Hello and welcome back to Ice Cold Case. I'm Madison McGee. This is a bonus episode that I am

really honored to share with you. At CrimeCon 2025 in Denver, Colorado, I was invited by Renee,

who runs the National Center for Victims of Crime to participate in a session where victims are able to share publicly

their victim impact statement.

And I was in a sort of rare situation where I've never given a victim impact statement.

Victim impact statements are meant for people who are in court addressing the perpetrator,

hurt them, or their family member or their loved one, and I've never had that opportunity.

So I was really grateful that they included me in this session and gave me the opportunity

to sort of practice the exercise of writing this victim impact statement.

And it really got me thinking about my dad's case, the progress that's been made, how this is all shaped and impacted me as a person and also my family and our relationship and re-evaluating closure and all these things.

It was just such an incredible exercise to really get my brain moving in a way to be thinking

about these things.

And I was honored to be on a panel with a bunch of other people who were sharing from

their heart as well.

So I wanted to share it with you and let you hear the live recording from that moment.

It was really emotional for me, but also really powerful.

And I hope that you find it inspiring and

encouraging, but also maybe it makes you a little angry. It made me a little angry in a

motivating kind of way, where it made me really want to do more and do something. And so I'm

excited to share it with you. This is my space, this feed, this podcast is

my home now and where I get to just kind of share everything. I mean, it feels like I've really

trauma dumped on you all over the last several years. And so this was a much more refined trauma

...