Everyone loves listening to a good murder mystery podcast. With so many versions available, the market is somewhat saturated - but there's an audience for it. The most challenging part is finding one that's actually entertaining. How does the host tell the story? Was the host able to find good audio to play for the audience to help paint the picture?
These podcasts typically have the same plot. The host either finds the story on their own, or it's a publicly known story on which they did their own research. There's some comedic relief. A catchy tune breaks up the story before heading to a sponsored ad that ultimately gets skipped by the audience because they don't want to buy a subscription. It ends with a trial where the murderer is convicted and the binging continues.
I'm no stranger to these podcasts myself. What can I say? They're entertaining! I recently stumbled across Audio Chuck in the last year. Audio Chuck is a production company that hosts several podcasts like these. Anatomy of a Murder, Crime Junkie, Body Chills... The list goes on. After I binged all 87 of the current episodes of Anatomy of a Murder, I was on the search for a new show. This is when I stumbled upon Counter Clock. This show is different because each season is based on one specific case and the best part is that these are cold cases that haven't been solved.
The host of Counter Clock is Delia D'Ambra. D'Ambra is an investigative journalist, producer, and host who brings awareness to cases that have gone cold by asking the audience for help. In each season, D'Ambra opens with an episode that covers the case itself, usually a case that took place in the late 80s or early 90s. Instead of sitting in the studio, D'Ambra is traveling. to the location of the murder, interviewing anyone she can that can give her relevant information, contacting prosecutors of the case, and whatever else she can do to help solve the case. Each time she uncovers something new for the case, D'Ambra backs it up with photographic evidence, recordings of 911 calls, and even recordings of one-on-one conversations from people who were close to the victim.
In the second season, D'Ambra covers a story about the murder of Stacy Stanton in 1990. As the season unravels, D'Ambra uncovers that the man that was convicted for Stanton's murder 32 years ago may have been wrongly convicted just because he was black. D'Ambra is able to get in contact with Cliffton Spencer, the man accused of Stanton's murder, after conducting research that showed there was no convincing evidence pointing to Spencer, and have a one-on-one conversation with him. In doing so, D'Ambra was able to spread awareness of The Innocence Project which is a group that helped fight to release Spencer from prison after serving 18 years. D'Ambra and the Counter Clock podcast helped research and organize evidence in Spenser's case while also highlighting the broken criminal justice system that forced him to take a plea deal that kept him in prison.
After the season ended. D'Ambra and Spencer continued their relationship and actually met in person to speak together in another one-on-one interview. In the interview, D'Ambra shows her bravery and compassion when she says, "It took Clifton a while to warm up to me. Me. A journalist who cold-called him in the middle of the night to ask him if he murdered a woman in 1990. We couldn't be a more different pair, other than the fact that we both grew up in the same small town in Eastern North Carolina."
You can listen to the bonus episode here.
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