Tips generated by true-crime podcast lead to arrests in unsolved 1982 killing in Louisiana

Four people have been arrested in connection to the 1982 killing of a Louisiana teenager, investigators announced on Friday.

State police troopers said tips generated by a true-crime podcast they were involved in making – along with improvements in investigative technologies – helped them make arrests in the killing of Roxanne Sharp, 16, about 44 years earlier.

Those suspected of murdering Sharp were identified as Perry Wayne Taylor, Darrel Dean Spell, Carlos Cooper and Billy Williams Jr, all 64 and from the New Orleans suburb of Covington.

Each of the men faces charges of aggravated rape and second-degree murder. They would receive mandatory life imprisonment if convicted of either charge.

Sharp’s body was discovered on 12 February 1982, in a wooded area near Covington’s St Tammany parish fairgrounds.

Covington police investigators determined that Sharp had been raped and murdered before her body was left where it was later found.

Scant evidence and limited cooperation from the public meant the case went unsolved for more than four decades.

“Cold cases don’t close themselves,” Covington police chief Michael Ferrell said in a statement. “They close because people show up, year after year, and refuse to quit.”

The Louisiana news outlet nola.com reported that Covington police led the investigation into Sharp’s killing until 2023. State police investigators then took over, conducting new interviews with witnesses and possible suspects. They also resubmitted earlier evidence for DNA testing while gathering additional materials.

Meanwhile, in early 2025, the Northshore Media Group released a podcast titled Who Killed Roxanne Sharp? – and it included a tip line for listeners to call in. Officials said the podcast – whose creators included local radio host Charles Down and the state police’s public affairs office – generated new leads and witnesses that along with updated DNA testing technology helped investigators identify and arrest suspects in Sharp’s murder.

Troopers said that Taylor and Cooper were already serving time within Louisiana’s state prison system when they were linked to Sharp’s slaying. Williams was more recently arrested and jailed in Covington. And Spell was apprehended at his home in Ohio and was awaiting extradition to Louisiana.

At a news conference on Friday, state police Lt Heath Miller said “a culture of fear … with the people involved” undermined earlier efforts to investigate Sharp’s murder.

Miller said a retrospective podcast released long after those fears cooled played “a crucial part of getting us information that we needed”.

Podcasts and true-crime media have increasingly played a role in the criminal justice system. While the genre has drawn criticism as being exploitative, there have been positive outcomes.

Among many examples, one in 2020 centered on a podcast called The Murder Squad, which led to an arrest in a 40-year-old cold case.

Another more recent instance materialized in 2024, when a South Carolina sheriff whose office reinvestigated a 1975 killing publicly credited the podcast MurderETC with helping deputies determine the identity of the victim in that murder.

In the Sharp case, Collin Sims, the local district attorney, said in a statement: “This case is a powerful example of what persistence, collaboration, and advancements in investigative technology can accomplish. For more than four decades, this victim and her family have waited for answers.”

Sims added that the arrests in Sharp’s murder reflect authorities’ “unwavering commitment to pursue justice – no matter how much time has passed – and to hold those responsible fully accountable”.