In early September, fans of true crime media — podcasts and TV shows among them — are gathering in Aurora for a national conference.
This year’s CrimeCon is slated to take place at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora from Sept. 5-7. The weekend-long conference, at which true crime addicts can geek out, will feature a slew of famous guests giving talks or talking on panels. Ticket prices range from $100 to $400.
Among the Colorado-related speakers are John Ramsey, father of JonBenet Ramsey, the young pageant participant killed in Boulder on Christmas in 1996. In that case, new theories and countless documentaries have seen the light of day, but no definitive answer to what happened to the girl has ever led to a conviction of her killer.
National reporters who covered the case of Aurora dentist James Craig, who was convicted last month of murdering his wife by poisoning her protein shakes, are also set to speak, along with the prosecutor in that case.
Others making an appearance include TV personalities Chris Hansen and Nancy Grace, known for her bombastic delivery style on a host of cable programs and her tendency to give nicknames to crime suspects, like “tot mom,” her moniker for Casey Anthony, accused of killing her daughter in a high-profile Florida case that ended with an acquittal on murder charges.
Longtime prosecutor Matt Murphy is planning to fly into Denver for the event. He frequently appears in documentaries and true-crime shows like “Dateline” and “48 Hours” to give input on cases he handled in Orange County, California. He’s slated to give a talk at the convention.
Murphy served for more than two decades in a jurisdiction about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, and now works in private practice handling personal injury, criminal defense, and some civil sexual assault cases.
Murphy said speaking at the conference is something he’s looking forward to — partly because he’s received a lot better in spaces like crime conferences and TV interviews than he tended to be in Southern California courtrooms.
“Here's the thing that's really fun about the true crime world for me is that when you walk into a courtroom, especially as a prosecutor, you've got at least one person guaranteed — the defendant, and oftentimes the defense lawyer — they're not happy to see you. They're objecting to everything,” he said.
“The fun part about TV for me is you go in there and everybody's happy to see you go in and it's a completely different kind of pressure,” he said — the positive kind.
“[That’s] because I can do analysis and essentially what I'm trying to do is educate people and share my experiences. So it's fun to talk about my old cases, frankly,” he said, adding: “I hope that doesn't sound bad, since they're so horrific. But it's an opportunity to educate the people, especially about the work behind the scenes.”
Murphy said he’ll be talking about a serial killer he prosecuted in Orange County, Andrew Urdiales.
And, for those who want to stray away from human content, dogs from the Aurora police department’s K-9 unit will do live demonstrations on how they locate hidden substances.
