Dakota Spotlight: True Crime & Cold Case Investigations
Jun 25, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 23 segments
Leah Sottile joins Dakota Spotlight for a conversation about investigative journalism, the ethics of true crime storytelling, and the challenges of reporting on unresolved cases in overlooked rural…
Leah SottileGuest
James WolnerHost
The story I'm about to tell you starts with an argument between teenage sisters, the Zuber girls, Sarah, age 18, and her younger sister, Katie, 16.

On March 12, 2019, Sarah worked at the only grocery store in rural Rainier, Oregon, until 9.30 p.m., During her shift, she'd been texting Katie, and Katie had a request.
So I got home from school late.
I asked her to get me like a diet cream soda on our way home from work.
So she, like, brought me the soda, whatever, and I made a joke that I'm not going to repeat, and she got mad about it.
And she kind of went off on me, and she was like, she just said some things to me about, like, how she was worried about me and just some different stuff about, like, the direction I was going in life.

The three Zuber girls all had bedrooms on the bottom floor of the family's home.
and Sarah arguing right outside my door because all of our bedrooms were downstairs.
And I stuck
my head out the door and I said, like, can you shut up? I'm trying to sleep.
Like, I made a dumb joke.
She got mad and told me the things and I just sat there like this.
I was like.
Are you done? You know, and then I...
And so I got mad at her.

The story I'm about to tell you starts with an argument between teenage sisters, the Zuber girls, Sarah, age 18, and her younger sister, Katie, 16.

On March 12, 2019, Sarah worked at the only grocery store in rural Rainier, Oregon, until 9.30 p.m., During her shift, she'd been texting Katie, and Katie had a request.
So I got home from school late.
I asked her to get me like a diet cream soda on our way home from work.
So she, like, brought me the soda, whatever, and I made a joke that I'm not going to repeat, and she got mad about it.
And she kind of went off on me, and she was like, she just said some things to me about, like, how she was worried about me and just some different stuff about, like, the direction I was going in life.

The three Zuber girls all had bedrooms on the bottom floor of the family's home.
and Sarah arguing right outside my door because all of our bedrooms were downstairs.
And I stuck
my head out the door and I said, like, can you shut up? I'm trying to sleep.
Like, I made a dumb joke.
She got mad and told me the things and I just sat there like this.
I was like.
Are you done? You know, and then I...
And so I got mad at her.
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