Harvel typically uploads videos in the morning to his YouTube channel, Reporting Live From My Sofa. At night, viewers will jump on a live chat to “gather around the old campfire” and gossip about the latest developments in court and share their theories.
The mushroom lunch trial is not the only case Harvel is juggling: he is covering multiple trials of Lori Vallow Daybell, a doomsday religious cultist who was convicted in April of murdering her estranged husband.
Erin Patterson leaves court in April.Credit: Jason South
But many of his videos about the mushroom case have outrated those about Daybell, a success that has surprised him. “Usually if something’s not here in our faces, on TV, the interest will wane pretty quickly,” he says. “It’s held pretty steadily with a strong viewership.”
Putting aside the eccentric circumstances of the fatal luncheon, Harvel believes Patterson’s ordinary, country demeanour also elicits fascination from viewers.
“Erin is so regular. We see Erins all day long. I see this lady at the grocery store,” he says. “The mushroom case has been the strongest interest of an international case that I’ve covered in this way.”
Paul Harvel on the “sofa” in his new office-studio just outside Raleigh, North Carolina.Credit: Matt Ramey
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Harvel, 47, started dabbling in crime videos a little over six years ago, giving commentary on Netflix’s Murder Mountain in clips recorded on a phone by his then-partner, who would tease him about the quirky content.
A creative writing major who worked in education, Harvel says he always had a keen interest in true crime and criminal psychology. For the past three years, the videos have been his day job.
And as the viewership has grown, so has his set-up. This week he moved into a new studio office just outside Raleigh, and has just notched up his 1000th video.
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For Harvel, covering the Patterson trial is a unique challenge: unlike many American court cases, it is not livestreamed. He depends on local media coverage, mostly Guardian Australia and the ABC, including the public broadcaster’s Mushroom Case Daily podcast.
He has additional Australian cases on his radar, including the forthcoming trial of former police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon, who is accused of murdering Sydney men Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
“I’ve really enjoyed learning about the [legal] system there and how it works,” Harvel says.
“I’ve had such a good experience with people from Australia, interacting with people from there, them emailing me … I would really like to try to cover other cases from there.”
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