TU featured on Spotify's Top Podcasts of 2025

TIFFIN — Tiffin University's Cold Case Fellowship Program is receiving national recognition following their featured appearance on Culpable, named one of Spotify's Editor's Picks Top 10 Best Podcasts of 2025. Both students, as well as the fellowships director Michael Curtis makes an appearance on the podcast. The program, according to Curtis, is "about as close as you can get" to working with a detective bureau without any risk on the students end. "We got our first case within two months of creating the program, and have worked together on several since," said Curtis. He noted while students are very hands-on in the fellowship, doing things like categorization, organization, creating a list of potential subjects, and more, he and Assistant Director Dean Butler conduct the interviews. This way, students' hard work is utilized while minimizing their exposure to any potential danger or legal liability. The case featured on the Culpable podcast is that of Danny Violette, who disappeared in the fall of 1998, with his body found 11 days later in a cornfield in Huron County. Despite extensive investigation, the case has remained unsolved for more than 25 years. Curtis said the Danny Violette case was unique in their approach because it was brought to them from a private party rather than a law enforcement agency. "We typically begin with a lot of organization, indexing, things of that nature, and then we conduct a solvability assessment — do we think we can solve the case?" he said. The process, he said, can take from months to upwards of a year before any interviews are conducted or allegations are made. Overall, Curtis feels there are three things the fellowship is trying to accomplish when taking on a case: To create an immersive learning experience, to be an asset and resource to both law enforcement and the community and to provide closure to any potential victims or family members of a victim.