I’m James Wolner
I am a filmmaker, podcast producer, photographer, writer and more. Mostly though I am a mortal human being inhabiting this time and place like billions of others.
The following are a few projects I’ve managed to get to while occupying my current vessel, which is approaching 62 years of wear and tear.
Documentary Films:
1. The House on Sweet and Seventh (2020) Awarded Regional Emmy for Best Long Form Documentary (upper Midwest Region)
Synopsis: Film based on my reporting on my podcast season 3 of the same name. Watch The House on Sweet and Seventh on Tubi or Amazon Prime.
2. Call Me Shelly (2026) Showing in various regional theaters Fall 2026. Synopsis: Film based on my reporting on my podcast season 7 of the same name. Info on how to watch Call Me Shelly.
Podcasts:
Dakota Spotlight 2018 to Present. An investigative true crime podcast.
Season one: Victor Newberry. Investigative series in ten parts:
Synopsis: In western North Dakota, on a frigid morning in December 2014, Victor Newberry, a bartender in the tiny town of Glen Ullin, was found dead next to his running vehicle. Rumors soon spread that foul play had been involved. In this series I sought interviewed Victor’s friends and family as well as local law enforcement to unravel a curious and confusing, deadly night on the prairie. Listen to Season One: Victor Newberry
Season two: Zeeland: the untold story of Wade and Ellen Zick – their lives and their tragic murders in 1976. A series in 9 parts.
Synopsis: On July 11, 1976, in small agricultural township of Zeeland, something unprecedented occurred. Local banker Wade Zick and his wife Ellen failed to show up to church. Hours later their bodies were found in a gravel pit outside of town. They had both been shotgunned to death. When it became clear that a trio of local boys (two teenagers and one twenty-year-old) were responsible for the crime, the tiny community was speechless. And in many ways the town remained stunned and mostly mute on the topic for decades. Until I came to town with my microphone and asked if we could all work together to somehow find a final resting place for this sad story. I visited the church, the bank, the murder site and interviewed friends and family of the Zicks. After my work there concluded, a new memorial was constructed near where the Zicks were killed. Listen to Season Two, Zeeland, the untold story of Wade and Ellen Zick, their lives and their tragic murders in 1976.
Season three: The House on Sweet and Seventh – series in six parts:
Synopsis: In 1998 Bismarck, North Dakota, a teenage boy named Brian Erickstad, and his twenty-seven-year-old friend, Robert Lawrence, brutally murdered Erickstad’s adoptive parents in their home, while their sixteen-year-old friend Misty smoked a cigarette in the garage. The men later loaded the bodies into the tarp-covered bed of the victim’s pickup and drove around town before ultimately dumping them in a field. The next morning they told their small network of teenage friends about their crime. Despite twelve people learning of the horrific event, none went immediately to the police. Instead they mobilized in assisting Lawrence and Erickstad as they prepared to flee the state. Only after the killers left, did one of the small band of teens finally go to the police. Includes interviews with three retired Bismarck PD detectives and interviews with various players in this crime, including Misty. Listen to The House on Sweet and Seventh.
Season Four: Chasing Billy – series in five parts
Synopsis: In 1978, Billy Wolf of Fargo, North Dakota was found deceased, floating in the Red River. His body had been severed into two and stuffed in plastic bags. Interviews with friends, retired officers, and current detectives. Listen to Chasing Billy Wolf.
Season Five: A Better Search for Barbara – series in twenty-two parts
Synopsis: In 1981, Barbara Louise Cotton vanished from Williston, North Dakota. What began as a plan for a five-part series turned into a 22-episode journey. This story took me from North Dakota & Montana, to Wyoming and California. New persons of interest emerge and old leads are revisited. I believe this work offers the most in-depth investigation conducted into the disappearance of Barbara Cotton. Since this reporting many others have taken on the quest to find out what happened to Barbara. Listen to A Better Search For Barbara
Season Six: Vanishing Act – series in eleven parts
Synopsis: In August of 1993, Kristin Joy Diede and Robert Michael Anderson set out on a road trip to North Dakota and were never seen again. Authorities believe the two were murdered, yet no one has ever been held responsible. Listen to Vanishing Act: the Untold Story of Kristin Joy Diede and Bob Anderson.
Season Seven: Call Me Shelly – series in nine parts.
Synopsis: After dropping off her three-year-old son with his grandfather, Michele Julson was to go run errands and pick her paycheck. She was never seen again. In this series I pull at more than five various threads, any one of which might hold the answer to what happened to Shelly Julson. Interviews with detectives, friends and family. Listen to Call Me Shelly, the mysterious disappearance of Michele Julson.
Season Eight: Unresolved, the murder of Joel Lovelien – series in seven parts
Synopsis: On October 27, 2007, Joel Lovelien stepped outside the Broken Drum Bar in Grand Forks, North Dakota, during a night filled with Halloween costumes, celebration, and heavy drinking. Moments later, he was found in the parking lot, bloodied, unconscious, and gravely injured. Who killed Joel Lovelien? Listen to Unresolved, the murder of Joel Lovelien.
Season Nine: The Mandan Murders – series in nine parts
Synopsis: Why, in 2019, did Chad Isaak walk into RJR maintenance and management in Mandan, North Dakota and murder four people? Interviews with families of all four victims, with Isaak’s family and with law enforcement. Listen to The Mandan Murders
Season Ten: You killed Chris – series in six parts
Synopsis: In 1968, 18-year-old Christine was found stabbed to death outside Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. More than fifty years later, her brutal killing remains officially unsolved. Listen to You Killed Chris
Season Eleven: Homicide at the House of Bottles – series in seven parts
Synopsis: On a late night in 1999, a young man named Robbie Rahrich was working late after closing in a small liquor store in Bismarck, North Dakota. He was found shot to death, apparently while counting the day’s cash. Interviews with law enforcement, Robbie’s family and with the man who killed him. Listen to Homicide at House of Bottles.
Season Twelve: Meanwhile in Mankato – a series in six parts
Synopsis – In 1965, 17-year-old Brian Lee Hendrickson walked into a gas station outside Mankato, Minnesota, and shot Ray Dahms of Rapidan, MN twice at close range. He was sentenced to as much as forty years behind bars. He served five. Listen to Meanwhile in Mankato
Season Thirteen: The Bagpiper and his Brother – series in five parts
Synopsis – In this work I trace Lloyd and Wallace Brenna from their simple, rural North Dakota beginnings through a decades-long pattern of troubling events, culminating in their most serious known crime: a 1971 bombing of a telephone worker in South Dakota. Listen to The Bagpiper and his Brother
The Dakotaball Archives Podcast
Dakotaball was my first podcast, the one I started to learn a bit about how to podcast in the first place. Listen to one of the episodes I was more happy with about the mighty Epping Eagles basketball team. Listen to the Dakotaball Archives