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Web of Death will be released on Thursday, January 19, 2023. The Hulu original will have six episodes, all of which will be available on the same day. The trailer for the documentary was dropped on Saturday, January 14, 2023.
According to Hulu, the official synopsis of Web of Death reads:
“Following the investigations of online sleuths as they use digital footprints, DNA databases, and the power of social media to solve gruesome, mysterious and bizarre murder cases.”
Web of Death has been produced by ABC News Studios along with Blink Films. To note, Blink Films is a BAFTA award-winning production firm based in Ireland and London. Some of their productions include Chernobyl: The New Evidence, Saved By a Stranger, Ken and Barbie Killers, Arctic Sinkholes, Diana: The Truth Behind the Interview, and The Diana Interview: Truth Behind the Scandal, among others.
Web of Death: What to expect from the series?
As mentioned earlier, the trailer for Web of Death was shared last week. Lasting 1:54 minutes, it starts with a woman telling that she loves “the true crime community” because she “can make a difference.”
Scenes of a man and a woman sitting in front of their respective computers and a lady visiting a library are shown as the introductory line is being spoken. The following frames of the Web of Death trailer contain brutal murder scenes and we hear interviewees admitting that they are amateurs when it comes to probing a crime.
But the “investigator inside of me” nudged them to find out the answers behind a certain kill. Police sirens, a scared man telling something online, and more murder scenes comprise the next few seconds of the trailer.
A man is then heard saying that there are "80,000 missing persons" in the United States, and a woman describes a "violent" crime scene in which police officers discovered a skull in a bucket of cement.
The trailer gains momentum by showing snippets of how normal citizens attempt to solve crimes and ends with this line:
“The search for answers is pure evil…when a case goes cold who can you turn to to get to the truth? Everyday people solving true crimes.”
The six episodes are titled:
1) Jackpot murder: A struggling laborer wins a $30 mn lottery jackpot and then suddenly disappears.
2) Boulder Jane Doe: Local journalist Silvia Pettem delves into the 50-year-old mystery of Boulder Jane Doe, an unidentified woman murdered in Colorado.
3) Crowdsourced Justice: Firefighter-turned-Podcaster Bob Ruff takes on the case of Ed Ates, a man convicted of the brutal murder of his neighbor in Tyler, Texas.
4) California Dreaming: Samson Cree National Violet Soosay has spent her life on a quest to find her missing Aunt Shirley.
5) Facebook Live: When Kalvon Hawkins's teenage daughter Keisha is tragically shot dead at a birthday party, he is determined to get justice for his little girl.
6) Body of Evidence: Web sleuth Ellen Leach works tirelessly to identify a skull found inside a bucket of cement at a truck stop in Kearney, Missouri.
According to a press release, Web of Death “highlights the incredible persistence, attention to detail, and vast networks that help these web sleuths find answers others could not.”
Beth Hoppe, Senior Vice President (Long Form) at ABC News, along with Lucie Ridout and Justine Kershaw on behalf of Blink Films serve as executive producers of this gritty documentary.
Other true-crime docuseries offered by ABC
Apart from Web of Death, ABC News Studios is also working on another documentary titled The Ashley Madison Affair.
The multi-part Hulu Original docuseries will chronicle the hacking of the infidelity dating website for married men and women, Ashley Madison, and the subsequent data breach. ABC is collaborating with Wall to Wall Media for this spring release.
ABC's documentary slate looks currently complete with the premiere of Death in the Dorms on January 5, 2023, and the upcoming Killing County.
