What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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8 What's up! May 7-13, 2023 Faq True Crime Fest NWA WHEN — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. May 20 WHERE — Rogers Convention Center COST — $25-$125 INFO — allthelostgirls.org Listen Here! nwaonline.com/0507truecrime Cold Cases Revisited true Crime Fest intended to solve murders, honor victims APRIL WALLACE NWA Democrat-Gazette I f you've ever had the itch to go to CrimeCon, but didn't have the budget for the tickets or the travel, you are in luck. True Crime Fest Northwest Arkansas is a similar event that's a more affordable option closer to home. LaDonna Humphrey, author of "The Girl I Never Knew" and "Strangled," two books based on the unsolved murder of Melissa Witt, is the organizer of the event. She started it as a fundraiser for the nonprofit organization she started called All the Lost Girls, which takes on one female strangulation cold case per year and pours the time, energy and resources of the board members into finding and contributing more information to its resolution. This year, All the Lost Girls is focused on the Melissa Witt case, about the 19-year-old girl who went missing from Fort Smith in 1994. Her car was left at Bowling World, and her body was found 45 days later in a remote location. "I wanted to launch a fundraising event that would get our name out there and help raise funds for the Melissa Witt case," Humphrey says. "I thought we might get 50 or 60 people to attend and bring folks who want to talk about the (victims') advocacy work they're doing, but it blew up from there." So far, more than 500 people have registered to attend True Crime Fest NWA, which partnered with CrimeCon. It will take place from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. May 20 at the Rogers Convention Center. Many familiar names are planned to be on stage, including keynote speaker James Renner and other notable speakers including Nic Edwards of "True Crime Garage" and Lance Reenstierna of Crawlspace Media. CrimeCon itself will also have a presence at the day-long event. "Our entire goal is to share the stories of those who are advocating for the missing and murdered, the unsolved cases," Humphrey says. The significance of having a CrimeCon connection is sharing in its goal of seeing cases solved while never glorifying murderers, she says. "We honor the victims." Keynote speaker for this inaugural event is investigative journalist and true crime author James Renner, who wrote the bestselling book "True Crime Addict." His next book, "Little, Crazy Children," will be released in June. Renner's interest in true crime began at 11 years old, when Amy Mihaljevic from the next town over was abducted and murdered. Riding his bike around town and seeing her missing poster pasted on telephone poles, Renner wondered: "What in the world happened to her?" It was then that "I realized we lived in a dangerous world," Renner says by phone. "It changed me and changed a lot of my peers. Before that, I didn't "So many cold cases didn't have any assistance. Our mission at all the Lost Girls is to dedicate resources for female strangulation cases," says LaDonna humphrey, organizer of true Crime Fest NWa, founder of all the Lost Girls and author of "the Girl I Never Knew" and "strangled," books about the unsolved Melissa Witt murder case. "It's important to me personally to further the work and do it in memory of Melissa." (Courtesy photo) RogeRs