Why is Coeur d'Alene, Idaho so murdery?

Coeur d'Alene sits up in northern Idaho, in the heart of the panhandle, in Kootenai County. It began as a mining and prospecting town after gold and silver turned up in the mountains in the 1860s, got a railroad in 1883 and was incorporated in 1887. By the 1890s there had been two big miners' uprisings over high risk and low pay. The population was 53,354 as told in 2022.

The show's six murders here come in two episodes across two towns, and one of them does most of the lifting. Episode 720, set seven miles away in Post Falls, carries four victims across dates running from 1995 to after 1999. Episode 306, in the town itself, adds two from 2014. So this is not a long grind of cases so much as two visits, one of them heavy.

It is worth saying plainly that this counts the show's cases, not the town's crime rate. James and Jimmie choose where to go, and a town lands on the league because they went there. Coeur d'Alene ranks 215 overall and second in Idaho, which for a place with two episodes is a respectable showing.