The police's abuse of informants

Arne Woythal spent four decades as a homicide detective in the Danish police force, investigating some of the country's most serious crimes. Now, through memoir and public speaking, the veteran investigator is sharing the untold stories from 25 years behind the scenes of murder investigations.

On October 23, 1990, a 20-year-old nurse's aide was found strangled in the basement of a Copenhagen-area hospital. The case that followed would test Denmark's emerging forensic science and raise enduring questions about justice—now revisited in a new podcast investigation.

British stand-up comedian Edd Hedges premiered the limited series podcast Wisecrack on September 2, 2025, blending his comedy set with a true crime investigation into a double homicide in his English hometown. Emmy-nominated producer Jodi Tovay discovered Hedges' darkly comic routine at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and spent years uncovering the story behind it.

In April 2008, Austrian police discovered that Josef Fritzl had imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a concealed basement chamber for 24 years, subjecting her to repeated rape and forcing her to bear seven children in captivity. The case shocked Austria and revealed systematic failures in a family home in Amstetten.

Between November 1980 and July 1981, Clifford Robert Olson Jr. murdered 11 children and teenagers across British Columbia's Lower Mainland. His arrest, confession, and a controversial plea deal would shock Canada and ignite public outrage.

Jacob Wetterling was 11 years old when he vanished while cycling home from a convenience store in rural Minnesota in October 1989. Twenty-seven years later, DNA evidence and a confessional plea deal would finally reveal what happened to him—and podcasters would document every twist of this watershed case.

A Boston Globe podcast investigation has exposed how a Danish police officer in Massachusetts compromised the identity of a confidential informant during a routine traffic stop, raising international concerns about informant protection protocols and police accountability in law enforcement agencies.