Why is American Fork, Utah so murdery?

American Fork sits in Utah County, about half an hour south of Salt Lake City, one town in the run of settlements that fill the valley below the city. The show's eleven murders within 25 miles are spread the same way: four in American Fork itself, then two each at Pleasant Grove three miles off, Holladay twenty miles, South Salt Lake twenty-three, and one out at Payson, twenty-four. Only one episode is set in the town that gives the entry its name, which is a neat trick of geography rather than anything American Fork did.

The dates run from 1978 to 2014, so this is not one bad decade. Five episodes share the count. Episode 166, the one in town, carries four victims; the other four episodes carry two, two, two and one. No single case props up the total.

The honest note: this is a count of the show's cases, not of crime. The show chooses where to look, and a town that ranks 92 overall and first in Utah is really a story about a valley the show keeps coming back to.