5 times the plot continued beyond the podcast in 2018

Podcast listeners love a good twist. But when it comes to true crime stories, the plot often thickens after the podcast formally ends. 

That's certainly the case for CBC Podcasts' investigative series. Several key figures featured in Uncover: Escaping NXIVM, including alleged cult leader Keith Raniere and Smallville actress Allison Mack, are awaiting their day in court.

Someone Knows Something host David Ridgen continues to update his listeners on developments from past seasons. He has noted that each case becomes like a member of his family.

And while Uncover: Bomb on Board just dropped its final podcast episode, the team's interest in the bombing of CP Flight 21 hasn't waned. They're still soliciting new tips on the largest unsolved murder case on Canadian soil. 

As 2018 winds down, we look beyond our own coverage to consider five changing cases at the heart of other popular podcasts. 

1. Teacher's Pet: A suspect arrested 

Almost four decades after the disappearance of Lynette Dawson, who vanished from her Sydney home in 1982, Australian police have made an arrest of global interest. 

On Dec. 6, Lyn's former husband Chris Dawson was charged with the 33-year-old mother's murder and formally refused bail.

The local cold case gained international attention in 2018 through Teacher's Pet, an award-winning podcast by Australian journalist Hedley Thomas. The podcast helped bring forward fresh evidence as well as two witnesses that were helpful to the official police investigation.

New information helped homicide detectives "tie pieces of the puzzle together," police commissioner Mick Fuller told reporters earlier this month. 

Teacher's Pet swiftly released a new episode about the arrest. Chris Dawson continues to deny involvement in his former wife's disappearance. 

2. Trace: A case re-opened 

Another decades-old Australian case is back in the public eye following revelations in a popular podcast. 

In November, the acting state coroner for Victoria reopened an investigation into the stabbing death of Maria James. The mother and businesswoman was killed in her Melbourne bookshop in 1980. 

James's murder was the subject of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's podcast Trace, which revealed that James had planned to confront a local priest for sexually abusing her son on the day she died.

The coroner will look into whether there's a connection between the abuse allegations and the murder, although two priests implicated in the former have since died. Neither were questioned by police at the time of the murder. 

Ron Iddles, a former detective, told ABC that police used to rely on rewards and local media for new breakthroughs in old cases, "but the world is changing, and when a podcast gets more than three million downloads, that is a new initiative that needs to be seriously looked at as a way of solving unsolved cases."

3. Ear Hustle: A sentence reduced

Ear Hustle is a unique Radiotopia podcast about prison life, told from the inside. It's recorded in the San Quentin State Prison in California and co-hosted by inmate Earlonne Woods. 

This year marked 21 years in prison for Woods, who was convicted of second-degree robbery. He was originally sentenced to 31 years to life. But this November, after a long appeal process, Woods got big news from California Gov. Jerry Brown: his sentence had been commuted. 

"Mr. Woods has clearly shown that he is no longer the man he was when he committed this crime," Brown wrote in the official State of California document, which referenced his work on Ear Hustle and the testimonies of producers. 

"He has set a positive example for his peers and, through his podcast, has shared meaningful stories from those inside prison." 

Woods walked out of San Quentin on Nov. 30. He will continue to work on his Peabody Award-nominated podcast outside the prison's walls. 

4. Serial: An appeal challenged

Adnan Syed, the subject of the smash hit podcast Serial, is still behind bars — but his case is now before Maryland's highest court. 

In 2000, Syed was convicted of killing his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee. 

In 2014, Serial raised concerns with his case and caught the attention of an unprecedented number of listeners. Syed became a "cause celebre," according to Time magazine, as the podcast "shattered" all previous streaming and downloading numbers.   

A new trial was granted in 2016.

Syed's conviction has since been thrown out by lower courts, but appeals have brought his case all the way up to the state's top court.

5. In The Dark: A top court reconsiders

Speaking of higher courts, a case featured by In The Dark will soon be heard before U.S. Supreme Court.

The court has agreed to hear an appeal for Curtis Flowers, an inmate on death row whose complicated case was explored in the second season of the popular investigative podcast. 

Flowers was convicted of the 1996 murders of four people at Tardy Furniture Store in Winona, Miss. Flowers, who is black, was tried six times before being convicted by a mostly white jury and sentenced to death.

The Supreme Court will explore whether the district attorney on the case discriminated against black people in jury selection for the sixth trial. Nine justices will deliberate as to whether Flowers' conviction should be upheld or overturned, likely making their decision by June 2019. 

Meanwhile, according to APM Reports, Flowers' lawyers are also working on a post-conviction petition for the Mississippi Supreme Court, including critical new evidence surfaced by In The Dark.