Giving families associated with cold cases much-needed answers is driving Under Investigation host Liz Hayes to delve deeper into the past than ever before.
Now entering its sixth season, the gripping crime program has shed new light on numerous crimes previously thought to be unsolvable since it begin airing in 2021.
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“[It] allows us to gather some of the best minds in the business to sit around and look at the evidence and really uncover things that should have been uncovered before,” Liz, 67, tells New Idea.
“And we are having some extraordinary results.”
Bringing closure to loved ones has always been the goal of Liz and her team.
“It is common for people to feel they’ve been forgotten or brushed aside when there are no answers, so changing that is very rewarding,” she explains.
“It’s quite often the last roll of the dice in trying to get to the bottom of [these cases], to find the truth.”
To date, Liz and her panel of experts have been responsible for reopening half-a-dozen cases.
With calls to Crime Stoppers skyrocketing after each episode, Liz is proud to be making a difference.
“Our meeting with Crime Stoppers told us that Under Investigation can be very powerful in jogging memories or prompting people to come forward,” Liz says.
“Their workload, we’re told, increases after we air our episodes.”
And they’re hoping for even more success this year.
“We often talk about crimes that have been committed in the ’70s and ’80s … these cases are not solved for a whole host of reasons,” Liz shares.
“Technology and time can add enormously to investigations. And often, after many years, witnesses are more comfortable with coming forward to talk.”
This year, Liz is doing things a little differently.
She’s stepping away from the desk and spending more time out in the field to immerse herself in the cases.
“I want to see our experts in their place of work, whether it is in the laboratory or on the ballistics range,” she says.
“I want to see the crime scenes, and most importantly, meet with witnesses and families of victims to hear what they saw and heard. All of that information then comes back to the table.”
