The dead white woman

Another issue many take up with true crime is who the narrative is almost always focused on: dead white women. The video produced by Khadija Mbowe linked to the right provides a detailed analysis of “missing white woman syndrome” at minute-marker 13:37.

Helms explains how she has had to make an effort to broaden her worldview within the true crime media she consumes.

“Knowing that a lot of my early obsession and interest with True Crime tended to be around serial killers who are focusing on white women victims. For a long time, I didn’t question how narrow and inaccurate of view that was,” Helms said.

This issue has been heavy on people’s minds recently with the case of Gabby Petito.

Gabby Petito was a van-life influencer who went missing, and was later found dead, while on a road trip with her fiancé. The whole internet became obsessed with the case and Petito made major headlines around the world. But people were left wondering, if they had gone missing, would they be receiving the same kind of attention?

Helms elaborated on her earlier point through the Petito example.

“A good example of that would be the recent Gabby Petito case and all of the attention around her disappearance, and murder, and then all of the voices who clearly raised the point of ‘Yeah, there are probably hundreds of missing Indigenous women from that same region and there’s not been the same kind of outcry or interest in their case,’” Helms said.