Season One: Episode One - "Pink Ribbons"

When I was 9 years old, the world as I knew it changed. I suddenly became aware that there were child predators out there that could just take you. My life-long fascination with the genre of True Crime started with a 13-year-old girl, Melissa Benoit, who went missing. She had been abducted in Kingston, some 30 minutes drive from my own small working-class town.

I never forgot her name.

It altered my perception of the world; forever I'd be searching for answers, signs, warnings.

My child-mind seemed to think that if I was prepared enough, it would not happen to me.

My adult-mind now knows that you could be as careful as you wanted, but it could still happen to me.

That is how I look at True Crime.

Not just the facts of it, the who, what, and where of it.

I wanted to know everything that happened.

Especially the "why" of it.

Why Melissa?

For me, having that knowledge feels like a protective shield against danger.

It all started with one eighth-grader on a Saturday afternoon, in the early fall sun of Massachusetts.

"Pink Ribbons" tells the story of the 13-year-old girl that forever changed my life.

Do not let Melissa Benoit be forgotten.

Remember Her Name.

...and watch out for your neighbors.