Texas Ranks No. 2 Among Most Featured States on ‘Dateline’ NBC

Well, as they say, “Everything is bigger in Texas”, and that seems to apply to the crime. Now, don’t take this the wrong way as Texas is known for many awesome things such as Texas BBQ, being the live music capital of the world, being the second-largest state, and the hot weather. These are all pretty cool things, but according to home security and safety experts at SafeWise, many Texans are concerned for their safety.

On a daily basis, 49% of Texans worry about crime compared to the national average of 46%.
Aggravated assault made up 62% of all violent crimes reported across the state. Being murdered by a stranger was the violent crime Texas survey respondents found most likely to actually happen, with 31% selecting it. Meanwhile, across the country, only 23% of people think murder by a stranger is the most likely crime that could happen to them.

This may be why Texas is such a hotspot for Dateline NBC cases. Casefleet, a legal case management software company, conducted a five-year analysis on the true-crime series. It covered things such as the most featured states, hosting duties, most common crimes, victim profiles, case results, and more.

Texas ranked as the second most featured state on Dateline, with 23 cases. However, the Lone Star State has its fair share of high-profile cases. Just recently, Dateline aired a Texas cold case featuring 19-year-old Natasha Atchley who was brutally murdered and found in Shepard, Texas in 1992.

Even on Dateline’s new true-crime podcast, “Motive for Murder”, the series is cracking the case on the Houston murders of Coty Beavers and Gelareh Bagherzadeh, which happened 11 months apart in 2012.

Earlier this year, Dateline aired a special about Heidi Broussard, 33, who was found dead in Houston in December 2019. They interviewed close family and friends of Broussard, just days after her long-time friend was charged with capital murder in the case.

However, Texas isn’t the only state with the most featured cases. California ranks number one with 42 cases, New York ties with Texas for second-most featured with 23 cases, and Florida ranks third with 18 cases.

Along with the most featured states came some other interesting statistics about the true-crime series. Keith Morrison, also known as the granddaddy of true crime, is the most featured host on the Dateline, appearing on 30% of episodes. The most common topic is murder, which is featured in 57% of episodes, while missing persons falls in second, being featured in 9% of episodes.

And you can’t do an analysis of Dateline and not include the main subjects of each episode, the victims and suspects. The average age of a featured victim is 35 years old, while the most common ages are 19 and 25. As for suspects, nearly 73% of caught suspects were successfully convicted after the case aired on Dateline. Also, contrary to popular belief, only 38% of the featured suspects were the victim’s spouse or significant other.

Whether there is a correlation between Texan’s fear of crime and it’s frequent appearance on true-crime shows such as Dateline, remains a mystery. However, if you’re a true-crime fan, it’s kinda cool to geek out over the interesting statistics.