Stacy Chapin walked into a conference ballroom at the annual CrimeCon gathering in Orlando, Florida, and let out a gasp.
在佛罗里达州奥兰多举行的年度“真实犯罪案件”大会上,斯泰西·查平走进会议大厅,一下子惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
Nearly 3,000 people were packed inside, all to hear a college professor from Alabama conduct a “forensic analysis” of how Ms. Chapin’s son and three of his college friends had been brutally murdered in Idaho last year.
大厅里坐得满满当当,共有3000人,都是为了来听一位来自阿拉巴马州的大学教授的“法医分析”,分析对象是查平的儿子和他的三个大学同学,他们去年在爱达荷州被残忍地杀害。
Ms. Chapin backed herself into an alcove to observe the discussion, muttering as the speaker mispronounced the name of her son’s girlfriend, who was also one of the victims, then botched the description of the landscape around the crime scene.
查平退到会议厅的一个角落里观察这场讨论,当演讲者念错了她儿子的女朋友的名字(女友也是受害者之一),并且对犯罪现场的周边地形进行了错误描述时,查平不满地低声抱怨了几句。
The audience was captivated.
观众们听得很入迷。
Within minutes Ms. Chapin was quietly pushing herself out a side door.
才过了几分钟,查平就默默地挪到侧门,然后走出了大厅。
“Why does that person get to talk about my kid in front of all those people?” Ms. Chapin whispered in the hallway.
“为什么那个人在那么多人面前谈论我儿子?”查平在走廊里低声说。
Ten months ago, Ms. Chapin was thrust into the center of the nation’s obsession with true crime, as armies of podcast listeners, internet commentators and amateur sleuths were consumed by the mystery of how Ethan Chapin and three other University of Idaho students had been stabbed to death late one night in a house near campus.
十个月前,查平被卷入人们对真实犯罪案件的狂热爱好中,大批播客听众、网络评论员和业余侦探们沉迷于伊桑·查平和另外三名爱达荷大学学生深夜惨遭谋杀的谜团中,这几个大学生在校园附近的一所房子里被人用刀捅刺致死。
Now she found herself navigating an unfamiliar world where she was an unwitting celebrity, searching for a way to harness the fervor for something good.
现在,查平发现自己身处一个陌生世界,努力找到方向,在这个世界,她稀里糊涂地成了一个名人,想办法把这种狂热引向好的方向。
She arrived as a guest of CrimeCon, where attendees — after paying for an entry-level ticket with a price tag of $349 — could measure blood spatter, analyze the drawings of a serial killer, cheer their crime-solving heroes and absorb the gory details of notorious rapes and murders.
她是作为嘉宾来到“真实犯罪案件大会”的,与会者在支付了标价349美元的初级门票后,可以测量血迹、分析连环杀手的图画、为破案英雄喝彩,并得到大量关于臭名昭著的强奸案和谋杀案的血腥细节。
The annual conference, which this year drew 5,000 people from all 50 states, capitalizes on what has been a breakneck level of growth in the true crime genre: Last week, of the 20 top podcasts on the Apple platform, more than half were related to true crime.
今年的大会吸引了来自50个州的5000人参加,充分利用了真实犯罪案件这一类型的惊人增势:上周,在苹果平台上排名最靠前的20个播客中,超过一半与真实犯罪案件有关。
Some attendees described their fascination with criminal minds; others said they felt deep empathy with the victims, or lured by the enticing possibility that someone asking the right questions or unearthing a missing digital clue could help bring justice to a stricken family.
一些与会者说他们对犯罪心理着迷,另一些人表示,他们对受害者深表同情,或者被一个诱人的可能性所吸引,即提出正确的问题或找出缺失的数字线索,或许就可以帮助一个遭受重创的家庭伸张正义。
Relatives of some of those families also signed up, posting materials and sharing stories, overjoyed that people and podcasters were eager to listen.
一些受害者的亲属也报名参加了大会,他们发布材料、分享故事,看到人们和播客作者对此很感兴趣,他们喜出望外。
In the exhibition hall, businesses vied for attention, one offering true-crime branded coffee, as the crackle of someone testing a stun gun was heard from a table nearby.
在展厅里,各大商家争先恐后地吸引人们的注意力,一个商家提供真实犯罪品牌的咖啡,旁边桌位上有人正在测试电击枪,噼啪的声音清晰地传了过来。
A crime-scene cleaning company had set up a bloodied cardboard box, next to a booth where attendees could get photos of themselves against a perp-lineup backdrop.
一家犯罪现场清洁公司摆放了一个血迹斑斑的硬纸箱,旁边展位上,与会者可以在犯罪嫌疑人列队辨认的背景下拍照留念。
Ms. Chapin flinched and turned away as a television screen flashed images of the man accused of killing her son.
当电视屏幕上出现被控杀害她儿子的男子的图像时,查平退缩了,并转身离开。
Attendees had the chance to mingle with the stars of the genre: A YouTuber grabbed a selfie with Camille Vasquez, the lawyer known for her recent work representing the actor Johnny Depp.
与会者有机会与这一领域的明星结识:一个油管博主与卡米尔·瓦斯克斯自拍了一张合照,瓦斯克斯因最近代理演员约翰尼·德普的案件而闻名。