Why is the Big Lake Township, Minnesota area so murdery, by episodes?

Big Lake Township sits in Sherburne County, 50 minutes from Minneapolis, which puts it in commuter country: near enough to the city to be a bedroom for it, far enough to keep its own name. It was organised in 1858 and settled a decade earlier as Humboldt, and in 1867 it lost the county seat to Elk River by a vote. Population 7,886, as the hosts put it in 2024.

The count here is small and split. Two episodes, five murders, two towns: Big Lake Township itself, episode 469, at zero miles, and Moose Lake 19 miles out with episode 249, the sort of spread that turns one dot on a map into what the show would call the Big Lake Township area. The decades are scattered too: a 1992 case in the centre, then 1983, 1993, April 1999 and May 1999 out at Moose Lake. That second episode carries four of the five victims, but it is not one night's work. Four dates strung across sixteen years, the kind of thing the hosts lay out like a timeline.