When Afrikka Hardy was strangled in 2014 it seemed completely random, but it wasn’t. It was part of a pattern. Four years earlier, a reporter Thomas Hargrove had created an algorithm to detect serial killers, and that algorithm flagged Gary, Indiana as the site of an unusual number of cold case murders by strangulation. Hargrove reached out to warn local police that they might have an active serial killer operating in the area, but he was ignored. That is, until Afrikka Hardy was murdered, and those cold cases that he had identified suddenly didn’t look so cold.

Algorithm follows the investigation into Afrikka’s murder, tracking her killer, exposing the warnings that police ignored, and uncovering more than anyone expected -- that a serial killer who was strangling women in Gary, Indiana could have been stopped. And that Afrikka Hardy should be alive today.

This podcast will explore how technology can be used to identify and track serial killers, and how an algorithm can influence the way homicides are investigated all across the country. From iHeart Radio and Tenderfoot TV, this is Algorithm.

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