For most of my career, I sat across from people most of the world only reads about.
Serial killers. Cult leaders. Survivors of unimaginable crimes. Investigators chasing answers that sometimes never came.
Those experiences shaped the way I tell stories. Both in television and now in fiction.
This video is the first episode in a short series I’m starting here on Substack. In it, I’ll revisit some of the real cases and interviews that stayed with me long after the cameras stopped rolling.
Moments that changed the way I think about human behavior, power, belief, and violence.
This episode focuses on Jeffrey Lundgren, the cult leader responsible for the murders of the Avery family.
In 2006, I covered his execution. Experiences like that don’t leave you.
They follow you into the stories you eventually write.
In many ways, the psychological landscapes inside The Last Bloom were shaped by years spent studying how people can be manipulated, controlled, and convinced of things that defy logic.
This video is a glimpse into one of those moments.
In the coming weeks, I’ll share more stories from behind the camera, including prison interviews, active investigations, and cases that never quite left me.
Because sometimes the most powerful stories begin long before the book is written.
Coming in this series:
Sitting across from convicted killers in prison
Conversations with cult members who still believed
Investigating active missing persons cases
Evidence: what it’s really like coming face-to-face with the clues of murder
The moments that changed how I see human behavior
