Where did you begin first in starting your investigations for the documentary? How did you pick which students you focused on besides Andy?

We started by compiling a list of cases that weren't just random murders of college students, but where the college environment, culture, location, relationships, etc had played a significant role. We then started by reaching out to the families or representatives for the family to gauge interest, and see whether they saw potential value in sharing their loved one's story (often focusing on families who, like that of Yeardley Love or Samantha Josephson, went on to start foundations or nonprofit organizations). We only wanted to pursue cases where the family was in support of what we were doing.

Are there any victims that you considered adding to the show who didn’t end up in the final cut that you can talk about here?

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There are, unfortunately, a plethora of cases that fit the parameters for this show, and more it seems every week. We tried to keep all of our cases fairly modern, but there are two older ones that I wish more people knew about: Jeanne Cleary, who was murdered in her dorm at Lehigh in 1986, and whose parents went on to get the Cleary Act passed to protect other students; and Betsy Aarsdsma, who was killed in the book stacks in the Penn State library in 1969. Her murder was never solved.

What projects are you working on next? Can you shed light on any of them?

In 2021, I wrote an article for Atavist called Girl in the Picture, about a young girl named Alexis (later Aundria Bowman) who was killed by her adoptive father, as discovered by her biological mother and an incredible online sleuth name Carl Koppelman decades after the teenager went missing from Michigan. We are currently working on a docuseries adaptation of that story that I am really looking forward to sharing. I also have another article coming out in Atavist at the end of the month to look out for! And a few other docs in development, ranging from a suspected serial killer to a social media scammer.

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How do you deal with the families that do not want to be involved due to it being for media yet are critical to your investigation.?

In most cases, if the family didn't want to be involved we chose to shelve that story and pursue others instead. Out of the six episodes in season one, there is only one episode where we didn't interview family members, which is Michael Deng. In that case, it was our understanding through family representatives/contacts that the parents are supportive of efforts to share their son's story, but just personally are no longer able to handle the stress of interviews. So we still moved forward with the story, and just leaned on people like Doug Fierberg, who worked with the family during that time.

How did you get into documentary producing? Have you always been interested in true crime?

I am, truthfully, incredibly nosy by nature and always have counteracted my own fears by obsessing over true crime, even as a kid. Career-wise, I am an investigative journalist by trade, mostly writing for Rolling Stone, Vice, HuffPost, and most recently, Atavist. But I've always really been a story hunter. Around 2018, I began investigating the Remnant Fellowship/Gwen Shamblin story, and felt it was more meant for a docuseries than an article. So I and approached Ross Dinerstein at Campfire, who I knew through my editorial work, and together we ended up producing my first docuseries, The Way Down on HBO Max, in 2021. Death in the Dorms is the second douseries I've created and EP'd!

Did you know Andy well? Do you ever feel weird about making money off her death? How does the family feel?

No judgement implied in any of the above, genuinely curious on the "behind the scenes" of this whole thing

What is your opinion on UFOs?

I didn't know Andy personally, but we shared a lot of mutual friends, lived on the same block, were both in sororities, etc (so when I say it could've been me, it really could have). But I would have never done the episode if her family wasn't in support of getting her story out, and I personally called her mother and sister to explain why I wanted to do this and what I thought we could accomplish. I feel incredibly lucky they trusted me with the story and honored that I was able to get to know Andy better through the process. Money-wise, I think most subjects understand that everyone needs to be paid for their work and there was a lot of work that went into the show (this is, after all, my job). However, anyone that works in unscripted will tell you these productions don't come with high budgets, and we are often making a lot work on very little.

Ha! Not sure how/if this is related to the show, but I think it would be foolish and naive to think humans on Earth are the only life that exists or even the most advanced. That said, I do think most UFO sightings have logical explanations, and that our idea of what an alien or UFO might look like is limited by the boundaries of our own reality.

Thanks for your response!

Speaking of what they look like. The "common UAP shapes" observed by our military is classified. Which I find it odd that we know the shapes of Classified nuclear capable hyper sonic missiles/gliders that are being tested right now, but we can't know the common shapes of UAPs.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/ufo-report-intriguing-redactions

Did you ever consider giving up on the docuseries? If so, why? And what helped you pull through?

I had tabled the original concept for a few years before revisiting it with the team at ABC News Studios. With every project, I believe there is a right moment, platform, and people to tell it and I feel like in the end it came together as intended!

Thanks for your question! It's an important one!

Love the docuseries. How long does each episode take to produce? Any talks of creating season 2?

Thank you so much! We made all six episodes in around 6 months of production, with like 2 months of prep beforehand! We had filming and editing of different episodes happening simultaneously and teams working basically around the clock, so was an incredibly tight but fruitful turnaround. As for season two...fingers crossed!

How big is the team working on the documentary?

Our entire crew was nearly 100, but our core production team was around 15-20, not including camera, etc.

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Andy was a friend of mine. I had left UCLA, not even a few months prior, when I heard all sorts of rumors surrounding her death. Thanks for getting the truth out (about Andy’s story — and the others). I will be checking this out, later today.

My question was originally about whether you knew Andy or her family, personally, but since that has been answered… are you planning on branching out with investigative journalism, or sticking with true crime?

I hope you feel like we've honored Andy! We really tried to approach her story with the care and respect it deserves. I hated seeing the way she was victim-blamed at the time.

I have a pretty full slate of projects that for the most part involve some element of crime, whether it be murder or scams, cults, financial fraud, etc. That said, I am really passionate about going anywhere that my investigative skills may be able to be additive — so I'm open to seeing where that takes me!

Just started the show. It is incredibly well written (is that the right word when it is already written?) and edited. I feel like the families should be proud. Music is a big thing for me and I love your choices of music. I was wondering if you can tell me the piece of music at the end of episode one? I tried to look it up by the lyrics and Shazam and can’t seem to find it. I really like it. Thank you!!

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Thank you so much for the kind words! Isn't that song great? It actually came from our licensing library, so I don't think it's publicly available outside of that database unfortunately.