10:30 am-12:00 pm
Register for this FREE panel talk https://tinyurl.com/yjh5ktcf. This program is part of our series Notorious: Maine Crime in the Public Eye, 1690–1940 and offered in conjunction with the exhibit of the same name.
Join self-defense instructor and former police officer Coreena Behnke, author Sharon Kitchens, and podcasters Julie Murray and Kristen Seavey for a discussion on how to do true crime responsibly and to learn more about their work for empathy and empowerment in the genre. Coreena Behnke is a former police officer with 24 years of experience on the force. She works as a special education case manager/teacher in Portland and as a self-defense instructor with the Amy St. Laurent Foundation, the legacy of Amy St. Laurent who lost her life in 2001, a homicide victim during a sexual assault.
Sharon Kitchens lives and writes in Maine. Her book The Murder of Dorothy Milliken: Cold Case in Maine, is a deep dive into the decades old cold case of Dorothy Milliken, a homicide victim in Lewiston in 1976. A portion of the sales of this book benefit the Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery (FAIR) Lab at the University of New Hampshire.
Julie Murray is the host of the podcast Media Pressure, a deeply personal look into the life and disappearance of her sister Maura Murray, a nursing student who vanished in 2004. The podcast was featured on The Today Show in 2024. Her #EngageWithEmpathy Campaign unites survivors of true crime, supporters, & content creators to make the difficult journey for those struggling with loss a little more bearable. Kristen Seavey is an actor, victim’s advocate, and podcaster based in New York City and Maine. She is the creator and host of Murder, She Told, a podcast that dives into the lesser-known cold cases and crimes of Maine, New England, and small-town America and places the victims and their family at the center of every story. Her work has been featured on Oxygen, News Center Maine, and True Crime Garage.