ABC to Adapt Story of High School Club That Solved Real Murders
It's the Breakfast Club meets the Cold Case Files.
ABC is developing a new drama series titled Killer Class, inspired by a real-life high school forensics club that successfully solved cold cases.
What's Happening:
- As Variety reports, ABC is at work on Killer Class, a new drama based on a true story about a high school club that solved real cold cases.
- The series is based on an article from The Tennessean by Keith Sharon about students and their teacher from Elizabethton High School.
- The show will track the "unexpected formation of a HS Forensics Club that proves shockingly effective at solving real cold cases."
- Ken Kwapis, known for directing The Office and Malcolm in the Middle, is set to executive produce and direct.
- Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, creators of the NBC reboot of Quantum Leap, will serve as co-creators and showrunners.
- The show is being produced by 20th Television.
The Real-Life Inspiration: Elizabethton High School's Cold Case Club
- The Elizabethton High School cold case club, led by sociology teacher Alex Campbell, has a growing reputation for tackling decades-old mysteries. As detailed in Keith Sharon's article, Campbell started the project in 2017 to re-engage his students and challenged them to look into the "Redhead Murders" case.
- This unsolved mystery involved about a dozen girls across several states who went missing in the 1970s. The students were able to link many of the victims and eventually identified a deceased truck driver named Jerry Johns as the likely killer, the "Bible Belt Strangler."
- Their work was so compelling that Johns' DNA was later linked to a surviving victim of an attack.
- The students’ work isn't limited to serial killer cases. They also took on the case of Suzanne Johnson, who was convicted of child murder in 1997. The students, in collaboration with the California Innocence Project, re-examined the science behind "shaken baby syndrome" and presented their findings to the governor, leading to a pardon for Johnson after 21 years in prison.
- The club's current focus is on the murder of Tracy Sue Walker, a 15-year-old high school freshman who disappeared in 1978 and whose remains were found in Elk Valley in 1985. Initially known as "Baby Girl Jane Doe," her remains were identified in 2022 by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) after a long period of being stymied. Campbell's students are now working with the TBI to solve her murder.
- The students have created a website, flyers, and a direct-mail campaign to generate new leads, as Walker's case is now believed to be separate from the "Redhead Murders."
More ABC News:
- "GMA" Guest List: Salt-N-Pepa, Heidi Klum and More to Appear Week of August 4th
- This Week’s Rebroadcast of “20/20" Revisits the Shocking Murder of an Arkansas Politician
- Head Back to the Convent As "Sister Act" Takes Over "The Wonderful World of Disney" Next Month
- And The Grown One Too: Take A Look Around the "Abbott Elementary" Block Party at San Diego Comic-Con
- A Decades-Old Murder Mystery is Revisited with the Killer’s Written Confession in This Week’s Rebroadcast of “20/20"
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