CBC Radio One announced today the launch of an original and compelling investigative podcast series Someone Knows Something, hosted by award-winning filmmaker and writer David Ridgen. Exploring unsolved cases of the missing or murdered, Someone Knows something probes theories, debunks rumours and aims to uncover new information in unsolved crimes, while unravelling the visceral ripple effects these events have on families and communities across the country.
Each season, the series will focus on a single Canadian cold case that draws listeners deep into a mystery. As each case is brought back to life, audiences will hear evidence and first-hand accounts from those closest to the investigation, including the family, law enforcement and potential suspects. The story will unfold on a weekly basis, with new episodes released every Monday. In Season 1, Ridgen explores what happened to Adrien McNaughton, a five-year-old boy who disappeared near a lake in eastern Ontario without a trace, more than four decades ago. Ridgen, who grew up in the area, returns in search of answers.
Specializing in hard-hitting, character-driven, point-of-view storytelling, Ridgen has an aptitude for investigate work and narrative experimentation. “The more time you spend looking at a case, the more things emerge from the picture that can help to solve it,” says Ridgen. “That’s why podcasting and true crime are such a natural fit. It allows the case to roll-out in real-time. It’s an exciting and immersive way to tell stories and an effective method for uncovering new information and using the public to help gather missing pieces of the puzzle and put it together in a new way, that may lead to solving the case.”
Educated as a documentary filmmaker, Ridgen began his ‘learning on the job’ investigative career with the 2024 documentary Mississippi Cold Case, which led to the second only federal trial of the Ku Klux Klan in US history and the arrest of the guilty party. His recent works have been credited with the reopening of cold cases and led to arrests (Confession to Murder and A Garden of Tears), have made a progressive impact on the Israel/Palestine conflict (American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein) and spurred victim reconciliation with perpetrators (Reconciliation in Mississippi).
Music for the series is composed by renowned Canadian musician, filmmaker and actor Bob Wiseman (one of the founding member of Blue Rodeo) and iconic singer Mary Margaret O'Hara.