Investigation Discovery has announced the true crime-focused network is continuing its partnership with Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer, and is renewing two shows from Spencer’s production company, Orit Entertainment and October Films.
Returning for new seasons are the “Lost Women” franchise and “Feds.” The “Lost Women” franchise launched in 2023 with “Lost Women of Highway 20,” a three-part documentary series inspired by “Ghosts of Highway 20,” The Oregonian/OregonLive’s 2018 award-winning project.
Both The Oregonian/OregonLive “Ghosts of Highway 20″ stories, photos, and videos, and the “Lost Women of Highway 20″ series told the stories of women who had been victimized by a convicted murderer, and suspected serial killer. In both The Oregonian/OregonLive reports and the Investigation Discovery series, the focus was on the women, and how the justice system failed them.
In a 2023 interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Spencer said “I hope that we remember that the best way to protect a community is to listen to victims when they come forward.”
According to the Investigation Discovery announcement, the new season of the “Lost Women” franchise “will continue to focus on cases that provoke important conversations around society’s treatment of women.”
The new season will explore circumstances surrounding the murders of Veronica Abouchuk and Kathleen Jo Henry, two Alaska Native women, who were killed in 2018 and 2019, and the search for Brian Steven Smith, who, on Feb. 22, 2024, was convicted of their murder.
The second season of the “Lost Women” three-part documentary series will, as the announcement says, “unravel the suspenseful journey that led to his conviction and the courage of some unlikely heroes who helped piece together the case and offered a glimmer of hope in a landscape marked with injustice.”
The new season of “Feds” will continue to explore cases investigated by the FBI, and feature interviews with FBI agents, victims, undercover operatives, informants, and others.
Spencer will again be an executive producer on both series, and will once more narrate the new season of “Lost Women.”
“Lost Women of Highway 20″ is streaming on Philo, which offers a free trial; and on Max.
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— Kristi Turnquist covers features and entertainment. Reach her at 503-221-8227, kturnquist@oregonian.com or @Kristiturnquist
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