Social media and diverse victims make ‘How I Caught My Killer’ stand out in the true crime genre

March 17, 2023

By Clare Malfetti
Staff Writer

One of the main takeaways from Hulu’s true crime original “How I Caught My Killer” is that victims are often the people to leave the biggest clues in their cases. The show, which was released on Jan. 12, includes a mix of compelling interviews and reenactments of events from true crime cases. While the nine episodes in this series are all heartbreaking, they are also extremely interesting.

Among the commonalities that these episodes share is the role of social media. While social media can be problematic and lead to people getting harmed, “How I Caught My Killer” reveals that it is a great way to collect evidence.

In the first episode, “Social media? Yeah, it was her thing,” the police refer to the Snapchat account of the murdered 17-year-old Nikki Kuhnhausen to find out what happened to her. Her friends and family alert the police after noticing that she has not been active on social media.

I especially appreciate this episode because Nikki is transgender. I have not seen this a lot in other true crime shows, so I was happy that Hulu started its season off by recognizing someone from a marginalized group. This is especially important since LGBTQ-targeted crimes are, unfortunately, common.

Among the commonalities that these episodes share is the role of social media.

The second episode titled “I found Candice’s Diary…” depicts a Black teenager named Candice Parchment, who was only 14 when she was killed. It is obvious that she was targeted because of her race. Therefore, this episode also sheds light on marginalized people and the prevalence of hate crimes. This episode features fewer interviews than the first one and lacks personal details that would have more fully conveyed her identity. While this episode is still worth watching, the first one is better because it has more emotional appeal.

The final episode of the series, which is titled “There was a monster inside of him.,” is about a woman named Sarah Butler who joins a dating app and goes missing during a date. After the police find the van she had been driving the day she went missing, they realize the severity of the situation. Sarah’s sister and friends are actually the ones who end up identifying the killer by logging into her social media accounts and combing through her messages. While this episode is interesting, it is more predictable than the rest. Within the first few minutes, viewers will know who solved the case, so the excitement rests on finding out how the crime was solved by ordinary citizens.

All of the episodes drag on a bit, and the lengthy reenactments draw attention away from the people’s stories, which is the most interesting aspect of the series. The voiceovers also resembled TV show episodes, which makes the series a bit corny. 

While there are a few things that Hulu can improve on, this series does a great job depicting the stories of people from many different backgrounds who are murdered in a variety of ways. True crime show lovers are sure to enjoy “How I Caught My Killer” and will feel that time watching this series is time well spent.