Dark Arenas

Latest Episodes:

NEW SEASON: CounterClock Season 6 May 10, 2024

Since the release of CounterClock Season 1, Delia has received hundreds of requests from families of victims of violent crime. In November 2022, one message in her inbox stood out from the rest. It was from a middle-aged woman asking for Delia's help investigating the mysterious death of her 27-year-old brother from 1991. The message stood out for one big reason. The man's mangled body was found in an all-too familiar place to Delia. Eastern North Carolina.

Thirty-three years after Douglas Wagg, Jr. turned up on a lone stretch of railroad tracks in the middle of the night in rural Martin County and over a year since Delia took on the case the scope of what was really going on in the area during the 1990's has come into view. Who was Doug? How did he end up so far from home? Who was he last seen with? Was the train really what killed him? Why was his case never investigated?

The journey to find the answers to those questions has revealed a web of small town secrets that feel like fiction, except they're not. Over the course of the Season 6 investigation Delia has interviewed more than 45 people, spoken with convicted murderers in prison, and traced the origins of a disturbing pattern of behavior within local law enforcement that may have resulted in a decades-long cover up of multiple deaths. The investigation into what happened to Doug Wagg appears to be just the tip of a very large, very complicated iceberg that someone has worked hard to keep hidden for more than three decades.

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Episode 15: Recreating Death Dec 19, 2023

Recreating the scene of a homicide takes patience, a skilled mind, and a stomach for the gruesome job. Piecing together the puzzle of how someone's demise occurred is the Dark Arena Delia is taking us into in this episode.

Episode 14: Crimes in the Homeland Dec 19, 2023

Rich Kolko has seen it all. Everything from investigating terrorist attacks, to busting up gang networks, working missing persons cases, to unearthing mountains of financial fraud. In this episode, we're sitting down with the former FBI supervisory special agent to better understand the Dark Arenas hiding in the quiet neighborhoods of America.

Episode 13: Bodies are Everywhere Dec 12, 2023

Dive deep into the Dark Arena of dissecting death. In this episode nationally-consulted forensic anthropologist Dr. Heather Walsh-Haney sits down to talk about the bodies, burials, and bloodshed many people have no idea are happening in their backyards.

Episode 12: Devil in the Details Dec 12, 2023

Some federal agents' nine-to-five job is reviewing thousands of images and videos of child sex abuse material. Their meticulous work in this Dark Arena exposes details hidden within the images that help track and catch predators. In this episode, Delia talks one-on-one with the FBI agent whose best tool against child sex predators is the predator.

Episode 11: Things that Go Boom Part 2 Dec 05, 2023

Delia learns about a valuable tool the ATF uses to track down and combat the illegal firearms market. A special agent and his partner reveal how human intelligence can't compare to canine savvy.

Episode 10: Things that Go Boom Part 1 Dec 05, 2023

In an era where you can order pretty much anything off of the internet, federal ATF agents working to foil bombings and mass shootings have to keep up with the times. In this episode we sit down with special agents to discuss the Dark Arena of bomb making, arson, and explosives.

Episode 9: Defining Death Nov 28, 2023

Most people watch a TV show and think they know what a forensic pathologist does...but they couldn't be more wrong. In this episode, Delia sits down one on one with a forensic pathologist whose job takes him beyond his lab and white coat and to the crime scenes of mass shootings and murder.

Episode 8: War on Drugs Nov 28, 2023

The war on drugs is real and intense every day for agents who work for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. In this episode, Delia speaks with a DEA Special Agent who investigates and attempts to unmask the dark characters pushing poison into, out of and across America.

Episode 7: Game of Spies Nov 21, 2023

Who is the real Jason Bourne? Is Jack Ryan real? In this episode we sit down with former director of the CIA, Porter Goss, to take a closer look at the darker side of international espionage.

Episode 6: Man of the Law Nov 21, 2023

Former United States Attorney David DeVillers sits down with Delia to talk about what it takes to go toe-to-toe with organized crime syndicates and terrorist organizations at home and overseas. The dark world of breaking up criminal enterprises takes guts and a knowledge of federal law that many people cannot imagine.

Episode 5: Overseeing Outcries Nov 14, 2023

Every day children are abused both physically and sexually. Every day they have to tell someone about what happened to or is still happening to them. So, whose job is it to interview that child and learn the dark details of their outcry? We're finding out in this episode of Dark Arenas.

Episode 4: The Most Wanted Nov 14, 2023

Carry a gun. Kick down a door. Repeat. Sounds like a script ripped right from a television show, but U.S. Marshal Chief Deputy Manny Puri explains that the reality facing fugitive task force teams is darker than anyone can imagine. Marshals aim to shield the public from mayhem by knocking on a criminal's door before he or she can do any more damage to society.

Episode 3: Art of Identity Nov 07, 2023

Recreating a person's identity from nothing but bones is no easy task. In this episode, Delia learns the science and vision behind the work of a forensic sketch artist and sculptor tasked with giving faces and names to the dead, missing and unidentified.

Episode 2: Hunting the Hunters Nov 07, 2023

When a child disappears, every second counts. Communication between law enforcement agencies, the public and the child's family has to happen. A special agent from the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team explains the Dark Arena of trying to find a missing child...and bring them home, either dead or alive.

Episode 1: Protective Detail Nov 07, 2023

Working for the United States Secret Service means you're called to take a bullet if need be...but most people probably don't how much planning goes into ensuring that doesn't happen. On this episode of Dark Arenas, Delia speaks with a retired presidential bodyguard and limo driver who knows first-hand what security from all angles requires.

Announcing Dark Arenas Oct 27, 2023

Have you ever thought about whose job it is to track international fugitives, hunt child abductors, conduct espionage, or pull human remains from concealed mass graves? Everyday thousands of good and decent people work in these Dark Arenas. They’ve chosen professions that grapple with the grotesque, deal with the deviant, and dodge the dangerous.
In this audiochuck original series you will hear first-hand accounts of what it's like to investigate the darkest crimes and most violent criminals in society. Host Delia D’Ambra has traveled across the United States to collect one-on-one interviews with crime scene experts, FBI agents, forensic interviewers, medical examiners, DEA agents, a former CIA Director, ATF special agents, and more. Each week she works to understand how these professionals’ jobs affect them, and most importantly, why they keep at it
day after day.

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