True crime expert from Olney nominated for national awards

Crime historian and author from Olney has been shortlisted for two categories in the True Crime Awards.

N Leigh Hunt is nominated for OUTSTANDING INDIE PODCAST and PODCAST ROOKIE OF THE YEAR.

Hunt is the producer and host of ‘IN ESTO: What really happened to Adrianna Hutto?’, a limited true crime series about a possible wrongful conviction in Northern Florida. Amanda Lewis was convicted in 2008 for drowning of her 7-year-old daughter after her younger son tells a series of incriminating stories. The mother is still serving life without parole in a Florida prison.

The podcast asks if a 6-year-old can be a reliable witness and the examines the steps local authorities took to gain the conviction.  The ten-part series explores the entire case from start to finish and may be unsettling for some.

The True Crime Awards, according to the organisers, are “Part education. Part advocacy. Part discovery - It takes a particular skill set and expertise to research and retell a true story both accurately and entertainingly.”

“The idea that my homegrown podcast could win probably the biggest award in the true crime genre is mind-blowing,” said Hunt. “It’s quite exciting times really. To think that this nomination can bring light to a case that has destroyed a family and damaged the courts integrity. As well as publish new evidence to show that a crime may not have actually taken place at all.”

Since launching ‘IN ESTO’ podcast in late 2024, Hunt is now starting to see major success and has listeners from all over the globe. He used the actual 911 calls, police interviews, trial excerpts and opinions from experts to tell the story. The podcast also used resources from Georgetown University and worked with an investigator from the area.

“The podcast is really about Amanda Lewis and her children. She has been vilified and imprisoned for decades, with her little boy being removed from a loving family from the slightest of evidence. The story is really about her daughter's death and what can be done to get her a fair trial. I’m not saying she is innocent, but she was certainly railroaded by small town justice.”

“There are literally millions and millions of true crime podcast around the world, so to think that this little contribution, recorded in my tiny office studio in Olney, is special,” N Liegh Hunt said. 

The True Crime Awards will take place in London on June 5^th and are part of the CrimeCon UK weekend of events.