In March 2016, 22-year-old Courtney Copeland wound up with a bullet in his back outside a Chicago Police station and died.
A year later, his mother, Shapearl Wells reached out to the Invisible Institute for help investigating his murder. During our first meeting, she brought a large stack of notes and records she had collected and asked us to assist her in finding out the truth about Courtney's final moments.
Over three years, our investigations team sought answers in Courtney’s death, uncovering new evidence and a compelling list of suspects, and calling the police to account for their actions.
In March 2020, we released the Somebody podcast, a seven-part co-production with The Intercept and Topic Studios, in partnership with iHeartMedia and Tenderfoot TV.
A departure from the usual reporter-led investigative podcasts, Somebody is narrated by Shapearl. The series documents her quest for justice on behalf of her son. Throughout, she guides listeners to explore questions of police accountability and public trust.
Among the unique attributes of the podcast is the fact that Shapearl recorded many of her tense interactions with detectives. These recordings present a unique window into the ways Chicago Police interact with grieving Black mothers.
“The dead can no longer speak,” says Shapearl, “so it’s up to the living to speak for them. Especially in the face of an abysmally low murder clearance rate for Black people in Chicago like my son.”
“A dogged and searing investigation of the murder of a young Black man in Chicago and the institutional indifference surrounding it.”
— Pulitzer Prize Jury, 2021
‘The Best 50 Podcasts of 2020’ — The Atlantic
‘The Best Podcasts of 2020’ — Rolling Stone
“The most important criminal justice journalism happening in Chicago right now.”
— Maya Dukmasova, Chicago Reader.
“A necessary entry in crime podcast reporting, an investigation that treats the public record with the skepticism it deserves.”
— Jake Greenberg, Los Angeles Review of Books’ Podcast Review
A “wrenching and unconventional investigation.”
—The L.A. Times
“Could Somebody be the beginning of what narrative reparations sound like?”
— RadioDoc Review
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