True crime is one of the most popular podcast genres, it’s a topic that Nicki Thatcher, host of Strictly Homicide, has always been invested in.

Strictly Homicide focuses on lesser known cases that happened in Arkansas. Thatcher said that all of the cases they are discussing at this time are homicide cases.

“The only time you really hear about a case in Arkansas is when it’s about ‘West Memphis Three’ or ‘The Boys on The Tracks’ (Don Ives and Kevin Henry),” said Thatcher. “I wanted to hear more about cases locally and joked with my husband one day how I’m just going to make my own podcast.”

That joke turned into a reality.

“Well my husband composes and produces music and we already had all the recording equipment so I started really thinking about it,” said Thatcher. “Finally one day I just said, ‘I’m doing it.’”

She and her husband, Russell, make up the entire Strictly Homicide team.

Thatcher began working on Strictly Homicide three months before the release date, which was March 12th.

“I knew that releasing a podcast wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t realize just how hard it is to research cases and write a script with accurate info and not plagiarizing which seems to be a problem with some true crime podcasts,” said Thatcher.

She said the largest challenge has been finding the time to do the actual research on the cases that she plans to talk about on the show.

“I’m pretty big about research, I want to be accurate and give lots of detail,” said Thatcher. “I am complimented about my research a lot so I feel good about it  but I also work full time a Monday through Friday 8-5 job and I run my own wedding photography business, I work a lot.”

And getting the word out about her show has required some work as well, through her prior involvement in the podcast community, she did have a bit of a base set up.

“I promote my show a lot on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I have been very active in the podcast community for over a year including some guest spots… the response has been awesome!”” said Thatcher.

Over her first six episodes– the latest of which dropped this week, she has had 5,600 downloads. So far, she’s enjoyed the process of putting out the show and is happy to know that there are people interested in the content she is putting out.

“The best part about hosting a podcast is being able to talk about a topic that I’m passionate about and knowing that there are listeners who are actually waiting for each episode to drop!” said Thatcher.

And there’s more to come. Though she has only put out episodes about homicide cases so far, Thatcher sees more on the horizon. She’s going to be doing a series on cold cases and also a series on missing persons.

The show, Thatcher assumes, will continue indefinitely. True crime in Arkansas provides a great amount of material to continue the show and Thatcher said that if she ever does run out of cases to discuss on the podcast that she will switch to other states around Arkansas in an effort to keep the show going.

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