Why is Iowa, Louisiana so murdery?

Iowa, Louisiana, sits in Calcasieu Parish in the south-west of the state, outside Lake Charles and almost down at the Gulf of Mexico. Midwesterners from Kansas, Illinois and Iowa settled it in the mid-nineteenth century; the railroad, rice and cattle carried it, and oil turned up in 1930. Seven of the show's murders fall within 25 miles, and only one of them happened in the town itself, in a case from June 1991 that gave episode 36 its setting.

The other six fan out along the roads around Lake Charles. Episode 578 goes to Lake Charles, 12 miles off, for a case dated 2009. Episode 353 goes the other way to Lake Arthur, 23 miles out, for a 1983 case with five victims, which is most of the total on its own. So the count stretches across three decades, one case in each, and one episode with five victims does much of the lifting.

This is a tally of the show's cases, not of crime. The show picks its towns, and a place can sit quietly for years and still rank 179 overall, third in Louisiana.