Why is McCarthy, Alaska so murdery, by episodes?

Copper came first. Native people hunted the country around McCarthy and collected nuggets from its creeks, and there was a permanent camp on the Copper River at Tural, near Chitina, where they fished for salmon. In 1900 copper was found between the Kennecott Glacier and McCarthy Creek, and the Kennecott Mining Company built the company town of Kennecott. McCarthy came after the mine.

Getting there takes six and a half hours from Anchorage. For much of the year there is no road into town, and the crossing of the Kennecott River is a hand-powered cable tram. It is one of the smallest and most remote places the show has covered, and it still ranks 132 overall and second in Alaska, from episode 533 and nine murders.

The two cases are a decade apart, in March 1983 and April 1993, and one episode carries all nine victims. Nine murders would embarrass a city.