Amazing article Anna. I can't believe people get so obsessed with a story that they would hurt the grieving loved ones of a missing person or a victim of crime. It's disgusting. They behave as though it's fictional, not real.

I listen to True Crime a lot, because I have actually experienced it in my life. I was a witness to my partner's delusional episode that led him to shoot and kill a loved one while hallucinating that they were a terrorist. I've been involved in the sentencing hearing and pretrial stuff. I have been speaking to him for 6 years over the phone while he's incarcerated.

I first started listening to Youtube stories about True Crime during the sentencing time, I think it helped me to see the different causes behind crimes. One thing I've noticed is that despite a lot of the depictions of perpetrators of crime as evil psychopaths, the majority of them are not. They're mostly "normal" people. Who have loved ones and families just like my partner does.

I think there is a "mystery" aspect but I think what I get out of it is more empathising with the different lives that are affected by crime. Victims, of course. But also perpetrators. Because I know my partner is a good person, who did a really horrible thing while in the grips of a drug and mental illness induced delusion. So I'm interested in understanding how more "normal people" come to committing crimes that are out of character. Thinking about what the factors were that led to them making the decisions they did that caused so much damage to others. Whether they can be rehabilitated or not.

I don't know if this is why other people follow True Crime but it's why I do.