Why is Clarksburg, West Virginia so murdery, by murders?

Clarksburg is one town in northern West Virginia, in Harrison County, with 16,085 people in 2023. Settlers claimed land and built cabins around the spot from 1772, and the Virginia General Assembly authorised the town in 1785. The town began because of a road: a branch of the route proposed in 1786 from Winchester, Virginia to Morgantown.

The murders cover a much shorter stretch. Four victims, all in one episode, episode 387, which aired in 2023. The cases cluster between 2004 and 2009, a single decade, two centuries after the charter.

That episode is the whole of the entry, and it puts Clarksburg 112th overall and third in West Virginia. The ranking rests on one story.