Abstract

This article explores the migration of a true crime story, from crime scene, to book, to documentary and fiction series. We are using the term migration in the fluid sense described by Westerstahl Stenport and Traylor (2015) and Leitch (2022) wherein content “migrates from, to, and between genre, medium and device” (Westerstahl Stenport and Traylor, 75). This is because, in the case of a real event, the story evidence cannot be confined within each adaptation. It exists beyond the boundaries of each text, like an interconnected discourse hovering within and around each narrative space. Our central question is – if adaptations can be seen as repositories of interconnected and competing information about events, is there any point in discussing which best presents the truth of the events, or is the purpose of each adaptation to simply add new properties? To quote Thomas Leith, does each example “encourage members of their audience to return, more richly informed” (5), or do they simply converge, compete, or cancel each other out?