Redhead murders

So today we are diving into a true crime investigation, unlike seriously, unlike any other that I've seen and one that started not in a police department, but inside a high school classroom.

So when teacher Alex Campbell, my new hero, introduced his students to the decades old redhead murders, it was supposed to be a lesson in sociology.

Instead, his students began digging into the case themselves, uncovering leads, examining evidence and ultimately developing a theory about who could be responsible for the murders.

Their investigation became the subject of the documentary Murder 101, raising a fascinating question, can a group of high school students uncover something that investigators have missed for decades? Today, we are lucky enough to have Alex Campbell himself join us to talk about how his classroom investigation became a real-life cold case deep dive, and what his students discovered and whether they may have actually identified a serial killer.

Yeah, it's just, it's so interesting for me because, you know, this is what we do.

We do true crime and this is, it didn't feel like a true crime documentary per se.

There's certainly that element in it and the way that you all have made such a difference, you know, in the lives of, well, you know, the redhead murders and their families and those victims.

But also it just, it feels like a study in, I don't know, high school kids, the beauty of that, you know, when I was in high school, I was awkward and insecure and I could see that in some of, you know, your students.

So he began developing project-based learning experiences that challenge students to tackle authentic problems, engage with their communities, and apply academic skills to meaningful work.

In 2018, that philosophy led to the creation of a classroom cold case investigation centered on the unresolved redhead murders.

It began as an effort to increase student engagement involved into a years-long investigation involving victimology, criminal profiling, forensic science, investigative research, and media outreach.

Their most recent work led to the book Driven by Rage, Fueled by Diesel, The Forgotten Victims of the Tennessee Highway Murders.

Zoom in with us.

And he had just found out that his sister was murdered.

She was one of the redhead murders, but she had not been identified for about 35 years.

He had just found out that spring that his sister was known as one of these Jane Does.