Best Cold Case True Crime Podcasts
Best Cold Case True Crime Podcasts: In the Dark, Serial and Bear Brook lead our ranking of 24 shows, scored for binge factor and community ratings.
Cold case podcasts investigate murders and disappearances where official investigations have stalled. The best use modern forensic techniques, digital investigation, and persistent journalism to bring new attention to forgotten cases. Here are the highest-rated cold case podcasts in our community.
24 podcasts, ranked by binge factor
In the Dark
Listeners who want journalism-grade investigation into wrongful convictions, systemic racism, and institutional failures — more 60 Minutes than true crime thriller.
Serial
Anyone interested in journalism, legal procedure, and deep investigative dives into morally ambiguous cases with no easy answers.
Bear Brook
True crime fans fascinated by forensic science, DNA technology, and cold cases with a genuine scientific payoff.
Bone Valley
True crime fans who care deeply about wrongful conviction, prosecutorial failure, and the fight to free innocent people; fans of In the Dark will find this essential.
Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo
CBC's Connie Walker investigates the Sixties Scoop through the disappearance of Cleo Semaganis Nicotine.
The Deck Investigates
Audiochuck's deep investigation of cold case homicide victims featured on playing card decks distributed to prison inmates.
The Teacher's Pet
True crime fans who like journalism-driven investigations with massive real-world impact; anyone fascinated by domestic crime and institutional failure.
West Cork
True crime fans who love atmospheric investigative journalism, Anglo-Irish tensions, and cases that remain unresolved and fiercely contested decades later.
Your Own Backyard
Listeners who want investigative true crime with real-world consequence and single-minded, passionate focus from a creator who refused to let a case die.
Charlene: Somebody Knows Something
The Crime Desk revisits the 2003 disappearance of 14-year-old Charlene Downes from Blackpool — a case that still has no resolution.
Death in Ice Valley
True crime fans who love cold case mysteries with an international dimension; people fascinated by forensic identification and the stories hidden in unidentified remains.
Someone Knows Something
True crime fans who value empathy, journalistic integrity, and collaborative investigations conducted alongside the victim's own family.
The Coldest Case in Laramie
NYT/Serial Productions investigate a 1985 campus murder closed for decades — and possibly wrongly solved.
Trace: Murder in the Rainforest
ABC Australia's investigation into the mysterious 2001 disappearance of British backpacker Peter Falconio in the Australian outback.
True Crime Ireland
Ireland's original true crime podcast covering Irish murders, disappearances and criminal history.
Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder
Journalist Peter Jukes traces the 1987 axe murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan — and the police corruption that kept it unsolved for decades.
White Lies (NPR)
True crime fans interested in civil rights history; listeners who want journalism with genuine historical consequence; anyone who believes true crime must engage with political violence and institutional cover-up.
Dark Investigations
Bill Dunlap delivers deep-dive investigations into real murder cases, unsolved mysteries, cold cases, and serial killers, praised for its atmosphere.
Inhuman Podcast
Global true crime podcast with over 500 episodes covering lesser-known international cases.
Ladies Who Crime
Feminist true crime podcast covering cases that disproportionately affect women, hosted by two women.
Let's Talk About True Crime
Accessible casual true crime podcast making crime education entertaining for a broad audience.
LISK: Long Island Serial Killer
Dedicated ongoing coverage of the Long Island Serial Killer investigation, which began in 2010 with the disappearance of sex worker Shannan Gilbert.
Man in the Window: The Golden State Killer
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Paige St. John uncovers never-before-revealed details about the Golden State Killer, told through his victims' eyes.
Manhunt: Finding Kevin Parle
Ex-Flying Squad detective Peter Bleksley runs a live fugitive hunt for BBC Radio 5 Live, tracking a man wanted over two murders.
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