The Local Whisper covers four-decade old cold case

The Local Whisper is a production company based out of St. Louis, which is shedding light on cold cases in the midwest.

Regan Ernst -- creator, editor and director -- attended college at Southeast Missouri State University as a television and film major. She created the docu-series to give attention to cold cases people may not be aware of or do not receive as much media coverage as other open cases.

She is also interested in pursuing other projects outside of cold cases.

"I want to tell stories people have not heard of, obviously. We have a specific set of those cases that are focused on the midwest, because those are largely not well known," Ernst said. "I want to bring people's attention towards this area, and the stories that come out of it, because people are here, and that have their communities and to get a glimpse into those communities, I think will help people better understand each other."

The Local Whisper released the trailer for the first episode of its cold case series Jan. 25 and can be viewed on the group's Youtube page. The episode is planned to be released in the fall and dives into the 38-year-old case of Deborah Manning, whose body was discovered in July of 1983 by off-duty Chaffee, Missouri, police officer Richard McCall and his brother.

Manning had been stabbed upward of 30 times and left in a ditch after possibly leaving the Candlewick Bar located at 829 S. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau the night before. The bar is now named J R's Bar and Billiard.

The Local Whisper is currently in post-production for its first episode, however since the episode will not be released until October, anyone with information on the Manning case is encouraged to reach out.

"Right now we are trying to produce the episode. If it doesn't get sold to the streaming service, we will post it on Youtube," Ernst said. "And we're also leaving a little bit of breathing room time just to get her case out there, drop memories and make sure we're not leaving anybody out. If there were people who still have information they should call the police and we don't want to leave anyone out that knew her. So, that is kind of a buffer time to allow for those people to come through."

Ernst believes there is a difference in investigating cold cases in urban and rural areas because of the sense of community in smaller towns.

"We are working on cases in St. Louis and it is completely different," said Ernst. "It's very hard to get into that community when you are an outsider. So, going into a place like Cape Girardeay, especially if you haven't lived there for a while, it takes a second for the trust to be there. A lot of conversations happen without anyone's knowledge, so there are a lot of rumors that we were told through this whole process that we had to follow through with trying to track down who originally said it."

The team at The Local Whisper has episodes planned in the future after the first episode is released and is currently investigating other cases in the midwest. The production company's funding comes from family, friends and others. It will introduce a Patreon for people to donate to. Individuals who are interested in helping fund the project can Venmo Regan Ernst at @Regan-Ernst.

For upcoming news and more information on The Local Whisper, follow it on the organization's Facebook, Instagram and Youtube page.