True crime is all the rage right now. People can’t seem to gobble up murder podcasts, documentaries, shows or series fast enough. They’re hungry for it. And businesses-minded creators are clamoring to feed to it to them — however possible — via whatever medium.
Which is exactly how we got CrimeDoor, a titillating new augmented reality app that lets users explore famous murder crime scenes like you’re actually there, investigating the crime.
“CrimeDoor is a one stop shop for fans of true crime to consume content and perhaps even solve a crime,” explains co-founder Neil Mandt. “And within that app, we have the ability to revisit crimes via augmented reality. And that allows you to open basically a magical doorway in your living room. And you can walk into the crime scene as it was when the detectives were there.”
Imagine it: you walk out of the comfort and saftey of your living room, through a door and suddenly you’re standing among pools of blood and dead bodies; surrounded by broken glass, twisted sheets and the mayhem of a famous murder scene. There are over 700 case profiles from around the world listed on CrimeDoor — approximately 65% of which remain unsolved to this day.
One of the most reviewed cases on the app is that of Jon Benet Ramsay, the six-year-old beauty pageant girl who was raped and murdered in her own Boulder, Colorado home, while her parents were eating pineapple in the kitchen upstairs. The killer escaped from the scene and was never identified.
Or, users can jump into the exact moment when Biggie Smalls, hip-hop star and gangster rapper extraordinaire, was shot dead in a drive-by shooting.
“There was a shooter that shot through the door and killed Biggie and we knew that person had a blue outfit on,” says Mandt. “That’s all we knew. And so, he’s kind of dark. We get a sense of his figure and we actually see the bullet in midair and the shell in the air from the gun, as well as the flash bang. And the positioning of the bullet holes on the door are, of course, exact.”
But why stop there? With the power to virtually recreate any crime scene in history, why not swing for the fences and recreate, say, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ?
Well, that’s exactly what CrimeDoor did. On top of Jon Benet Ramsay’s crime scene and that of Biggie smalls and some 697 others, you’re now also able to step back to 0 AD — to witness Christ himself hanging defenseless and gaunt from the cross.
“The story of the crucifixion is perhaps the biggest, most famous murder of all time,” said Mandt. “The average person has a peripheral view of two other victims that are near him, but no real context of the scene. And so, we thought it was important to understand what it was really about and why the cross was placed where it was outside of Jerusalem.”
For just $1.99 per “crime door” or 4.99 a month for unlimited use, CrimeDoor is an affordable little vacation into a violent augmented reality. And who knows? Maybe with a little detective gumption, users will actually be able to solve some of these many unsolved cases from the comfort of their homes.
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