Hot Snakes teams with online crime forum Websleuths to develop content slate

New York-based producer Hot Snakes Media has agreed a deal with Websleuths, the online community focused on real crimes and missing-persons cases, to develop a slate of projects.

Shannon Evangelista

Hot Snakes said the deal would give it access to emerging crime stories as well as “real-time case chatter and community-driven breakthroughs surfacing daily on the platforms.”

The company, which is led by Shannon and Eric Evangelista, added that it will mine Websleuths’ “vast trove of user-generated leads and amateur detective work to develop a fresh slate of unscripted projects that capture the raw unpredictable, evolution of active cases as they unfold.”

Hot Snakes produces true-crime and reality projects such as The Curious Case of Natalia Grace (ID), My True Crime Story (VH1), Amish Mafia (Discovery+), Breaking Amish (HBO Max) and The Plot Against America (A&E).

Shannon Evangelista, a former prosecutor and defence attorney who became a TV producer, is also increasingly taking an on-camera role, with several projects in the works including an unnamed series for Discovery. She is expected to appear in front of the camera on several projects made through the Websleuths partnership.

The Websleuths website, which has been up and running since 1999, claims to attract more than 8.8 million visitors annually, and has more than 18.6 million posts across 600,000 message threads. Information revealed and discussed on the site has assisted law enforcement in many cases.

“Our shows have always been driven by curiosity and hard questions, and Websleuths brings an entire community that thinks the same way,” said Shannon Evangelista. “This partnership gives us a front-row seat to cases that haven’t hit the mainstream yet. Websleuths members dig deep, collaborate and chase the truth with real heart. It’s the perfect catalyst for the next wave of projects I’ll be stepping in front of the camera to explore.”