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\n\tWhen Octavia Spencer, the narrator and executive producer of Investigation Discovery\u2019s three-part docuseries Lost Women of Alaska,<\/em> decided to get involved in telling the story of indigenous women living on societal fringes who were targeted and murdered by serial killer Brian Steven Smith, she had a key goal in mind: \u201cRestoring the dignity of these women in solidarity with these women and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI can\u2019t imagine having a family member disappear and not knowing what happened to them,\u201d Spencer said during the show\u2019s panel at Deadline\u2019s Contenders Television: Documentary event. \u201cSo we want to provide closure \u2013 in some cases, justice. \u2026 There\u2019s a number that\u2019s really stuck out for me that there were over 1,300 missing indigenous women. 1,300.<\/em> But that\u2019s an alarming number that the very opening line is, \u201cAlaska is a serial killer\u2019s playground.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tExecutive producer Matt Robins says the story takes a deep look at how the South Africa-born Smith believed he\u2019d never be caught, until a woman saw depraved, disturbing videos he\u2019d shot of his victims and alerted police.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt really is the story of a group of women that are essentially being taken from the streets by a predator who is emboldened and empowered by the fact that he believes those crimes will not be investigated,\u201d said Robins. \u201cAnd so on one level, you can watch a documentary series as a classic sort of mystery-oriented true-crime event where you are following the mystery of who is taking the women and who\u2019s responsible for this and will they be caught? I think that the more important level, the second layer to this series has always been the way our society tends to fail women \u2014 and in this case, indigenous women, women who happen to be sex workers, the unhoused. This is a guy who knows that he can prey on these streets and target these women because he genuinely believes he\u2019ll get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe explained: \u201cWhen this story first came to us, it came to us through a fantastic producer called Christina Douglas, who hails from an indigenous background. The story is very personal to her. The stat that she gave me when she first talked to us about the case was that Alaskan native women are 10 times more likely to be the victims of murder than white women in Alaska. So there is a real crisis at play in that part of the world. And it was very, very empowering and fascinating for us to be able to get in there and tell the story the way we did.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTalking about the underlying cultural failures at play in the murders chronicled her and in the preceding series, 2023\u2019s Lost Women of Highway 20<\/em>, Spencer said: \u201cI think there is systemic racism, [and] I think on a broader scale, misogyny. The fact that we have enough material to title a series Lost Women<\/em> and have multiple seasons about different lost women is indicative and I think emblematic of a broader problem within society. So I think there\u2019s a lot that goes to it, misogyny. And with regard to the indigenous women, \u2018They\u2019re not missed; they don\u2019t have families,\u2019 is what the perception is.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSpencer said there will \u201cabsolutely\u201d be more stories to tell under the Lost Women<\/em> banner. \u201cSadly, there are so many missing women within our society, and across the world,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt\u2019s prevalent, quite prevalent in our society. And sadly, there is a series that we\u2019ve created called Lost Women<\/em>, and sadly there are so many voices that need to be restored. And we are happy to do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n