0:01

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast

0:04

are solely those of the authors and participants

0:06

and do not necessarily represent those

0:09

of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or

0:11

their employees. This series

0:13

contains discussions of violence and

0:15

sexual violence. Listener discretion

0:18

is advised, whether

0:24

we want to or not. We're constantly

0:26

creating records of our lives. Phone

0:29

calls, emails, even credit

0:31

card purchases can be used to pinpoint

0:33

where we were at a certain time. When

0:36

we touch a door knob, the oil from our

0:38

hand leaves fingerprints and her

0:40

skin sheds DNA, and

0:43

if we drive by a security camera, our

0:45

license plate can be scanned and entered

0:48

into a database. But

0:50

despite all of this information we're

0:52

creating all of this power

0:55

that we're giving the government and police, the

0:57

United States isn't getting better at saul

1:00

being serious crimes like homicide.

1:03

In fact, we're getting worse.

1:07

Murders were solved in today.

1:10

That number has dropped dramatically.

1:12

One of every three murders goes

1:15

unsolved. One reporter

1:17

found those stats unacceptable.

1:20

Every day in America, people die

1:22

who did not need to die, because

1:24

every solved murder reduces

1:27

the occurrence of murker from

1:31

my Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. This

1:34

is Algorithm

1:36

and I'm ben Key Break, just

1:38

to introduce myself really quick. Normally

1:40

I don't host podcasts. I'm a

1:43

producer, which means I normally just

1:45

do stuff behind the scenes, research,

1:47

writing, setting up interviews. Almost

1:50

a year ago now, I was working on another

1:52

show called Monster DC Sniper

1:55

when I got an email from a friend. It

1:58

was a link to a story about the murder

2:01

of this young woman named Africa Hardy.

2:03

The story was fascinating. It

2:06

seemed to flip everything I knew about crime

2:08

on its head because it

2:11

wasn't just a story about trying to solve

2:13

a murder. It was also a story about

2:15

what could have been done to prevent the murder

2:17

in the first place. And

2:19

there were aspects of the case that we're still

2:22

unclear. But if they checked

2:24

out, then they could fundamentally change

2:26

the way homicides are investigated in the

2:28

United States and maybe all around

2:30

the world. Obviously

2:34

I was intrigued, but at the time

2:36

I was busy working on the DC Sniper

2:38

podcast, so I put it on the back burner.

2:41

I tried to just forget about it, but

2:44

I couldn't. I'd find myself

2:46

on my phone late at night, searching

2:48

for articles about Africa's case when

2:50

I should have been sleeping, And

2:53

I was frustrated because I had big

2:55

questions about the murder investigation

2:57

that it seemed like no one was asking. Eventually,

3:02

I realized my curiosity wasn't

3:04

going away. If I wanted

3:07

these answers, I was going to have to find them

3:09

myself. I decided

3:11

to start researching the case in my spare

3:13

time and documenting things as I

3:15

went. But before I

3:17

began, I wanted to reach out to Africa's

3:20

mom, Lorie Townsend. Hello,

3:25

Hi Lori, Yes, Hey,

3:27

it's been Is now still a good time? Yes?

3:31

I think I wanted her blessing to embark on

3:34

this project to make sure I

3:36

wasn't just opening up old wounds. If

3:39

this was in person, i'd see if

3:41

you had a water to drink? Do you have something

3:43

like that around I? Do I have a bad

3:45

rich grape juice? Great

3:48

juice? Yeah?

3:51

And I didn't just want to write a story about why

3:53

Africa's case is so important that

3:55

treated her solely as a victim or crime

3:57

statistic. I wanted to learn

4:00

earned more about who Africa was and

4:02

how would you describe Africa. Just

4:05

beautiful. She she really was beautiful.

4:07

And I'm not just saying that she she's my daughter. She

4:10

was beautiful. She had a very bright smile.

4:13

My daughter was with African American

4:16

in Caucasian, so she had

4:19

tight, curly hair and her

4:21

smile just she

4:24

radiated with a smile. Is

4:27

there like a particular memory

4:29

that stands out when you think back about her

4:33

everything? Um, she

4:35

was Saffy WHI. She was a little shows She's try

4:37

to bully her older brother. She

4:40

would put her hands on her hips to say, I'm

4:42

not considering you, I'm

4:45

not considering you. Yeah,

4:47

she was like one or two wish. She was so that

4:49

all the time. She loved

4:52

Disney movies like Toy

4:54

Story was one of her favorites.

4:56

You know, William Buzz, We'll see

4:59

one of those people that knows the words to

5:01

all of the songs. Yeah. She could hear song

5:03

once and pick it up and never leave

5:05

you alone about it. She would sing it until

5:08

her place out. Yeah.

5:14

Yeah,

5:17

she's my best friend. She really

5:19

was. We went through so

5:21

much together. To me adding that

5:25

mother and daughter don't usually go through.

5:28

When you say it's like going through odd stuff,

5:30

do you have an example, um,

5:33

I was a little abusive relationship. My

5:36

daughter was there with me. She helped

5:39

me get out of it. We

5:41

were homeless, We lived in

5:43

hotels together. You

5:46

know, I wasn't financially capable

5:48

of taking care of my children. Lori

5:51

was a young mother trying to rebuild her

5:53

life, and she felt she couldn't provide

5:56

Africa or her son the stability

5:58

they needed. But she didn't want to put

6:00

them in foster care either. Instead

6:03

of losing my children to the system,

6:06

I placed them where I would be a part of their

6:08

growing up and where I knew

6:10

they would be safe. Lorie

6:12

enrolled her kids in Moose Heart,

6:15

a charity run boarding school west of

6:17

Chicago, and then she worked

6:19

to get both feet back on the ground. Lorie

6:23

started a new life in the suburbs of Denver,

6:25

and once things spelt stable, she brought

6:27

her kids out there. As

6:30

a teen, Africa had plans to go

6:32

to college and study to become an

6:34

audio engineer or maybe a nurse.

6:37

But when Africa graduated from high

6:39

school, Lorie was working at a seven

6:41

eleven and struggling financially,

6:44

and Africa wasn't sure she could afford

6:46

tuition. As she tried

6:48

to figure out next steps. Africa decided

6:51

to move back to Chicago, where she still

6:53

had a lot of family. Dun

6:56

A four teams. She

6:59

were back to Chicago. She

7:01

went back with my ex cousind. She's

7:05

nineteen, so not like she was a

7:07

little kid or anything like that, but her

7:09

cousin wanted to get her a job

7:11

like the post office. I

7:14

don't know what happened. Was that exactly

7:18

why she moved his unclear. Laurie

7:21

says she was nineteen and looking for independence.

7:24

Other relatives wonder whether

7:26

she was trying to avoid putting financial

7:28

strain on her mom. Regardless,

7:31

Chicago was expensive but exciting,

7:34

and there were so many possibilities, so

7:36

many things to do, people to meet.

7:40

There was a bigger city than when

7:42

she used us to about her in Denver. It

7:44

was hard to get around. You know, she had a car,

7:47

so you know, getting on the boat with you

7:49

know, a little scary horror. But

7:51

she was trying to

7:53

figure things out for herself out there.

7:56

Was that scary for you or did you feel

7:59

like she could handle it? It was definitely

8:01

scary, not being close enough to

8:03

know exactly what's really going on. So

8:06

it was definitely hard when

8:09

we did talk. She was okay, and

8:11

you know, she had the two friends

8:13

and she was going out to eat

8:16

nice places and she had nice polls.

8:19

I had no idea anything was

8:21

going on. When

8:24

I think back now, I wonder maybe

8:26

I could have prevented this. When

8:29

we were talking and she was telling me where she was

8:31

going out to eat or whatever, they never

8:33

registered. In my mind, I

8:36

still beat myself up. Why

8:38

didn't the register to me? But maybe

8:40

she was throwing the signs. I

8:44

don't think that you know everything about child,

8:46

because there's something that they're not telling you.

8:49

They're either scared to tell you, but there

8:51

is a shame to tell you. If

8:54

I knew that this is going

8:56

on, I would have stopped it. I

8:58

would have went out there my child back

9:01

home. Do

9:24

you remember the last interaction you

9:26

had with Africa? It was through

9:29

Facebook. He has sent

9:31

me two pictures and she

9:33

said she was getting fat and I

9:35

said, no, you're not. And

9:38

then I got off of work on Thursday

9:41

and I thought I had misplaced my phone.

9:45

So I had message through Facebook

9:47

and told her I think

9:49

I may have lost my phone. So if you need

9:51

me, messaged me on Facebook.

9:54

That was Thursday night going

9:56

into Friday. I didn't

9:59

hear anything back on around Friday.

10:01

Then the following days when I found out.

10:06

It was the making of my fiancing birthday.

10:09

So we had went out to eat earlier

10:11

that day and we were just at home.

10:14

Lest you walking dead, I

10:16

received a message from my ex husband's

10:18

girlfriends. She

10:21

messaged me oundkasebook and she said,

10:23

you need to call Tasha. It's

10:26

about Africa. I

10:28

just thought Africa might be trying to contact

10:31

me through Patasha too, that's her cousin. I

10:33

mean, so, did you really pay any attention

10:36

to it? She messaged me back Abound ten minutes

10:38

later, she said, you really need to call in

10:40

regard to Africa. So

10:44

I called Tashay are

10:46

you doing She said, we were

10:49

up at the corner's office. We have to identify

10:51

Africa's body. Nothing,

10:54

she said, pick my brain.

10:57

I'm like the corner for what And

11:00

she said, or we

11:03

had to identify African's body.

11:06

She said my daughter's name, and

11:09

it hit me and I black

11:11

out. When

11:15

I came to I just looked up

11:18

at my fiancee that Africa

11:20

is dead. Cashould

11:23

call me back and she told

11:25

me what happens, and

11:28

um, it just

11:31

unreal to me. She was

11:34

trying to give me details in phone numbers

11:36

that I had a call, I

11:38

had a contract. The leading detective on the

11:40

case, Detective Forward. Detective

11:44

Forward informed me that I'd probably hear some things

11:46

about my child that I

11:48

don't want to believe, but to know that

11:51

it was true. On

11:54

Friday, October, Lori

11:58

was waiting for a response to message

12:00

she had sent her daughter Africa,

12:03

but Africa had already left Chicago.

12:06

In fact, she had already left Illinois.

12:10

She was forty five miles southeast

12:12

in Indiana, living a life

12:14

that she had never told her mom about. She'd

12:17

gone to meet up with a man who she had only

12:20

spoken to online. Originally,

12:23

she was going to meet him earlier in the day,

12:25

but he'd pushed things back because he said

12:27

he couldn't find a babysitter. Africa

12:30

knew it was risky to meet strangers from

12:32

the internet, and she wanted to be safe,

12:35

so she let her friend Shimika know where

12:37

she was and what she was doing, and

12:39

then texted her when

12:42

she met up with the man. Shimika

12:44

was expecting another text from her when

12:47

things wrapped up, but

12:49

hours passed and the second text

12:51

never came, so Shimika

12:53

texted Africa's phone to check in. After

12:57

a delay, she got a response, but

13:00

the message seemed strange. She

13:02

didn't think it sounded like something Africa would

13:04

right. Shamika

13:07

started to worry that something was wrong, so

13:09

she tried calling Africa, but she couldn't

13:12

get through. Shamika kept

13:14

calling over and over, but Africa

13:16

wasn't picking up. So

13:19

Shamika called another friend, Eduardo,

13:21

and they drove out to investigate. They

13:26

arrived at the address. It was a motel

13:28

six just off Interstate nine. Eduardo

13:32

and Shamika found Africa's room and

13:34

knocked on the door, but

13:36

no one answered, so

13:39

they got someone from the motel to let them

13:41

in. They didn't

13:43

see anyone inside the motel room,

13:45

but the shower was running. They

13:48

called out to whoever was there, but

13:50

got no response. As

13:53

they walked into the room, they saw

13:55

the bed was at a strange angle. One

13:58

of Africa's shoes, a platform

14:00

stiletto, was lying on its side.

14:04

They saw a shirt button on the floor,

14:07

a broken fingernail, and a

14:09

torn condom wrapper. They

14:11

crept slowly toward the bathroom

14:14

and knocked on the door, but again

14:17

there was no response. Maybe

14:20

someone had just left the shower running, so

14:23

they cracked the door open. Shamika

14:27

screamed and ran out of the room.

14:30

Africa Hardy was lying in the tub,

14:33

the shower water beating down on her. There

14:36

was a thin red bruise going all the way

14:38

around her neck. Just

14:42

above that literature mark. Detectives

14:45

notice that Africa had a tattoo.

14:48

It was a Bible verse. It read,

14:51

no weapon that is formed against

14:53

me shall prosper it

14:58

tap the floor informed me that I you hear some

15:00

things about my child that I don't

15:02

want to believe, but to know that

15:04

it was true. She was

15:07

an escort, prostituting,

15:10

however you want to word it. Yeah,

15:13

definitely something you don't want to know about

15:15

your fine teen year old, beautiful child who

15:18

could have had anything, done

15:20

anything that she wanted to. Detective

15:24

Forward had learned that Africa was working

15:27

as a call girl and that was

15:29

how Africa came into contact with

15:31

the man she met at the motel. He

15:33

was a client. I

15:36

can definitely a hundred percent day that

15:38

my children will not raised that way.

15:41

But my children no struggle and

15:43

they know how to overcome

15:45

struggle. And maybe at that time

15:48

Africa may have up that was the way to

15:50

overcome struggle. I don't

15:52

know. I think a lot of

15:54

it has to do with the older female that she

15:56

defriended. Him was

15:59

twenty six. Was you that my daughter? My

16:01

daughter was nine too, and

16:04

I think she kind of primmed

16:06

in prop Africa. You

16:08

know, the new girl on the block. She's beautiful

16:10

and you can make some money off

16:12

of her. M Still to this

16:15

day, I don't know why she decided to

16:17

do what she did. I don't

16:19

know, I don't know. I will never

16:21

get that answer. Did

16:24

you ever talk to that friend? Yeah,

16:26

so I did speak with her, Like one time,

16:29

we were on the phone for about a good hour and

16:32

she mentioned that Africa, but hey,

16:34

it's best money, put money,

16:37

easy money, that Africa

16:40

wanted to come back to Denver. She

16:43

wanted to know, to help take care of her mom.

16:45

So I'm going to assume that that's why,

16:48

you know it happened. Yea.

16:51

You know, it's hard to put myself in your shoes.

16:53

But I imagine that that's kind of confusing to hear

16:55

because in some ways it's like, you

16:58

know, that's a great thing, she wants to

17:00

to help you, But

17:02

then it's also like hard because it's you

17:05

know, like kind of connects you to it

17:08

or something like that. Does that make

17:10

sense exactly? Yeah, Like

17:12

I feel guilty. I

17:14

mean I feel guilty about the whole scenario,

17:16

but the part that she wanted

17:18

to help me, you know, since

17:22

Africa was little, I guess she's always looked

17:24

up to me, and I have little letters and know

17:26

if that she write me, and so when

17:28

I get famous, I'm not going to have to

17:30

worry about anything anymore. I

17:33

think in her mind, you

17:36

know, she thought that she really had to take care of

17:38

me because now that she was grown,

17:40

it was her turn. You know, mother takes

17:43

care of child, nor child had to take care of

17:45

mother. It was just something

17:47

in her that she thought she wanted

17:49

to do to me. That speaks

17:51

to you know that you guys

17:53

were close and that she wanted to help

17:56

you. When

17:58

I've talked to people, lots of people talk

18:01

about guilt, even in situations

18:03

where it doesn't really make sense. I

18:06

think that that is also sometimes just

18:08

like part of losing someone you're very

18:10

close to, you always kind of wonder. Yeah,

18:13

if there's a lot of things I wonder about. Did

18:17

she begged for him to stop? She

18:19

begged him for her life? You know, I was like,

18:22

I wonder these things. I

18:25

don't know if I'm wrong for wondering that. I

18:28

just want to know what my daughter's wife

18:30

words were when

18:32

we first reached out to me. You said

18:35

something about old wounds.

18:38

This is not an old wound. This is a daily

18:40

wound, you know, and um to

18:43

adjusted things, but it never

18:45

goes away, It never

18:47

ever goes away. UM.

18:49

I was telling my girlfriend that I was getting

18:51

ready to do this interview, and her

18:54

father passed away a year ago,

18:57

and you know, a very different situation.

19:00

And but she feels like other

19:02

people get uncomfortable when she

19:04

talks about it, like they don't want her

19:06

to feel bad, but she wants to talk

19:08

about him. Very true, very

19:11

true, very very very true. People

19:13

think that you're like completely broken, and

19:16

they don't want to say anything or mention anything.

19:19

But in order for me to keep my

19:21

daughter's voice going, I have to

19:23

talk about it. Let me talk. If I have

19:25

to cry, and let me cry. If I wanted

19:28

to laugh, let me laugh. So

19:30

people are really like that. They're still like that

19:32

with me today. So it

19:35

is what it is. So before you

19:37

were saying that you're like kind of curious about

19:39

this, like you wanted to figure out a lot

19:42

about what was going on after this happened.

19:45

Yeah, I still have some curiosities, and there's

19:47

still some things that I think

19:50

me to be done and could be done. Like

19:53

I get angry because he killed

19:56

my daughter and my daughter was found

19:58

enough freaking hotel m naked

20:01

in a shower. Why

20:04

you know, I get her? You

20:06

know why angry

20:09

myself. Here's another thing. I

20:12

wonder why this

20:14

guy we've left

20:16

loose because

20:20

here's the crazy thing about Africa's case.

20:24

Well, Africa's death was senseless

20:26

and seemed utterly random.

20:28

It wasn't random.

20:30

It was part of a pattern. And

20:33

years earlier, a man named Thomas

20:35

Hargrove had tried to warn police.

20:38

He said he had evidence that a serial

20:40

killer was on the loose, strangling

20:43

young women in the area, women

20:45

just like Africa. Hardy.

20:49

So, who was Thomas Hargrove and

20:51

what was his evidence? Unfortunately,

20:54

Bury, Indiana is a good place to be a killer

20:57

because you're probably going to get away with him.

21:17

Hey, Ben, can you hear me? I'm

21:19

speaking with Thomas Hargrove over zoom

21:22

here. Hold on one second. I have to warn my wife. I'm

21:25

doing an interview. Harkerve's

21:27

the guy who warned police in Indiana

21:29

that they might have a serial killer and the loose Hargrove

21:34

sixty four. He's got a white

21:36

beard and wear thin rimmed glasses.

21:39

He wasn't the sort of guy I imagined would be

21:41

investigating serial killers, so

21:44

he's curious how he got into all this. I

21:47

don't know where these things come from, but when

21:49

I was seventeen, I decided I had

21:51

to be a reporter, and investigative

21:53

reporter, an investigative

21:56

reporters, somebody looking into

21:59

a truth that somebody is trying

22:01

to hide, Like Africa.

22:03

Hardy Hargrove grew up outside

22:05

Chicago. He was inspired

22:08

by journalists there who came up with

22:10

a creative way to expose the city's

22:12

corruption. Reporters kept

22:14

hearing about the bribes that business owners

22:16

had to pay city inspectors, but

22:18

it was hard to prove any wrongdoing, so

22:21

the journalists decided to go deep undercover.

22:25

The reporters fought their editor into

22:27

opening a bar. They called it the

22:30

Mirage. Journalists were actually

22:32

becoming bar keeps, and they were running this

22:35

bar for months and months. They

22:37

were specifically looking for indications

22:40

of public corruption. And they

22:42

found it. With hidden

22:44

cameras running, the reporters caught

22:46

inspectors taking bribes and ignoring

22:49

code violations. It

22:51

was a remarkable project, and

22:54

it just seemed like it was so much fun. I

22:57

wanted to be like these people. After

23:00

high school, Hargrove studied journalism

23:03

at the University of Missouri. It's actually

23:05

one of the country's top programs for journalism

23:08

at that time. In the early seventies,

23:10

a new field was emerging called computer

23:13

assisted reporting. The

23:16

idea was that reporters could use computers

23:18

to analyze data like government records.

23:22

Hard grow quickly grasped that computing

23:24

had the potential to revolutionize

23:26

investigative journalism. It

23:28

allowed reporters to step back and look

23:31

at issues with a wider lens. From

23:33

this new perspective, sometimes

23:35

previously invisible patterns would come

23:37

into focus. If you didn't ask

23:40

the question in exactly the right

23:42

way, your program would fail. And

23:44

it was very frustrating, but

23:46

it was astonishing what computers could

23:49

do. After

23:51

college, Hargrove landed a job as

23:53

a crime reporter for the Birmingham Post

23:56

Herald. Being a police

23:58

reporter in the Deep South was

24:00

a remarkable way to get started.

24:02

I came as a Yankee and really wasn't

24:05

expecting to like that experience, but I

24:07

did. Her Grove loved the work

24:09

experience he was getting, but being a police

24:11

reporter wasn't always easy.

24:14

It's one thing to think I want to write

24:16

exposes about crooked politics.

24:19

That's another thing to see

24:22

what happens because of bad policies,

24:25

poverty and desperation and

24:28

violence. Hard Grove kept

24:30

a police scanner running all the time, even

24:33

at home. If

24:36

he heard a dispatch that sounded newsworthy,

24:38

he'd immediately drive out to the scene of the crime.

24:42

Sometimes, if he happened to be nearby,

24:44

he would beat the cops there. One

24:47

was at a convenience store in Hoover,

24:49

Alabama. I opened the

24:51

door and didn't see anybody,

24:55

and then found the cashier behind

24:58

the counter. The cashier

25:01

had been shot. He was

25:03

lying on the ground leading out.

25:06

He didn't say anything. He

25:08

wasn't especially conscious,

25:11

but he breathed

25:14

his last It

25:16

is an experience to see

25:18

someone die. I

25:22

didn't really think when

25:24

I was a teenager what it was

25:26

like to cover the news. I

25:29

guess I didn't realize that when you

25:31

experience the news rather than just

25:33

right about it. It really is

25:35

a life changing process.

25:40

Hard Group's time as a crime reporter

25:43

was also when he first learned about serial

25:45

killers and a phenomenon called

25:47

linkage blindness. In

25:50

the late nineties seventies, the

25:52

term serial killer did not exist.

25:55

That was invented in the eighties. The

25:58

term did not exist, but the idea

26:00

that someone could kill over and

26:02

over again was becoming common

26:05

among Americans at

26:07

that time. Just to the east

26:09

of Birmingham, Atlanta was experiencing

26:12

the Atlanta child murders, and

26:15

those murders were not being solved. It's

26:18

unusual for children to be murdered.

26:21

It's very unusual for child

26:23

murders to go unsolved, and

26:26

there was criticism of the Atlanta Police

26:28

Department for not recognizing the patterns

26:31

sooner. I started

26:33

attending academic symposiums

26:36

that looked into the question of the Atlanta

26:39

child murders, and I heard

26:41

from criminologists that this

26:43

is a well known problem called linkage

26:46

blindness, that

26:48

when there are connected cases, often

26:51

the connection is not made by police

26:54

because of the nature of how homicides

26:56

are investigated. If

26:59

someone murdered, a detective is assigned

27:02

to the case. When another person

27:04

is murdered, Usually a different detective

27:06

is assigned to the case. If

27:08

there are commonalities to the

27:10

two murders, those commonalities

27:13

are not recognized unless those two

27:15

detectives have a conversation over

27:17

the water cooler. If

27:19

those killings occurred in a neighboring

27:22

jurisdiction, that conversation

27:24

never happens. Experts

27:26

in the field, we're saying that most

27:29

connected murders go unrecognized.

27:32

The links are very rarely made, and

27:34

I kept that in the back of

27:36

my mind. Hargrove

27:39

didn't know it yet, but this simple

27:41

insight about linkage blindness,

27:44

that connections between murders are often

27:46

missed by police, That idea

27:48

would become an obsession and completely

27:51

alter the course of his life. But

27:54

his next clue wouldn't come until

27:56

decades later, when he was halfway across

27:59

the country. Hargrove

28:01

had climbed up through the ranks, and in

28:03

two thousand four he was living

28:06

his teenage dream.

28:08

He was working as an investigative reporter

28:10

in Washington, d C. And

28:12

he was using the programming skills he learned

28:15

in college to write big data

28:17

driven stories. In

28:19

two thousand four, I

28:22

was assigned to do a really interesting

28:24

story. He just started

28:26

a piece on prostitution when

28:29

he stumbled across another clue.

28:31

In some cities, anti prostitution

28:34

laws are vigorously enforced. In

28:36

other cities, the laws are virtually

28:38

ignored, and in other cities just

28:41

the men who higher prostitutes are

28:43

arrested. So it was all

28:45

across the board, who gets arrested,

28:47

whether anyone gets arrested. To

28:49

study this, I needed the uniform

28:52

crime report because prostitution

28:54

is something the FBI counts, So

28:56

hart Grove ordered a CD with FBI

28:59

records about crime. He was planning

29:01

to compare prostitution arrest between

29:03

different cities when he discovered

29:06

something else. Included

29:09

on that CD at no

29:11

extra charge was a file

29:13

I had never heard of, called the Supplemental

29:16

Homicide Report. Being

29:19

paid to be curious, I opened it up and

29:22

what it was was line after

29:24

line of individual murders.

29:27

It showed the age, race, sex

29:30

of each victim. Victim is a blackmail

29:33

eighteen years old. It had the weapon

29:35

that was used. He was shut with a handgun.

29:38

It had the police theory as

29:40

to why the homicide occurred. The

29:42

murder is thought to be due to an argument over

29:44

money or property. It had the month

29:46

and year and the jurisdiction

29:49

January two thousand, Los Angeles,

29:51

Long Beach, California. I

29:54

had never seen the individual

29:56

crime data before, and

29:58

I don't know where all

30:00

these connections occur in our minds,

30:03

But the first thought I had upon

30:06

opening the s HR the Supplemental

30:08

Homicide Report was could

30:10

we teach a computer to identify

30:13

connected cases to find

30:16

serial killings? Hard

30:18

Grove had a feeling that an algorithm

30:21

could find patterns within that data and

30:23

detect serial killers. And

30:26

maybe you could even be used to detect

30:28

active serial killers who had not yet

30:30

been caught. This

30:32

idea started hard Grove down a winding

30:35

path that eventually led him

30:37

to discover a trail of bodies, bodies

30:40

that he says, we're left behind by

30:42

the man who killed Africa Hardy.

30:45

But this isn't just a story investigating

30:47

Africa Hardy's killer and cold

30:49

cases that might be connected to him.

30:52

If there's one thing that will become clear

30:54

from this story, it's that Africa

30:56

Hardy didn't need to die

31:02

next time on algorithm.

31:05

Serial killer Gary Ridgway

31:08

was convicted in a court of law of

31:10

murdering forty eight girls and women.

31:13

The question was could we teach

31:15

a computer a process

31:17

that would tell us that something god awful

31:20

happened in Seattle. My editors

31:22

recognized that this could be something

31:25

very cool, but it's hard to

31:27

commit to a project you don't

31:29

know up front whether it's possible. The stereotypes

31:32

about the profile of a serial killer or

31:34

profile of the victims is not really

31:36

very consistent with the facts. This

31:39

is really one of the most frustrating experiences

31:42

of my life. Your

31:44

only hope is to get Jackie to talk. I

31:47

think the Gary Police Department should be looking at

31:49

some of those old cases. They

31:52

still may have a killer out there. Episode

31:55

two of Algorithm is out now. Listen

31:58

to subscribe on the I Heart Radio app, Apple

32:00

Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite

32:02

shows. This

32:06

episode was written and produced by me ben

32:09

Key Brick. Algorithm is executive

32:11

produced by Alex Williams, Donald Albright,

32:13

and Matt Frederick. Production assistance

32:16

in mixing by Eric Quintana. The

32:18

music is by Makeup and Vanity Set and

32:20

Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to

32:22

Christina Dana, Miranda Hawkins,

32:25

Jamie Albright, rema El Kaili,

32:27

Trevor Young, and Josh Thane for

32:29

their help and notes. Also

32:34

really thanks for listening. Um,

32:36

it means a lot. Like I was saying, this

32:39

is my first time hosting a podcast like this

32:41

and I love to know what you think. So

32:43

if you have a moment, please subscribe

32:45

and leave a review.