Free event to be held in Auburn City Hall, with Q&A included  

By Margie Yee Webb for the Gold Country Writers’ newsletter

We are pleased to welcome Scott Thomas Anderson for a presentation to Gold Country Writers that will be free and open to the public. On Wednesday, March 20, Mr. Anderson – the current editor of Sacramento News & Review – will present “How I Wrote and Produced the Crime Documentary Podcast Trace of the Devastation.”  

Anderson had been a professional crime and investigations reporter for 16 years before deciding to open the doorway to a shocking murder saga that was tied to his own family’s past. He spent two years tracking down people across California who were linked to the case – from investigators to eyewitnesses – and also worked with a number of the kids he had grown up with to get a full picture of how this tale of horror affected his generation in the Gold Country. In digging into the darkest corners of the past for the project, Anderson will discuss the biggest hurdles he faced as a writer to make it all come together for his new five-part documentary podcast Trace of the Devastation.  

The talk runs from 10 a.m. to noon at Auburn City Hall’s Rose Room at 1225 Lincoln Way in Auburn.

In addition to writing and editing for Sacramento News & Review, Anderson is a Fellow for The USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism whose work regularly appears in The San Francisco Chronicle and other publications. His murder coverage has been published as far afield as The Irish Independent, and he’s been interviewed about homicide investigations nationally on the Travel Channel, and internationally on Ireland’s Radio 1: Drivetime.  

All five chapters of the podcast series “Trace of the Devastation” are now live on iTunes/Apple Podcast and Spotify.