Hi! I’m Nile Cappello, an investigative journalist and documentary producer based in Los Angeles. My latest project, “Death in the Dorms,” produced with ABC News Studios dropped on Hulu last week and tells stories of college students who had their lives cut short by senseless acts of violence. The series was inspired by the murder of my former classmate Andrea “Andy” DelVesco, whose body was found in the ashes of her UCLA apartment in 2015. Andy could have been me—and when I saw an incorrect narrative form around her death, I promised myself I'd find a way to get the truth out. Seven years later, I'm honored to be able to share what happened to Andy, and five other college students. AMA about producing the documentary or investigating the deaths of Andrea DelVesco, Christian Aguilar, Yeardley Love, Michael Deng, Samantha Josephson or Katie Autry. You can watch the docuseries I produced with ABC News Studios here: https://abcn.ws/3tvZAF8
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abcnews OP t1_j3ssxa8 wrote
We started by compiling a list of cases that weren't just random murders of college students, but where the college environment, culture, location, relationships, etc had played a significant role. We then started by reaching out to the families or representatives for the family to gauge interest, and see whether they saw potential value in sharing their loved one's story (often focusing on families who, like that of Yeardley Love or Samantha Josephson, went on to start foundations or nonprofit organizations). We only wanted to pursue cases where the family was in support of what we were doing.
Nina-Del-Rey4230 t1_j3swebd wrote
How do you deal with the families that do not want to be involved due to it being for media yet are critical to your investigation.?
abcnews OP t1_j3sxm9f wrote
In most cases, if the family didn't want to be involved we chose to shelve that story and pursue others instead. Out of the six episodes in season one, there is only one episode where we didn't interview family members, which is Michael Deng. In that case, it was our understanding through family representatives/contacts that the parents are supportive of efforts to share their son's story, but just personally are no longer able to handle the stress of interviews. So we still moved forward with the story, and just leaned on people like Doug Fierberg, who worked with the family during that time.
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hablandochilango t1_j3sszie wrote
Are there any victims that you considered adding to the show who didn’t end up in the final cut that you can talk about here?
abcnews OP t1_j3stqjd wrote
There are, unfortunately, a plethora of cases that fit the parameters for this show, and more it seems every week. We tried to keep all of our cases fairly modern, but there are two older ones that I wish more people knew about: Jeanne Cleary, who was murdered in her dorm at Lehigh in 1986, and whose parents went on to get the Cleary Act passed to protect other students; and Betsy Aarsdsma, who was killed in the book stacks in the Penn State library in 1969. Her murder was never solved.
thecarriediaries t1_j3sy4c9 wrote
How did you get into documentary producing? Have you always been interested in true crime?
abcnews OP t1_j3szker wrote
I am, truthfully, incredibly nosy by nature and always have counteracted my own fears by obsessing over true crime, even as a kid. Career-wise, I am an investigative journalist by trade, mostly writing for Rolling Stone, Vice, HuffPost, and most recently, Atavist. But I've always really been a story hunter. Around 2018, I began investigating the Remnant Fellowship/Gwen Shamblin story, and felt it was more meant for a docuseries than an article. So I and approached Ross Dinerstein at Campfire, who I knew through my editorial work, and together we ended up producing my first docuseries, The Way Down on HBO Max, in 2021. Death in the Dorms is the second douseries I've created and EP'd!
WolfCola4 t1_j3tc2nb wrote
Did you know Andy well? Do you ever feel weird about making money off her death? How does the family feel?
No judgement implied in any of the above, genuinely curious on the "behind the scenes" of this whole thing
abcnews OP t1_j3techk wrote
I didn't know Andy personally, but we shared a lot of mutual friends, lived on the same block, were both in sororities, etc (so when I say it could've been me, it really could have). But I would have never done the episode if her family wasn't in support of getting her story out, and I personally called her mother and sister to explain why I wanted to do this and what I thought we could accomplish. I feel incredibly lucky they trusted me with the story and honored that I was able to get to know Andy better through the process. Money-wise, I think most subjects understand that everyone needs to be paid for their work and there was a lot of work that went into the show (this is, after all, my job). However, anyone that works in unscripted will tell you these productions don't come with high budgets, and we are often making a lot work on very little.
producermaddy t1_j3u7guw wrote
Love the docuseries. How long does each episode take to produce? Any talks of creating season 2?
abcnews OP t1_j3u8uh0 wrote
Thank you so much! We made all six episodes in around 6 months of production, with like 2 months of prep beforehand! We had filming and editing of different episodes happening simultaneously and teams working basically around the clock, so was an incredibly tight but fruitful turnaround. As for season two...fingers crossed!
producermaddy t1_j3u956v wrote
How big is the team working on the documentary?
abcnews OP t1_j3uccdp wrote
Our entire crew was nearly 100, but our core production team was around 15-20, not including camera, etc.
Honest_System274 t1_j3suwmm wrote
What projects are you working on next? Can you shed light on any of them?
abcnews OP t1_j3svz4g wrote
In 2021, I wrote an article for Atavist called Girl in the Picture, about a young girl named Alexis (later Aundria Bowman) who was killed by her adoptive father, as discovered by her biological mother and an incredible online sleuth name Carl Koppelman decades after the teenager went missing from Michigan. We are currently working on a docuseries adaptation of that story that I am really looking forward to sharing. I also have another article coming out in Atavist at the end of the month to look out for! And a few other docs in development, ranging from a suspected serial killer to a social media scammer.
trilobitepancake t1_j3tipr7 wrote
Did you ever consider giving up on the docuseries? If so, why? And what helped you pull through?
abcnews OP t1_j3tkmdz wrote
I had tabled the original concept for a few years before revisiting it with the team at ABC News Studios. With every project, I believe there is a right moment, platform, and people to tell it and I feel like in the end it came together as intended!
calmrain t1_j3z90zp wrote
Andy was a friend of mine. I had left UCLA, not even a few months prior, when I heard all sorts of rumors surrounding her death. Thanks for getting the truth out (about Andy’s story — and the others). I will be checking this out, later today.
My question was originally about whether you knew Andy or her family, personally, but since that has been answered… are you planning on branching out with investigative journalism, or sticking with true crime?
abcnews OP t1_j43f3cg wrote
I hope you feel like we've honored Andy! We really tried to approach her story with the care and respect it deserves. I hated seeing the way she was victim-blamed at the time.
I have a pretty full slate of projects that for the most part involve some element of crime, whether it be murder or scams, cults, financial fraud, etc. That said, I am really passionate about going anywhere that my investigative skills may be able to be additive — so I'm open to seeing where that takes me!
IAmAModBot t1_j3stg93 wrote
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Olympus___Mons t1_j3tdjrn wrote
What is your opinion on UFOs?
abcnews OP t1_j3tey60 wrote
Ha! Not sure how/if this is related to the show, but I think it would be foolish and naive to think humans on Earth are the only life that exists or even the most advanced. That said, I do think most UFO sightings have logical explanations, and that our idea of what an alien or UFO might look like is limited by the boundaries of our own reality.
Olympus___Mons t1_j3tho8s wrote
Speaking of what they look like. The "common UAP shapes" observed by our military is classified. Which I find it odd that we know the shapes of Classified nuclear capable hyper sonic missiles/gliders that are being tested right now, but we can't know the common shapes of UAPs.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/ufo-report-intriguing-redactions
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Hurts_2B_Human t1_j495ubs wrote
Just started the show. It is incredibly well written (is that the right word when it is already written?) and edited. I feel like the families should be proud. Music is a big thing for me and I love your choices of music. I was wondering if you can tell me the piece of music at the end of episode one? I tried to look it up by the lyrics and Shazam and can’t seem to find it. I really like it. Thank you!!
abcnews OP t1_j4m6v9n wrote
Thank you so much for the kind words! Isn't that song great? It actually came from our licensing library, so I don't think it's publicly available outside of that database unfortunately.
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Glittering-Bad-7802 t1_j3sroq3 wrote
Where did you begin first in starting your investigations for the documentary? How did you pick which students you focused on besides Andy?