What I Do #8: Dana Poll, creator and host of True Crime P.I. podcast
I'm Aaron Jacklin, and this is Explaining Crime, an independent newsletter that helps you explain crime to your audience.
What I Do is a weekly Explaining Crime series that features a single person in the crime content space and their answers to a set series of questions about what they do.
What I Do #8: Dana Poll
Where are you based?
I was born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh, PA (Go Steelers!). I moved to western Colorado in 2014 and to a suburb of Atlanta in 2018.
What do you do?
I earned a degree in Library and Information Science and I use these research skills to investigate Cold Cases and to advocate for victim’s families. I am the producer and host of the True Crime PI podcast, a researcher for The Investigators podcast and a co-host on Seeking Justice - The Dawn Pasela Story, an investigative YouTube live series that features interviews with Dawn’s family, friends, and a team of experts who are determined to uncover the truth about her suspicious death.
Who is your audience?
My audience is made up of true crime enthusiasts, advocates, victims’ families, researchers, and content creators.
What are the most useful tools in your work?
These are the tools I rely on when researching cold cases; publicly available cold case databases like the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), Uncovered, The Doe Network, Charley Project, Project Cold Case, and state and local law enforcement websites, newspapers.com, genealogical sites, local library resources and databases. Depending on the case, I submit Freedom of Information Act requests to law enforcement, government agencies, and medical examiner’s offices.
Who or what are the most useful sources of information in your work?
I try to involve experts in my work to ensure that I am sharing the most factual and up-to-date information about the cases I cover. These experts include detectives, forensic artists, forensic genetic genealogists, leaders in victim and family advocacy organizations, etc.
What’s your process?
I truly believe the cases I cover chose me. It is hard to explain, but I feel “called” in some way to take a closer look at the case. I begin my research by searching for basic case information. I then move on to newspapers.com to learn more about how the case was covered, when it happened and what has been written about it since. I follow the trail of names that surfaces and begin to research any connections. I use genealogical data to gain an understanding the person, where they were born, lived, moved to and when, who they married divorced, etc. After gathering a sufficient amount of information, I make a list of questions and design a plan to get the answers. This plan will sometimes include submitting FOIA requests, reaching out to law enforcement, ME’s offices, and/or people with a specific expertise who may be able to provide answers. Once I feel I have enough information to tell this person’s story, I begin the process of writing the script. Because I am committed to victim centered story telling, I try my best to tell these stories in the most ethical and respectful way possible. Usually, after several draft revisions, I record. Next, I move on to editing, which is my least favorite part. Finally, I upload the episode and schedule it for release. The next step is to design the artwork for my social media platforms and to begin sharing the episode link. And then the process starts all over again.
What’s the key to getting through to your audience?
I think my audience appreciates my victim centered, fact based, educational approach. The questions I ask and seek to answer are the questions that they are also asking about these cases. I try very hard not to just retell a story but to provide a bit of new information that has not already been released about the case.
How do you distribute or otherwise share your work?
I distribute my work through my podcast platform and via social media platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok. I also record episodes with other podcasters to widen my reach and entice new listeners to tune in to True Crime PI.
What’s something you wish people understood about crime, justice, or another related topic?
I wish we talked more about the Cold Case Crisis in America. A cold case is usually defined as a case that remains open and unsolved after all probative investigative leads available to the primary investigators are exhausted. Since 1980, police departments across this country have amassed a total of more than 250,000 cold cases. Everyday new cases challenge the resources of understaffed departments with limited budgets. Without a dedicated cold case unit, departments have no choice but to deprioritize older, unsolved cases. In order to proactively address the cold case crisis, we need to make solving cold cases a priority in this country. The more than 250,000 victims and their grieving families deserve answers and justice.
Why do you do this work?
I do this work because I feel driven to help find the missing, give the unidentified back their names, and provide answers to families who “have been forced to carry the unbearable burden of not knowing” for far too long. There are more than 250,000 cold cases in the United States and the families of these victims often struggle to keep their loved one’s cases and faces in the media spotlight. Telling their story gives them hope and helps to ensure their love ones’ case is not forgotten.
What was your path to doing this?
I have always been drawn to cases from the 70s and 80s when DNA wasn’t readily available, children were too often considered runaways, and missing person reports were not taken as seriously they are today. In 2002, I earned a degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Three years later, I learned about The Doe Network and a few years after that The National Missing and Unidentified System (NamUS) was introduced to the public. It was then that I started applying my skills and using these databases to research missing and unidentified person cases.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out who wants to do what you do?
I would suggest choosing a local case that speaks to you. In 2005, when I began researching missing and unidentified people, I focused on cases that were local to me. This was a great place to start because I knew the area, I had in-person access to the courthouse, local law enforcement, the local library’s microfiche, archival materials, and staff who were more than happy to point me in the right direction. When choosing and researching a case, never underestimate the value of your understanding of the topography, the culture, the politics, and your connection to the area.
What book, podcast, documentary, or anything else would you recommend to people reading this?
Alabama Cold Case Advocacy/Unforgotten Podcast
What do you do in your off-time to decompress from such heavy subject matter?
My husband and I like to travel, kayak, and visit breweries/distilleries with our dog Rebel.
What haven’t I asked you about that you’d like to add?
Thank you for inviting me to participate. Here’s my Beacon link - it is a collective of all of my social information and pertinent links.
And that’s What I Do for this week! Do you have any suggestions for who else I should feature? Let me know, and I’ll see if I can get them!