TRUTH is stranger than fiction rings true for many of the cases Nicole Engelbrecht focuses on in her podcast True Crime South Africa.
Ranked fifth in SA’s podcasts charts, True Crime South Africa is the country’s first victim-focused podcast.
Engelbrecht researches all the cases using media coverage, trial footage and sometimes interviews with victims or their families.
She said she chose to start a victim-focused podcast because many true crime podcasts focus on the perpetrator.
“Even in the media, the focus is on the perpetrator because it is what the public consumes.
“It was important for me to focus on the victims because there are real people behind the crime. The perpetrator’s aspect might be interesting but many victims don’t get news coverage at all,” she said.
The podcast is released weekly and focuses on solved and unsolved crimes. Engelbrecht alternates between full-length podcasts and ‘minisodes’ which cover cases that are currently in the media.
True Crime South Africa was launched in 2019 and was meant to be a hobby, Engelbrecht said.
“I am a true crime fan and realised there was a lack of coverage of South African stories. I wanted a podcast about this, so I made one.”
Some of the recent cases covered on her podcast include the murder of toddler Poppie van der Merwe and the murder of pregnant Valencia Behrens.
Her most recent mini-episode covers the story of murdered Klawer teen, Jerobejin Van Wyk.
The podcast host said she also liked to cover cases most people haven’t heard about, but admitted to being drawn to prominent cases that made the headlines.
“Crimes like the Van Breda case, I know I have an audience that cares about these crimes.
“When I cover those crimes, I try to share the lesser-known aspects of it. I am less reluctant to choose unsolved crimes unless it is a cold case.”
Engelbrecht spent 20 years of her life working in corporate management and decided to try entrepreneurship two years ago. Since then, she has been freelance writing and works on her podcast throughout the week.
The Cape Town podcast host said the Van Breda case and the Krugersdorp cult killings were interesting to work on because of the mountain of information available and the interesting threads that pulled the story together.
“From a research point of view those episodes became longer too. The cases that stick with me and that I always think about are the unsolved ones. Especially, with the murder of Connor Isaacs where I met his parents for that episode.”
But dealing with so much traumatic information weekly can take its toll. Engelbrecht said she tries to compartmentalise the information so that it does not affect her.
“I think I have the right personality to deal with something like this because I have always been emotionally resilient.
“Aspects of the cases stay with me but I remind myself that by telling these stories, I am helping because maybe something good can come from it.”
Fans of True Crime South Africa will be happy to know another podcast project is in the pipeline, named I Lived Through This.
“The podcast series is looking at people who survived varying situations that aren’t necessarily crime-related. People who survived cults, wild animal attacks and natural disasters. The person will tell their story from start to finish.
“True Crime South Africa taught me the power of stories and telling people’s stories.”
In future, Engelbrecht said she would love work with the police.
“SAPS will be able to use the podcast to help them solve crimes.
“Law enforcement in other countries make use of ethical true crime podcasts. Hopefully, I will get there.”