From a closet-turned-studio in Babcock Ranch, Delia D'Ambra puts a spotlight on decades-old cold cases.
Delia started her podcast CounterClock while reporting at NBC2. In 2017, she became interested in telling the crime stories she covered in a longer form "and really trying to dig deeper into who the victims were, what their families were going through, and how that was impacting the community beyond just what was happening in the courts." D'Ambra said.
In 2020, she made the official jump from TV to audio and found major success.
"I think we're definitely in tens of millions. I think right now I've over like 120 million downloads," she said.
Like every other true crime podcast, most listeners are women. Forensic Psychologist Dr. Rachel Toles said there are many studies on why this is.
"I always kind of make the joke, well, men like to talk about sex, women like to talk about murder. That's because while men spend their lives scanning for sexual conquests, us women spend our lives scanning to avoid getting murdered," Toles said. "True crime is like a DIY survival guide for women because women, statistically speaking, are far more likely to be the prey versus the predator."
Oddly enough, Toles says the podcasts can provide comfort in our chaotic, anxious world.
"So we have these things we're trying to grapple with, and sometimes watching people go through other things in life helps us feel like we're not alone," Toles said.
Providing that connection to victims' families is exactly why D'Ambra does it.
"They have this whole new community of people online that know their loved one's name," D'Ambra said. "I work with families on some cases for over a year, two years, and they really just feel like someone cares."
Although her subject matter is dark, D'Ambra's hard work can bring a lot of light.
"They (victim's families) feel like there's this whole world around them that is now able to get a little glimpse of what they've been going through. There's people that may be in the exact same situation as them. It brings community that is really healing for them," D'Ambra said.