Ten months ago, Stacy Chapin was thrust into the center of the nation’s obsession with true crime, as armies of podcast listeners, internet commentators, and amateur sleuths were consumed by the mystery of how her son, Ethan Chapin, and three other University of Idaho students had been stabbed to death late one night in a house near campus. Now she found herself navigating an unfamiliar world where she was an unwitting celebrity, searching for a way to harness the fervor for something good.
She arrived as a guest of CrimeCon, where — after paying for tickets that start at $349 — attendees could measure blood spatter, analyze the drawings of a serial killer, cheer their crime-solving heroes, and absorb the gory details of notorious rapes and murders.
The annual conference, which this year drew 5,000 people from all 50 states, capitalizes on what has been a breakneck level of growth in the true crime genre.
Full story: The Nation’s Obsession With True Crime Meets a Mother’s Grief