Crime Unfiltered

CRIME UNFILTERED is a live event series from investigative journalist and Executive Producer of the #1 Netflix hit Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, Alysia Sofios, alongside co-creator and host Dr. Nicky Ali Jackson — a leading voice in the national conversation on wrongful convictions and victim justice. At the center of the tour is John Ramsey, father of JonBenét Ramsey, whose daughter’s 1996 murder remains one of the most famous unsolved cases in American history. Another powerful voice on the tour is Nichole Schmidt, mother of Gabby Petito, whose daughter’s disappearance and murder in 2021 became one of the most closely followed criminal investigations of the social media era. The evening will also feature Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, whose 2015 kidnapping case stunned the nation after police initially dismissed it as a hoax and compared it publicly to the novel Gone Girl. The case later proved to be real and became the subject of the Netflix documentary American Nightmare. One of the most startling stories explored during the evening comes from the Netflix documentary phenomenon Unknown Number: The High School Catfish. Appearing together will be Shawn Licari, whose family became the target of a years-long cyberstalking campaign that stunned investigators when they discovered the person responsible was his own wife, Kendra Licari, and Melissa Perry, Kendra Licari’s cousin. The lineup also includes Sean Ellis, whose case became one of the most widely known wrongful conviction battles in the country after he spent more than two decades in prison for the murder of a Boston police officer — a conviction he fought for years to overturn. Guiding the evening’s discussions will be criminologist and Purdue University Northwest Professor Dr. Nicky Ali Jackson, who will explore both the investigations themselves and the human toll of living inside a case that becomes international news. “These are the people behind some of the biggest headlines in crime,” Dr. Jackson said. “This tour gives audiences a rare opportunity to hear the humanity behind those headlines. It’s something you can only truly understand when you hear their voices directly.” In an era when millions follow criminal cases through podcasts, documentaries and online communities, CRIME UNFILTERED offers something rarely possible through a screen — direct access and a personal experience with the people whose lives have shaped modern true crime.