If you’re a fan of cold cases with possible serial killer connections, Why Can’t We Talk About Amanda’s Mom? might be for you. ID recently released info about this forthcoming compelling new true crime podcast. The first episode debuts on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Episodes will drop weekly thereafter.
In Why Can’t We Talk About Amanda’s Mom?, former police officer and sex crimes detective Sarah Cailean explores the cold case of Renée Bergeron. It was November 1993 when a mutilated corpse of a woman was found on a dirt road near Interstate 10 in Mobile, Alabama. The remains were later identified as Renée Bergeron.
The crime scene was horrific. Bergeron’s body was left nude, drained of blood, and decapitated. But as gruesome as it was, which usually sparks sensationalism, the case garnered little attention. The investigation eventually went cold.
Now, nearly 30 years later, Cailean’s on a mission to find out what really happened to Renée Bergeron and bring closure to her family. Let’s take a closer look at this compelling eight-episode podcast —and a listen too. You’ll find a link to the trailer below as well.
Why Can’t We Talk About Amanda’s Mom? Overview
Cailean currently serves as a special investigator for the Mobile County (AL) Sheriff’s Office. She revisits Bergeron’s murder by retracing the steps taken by investigators nearly 30 years ago.
With support from the Sheriff’s Office to dig into how the case was approached in 1993, Cailean uncovers holes in the original police investigation, which leads her to new evidence and surprising suspects. These revelations lead to unexpected new theories, including a possible serial killer.
Known as the serial killer’s highway among criminologists, would that mean Bergeron was the victim of a calculated, pathological killer? Would a misidentification during the initial coroner’s examination of her body indicate something much more mysterious about the way she lived? Finally, does a local man who came forward with a blind tip in the weeks following Bergeron’s murder have the answer to the crime now, decades later?
Join Cailean as she digs further into these theories and brings her recorder along for every interview, analysis, and discovery.
Upcoming Episodes of Why Can’t We Talk About Amanda’s Mom?
Episode 1: Renée
Available on Wednesday, February 22 on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
In November 1993, a veteran discovers the body of a woman on a little road near Interstate 10 in Mobile, Alabama. She is nude, drained of blood, and decapitated. But despite the horrific nature of the murder, it garners little attention in the press, and worse, detectives fail to understand the fundamentals of what they are dealing with. Can a new approach to the case potentially produce a new outcome?
Episode 2: The Original Investigation
Available on Wednesday, March 1 on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sarah revisits the original 1993 investigation into the murder of Renée Bergeron and pretty quickly realizes that the detectives stumbled from the outset. Sara tries to account for what – and who – they failed to understand in their original investigation.
Episode 3: The Serial Killer’s Highway
Available on Wednesday, March 8 on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Interstate 10 is known as the serial killer’s highway among criminologists. Given the brutal nature of her injuries and the fact that she was found dead on a service road running parallel to the highway, Sarah investigates the possibility that a serial killer may be responsible for Renée’s death.
Episode 4: Friend or Foe?
Available Wednesday, March 15 on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
As Sarah tries to further understand the life Renée led in Mobile, she learns of a close friend of hers named David. But she doesn’t know if he is dead or alive. So, she decides to see if she can find him and talk to him. What she discovers sends her investigation hurtling in a new direction.
Episodes 5-8: Forthcoming
Additional episode descriptions are forthcoming. New episodes will continue to drop through April.
Why Can’t We Talk About Amanda’s Mom? Trailer
To give the trailer a listen, visit: https://link.chtbl.com/e81YegYP.
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Have you ever driven on I-10, or what criminologists consider the serial killer’s highway?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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Poor Renee, to be dumped like that! I’ve been on I10, but during the day. It wasn’t scary.
I agree, Priscilla! I HATE hearing about murders where bodies were treated so viciously and just dumped like Renée’s was!
And I was often on I-10 when we lived in Phx and encountered scary drivers at times, but I didn’t realize it was considered a serial killer highway! We lived off I-17 at one point. Our apartment was on one side and a mile away on the other side was my husband’s office. One time, right outside his office on the canal, he arrived to work with police everywhere. There was a headless body… almost to the day that a similar body in about the same location had been found five years before.
A week or so later we were in our apartment and a guy with a bag slung over his shoulder walked through our door. I’d left it open for the cat to go in and out, and because we were tucked in sort of an alcove on the second floor, I never thought anyone would even realize we had our door open. Needless to say, Wayne jumped up and got him out. The guy had a “can you give me $10, I’ve run out of gas” story. He said he’d leave his bag as collateral.
Wayne politely got him out of the apartment and offered to bring gas to his car, which he of course declined. As we walked our dog around the lake that night, Wayne wondered what might’ve been in his bag…then at the same time we both shouted: “THE HEAD!”
Because they never did find the head to that body…and I never did hear if they ever solved that murder. Wouldn’t it be something if it was connected to Renée’s murder???!!!!