Hey folks, it's James here, host and producer of this show, Dakota Spotlight.

I've got some exciting news to share with you.

I've just launched a brand new podcast called The Sleep Retreat.

The Sleep Retreat is designed to help you relax, unwind, and drift off to sleep.

With soothing soundscapes and calming original stories by yours truly, it's the perfect escape for a busy mind.

You can find The Sleep Retreat wherever you listen to podcasts or head over to the sleepretreatpodcast.com.

Hello friends, I want to welcome you to this first episode of the rebroadcast of something very dear to my heart.

Some of my earliest work on Dakota Spotlight, Zeeland, the untold story of Wade and Ellen Zick.

I titled it that way, untold story, because back in 2019, this story was largely untold and unknown.

Wade and Ellen Zick were murdered in 1976 in the little town

of Zeeland, North Dakota. Wade was the bank manager there. One night in July of 76, Wade and his

wife Ellen were kidnapped by three young local men taken to the bank to get money, and then they were

tragically shot to death.

Like I said, this series is very dear to my heart.

I produced it all on my own in 2018 and 2019.

I traveled across the state of North Dakota researching for many months.

I remember standing on the plot of land where Ellen Zick was born near Berlin, North Dakota.

There are no buildings left there today, just acres and acres of farmland.

I remember driving around rural Cass County in search of Wade's childhood home,

visiting the church as grandfather helped to build,

and of course I remember my first visit to the town of Zeeland in McIntosh County. And because now in 2024 I'm taking this independent leap, going out on my own again with

Dakota Spotlight, like I was when I produced this season, a rebroadcast of Zeeland feels like

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