Deadline reported in an exclusive that a new docuseries on the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short – widely known as the Black Dahlia – is in development from production company Talestorm. The team behind the project, which is titled Deconstructing Dahlia, has claimed and cited that they uncovered a series of “startling” new leads in what is known as one of the highest-profile unsolved crimes in Los Angeles history.

Via Deadline, the team allegedly has found leads including a primary suspect and evidence proving the murder’s location, and is inquiring into the LA Police Department for the release of key evidence pieces which have since been withheld for nearly eight decades since the initial case. Specifically, it was stated that they discovered a “major bloodshed event and a concealed, walled-up room at a location tied to the investigation,” as well as new witnesses that had come forward now with evidence suggesting alterations had been done to the original crime. It was also alleged that other new information had come to light, as this announcement comes in the wake of forensic examiner Alex Baber’s claims of finding evidence linking Short’s ex-boyfriend Marvin Margolis to Short’s murder and the work of the Zodiac killer.

Short was reportedly an aspiring young actress who had been born in Boston, having relocated to California to live with her father. She worked primarily as a waitress in southern California in the last six months of her life, until her death in January 1947. Her unsolved murder and its details have had a lasting cultural impact, inspiring numerous documentaries, books, and movies and films.

The Short family has notably supported the team behind Deconstructing Dahlia. To Deadline, a statement by Elizabeth Short’s family detailed:

“As family members of Elizabeth Short, we have lived for years without knowing what happened to our daughter, sister, and aunt. We respect the work that Talestorm has done.”

The team, as listed by Deadline, consists of investigators, filmmakers, and retired law enforcement officials who have worked on the case in the past half decade, including; former White House Chief Information officer Theresa Payton, author and retired LAPD detective Mike Rothmiller, former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, and investigator and retired US Marshal Commander Lenny DePaul. They are currently seeking to obtain evidence in Short’s case file, particularly the only full and unredacted autopsy report that had been withheld in the decades since the initial case. 

Deconstructing Dahlia will be directed by Jeff Thomas VII (The Bachelor, Inside TV Land) and produced by Kimberly Lupini. From Deadline, Thomas said:

“We embarked on this project after receiving an unprecedented case tip containing details that were never made public and never referenced in any known case materials, including the still-unreleased LAPD file. At that point, walking away was no longer an option. What began as a single lead quickly evolved into a full scale investigation. As our work progressed, we were granted extraordinary access to protected files connected to the original investigators, materials we were told may have vanished from both LAPD and LADA records following the Grand Jury proceedings of 1949 and 1950.”

Continuing, Lupini added:

“Our mandate was simple: follow the evidence. As we re-examined protected materials across multiple sources, we began uncovering mountains of information and interviewed sources never interviewed in the original investigation. This was all evidence that we believe could solve this case. While the investigation is ongoing, it is clear that we don’t have another never-ending Dahlia theory. Long-overdue closure is finally within reach for the Short family.”