ENTERTAINMENT

TLC enlists two local 'Women of Homicide'

John Kiesewetter
jkiesewetter@enquirer.com

Sixteen minutes past midnight, Cincinnati Police Detective Jenny Luke quietly slips out of her home to investigate the city's latest murder.

"I'm trying to sneak out of the house so the kids don't wake up," Luke, a 20-year police veteran and married mother of two sons, tells a camera crew for TLC's "Women of Homicide" series premiering Wednesday (9 p.m., TLC).

In another episode, TLC cameras catch fellow homicide Detective Jennifer Mitsch calling her two kids from a crime scene at dinner time: "Would you like me to get a sitter to help out tonight? I don't know how late I'll be. Did you get your homework done?"

Three years after the popular "Police Women of Cincinnati" reality series about patrol officers, TLC returns to make stars of two Cincinnati homicide detectives, plus Atlanta Detective Summer Benton.

"Women of Homicide" shows how the officers juggle job and family – being tough and intense or tender and sensitive as the situation requires – like many working mothers. The network notes that only 15 percent of the nation's homicide investigators are women.

"One of the nice things about this show is that, for all the people who don't think we're normal – or that we're so hard-core – they'll see we're just like them," says Luke, who has a son in high school and one in grade school.

Viewers will see that the women "are respected in our field," says Mitsch, a Talbert House social worker before joining the force 16 years ago. She and her husband, a suburban police officer, have a daughter, 11, and a son, 7.

On the show, Luke talks about how she once worried that being an emotional mother would "look silly, like I was weak." Now she uses "that mom side of me" to interrogate suspects and witnesses.

"I'm a mother. And I know when someone's lying to me. You'd better tell the truth. You need to trust me," she tells a 20-year-old man involved with the murder of East Price Hill resident Scott Kakaris, 27, after a $10 robbery last May.

"I really do believe most of these guys – although they just committed a murder – do have a heart," said Luke, who married a Cincinnati firefighter she met at a murder scene.

TLC calls it "Women of Homicide," but their male co-workers play a huge supporting role. The fugitive task force, SWAT team, forensic video experts and at least 10 officers will appear on national TV.

"Nothing we ever do is solo," Mitsch says in an interview. Luke says the "public doesn't understand how much teamwork and knowledge we have in the department."

Cameras focused equally on Luke and her partner, Detective David Gregory, she says. Viewers won't realize Gregory is her partner.

"It's what they chose to show. I didn't edit it," she says. "He's my better half. He's amazing. He's my best friend."

On an episode about a 2012 Westwood double homicide, Gregory gives Luke a candy bar since she hadn't eaten all day. Later, she's on the phone with her son saying, "Don't eat a lot of junk food. I'm going to come home and make dinner, OK?"

"Women of Homicide" also shows officers' frustration when witnesses refuse to talk to investigators or testify in court. On TV dramas, "you see the cases solved in an hour. More typical is that we interview people and for their own reasons they will not be a witness when we know they were a witness," Luke says.

Mitsch says she hopes witnesses from unsolved cases will come forward after watching the show. She also wants to inspire women considering a law enforcement career. Mitsch grew up in Anderson Township reading Nancy Drew mysteries and watching the "Charlie's Angels" TV show. Becoming a detective "was something appealing, but I didn't know at the time it would lead this way," she says.

What you won't see on the show is Mitsch's children.

"My privacy is important to me. There are limits to how much of my private life I'd put on national TV," Mitsch says. She let TLC film her attending Xavier University classes for a master's degree in executive human resource development and mentoring a 12-year-old girl through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

Luke will be seen tossing a football with a son and attending football practice.

"I obviously asked my children about what they thought," Luke says. "This is who I am outside of (work). I'm a mom." ■

ON THE AIR

What: "Women of Homicide"

When: 9 p.m. Wednesdays

Where: TLC