ELGIN, Ill. (WLS) — As true crime podcasts flood the streaming domain, the Elgin Police Department has stood out in using the format for something deeper than solving cold cases.

They are providing a place for family of the forgotten to feel seen.

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Elgin police detectives are once again harnessing the power of the past to bring justice to present, born out of passion for police work.

“They’re not just some cases sitting on a shelf, they’re men and women who were murdered or who are missing,” Det. Andrew Houghton said.

Last year, the department’s cold case unit launched the podcast “Somebody Knows Something” to investigate the decades-old disappearance of Karen Schepers, ultimately leading to an emotional discovery of Schepers’ remains and car that had been submerged in the Fox River.

Now Detective Houghton is back at it once again, with a new partner in podcast and justice, Detective Christopher Hall.

“I hope I am able to say I have at least one family, like Karen’s family the closure that they had,” Det. Hall said. “That means more to me than any number of arrest… That’s what’s important to me.”

The pair are cracking open cold cases and taking the archives to the airways, launching season two with a new look. The detectives are revisiting multiple unsolved cases from the 1970s, including five homicides and a missing person report.

“It’s the victim’s story that we’re trying to tell,” Houghton said. “It’s not about the offender. It’s not about sensationalizing what happened to them.”

The journey so far has taken them to different towns, tracking down old yearbooks, digging into archives.

“You’re basically going back into old newspaper articles because that property doesn’t exist,” Houghton said.

SEE ALSO | Family thanks community for help in solving 1983 Elgin cold case: ‘Miracles do happen’

The detectives are bringing listeners on a journey through time.

“Just trying to put us and the listeners into the front row seat of what it might have been like,” Hall said.

The cold case crusaders give a taste of walking through an old crime scene, trying to find a new point of view.

The new season is once again centered on the stories of the forgotten, connecting with victim’s families who still have not and can’t forget.

“They’re families and friends deserve to know that information if we can give it to them, and we owe it to them,” Houghton said. “Even if we fail in our attempt, we owe them that attempt.”

Season two, episode one of “Somebody Knows Something” already launched this week.

In the next episode, the detectives are taking listeners back to an unsolved murder, but now with new and never-before-heard evidence.