by Nick Van Der Kolk at Wingdog Audio. Commissioned by Luke Eldridge and Nicky Birch for BBC Sounds.