by: Maddie Rowley

Back in August we interviewed Ashley Flowers, half the duo behind the wildly popular true crime podcast, Crime Junkie, which currently sits at #4 on Apple Podcasts’ top charts. 

It’s easy to see why the podcast does so well. Flowers and co-host, Brit Prawat do deep dives into both solved and unsolved cases from all over the country with little-to-no fluff. They give the people what they want: all the details on missing people, homicides, and conspiracy theories. 

Flowers, who grew up in South Bend, Indiana, has a degree in biomedical research and then went on to do genetic research at the University of Notre Dame. 

With this background, it seemed like a natural fit for her to break into the highly-saturated world of true crime podcasting, which combined her life-long love of true crime and her education. As an added plus, she started the podcast with her best friend, Brit whom she’s known since kindergarten. 

Flowers and Prawat’s friendship started even before they existed, as both their mothers were best friends first. When Flowers was born and when Prawat’s parents officially adopted her, they found out that both the girls were born on the exact same day. 

“So we have the same birthday and we’ve been best friends ever since!” said Flowers. 

When they decided to do Crime Junkie, they dove in and started producing without being intimidated by all the other true crime podcasts out there. 

“I’m kind of in this bubble in Indiana where I’m not around a ton of podcasters like in New York or L.A. Most of the people I was talking to [about the podcast] were like my family and friends. I don’t think anyone expected it to be what it is now,” said Flowers, on Crime Junkie’s success.  

Producing the podcast is now a full-time job for Flowers, who begins looking into cases with a preliminary Google search.

“We’re not investigative journalists, I’m a storyteller and I compile everything together, so I love to find news articles, books, and documentaries. If I can find a great book on a case and supplement that with some news articles, that’s always my favorite,” said Flowers. 

The most intriguing case she says she’s ever researched for the podcast? The April Tinsley homicide case. Eight-year-old Tinsley was kidnapped on the way to a friend’s house, and was sexually assaulted, and then murdered in 1988. Her murderer, John Miller, was finally identified and arrested in July of 2018. 

“I was really passionate about this case before I ever started podcasting. I couldn’t understand the disparity in attention. Nobody I talked to knew who she was or about her story, even here in Indiana,” said Flowers. I was really excited to have the platform to bring more attention to this case and had a great interview with her mom. Then we got to see the case get solved just a couple of months after we covered it after being cold for 30 years. 

Flowers says she hopes that in her lifetime she sees the resolution of the Maura Murray case. Murray disappeared in New Hampshire on February 9, 2004 and was never seen or heard from again. The details of the unsolved case are extremely curious and involve emails to her professors about a death in the family, although there was no death, and her abandoned car being found off Route 112 after an apparent crash. 

“Anyone who looks into this case can’t shake it because all of the circumstances are just so bizarre. But I’ll give it a Google once in awhile to see if anything’s changed,” said Flowers.

As for the podcast’s future, Flowers says there are some exciting things happening.

“I think the show will continue to grow, and we’ve grown leaps and bounds month-over-month but I don’t think we’re anywhere near close to the audience our show is capable of having,” said Flowers. “There’s a lot of production companies looking at us to do a Crime Junkie

TV show. I don’t know what that would look like but we’re exploring the options. I’m excited to take this brand that we’ve made in podcasting and take it to other forms of media.”

In addition, Flowers said she’s working on a new show with the Indiana State Police, which will cover what it’s like to re-investigate a cold case as a from a detective’s perspective. 

Just today, Audiochuck, Flowers’ production company, released a new podcast called Full.Body.Chills, which will release a new episode of spooky campfire stories every weekday leading up to Halloween.