True Crime: An Assessment of Truth Telling, Privacy, and Exploitation

True crime fascinates us—justice, mystery, and the thrill of the unknown. But what happens when a case remains unsolved?

At this Row House Forum, Doug Serven shared his journey into the only unsolved murder in Creve Coeur County, Missouri—the 1990 homicide of Elizabeth Mackintosh. While completing an early morning shift as a student worker on the cleaning staff, Elizabeth was tragically murdered in the basement of the chapel at Covenant Seminary (the seminary that Doug and our very own Tom Becker attended together in the late ’90s).

As a producer/researcher for True Believer: The Unsolved Murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh podcast, Doug and his team gained insights into truth telling, exploitation, and privacy. What did they learn? How did the process shape their understanding of justice and storytelling? It was a thought-provoking discussion.