Introducing Algorithm

When Afrikka Hardy was strangled in 2014 it seemed completely random, but it wasn’t. It was part of a pattern. Four years earlier, a reporter Thomas Hargrove had created an algorithm to detect serial killers, and that algorithm flagged Gary, Indiana as the site of an unusual number of cold case murders by strangulation. Hargrove reached out to warn local police that they might have an active serial killer operating in the area, but he was ignored. That is, until Afrikka Hardy was murdered, and those cold cases that he had identified suddenly didn’t look so cold. Algorithm follows the investigation into Afrikka’s murder, tracking her killer, exposing the warnings that police ignored, and uncovering more than anyone expected -- that a serial killer who was strangling women in Gary, Indiana could have been stopped. And that Afrikka Hardy should be alive today. This podcast will explore how technology can be used to identify and track serial killers, and how an algorithm can influence the way homicides are investigated all across the country. From iHeart Radio and Tenderfoot TV, this is Algorithm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Om Podcasten

Host Payne Lindsey heads to the edge of the arctic circle to investigate two mysterious disappearances from Nome, Alaska. Up and Vanished investigates mysterious cold case disappearances with each new season of the hit true crime franchise. Season 1: The case of missing South Georgia teacher, Tara Grinstead, led to two arrests. Season 2: The disappearance of Kristal Reisinger, a young mother who disappeared from a remote Colorado mountain town. Season 3: The North West Montana disappearance of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, an indigenous woman who went missing from the Blackfeet Nation Indian Reservation. Season 4: The case of missing Alaska Native, Florence Okpealuk and missing 36-year-old Joseph Balderas.