The Aurora Police Department is stepping behind the mic this summer, hoping a new true-crime style podcast can finally break open the unsolved 2016 killing of 21-year-old Chelsea Marie Yasser. The series, titled APD Presents: The White Whale, will revisit the brutal stabbing that left Yasser dying in a van in a shopping center lot in the 1200 block of Abilene Street and aims to put the case back on the community’s radar in a big way.
In a brief social post announcing the project, officials said the podcast will roll out later this summer and is designed to put fresh eyes and ears on a cold case that has frustrated detectives and devastated a young mother’s family for eight years. The hope is straightforward: renewed attention will spark new leads and finally bring a suspect into focus.
APD’s Announcement And Aim
In a Facebook reel posted May 15, the Aurora Police Department bills the podcast as a way to tell Yasser’s story in depth and pull the public back into the investigation. As posted by the Aurora Police Department, the series will release episodes later this summer, focusing on the timeline of the crime, the evidence, and the people who have been living with the unanswered questions ever since.
APD frames the project as both a narrative and an active investigative tool, signaling that detectives are still very much looking for credible tips and that the case is far from closed, no matter how much time has passed.
How The 2016 Case Unfolded
Yasser’s killing began as a routine welfare check. Around 9:59 p.m. on May 15, officers were called to the Burlington Coat Factory parking lot, where they found the young woman stabbed inside a van. She was rushed to a hospital but died from multiple stab wounds…