Hell in the Heartland: What Happened to Ashley and Lauria

If you enjoy 3 hours of two "filmmakers/investigators" mugging for the camera and stating already stated facts over and over again, with an occasional nugget of useful information sprinkled in, then you'll love this mockumentary. This is a story that could have been told in 30 minutes. I suppose it was. Unfortunately you have to wade through three hours of these women gleefully yammering endlessly on camera to get the 30 minutes of story that had been dismembered and scattered throughout this 3 hour crime scene. Good documentaries do not include hours of the filmmakers on screen. They are obstacles to the story inserted for their own edification and to artificially elongate a story arc. I want my 3 hours back. I feel sorry for the families who had know idea they were being used as bait to entice people to watch the Jax and Sarah (I think that's their names) show. What a sad joke. You are investigators in the same way Geraldo was the investigator into Al Capone's vault. If you ever con anyone else into funding another film, try to put the camera on the story not your own faces. You're really not that interesting.

Seriously. Save yourself 2hrs. Episode 1 is interesting and tells you all the background you need for the case. Episodes 2 and 3 do nothing but repeat the same conversations over and over. Episode 4 moves the case on.

For a fun game, keep track of how the two 'investigators' choose to sit whilst discussing the case with each other. At one point, one of them was knelt down behind the couch?!?

I thought it was well done. Someone said to skip episodes 2 and 3. That makes no sense because there is a process that they are outlining and new suspects come into play during those episodes. I think yoo many people want instant gratification and have no patience.

The story is a good one, in the sense that it's a captivating tragedy and I hope this docu helps lead them to discovery. However, the 2 "investigators" spent WAY too much time talking to each other and restating things over and over that we already heard. I just don't know how much they even did except rehash stuff that was already known. The absolute incompetence of the early investigation is appalling and those that ignored crucial tips, evidence, etc. Should be held accountable. It's possible their incompetence led to these girls being killed.

Just finished first episode.

The investigators(?) talk about how cold it was during investigation, but, when showing footage, not a single person is wearing so much as a jacket.

It's mentioned that there was no Amber Alert issued. Amber Alert was not a thing in Oklahoma at the time.