Nick Wagler

**Nick Wagler** (born 1996), is the current cohost of *From the Vault: A True Crime Podcast* alongside Jason Futch. His first appearance was as a guest for the *True Cold Case Files* episode "Singer Island Jane Doe," and he later signed on as a permanent member in early 2020.

## Background

Nick was born in Northcentral Wisconsin, moving north in late 1997. He first developed an interest in true crime after watching television documentaries at age eleven, including *Forensic Files*, *North Mission Road*, *The Investigators*, and *Cold Case Files*. The first murder case he saw documented on television was the 1986 case of Helle Crafts, on an unknown program at an early age. The first missing person case he followed was Jennifer Wilbanks' falsified disappearance in 2005. The first resolved unidentified person case he was introduced to was that of Welsh schoolgirl Karen Price, who died in 1981 and discovered in 1989.

He was exposed to *America's Most Wanted* after learning of the show while researching the case of Amy Mihaljevic for a seventh grade project about the murder of Krista Harrison. The latter case was depicted on a *Forensic Files* episode that strongly resonated with him.

By the summer of 2011, he was hooked instantly on *Unsolved Mysteries*. During a significant period of high school, he distanced himself from the true crime world, resulting from declining mental health, which also later affected his participation in podcasting during the COVID-19 pandemic. By senior year, his interest returned, and he resumed his research and writing, for both nonfiction and fiction, inside and outside school.

## Writing experience and activities

He became a contributor to Wikipedia in the fall of 2008 before creating an account in April 2009. At this time, he discovered the then-unsolved case of Tammy Jo Alexander. Many articles he has since created and contributed to are related to homicides, unidentified decedents, and missing people. Following the identification of Bella Bond, his proudest achievement on the project is having the entry on her case successfully pass its nomination as a "Good Article," making it one of 0.5% of all pages with this distinction. He left the project in the fall of 2021, resulting from a resurgence of article deletion discussions, causing several early articles to be removed from the website.

He focused on unidentified persons case research during the fall of his senior year of high school, in 2013. This first occurred while searching the topic of forensic art, which he originally discovered during childhood while reading about archaeological human remains, primarily those found in peat bogs in Europe. He was fascinated by the work of a Canadian blogger, who wrote about true crime and was a self-taught forensic artist. From there, he found the Doe Network, where he learned just how extensive the issue of unidentified decedent was in the United States, as well as other places in the world.

On December 11, 2014, he started the Unidentified Wiki, serving as the sole contributor until others slowly began joining and contributing. He later promoted two other users to administrators (one from Europe and the other from Australia); the latter is still active and also assists with the organization's social media pages. The site was originally a Facebook page titled "Code UID: Unidentified."

By February 2016, he joined The Doe Network as a general member and began working on the unidentified person website team in the fall. His work primarily involves adding images, case updates, and often extensive research when significant details are available.

Nick and Jason Futch became acquainted when Futch started contributing to the Unidentified Wiki. Nick was first recruited as a guest on the seventh episode of season 2 of the podcast *True Cold Case Files* to fill in for the preceding co-host. In January 2020, he was asked to join the program permanently. This was the first time he received payment for his work on true crime.

Some of Nick's knowledge about victimology and offender profiling was influenced by the fact-inspired television series *Criminal Minds,* as well as the documentary programs *The New Detectives* and *The FBI Files*.

He has additionally contributed a guest post and an interview with Othram, Inc. after being contacted by its founder, David Mittelman in the summer of 2020.

## Podcast work

To date, he has written and directed one podcast episode on Walker County Jane Doe for *True Cold Case Files*, along with the accompanying episode of *In Depth* where he interviewed Carl Koppelman about the case. He will write at least three upcoming episodes of *From the Vault*, with hopes to conduct interviews with family members of the victims and those involved in the investigation.

In December 2021, Nick was interviewed by Laurah Norton of *The Fall Line Podcast* about his work with Unidentified Wiki, which was released in February 2022, titled "Encyclopedia of the Unidentified."

## Sleuthing career

Nick became aware of Websleuths around the same time he began researching unidentified person cases. There, he first discovered the work of Carl Koppelman, who he first communicated with for permission to use his images on Wikipedia. Koppelman re-inspired Nick to experiment with forensic art, although he was somewhat limited in his knowledge about photo-manipulating software, and he had little practice with drawing. He did not join Websleuths until much later, after being recommended by a fellow Wikipedia user after the creation of his articles on "Lyle Stevik" and Michelle Garvey.

During his early years of college, he started adding his reconstructions to The Doe Network and Unidentified Wiki. Most renderings have since been removed, concerning their accuracy and potential conflict with investigators, although a few have remained available that he felt were his best work. Others remained to serve as placeholders, until a professional rendering would be created. One of his reconstruction of the 1986 Oneida County Jane Doe would become the face of Unidentified Wiki, and an additional version is available on the main site and her entry on The Doe Network. Previous renderings were created in the past, but were revised or removed after the victim's racial and age estimations were clarified. His images have not been used by the investigative agency.

His greatest achievement consists of the (still unconfirmed) assistance with identifying Matthew Wolf as the 1986 Covina, California John Doe. Wolf's sister commented that the NCMEC reconstruction resembled her brother, who disappeared from the same place during the same year. After a few years, after reaching out to Wolf's sister, a NamUs representative, and NCMEC, the identification was made in early 2019. He did attempt to confirm his role in the resolution, which proved unsuccessful. However, he is credited with the unconfirmed "assisted solve" on The Doe Network, as he is affiliated with the organization.

Although being unaffiliated with the identification of Marcia King as the "Buckskin Girl," his request to the Miami County Sheriff's Office for her to be reconstructed and listed by NCMEC was accepted. King was added to their database in April 2016, and funding from the organization helped to fund forensic isotope and pollen testing. This would lead to a significant amount of media attention prior to the DNA Doe Project identifying her, weeks before the 37th anniversary of her death.