“Unsolved: Worcester” dropped on Tuesday, unleashing the popular true crime podcast series into its sixth, and final, season.
Produced by Pat Sargent and hosted by Dan Yeager (the actor and stuntman best known for his role as Leatherface in “Texas Chainsaw 3D”), the show originally launched in October of 2022, and explores unsolved homicides and missing person cases from Worcester County.
When the series closes the book after this season, “Unsolved: Worcester” will have explored roughly 70 cases on file with the Worcester Police Department, the District Attorney’s office and the Massachusetts State Police. The cases date back to the 1950s and continue to as recently as last year.
Sargent tunes into podcasts most nights, and mostly podcasts about cold cases and unsolved mysteries. He’s not alone; a recent Pew Research study found that nearly a quarter of the top-ranked podcasts focused on true crime stories (politics, pop culture and self-help are distant seconds).
“I was already familiar with the number of unresolved cases in Worcester, and one day it just clicked,” says Sargent. “I recognized that there are certainly plenty of cases to produce enough content for a podcast series. Once I started researching the cases in Worcester further, I realized it was worth putting the podcast together. I’m happy I started it and thankful for the folks who joined me from the beginning.“
Sargent said he was aware of at least 70 unsolved cases, which are listed in the WPD’s webpage, but when they started digging, they unearthed many others that hadn’t made it to the page. Others are under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police. In fact, there are more than 100 unsolved homicide and missing person cases currently under investigation.
“The police only allow so much info to the public, so we have had to do a lot of digging in newspapers, online, and speaking with families of the victims,” says Sargent. “We really want to be a solid source that people can come to and get a better picture of each unsolved case in Worcester.”
The newest “Unsolved: Worcester” episode explores the murder of 26-year-old Jose Ortiz, who was shot and killed on Aug. 24, 2016, while walking along Elliot Street in the Bell Hill neighborhood of Worcester on his way to work. According to reports, Ortiz and another man argued, the other man shooting Ortiz and speeding off in a minivan.
“The case is surprisingly not listed among Worcester PD’s unresolved homicide cases, but it is among Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Cases Unit deck of playing cards,” says Sargent.
Yes, you read that right; the MSP did produce a deck of playing cards in early 2022 that features victims of unresolved, serious, violent crimes, in an effort to keep these cases in front of the public.
“Most of them are homicide victims,” according to the MSP’s announcement. “The victims were chosen through input from each participating District Attorney’s Office. The victims in this deck were someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, wife, husband, child, or partner.”
To date, “Unsolved: Worcester” podcasts have been downloaded and streamed more than 220,000 times, and its YouTube page has some 20,000 hours of watch time and more than 3,500 subscribers. Thousands follow the show on Facebook and Instagram.
“Our following grows significantly month over month,” adds Sargent. “Earlier this summer, we started to see a real uptick in downloads as more and more people from the Worcester area began hearing about us. Word of mouth has really put more eyes and ears to the podcast than we could have imagined.
“It’s certainly helpful when you have someone such as Dan Yeager as the host. People enjoy listening to him and he’s truly sensitive to the circumstances surrounding each and every case. It’s been a team effort for sure and I’m lucky that the folks who wanted to work on it with me enjoy doing the work. The success of the podcast relies on its many parts to reach a hyperlocal, but still relatively large, audience.“
Several True Crime podcasts have not only revived interest in unsolved cases around the world, but in some cases, they’ve led to assisting investigators in solving the crime–most famously, “The Teacher’s Pet” and “Bear Brook.” Sargent says he’s “hopeful, of course” that perhaps “Unsolved: Worcester” could crack a case, too.
“Our goal from the start was to present these cases in a way that people could understand the facts of the case,” he says. “For many of our listeners, it’s the first time they’ve heard of 90 percent or more of these cases. So we take what info we can find on each case and present it in a way that’s informative and entertaining. Ultimately, what’s important is we stick to the facts and always keep the victims and their families in the forefront. The cases deserve the attention of the public and we’re happy to be the platform where they can learn about them.”
The podcasts can be found on Unsolved: Worcester’s website, on all major podcast streaming platforms and on its YouTube page.
Tips? Comments? Feedback? Email carsenault@theworcesterguardian.org
