In hindsight, creating a popular true crime podcast wasn’t all that unexpected for Kristen Seavey, a Newport native who started and hosts “Murder She Told,” a podcast focusing on cold cases in Maine and New England.
The show, which Seavey and her partner Byron Willis launched in December 2020, has told the stories of murder and missing person cases in exacting detail, focusing on the lives victims led and the stories of the families and friends they left behind.
It’s the culmination for Seavey of a lifelong obsession with crime, mysteries and uncovering little-known stories about Maine. Though there have been episodes of “Murder She Told” that have dealt with cases throughout New England, a majority are based in Maine.
Her hope is that someone listening will tell police some detail that will lead to a case finally being solved.
Since she and Willis launched the show a little more than two years ago, they have seen its popularity skyrocket. Last year, “Murder She Told” cracked the top 10 on Apple Podcasts’ most popular true crime shows, and has routinely ranked in the top 100 most popular podcasts on Apple over the past year.
“I’ve been a true crime fan most of my life, and so often, I just never saw Maine represented in any of these stories,” she said. “The more I researched, the more I found stories from Maine and New England that haven’t been told in sometimes decades. I think people have really connected with that, whether they are from Maine or from halfway around the world.”
The latest episodes of “Murder She Told” have delved into the case of Virginia Pictou Noyes, a Fort Fairfield woman who disappeared in Bangor in 1993 after checking herself out of Eastern Maine Medical Center.
In March, Seavey told the story of Aisha Johnson, an 8-month-old baby who was beaten to death in a home in Bangor, and whose killer has never been identified. She also did an episode about Ayla Reynolds, the 1-year-old who disappeared from Waterville in 2011 and has never been found.
In the Noyes and Johnson cases, Seavey connected with family and friends of the victims in order to fully tell their stories and keep the events fresh in listeners’ minds. She finds that families often welcome the opportunity to talk about their deceased or missing loved one.
“We’ve had a few hang ups or people ghost us, but for the most part, they want to have their stories told,” she said. “They’re surprised we found them, but we’ve gotten pretty good at the investigation side of things.”
In a few cases, police departments have actually worked with Seavey to reopen cases, such as that of Reeves Johnson, a 31-year-old Kittery man who went missing in 1983. In fall 2021, the Kittery Police Department gave Seavey their files on the case, and took her episode on Johnson’s disappearance as an opportunity to try to collect more leads on the case.
Though the Johnson case has not yet been solved, Seavey said other cases she’s highlighted have since had more leads open. And she has also profiled longtime New England cold cases that have since been solved, like the 1971 murder of 24-year-old Vermont resident Rita Curran, whose killer was identified in February of this year using DNA technology. The killer died in 1986, but his DNA was identified from a cigarette butt found near her body.
As a kid, Seavey and her cousin were obsessed with mysteries — from Nancy Drew books to watching back-to-back episodes of “Unsolved Mysteries,” the long-running network series that was a TV precursor to the true crime content bonanza of more recent years.
“We were into this sort of thing from a very young age, which is interesting because no one else in my family is,” Seavey said. “We would go on the internet at school and look up pictures of ghosts and mysteries and things like that. But back then, there wasn’t really an outlet for this sort of thing. Not like there is today.”
At left: Aisha Johnson, an 8-month-old baby who was beaten to death in a home in Bangor and whose death is still unsolved; at right: Danielle Bertolini, a Newport native who went missing in Humboldt County, California, in 2014, and whose remains were found in 2015 in a river there. Credit: Courtesy of Murder She Wrote
After graduating from Nokomis High School in 2008, Seavey moved to New York City, with plans for a career as an actor. She lived in the city for nearly 12 years, first attending the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and then working as an actor in stage, TV and film.
But in spring 2020, she and Willis found themselves confined to their tiny studio apartment in New York during the pandemic. With no acting jobs available for the foreseeable future, they moved back to Maine in the summer of 2020 for what they thought would be a temporary change.
Nearly three years later, they have permanently set up shop in Newport, and find themselves with full-time jobs researching, writing and recording “Murder She Told,” each episode of which Seavey says can take more than 100 hours of work to complete.
One of the earliest episodes she recorded was about Danielle Bertolini , who went missing in Humboldt County, California, in 2014, and whose remains were found in 2015 in a river there. Seavey had a deeply personal connection to that story: she went to elementary and middle school with Bertolini, who was born in Newport.
“I spoke to her mother, who still lives locally, and she gave us the most raw, beautiful, personal interview,” Seavey said. “It was totally honest and powerful. That’s why we do this.”
True crime is among the most popular genres for both podcasting and on TV, with podcasts like “My Favorite Murder,” “Serial” and “Crime Junkie” routinely ranked among the most popular in the country, and series like “Making a Murderer,” “The Jinx” and “The Staircase” garnering millions of viewers.
Podcasting is a natural outgrowth of Seavey’s love of storytelling and performing, as well as the fact that before she had her own show, she spent hours listening to podcasts on the subway in New York.
But where other true crime programs can sometimes be criticized for focusing too much on the crimes themselves and on the criminals, Seavey said she is very careful to always center the victims and their families at the heart of every episode.
“I think in some cases, with true crime shows, the victim’s life almost seems like an afterthought,” she said. “That is not the full story. This person’s story doesn’t start after they’re dead. I want listeners to know that these are people who were loved. And I think by painting a fuller picture of their lives, maybe there’s a chance something new shakes loose or someone wants to come forward.”