August 10, 2010

Solve My Mystery: The True Chris Jenkins Story yields high ratings for NBC

On Friday night, August 6, NBC aired "Solve My Mystery: The True Story of Chris Jenkins." We just learned it was the highest rated show on NBC that night!

We'd love to hear your opinion on the show. Please feel free to leave a comment below or on the Footprints discussion forum.

MSNBC's website has also featured additional video highlights, portions of the case file, redacted versions of the investigator's notes, and a link to the Minneapolis Police Department where you can leave a tip. We urge you to check it out.

4 comments:

Doc Conjure said...

Well, I marked the show on my calendar and then, duh! I go and miss it. I had to watch it on YouTube.

I thought it was okay, though I would have preferred more of a "Dateline Mystery"-type or even "Unsolved Mystery"-type feel. The actor playing Chris made it feel a little like "Ghost Whisperer".

Overall, I thought it was good. If there was any downside to it I would say that the structure may not have been best to attract potential witnesses or people with information. And of course I may be completely wrong so feel free to dismiss my opinion, however for some reason the shows that have that like "Unsolved Mysteries" and "America's Most Wanted"-feel tend to attract people would be motivated to call in tips after seeing the show. Perhaps in the future if the Jenkins case is covered again they might request this or perhaps the series itself might develop into this later on. You know, like really make it clear that "we know" there are witnesses out there who saw Chris, so if you were in the area on the night in question then please, please, think reall hard about what you might have seen and perhaps didn't place special importance on. Those shows I mention are very good at driving this point homw to the audience.

And my advice for the family would of course be to never give up and that they are doing good job and I'm sure Chris would be proud of you.

Doc Conjure said...

Hey Lisa,

I'm fixing to write a blog about the growing trend of security guards, bouncers, and employees hurting or even killing people whom they believe have stolen or have caused problems. In some cases the victims claimed that all they did was look at them wrong.

It's real sad. Recently a man was murdered by a CVS employee for stealing toothpaste and crayons for his kid. The employee chased him into the alley and choked him to death. The medical examiner ruled it a homicide.

I just got through watching a clip of it and man claims there is a huge problem with bouncers severely injuring people in San Francisco.

Perhaps you might want to dedicate a section for cases where the last people to have interacted with the missing were security guards, bouncers, and the like? Just a suggestion.

Keep up the good work! :)

Doc Conjure said...

Oh, and Lisa, in these cases the police are reportedly ignoring all of the complaints. Usually the security guards, bouncers, etc. get away with severely injuring people.

CVS Choking Death Over Toothpaste & Crayons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQt2atf7EGg

Deaf Man Tackled & Choked After He Didn't Hear The Alarm He Set Off
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fRv--C_vao

It's really easy to die after being put in a choke hold for a long period of time. Anybody who has ever recieved training knows that a choke hold is only temporary and the person is not to be kept in for extended periods of time, like say kept in one until the police arive.

I'm wondering if any of these missing men could have succumbed to extended choke holds placed on them by bouncers/security guards who then possibly attempted to cover up the crime? -That is in the cases where it might have been murder. Just a thought.

Lisa said...

It sounds like the show might be aired on cable on MSNBC at some point. I'll let you know if I hear a date.

All good ideas. It looks like the MSNBC website is taking tips, but maybe seeing as how the show is geared toward active participating in solving a mystery, they could have stressed calling in tips in a bit more.

I found the chokehold theory mentioned in the show to be an interesting one. I hadn't thought of it before, but I have heard more of these sort of complaints in the news lately, so it makes sense. I could see it happening.

I like your blog idea. The cases you mentioned are an utter shame, and it would be good to shed some light on them.

In many of these cases, young men were escorted out of a bar by bouncers or last seen by off-duty law enforcement. I did have this on the label cloud for a while, but took it down in an effort to streamline things, so maybe I should put it back up.

In fact, any suggestions from readers for the best keywords for the label cloud would be most appreciated. Just e-mail me at footprints.blogmail@yahoo.com or start a discussion in the forum. Thanks!