
Episodes one and two of CBC's new What Remains Podcast came out on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. One new episode will drop each week after this. The series shares the story of the people behind cold cases who are passionate about connecting unidentified remains to the missing and murdered:
By Amanda Lamb, WRAL reporter
If you grew up in the 1980s, you probably remember the missing children's photos on milk cartons. For most of us, that was our first introduction to the world of missing people. The idea was started by a nonprofit called the National Child Safety Council, and by the mid-eighties, hundreds of dairies were taking part in the Missing Children Milk Carton Program. I remember seeing those sad photos and thinking, Why can't they find her?
Of course, back then, no one could have imagined a world where everything would eventually be shared on a computer, or even a phone, through the magic of the internet. Today, this is where you can find information about missing children and adults, on hundreds of websites. And while there is still a lot of attention paid to the cases of people who are missing, there's another side to this crisis; there are thousands of cases of unidentified remains in our country that no one seems to be able to match with the cases of missing and murdered people.
The bones in the boxes There are human bones in boxes at every state medical examiner's office in the country - just sitting there, forgotten, dusty, the epitome of what we think of as cold cases. So, we started thinking about what it would take to identify all these remains. That's what this podcast is about - what those bones represent - to the families, to the investigators, to the forensic scientists, and what they intend to do about them.
Frankly, it seems hard to believe in this day and age that we don't have some kind of formal scientific process that can help us simply match a dead person with a missing person. But there's a lot more to it than you might imagine. It's not that people don't care, it's just that in a world where violent crime happens every single day, identifying decades' old remains just isn't a priority. It takes a lot of perseverance to see these cases through, and most of all, it takes time and money.
The team committed to solving the oldest cold cases What I learned from interviewing people, researching and writing this podcast, is that despite all this, there is this niche group of people who are working to make it happen. They employ science, the latest technology and forensic genealogy. It can be a long and tedious process, but they are patient, so patient. Their motives are often twofold - they care deeply about helping families come to some kind of resolution, and they hope there's a chance they can find justice for the murder victims. It doesn't always work out that way, but in the end, most families just want to know what happened to their loved ones after years of not knowing.
True crime meets forensic science I have covered crime as a local television reporter for three decades. I thought I knew everything there was to know about investigating murder cases.
Boy, was I wrong.
Covering this topic took me down so many fascinating rabbit holes that I will never forget, and I'm pretty sure you won't either. From the anthropologist who has a wall full of potential murder weapons in her lab and metal tables full of unidentified skeletons, to family members and detectives who will go to any lengths to learn the stories behind the discarded bones, to the scientists who study decomposition on a body farm, What Remains is a journey into a world most of us can't imagine, don't want to imagine, but is an unfortunate reality for thousands of families.
Follow What Remains in your podcast player so you don't miss an episode.
Thanks to WRAL-TV's Amanda Lamb & WRAL.com for this Capcom story, graphic & video.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/06/2026
Lightware announces the GVN-HC-TX220AP, a new transmitter in the Gemini GVN 1G AV-over-IP family that introduces full-featured USB-C for professional 1Gb AV-ove...
03/06/2026
Evergent, the customer management and monetization leader for streaming and digital subscription businesses, and Minno, the global leader in faith-based content...
03/06/2026
Alfalite, Europe's only LED display manufacturer, has completed a new broadcast installation with the deployment of two UHD Finepix 1.5 MATIX AlfaCOB LED di...
03/06/2026
Broadcast Solutions, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is completing a contract to build eight...
03/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/06/2026
Creamsource, known for its tried-and-true Vortex Series of cinematic lighting, has announced the Vortex2 (V2) and Vortex2 Soft (V2S), two compact additions to t...
03/06/2026
Do not read this media release! Andy Lee's smash-hit show returns to ABC thi...
03/06/2026
Faster, More Flexible AI Matting Fuels Boris FX Silhouette
Jessie Electa Petrov June 2, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026 release helps artists tackle complex ...
03/06/2026
La T l 's National League Hockey Expansion Powered by Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton June 2, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Videohub 120 120 12G provi...
03/06/2026
ZY Optics to Offer Exclusive First Look at Zone T1 Cine Kit at Cine Gear Expo 20...
03/06/2026
Berklee Alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume to Perform Together on St. Vincents 20...
03/06/2026
At CVPR, NVIDIA is unveiling new physical AI agent skills that help researchers ...
03/06/2026
What makes a robot gripper useful isn't that it can pick up one object - it&...
03/06/2026
RT has today announced Heineken 0.0 as the broadcast sponsor of their FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage.
The sponsorship, brokered by Dentsu, will see Heineken 0....
02/06/2026
Tennis Channel has completed a transition from satellite-based distribution to a...
02/06/2026
Daktronics has announced the 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day educational event for high school educators and student production teams, taking place Jun...
02/06/2026
Fandango will bring Telemundo's live Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA W...
02/06/2026
All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) has announced the live television schedule...
02/06/2026
Spalk, a cloud-based multilingual commentary and production platform, has announced three new partnerships: Ligue 1 (English and Portuguese highlights), Eurolea...
02/06/2026
NHL Network's 2026 Stanley Cup Final coverage began June 1 with NHL Tonight: Stanley Cup Final Media Day from the Carolina Hurricanes' Lenovo Center at ...
02/06/2026
Matrox Video has announced the Maevex MGX Series, a lineup of IPMX-ready video e...
02/06/2026
Marshall Electronics will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7521), showcasing a lineup of 4K and HD compact POV cameras for corporate, education, hospitality, wo...
02/06/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated have...
02/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C50...
02/06/2026
Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced the promotion of Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO. In his new role, Marchitto will oversee system design across ...
02/06/2026
The NHL has announced that Brothers Osborne will headline a free outdoor concert...
02/06/2026
CP Communications has announced the appointment of its first two female executives in the company's 40-year history. Tabitha Coleman has been named Vice Pre...
02/06/2026
The Lighting Design Group (LDG) has announced the completion of Studio C at Yahoo's headquarters at 770 Broadway in Manhattan. The studio launched April 24 ...
02/06/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Z) has announced a partnership with FIFA to broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026, FIFA World Cup 2030, FIFA Women's World Cup 2...
02/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...
02/06/2026
The department is broadcasting NCAA Baseball Super Regionals at Plainsman Park this weekend
Broadcast and production crews at Division I institutions are busy ...
02/06/2026
The initiative is extends beyond the league's arenas to team training rinks,...
02/06/2026
Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Pen lope Cruz, and Edward Norton appear in The Invite by Olivia Wilde, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Co...
02/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
02/06/2026
Powerful new vocal-production tool announced
Described as a vocal performance station , Klevgrand's latest plug-in combines pitch-correction with harmo...
02/06/2026
Launched alongside Go Green sale extension
McDSP have just released the latest addition to their APB line-up, DC-2 Dual Compressor, and have also announced ...
02/06/2026
Create custom tools for Ableton Live 12 Suite
Ableton have just introduced a new open JavaScript toolkit that allows anyone to create their own custom tools...
02/06/2026
Now features full H90 algorithm library
Eventide have announced the upcoming launch of the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2, a new and improved version of their hugely p...
02/06/2026
Plus UAD Half Yearly Sale now live
The latest arrival to the Universal Audio range delivers a new native pitch-correction plug-in that's capable of deli...
02/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to present comprehensive performance, conformance and spectrum-m...
02/06/2026
BTL Laboratory becomes Taiwan's first test house with a CTIA Certification c...
02/06/2026
blueCORE standalone processors headline solutions designed to simplify the trans...