Jacob Saffle

At the time I took on the case, 2023, he was already on parole.

He had finished his time.

He was out, and he had been out for 13 years.

Yeah.

Coming into it, for me, there was really only one main purpose, and that was to find Heidi.

It was the glaring problem in this case.

And I'll add that I didn't know where this case was going to go.

And if you've listened to this whole season, I certainly recommend you do.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started it.

And you're dead right.

I would not have been in a position to do this if this was my first case.

You know, my first two cases really helped me get a better understanding of this kind of work.

You know, and they did sort of just naturally lead into each other.

um but yeah the goal was it felt good to have that that goal um find Heidi send her home um to not end up getting bogged down into too many other details that you know this is what I thought from the outset um you know over time I guess that sort of changed a little bit as you know as we did start to peel back layers and and the truth started to come out um

But yeah, I think that's why the season has always been so popular because of that goal to find Heidi and

And it's kind of awakened a community as well to that goal.

And you can't really go far out in Whangamata and that Coromandel without meeting someone who knows the case and shares that same common goal that they would love to find Heidi to send her home.

It's really, really incredible to see that happen.

to see that through a whole community they sort of they've always carried this this guilt on their shoulders as a community that this happened on their turf um and that you know she was never sent home uh and again as well like i think what stands out in this case so much and what i felt you know yesterday when i was listening back to those first three episodes was that

character of the landscape you know and the bush and hearing you know those sounds of being in the bush and all of that yeah it made me realize you know like you said that that was just this omnipresent character right throughout that whole season and i think that um