East Lansing High School Junior Zion Asante gives a presentation about body language and how to detect a lie at an ELHS True Crime Club meeting. (Courtesy photo by Cielo Gutierrez)

ELHS Students Examine Real Cases Through True Crime Club

There has been a surge in interest in true crime, a nonfiction genre of media where the motivation, impact and investigation surrounding high profile crimes are analyzed. 

East Lansing High School has started its own True Crime Club where club members present on different cases. The club has drawn strong interest from students, and is a productive outlet for students who want to enter a related field after they graduate. 

The club was established in 2022 after four college students in Moscow, Idaho were murdered, French teacher and club advisor Brenna Christopoulos said. 

“I was talking to my student about it [the murders],” Christopoulos said. “We looked up and realized that a bunch of other students were listening, and they were invested… it took them about seven weeks to arrest the murderer, and during that time things were very unknown, and we would check in with each other when new information was released.” 

The club convenes twice a month, and the structure is akin to one of a book club: a student analyzes a case and presents their findings, which includes a background on the victim, what happened, if it was solved, and how, and the impact it had.

The club has hooked students’ attention, with an average turnout of 15 to 20 students per meeting. The club challenges participants to analyze cases through multiple lenses, such as psychology, law, sociology and forensics. 

ELHS students watch a presentation at a True Crime Club meeting. (Courtesy photo by Cielo Gutierrez)

ELHS Senior and club President Allison Drzal said she’s interested in the unanswered questions surrounding crimes.

Revisiting cold cases is fascinating because the cases remain unsolved by investigatory bodies, but advances in technology could reveal new information, Christopoulos said. 

“Disappearance cases, we always want to know what happened… and in some cases, serial killers from decades ago got away with it,” Christopoulos said. “But now with all the DNA testing, they’re able to find people… I think there’s that aspect of wanting to know what happened that’s really intriguing.” 

As intriguing as revisiting old cases can be, every true crime story contain a real tragedy, and there’s a level of sensitivity expected when discussing crimes, especially ones involving murder or sexual assault.

“We talk quite a bit about the victims of these cases outside of the murder [and] horrible things that have happened because it doesn’t define them, and I think with true crime that has to be acknowledged,” Drzal said. 

“We respect the victims and the families, we don’t glorify killers, and we are very careful of our language and how we talk about things,” Christopoulos said.

Although ELHS doesn’t currently offer any criminology courses, some students in the club take an online criminology course through Michigan Virtual. 

Drzal is planning to pursue a neuroscience degree in college after she graduates from high school in the spring. 

“The unknown that comes with a lot of these cases, it just makes you curious, and I think that followed me into academics too,” Drzal said. “For someone to do something as unthinkable as murder, there definitely has to be something psychological going on there, and I think that’s a big part to understand what would motivate someone to do those things.” 

Beyond the classroom, true crime made Drzal pause and notice the world around her.  

“I think it [the club] made me more aware of the world and what can happen to people,” Drzal said. “I think as a teenager, and in general, people have a tendency to think they’re invincible and that nothing bad could happen…it puts it into perspective.”