Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Unsolved Mysteries’ Terry Dunn Meurer

Thirty-four years ago, Unsolved Mysteries made its television debut. Little did we know then that it would become one of the longest-running series in history, and become a pioneer in the true crime genre. It transformed ordinary citizens into detectives and paranormal investigators. But no one is more surprised than co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer.

We recently caught up with Terry to chat about the groundbreaking series and an exciting new chapter for the franchise.

PC: When you initially created Unsolved Mysteries, you had no idea how audiences would respond. Now, it’s become one of the longest-running shows in the history of television. When you look back at the past thirty-four years, what stands out the most?
Terry: It’s what you just mentioned: we didn’t know if the audience was going to have the patience to sit and watch. At the time, it was four different mysteries per hour, and they don’t have endings. We were concerned that the audience could possibly be frustrated by that, but what surprised us the most was the power of the media in solving so many cases. We’ve solved over two hundred and seventy cases. What we were able to do, as those cases got solved, was create updates in the show. To this day, we continue to update the old library of shows. A couple of times a year, we put updates in because things are always changing.

The audience loved the idea that maybe there would be an update to a story that they saw a couple of weeks before. It’s such a living and breathing franchise. We still get tips on a lot of the cases, and we still do updates on them—this is over thirty years later. That longevity is also a surprise; here we are thirty years later, and it’s become my life’s work. I’m very proud of it and very, very happy that that has been the case. I love Unsolved Mysteries and what it can do as well as the hope that it gives people.

PC: How would you say the rise of the internet and social media has impacted the show’s evolution?
Terry: It’s been great. There was no internet when we started. There weren’t even cell phones. We had a clipping service that sent us actual physical newspaper clippings from all over the country. They keyed off certain words like UFO, ghost, murder, missing, and they’d send them to us. That’s how we would find a lot of our stories. That and networking with different law enforcement agencies and the FBI. It’s so much easier to do research now and to get details about stories and find new ones. Although, we don’t get as many of our stories through the internet as we do from people submitting their personal stories. A lot of them are small stories from smaller towns that wouldn’t necessarily be on the internet in a high-profile kind of way.

In terms of social media, it’s given us a chance to reach more of the world so that they’re more aware of these cases. It’s given viewers a chance to have a conservation about these cases—what do they think happened? That’s all been very, very positive.

PC: You’ve covered hundreds of cases throughout the series. What’s the process like of deciding what you’ll focus on? Has that changed throughout the years?
Terry: You know, it really hasn’t changed. What we were looking for Day 1 is what we’re still looking for. Similar to the podcast, we’re producing forty different episodes. We want a good variety of mysteries. We don’t think of ourselves as a crime show; we think of ourselves as a mystery show. We want a paranormal story, a UFO, a ghost, a missing person, a wanted person, a murder, and an unexplained death. We have our categories of stories and it’s a good mix of mysteries. We look for that. We look for cases that have twists and turns in them, that are multi-dimensional. They have mysterious elements as well as creepy elements.

Sometimes the stories that are the hardest—we get submissions for stories like a missing person who vanishes; there are no leads, suspects, or theories. Nothing. Those are harder to do because they aren’t any clues or leads that we can give to our views to follow or latch onto. Those stories are harder for us to tackle.

PC: Like you were just saying, Unsolved Mysteries has made its way to the podcasting space. Why was that the next natural progression for the franchise?
Terry: We are very excited about the Unsolved Mysteries podcast, because we can tell more stories. These are brand new cases. They’re all about thirty to forty minutes. They’re all self-contained stories. We’re excited about being able to tell more stories that are shorter, like we did with the original series.

We still have the same Unsolved.com website where we can steer listeners to send in their tips, so it’s really just an offshoot of the series. We love being able to tell as many stories as we possibly can. There are so many mysteries that need to be told. It’s another way for us to tell more mysteries and to get these stories out there and shine a light on some of the stories that have been cold for a very long time.

From Day 1, it’s been the same goal, the same mission, which is to solve these mysteries. Let’s see if we can get some tips in and help these investigators.

PC: What are some of the major similarities and differences you’ve noticed between the two mediums?
Terry: The similarities are that we’re still telling the stories and peeling back the layers of the stories.

In terms of the podcast, we have Steve French narrating. He’s a great storyteller. He helps with the storytelling just like Robert Stack did back in the day. The Netflix series is a challenge, but a good one; in that, we don’t have a narrator or a host. We love that because the interviewees carry most of the story, but the podcast is the same—the interviewees carry the story. They’re telling their own story. Steve is transitioning between thoughts, but it’s really the people themselves that are telling the story. If there were a story we came across and we didn’t have anyone who wanted to talk to us in an interview or be interviewed for the podcast, we wouldn’t do it, because we want the people themselves to tell the stories.

PC: There are going to be forty episodes. What can audiences expect? What type of cases are you going to be covering?
Terry: These stories are so good. There are a variety of cases. Like I mentioned, we have a ghost, we have UFOs, we have wanted, missing, murders, and unexpected deaths—we have all those categories. We even have one story about demonic possessions.

There’s an episode called “Lost in the Ashes”. That’s a very mysterious and puzzling case. What happened to Chloie and Gage? You’ve got all these experts sifting through this rubble and they’re just puzzled; they’re scratching their heads about where these kids could be. The fact that there’s an Amber Alert out for these kids means that the authorities really do believe they’re out there somewhere. That case is very mysterious.

We have some heartbreaking murder cases and some cautionary tales. I recently did an interview with a detective who was the first on the scene in a murder case in Pennsylvania. They’re all really strong, strong stories.

You hate to say that because you’re talking about somebody’s life, you know? The interviewees are so passionate. That, to me, is what I think makes this such a strong podcast. The interviewees are so, so good as they tell the circumstances of their mystery. They just have this passion and emotion around them that I think is conveyed in every single episode that we’re producing.

PC: You all do a fantastic job getting these interviewees to share their stories. How do you create a safe space for them to do that?
Terry: It’s the reputation of Unsolved Mysteries. It’s created that safe space. We can call up law enforcement. People know the success the show has had in solving cases. It’s the reputation of the franchise. They know that they’re going to be treated fairly. They know we’re going to present a balanced presentation of the case. Law enforcement knows that we’re going to be very respectful if there’s information that they want to withhold, we’ll withhold it.

PC: Have there been any updates about potentially getting more episodes on Netflix?
Terry: I’m not allowed to chat about that. I can say that we’re always developing episodes, but I can’t share. The Netflix series was incredibly successful and very gratifying for us to see after all these years to have it come back on Netflix and be as well received as it was. I think Netflix was very happy with Season 1.

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