Season 1 of In the Dark explored the case of Jacob Wetterling, an 11-year-old boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota who was kidnapped and murdered on the night of October 22, 1989. Wetterling's case went unsolved for 27 years until his remains were discovered in a pasture near Paynesville, Minnesota on September 1, 2016. The location was revealed by Danny Heinrich, a long-time person of interest in the abduction of another boy, Jared Scheierl, in the nearby town of Cold Spring. On September 6, 2016, Heinrich admitted to kidnapping and murdering Wetterling as well as the abduction and sexual assault of Scheierl. Heinrich would be sentenced on November 21, 2016 to a 20-year prison term for a federal child pornography charge. Production on Season 1 had been underway for 9 months and was in its final stages by the time Wetterling's remains were discovered and Heinrich confessed to the crime. The developments, which host/lead reporter Madeleine Baran and the APM Reports team were not expecting ahead of time, prompted them to re-edit and re-record the first two episodes and move up their release to September 7, one day after Heinrich's court appearance. The edits to the first two episodes of In the Dark turned out to be minimal, for by then, the reporting team's focus wasn't so much about who may have been responsible for Jacob Wetterling's disappearance but more about the investigation of the crime and its effects on the community. The team focused on systemic failures in the Wetterling investigation, in particular how the Stearns County Sheriff's Office handled not only the case but other similar cases. Broader repercussions of the case also explored, including the impact on Jacob's family and friends ; its effect on the immediate Stearns County area; and national implications, including the establishment of a federal law, named in Jacob's honor, that requires states to implement and contribute to registries that track sex offenders and crimes against children. Madeleine Baran stated to Esquire, with In the Dark, as opposed to other true crime podcasts such as Serial, "We didn't see ourselves as playing the role of detective in the case. We saw ourselves as investigating the investigation."
Season 2
The second season of In the Dark explored the legal odyssey surrounding Curtis Flowers, who was accused of shooting four people to death inside Tardy Furniture, a Winona, Mississippi store, in July 1996. Flowers, who had worked at Tardy Furniture for only a few days and who has long maintained his innocence, faced trial for the murders six times, with the first five trials resulting in hung juries or reversals on appeal. The sixth jury trial, in 2010, ended with Flowers' conviction on four counts of capital murder, but the United States Supreme Courtremanded the case to a lower court to review racial bias in jury selection. After Mississippi's Supreme Court upheld Flowers' conviction by a 5-4 vote, Flowers once again went to the United States Supreme Court, who heard oral arguments on the appeal in March 2019, and would rule, by a 7-2 decision on June 21, 2019, to overturn his conviction and send the case back to the lower courts. Flowers would be moved from death row that September, and released on bail that December pending a 7th trial. Much as In the Darks first season focused on the conduct of those investigating Jacob Wetterling's disappearance, Season 2's storyline pivoted from the murders Flowers has been tried and convicted for to the actions of the district attorney's office in Mississippi's Fifth Circuit Court District. The actions of two figures in the D.A.'s office are specified, D.A. Doug Evans and office investigator John Johnson. In its investigation of Flowers' case for In the Darks 2nd season, the APM team would reveal four noteworthy actions by the D.A.'s office that appeared to ensure Flowers' conviction:
The consideration of Flowers as the only suspect in the Tardy Furniture murders.
The reliance on a key prosecution witness, Odell Hallmon, whose testimony that he heard Flowers confess to the murders turned out to be a falsehood.
The revelation, in the season's 10th episode, that Evans' office withheld from the defense the fact that an "alternative suspect," Willie James Hemphill, was held for questioning in the case. Flowers' legal team would cite this revelation in their June 2018 appeal to the Supreme Court of Mississippi.
The efforts by Evans to empanel all-white or majority-white juries against Flowers, and striking as many African American jurors from jury consideration as possible. It is this aspect that the U.S. Supreme Court would cite in its June 2019 decision to overturn Flowers' conviction.
In addition to the investigation of Flowers' case, In the Darks 2nd season would also offer profiles on those involved in and affected by the case, namely Curtis' family. Historical anecdotes about racial issues in Winona and northern Mississippi have also been incorporated.
Episode summary
Season 1
As indicated above, the release dates of In the Darks first two episodes were initially scheduled to be released on September 13, 2016. The developments that led to Danny Heinrich's confession in the Jacob Wetterling case prompted APM to re-record those episodes and release them on September 7, six days earlier than scheduled. The third episode was released on September 13, with one new episode released each Tuesday thru October 25. Follow-up episodes in December 2016 and September 2018 would follow.
Season 2
Season 2 of In the Dark began with the release of its first two episodes on May 1, 2018, with one new episode being released each Tuesday through, initially, July 3, 2018. Subsequent developments in the Flowers case would bring additional episodes and updates, the most recent being released in January 2020.
Awards
In the Dark is a two-time recipient of the Peabody Award. The show's first Peabody honor came in Spring 2017, with the award's governing body applauding the program for its "immaculate storytelling talent and journalistic precision" in its probing the investigation of Jacob Wetterling's disappearance as well as its "deftly incisive" way of telling the human side of the case and its broader policy implications. The second Peabody came in June 2020, recognizing the show's work in not only "systemically dismantl" the case against Curtis Flowers, but also building a case against the District Attorney who prosecuted Flowers, and recognizing those who have lived under the shadow of the case.
