Why is Lino Lakes, Minnesota so murdery?

Lino Lakes sits in Anoka County, where four lakes come together, and it carries the count for a corner of Minnesota that the show has visited six times. Eleven murders across six episodes, and only five of them in Lino Lakes itself. The rest are scattered around the ring of small towns and suburbs within 23 miles, from Ham Lake at eight miles out to Corcoran at 23 miles. A quiet cluster, but a cluster.

The decades are evenly spaced, almost politely so: 1978, 1980, 1989, 1993, 2000, 2008. One case per visit, mostly, which makes the tally look like a slow drip rather than a flood. Except that it is not. Episode 16, set in Lino Lakes, carries five victims on its own, and episode 287 in Ham Lake adds two. The other four episodes supply one each.

Worth saying plainly: this counts the show's cases, not the local crime rate. Podcasts choose their towns, and a town that ranks 91st nationally and third in Minnesota has been chosen six times. Whether that says more about Lino Lakes or about James and Jimmie's researchers is a question for the fan site.