Om Dakota Spotlight: True Crime & Cold Case Investigations
Dakota Spotlight is a true crime series investigating unsolved murders, cold cases, and missing persons in North Dakota and the Midwest. Hosted by investigative journalist James Wolner, each season takes a deep dive into one case, from rural crime and small town murders to decades-old disappearances. Through meticulous research, exclusive interviews, and on-the-ground reporting, Dakota Spotlight brings forgotten crimes back into the public eye and gives voice to victims and their families. Alongside full investigative seasons, the show also features shorter standalone episodes that explore individual mysteries in a single sitting. If you are drawn to investigative journalism, small town true crime, and real crime stories based on actual events, Dakota Spotlight offers gripping and respectful storytelling you will not forget.
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From North Dakota to Roughing It: Peter Hicks Returns (00:30:22)
I’m joined by returning guest Peter Hicks, whose music with Sleepy Driver was heard in Season Two of Dakota Spotlight—but this time to talk about his debut novel Roughing It, written under the pen nam...
Ten Years From Killing - The Murder of Robin Enockson (00:25:16)
This Case Snapshot examines the 1990 murder of Robin Enockson in rural North Dakota. Beginning with an escape from a state hospital a decade earlier, the episode lays out the crime, the investigation,...
They Found Her in Water - A Case Reexamined with Trisha Taurinskas (00:44:52)
Forty years after 22-year-old Kelly Jean Robinson was found floating in a gravel pit pond in rural Minnesota, her case had gone cold — until DNA tests taken by an adopted man revealed that Kelly was h...
A Christmas Message (00:01:05)
James shares a Christmas message with Dakota Spotlight listeners. A moment to pause, say thank you, and reflect before the year comes to a close, with appreciation for everyone who listens, supports t...
Meanwhile in Mankato (6): Reckoning in Rapidan — The Truth That Endured (00:58:34)
In the season’s final chapter, Dakota Spotlight returns to Rapidan, Minnesota—to the classmates, friends, and families still living in the shadow of Ray Dahms’s murder. Host James Wolner traces the fi...
Meanwhile in Mankato (5): The Acquittal That Exposed Minnesota’s Blind Spot (00:45:46)
By the early 1980s, Brian Lee Hendrickson was still working at the Minnesota Home School in Sauk Centre, supervising teenage girls. When one of them—Michelle—spoke up, she was dismissed as unstable an...
Meanwhile in Mankato (4): The Parole Experiment That Failed at Sauk Centre (00:40:57)
This episode looks inside Minnesota’s prison and parole system during the years when Brian Lee Hendrickson was behind bars—and how shifting attitudes toward rehabilitation vs punishment helped lead to...
Thanksgiving Treat (2): You Killed Chris - A Friend’s Fight for Justice (01:51:53)
The second half concludes the You Killed Chris story — newly abridged and remastered. Through interviews, archives, and reflection, I revisit Linda’s decades-long effort to confront the man she believ...
Thanksgiving Treat (1): You Killed Chris - A Friend’s Fight for Justice (01:52:32)
A newly abridged and remastered two-part version of You Killed Chris: A Friend’s Fight for Justice. In 1968, 18-year-old Christine Rothschild was found murdered outside Sterling Hall on the University...
Meanwhile in Mankato (3): The Trial That Collided with Miranda (00:49:03)
Episode 3 follows Brian Lee Hendrickson’s case through late 1965 and 1966, as court procedures, psychiatric evaluations, and a Minnesota trial unfold under the state’s Youth Conservation Commission. A...
Meanwhile in Mankato (2): Inside the Murder Investigation (00:43:25)
In the aftermath of Ray Dahms’s killing, Blue Earth County investigators launch a Minnesota murder investigation that soon points to a local teenager, Brian Lee Hendrickson. When they finally bring hi...
Meanwhile in Mankato (1): Lies, Silence & Murder in Minnesota (00:48:48)
In 1965, seventeen-year-old Brian Hendrickson committed a small-town murder when he walked into a gas station outside Mankato, Minnesota, and shot clerk Ray Dahms twice at close range. Sentenced to fo...
A Halloween Throwback – Unresolved: The Murder of Joel Lovelien (00:43:31)
On October 27, 2007, Joel Lovelien stepped outside the Broken Drum Bar in Grand Forks, North Dakota, during a night filled with costumes, celebration, and heavy drinking. Moments later, he was found i...
Meanwhile in Mankato: A Preview of Dakota Spotlight Season 12 (00:08:17)
Announcing Season 12
Meanwhile in Mankato: Lies, Silence & Murder in Minnesota arrives this November.
Episode 1 premieres for all listeners on Thursday, November 6.
Spotlight PLUS subscribers can h...
The House on Sweet and Seventh (6): Escape to the Movies – A North Dakota True Crime Story (00:41:36)
Episode 6, Escape to the Movies, brings forward Misty Jones — remembered as the girl with the little red car — in a 2020 interview. Misty recalls her early path into a party lifestyle, her personal st...
The House on Sweet and Seventh (5): A Sick Salute – A North Dakota True Crime Story (00:50:11)
The arrest of Brian Erickstad and Robert Lawrence confirmed their role in Barbara and Gordon Erickstad’s murders, but the aftermath shocked the community. Episode 5, A Sick Salute, reveals how the Eas...
The House on Sweet and Seventh (4): One of These Days – A North Dakota True Crime Story (00:33:28)
The night before Barbara and Gordon Erickstad’s murders revealed troubling signs in Bismarck, North Dakota. Episode 4, One of These Days, traces September 16, 1998, through interviews and police files...
The House on Sweet and Seventh (3): Patience Pays Off – A North Dakota True Crime Story (00:37:20)
Episode 3, Patience Pays Off, captures how patient police work broke open the Erickstad murder case. Barbara and Gordon Erickstad’s deaths had left Bismarck shaken in 1998. Detectives pressed a hesita...
The House on Sweet and Seventh (2): Never Ever Narc – A North Dakota True Crime Story (00:47:53)
Detective Lloyd Halvorson knew where to look for answers about the murders of Barbara and Gordon Erickstad in 1998. Episode 2, Never Ever Narc, follows Bismarck police as they questioned Brian Erickst...
The House on Sweet and Seventh (1): A Little Red Car – A North Dakota True Crime Story (00:42:28)
September 1998 brought a chilling moment in Bismarck, North Dakota, when 17-year-old Aimee walked into the police station. She suspected her boyfriend, Brian Erickstad, had harmed his parents. A welfa...
Barbara Cotton Cold Case Update: New Witness Insights on Williston's Unsolved Disappearance (00:46:35)
In this gripping update on the Barbara Cotton cold case, we delve into new testimony surrounding one of North Dakota's most enduring unsolved disappearances. Barbara Louise Cotton vanished from Willis...
Introducing - Truer Crime (00:35:52)
In July of 2018, 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts went on a run in her small hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. Something she’d done countless times before. But this time, she didn’t come home. What followed was ...
The Real Catch Me If You Can: Javier Leiva on Debunking Frank Abagnale (00:53:26)
What if 90% of Frank Abagnale’s claims are totally made up? In this special Dakota Spotlight episode, host James Wolner talks with Javier Leiva, creator of PRETEND, about his season The Real Catch Me ...
The Disappearance of Sharon Bald Eagle: A South Dakota Cold Case (00:31:51)
In this Case Snapshot, Dakota Spotlight investigates the 1984 disappearance of 12-year-old Sharon Bald Eagle, who vanished while traveling from South Dakota to Idaho. This unsolved mystery devastated ...
Who Killed Joseph Anderson? The Unsolved Jamestown Murder (00:38:28)
In September 1991, Joseph “Joe” Anderson, a millionaire cattleman, was found murdered under mysterious circumstances in Jamestown, North Dakota. His body was discovered in the trunk of his own Buick a...
