Although they’re obviously based in fact, most true crime series tend to emphasize the “crime” side of that label. What makes the hit Investigation Discovery (ID) series The Curious Case Of… feel so novel is that the “true” part is equally important. Specifically, these stories are so bizarre, and unfold so unexpectedly, the “true” half is perhaps more compelling than the crime.
“The Curious Case Of…is a look at these strange stories where the viewer goes on a journey, trying to figure out the truth, or scratching their heads trying to figure out, ‘What motivated this person to do that? I can’t believe this is real,’” Beth Karas, the legal expert and producer who helps guide viewers through each case, said in a recent interview. Like her previous series The Curious Case of Natalia Grace – which focused on an alleged six-year-old Ukrainian orphan who may have conned her adoptive parents – The Curious Case Of… isn’t so much focused on a violent crime or specific incident but a strange and sprawling case that plays out over months or years.
“So many true crime stories involve a murder,” Karas says. “Our stories are not looking at murders. We’re just looking at weird stories.”
Another element that distinguishes The Curious Case Of… is the lack of voice-over narration from a host. Instead, the show relies on first-person interviews and reenactments. That leaves Karas to provide much-needed legal context for these strange and sordid stories.
“I help the viewer navigate,” Karas says of her specific role on the show. “I did that in the Natalia Grace series, because it was such a weird story, the viewer had to have help. In The Curious Case Of…, we’re investigating. I investigate, I help produce, and I’m sort of narrating and helping the viewer through the series.”
With each episode tackling a different story, viewers can jump in and out of the six-episode first season, which wraps up on Monday, Feb. 17 at 10pm ET/ 9pm CT on ID. Here is Beth Karas’ brief overview of the episodes:
“Bam Margera”: The troubled former MTV star has called himself “The Brittney Spears of Jackass,” but this episode is really an exploration about the dark side of online activism. “The internet can be a dangerous place,” Karas says. “There’s just so much hate that people spew, anonymously. We need to be cautious and we need to have more compassion for people. There’s just too much hate out there.”
“The Girl Who Died Twice”: Decades after a 13-year-old goes missing, a woman appears and claims her identity. But is this woman authentic, or was there foul play at work all along? “[This case] is unresolved,” Karas said. “Cadaver dogs hit in the back yards of two homes the [family] lived in. What are the chances that there wasn’t a body there? There’s none. There was a body there. And if it wasn’t Mary Day’s then whose was it? That [case] stays with me, because I’m not convinced the real Mary Day wasn’t murdered.”
“The Orphan Impostor”: An expert conman from Rhode Island reemerges in Ireland after faking his death only to attempt his most outlandish charade yet.
“The Funeral Home of Horrors:” The owner of a Colorado funeral home promises families “a return to nature,” but instead lets bodies decompose while indulging in extravagant spending. “The funeral home story is very troubling, that people entrust a funeral director who seems so compassionate, gives him money to cremate their loved one and doesn’t do it,” says Karas. “He gives them cement dust in return and their loved one is decomposing in an unused building. This [episode] bothers me because it makes me wonder, ‘will I ever trust a funeral director?’ He’s kind of ruined it.”
“Jodi Hildebrandt”: A marriage counselor shames the men she’s supposed to help before events take an even darker turn after she links up with a Mormon mommy vlogger. “[Hildebrandt] was a therapist in the Latter Day Saints community in Utah who was actually recommended by elders of the church to be a marriage counselor for couples who needed it,” Karas says. “But she wasn’t uniting the couples, she was dividing them. And she was making the wives think that their husbands were sexual perverts if they were having very natural sexual urges. That’s just the beginning of that story, it gets very dark.”
“The Doomsday Cat Cult”: A self-proclaimed prophet manipulates her followers into seeking salvation through feline companionship. “Why are people following this woman who makes them believe that cats are the vessel to the afterlife?,” Karas wonders. “And they’re caring for the cats better than they’re caring for themselves. Really??”
While the two-hour episode on the doomsday cat cult brings the first season to a close, Karas says that she and the Curious Case team have “so many stories in our arsenal” still to tell. If the first season is any indication, The Curious Case of…will continue to get – as Alice cried after falling through the looking glass – “curiouser and curiouser.”
To watch The Curious Case of…on Investigation Discovery (aka ID, channel 192), subscribe to America’s Top 120 and up.
