Why is the Bismarck, North Dakota area so murdery, by episodes?

The capital of North Dakota, Bismarck sits on the Missouri in the south of the state. It is a city of 73,321 that started as a railway town and took its name from a German chancellor in 1873. Among the show's hotspots it ranks 64th overall and first in North Dakota.

The Bismarck area here covers the city and Menoken, a settlement of about 72 people eleven miles out along the old interstate. The two together account for eight murders across two episodes. Six of the eight arrive in one episode, which covers a farm outside Menoken that had raised three generations, and cases from 1978 and January 1992.

The other two come from episode 412, a pair of murders in Bismarck in September 1998. That is the city's only episode, and it has two victims.