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Olivia Lavoice Biography
Olivia Lavoice Career
At an early age, She realized she was intrigued by crime solving, but at the time, she figured she didn’t have the stomach to be a detective walking into horrifying homicide scenes. She decided her next best bet would be to become a crime reporter. This way, I’d still get to be involved-hopefully specifically with the part where the case gets solved. I’ll admit I was naive. She walked into the newsroom two years ago as a new reporter thinking I’d live out a fantasy of helping detectives find their killer. She had somewhat of a rude awakening, to say the least. The days of reporters walking into a crime scene alongside the cops are nonexistent now, but I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel.
My fascination with cold cases intensified early-on in my career when she realized coverage on them was few and far between. She admits there’s a reason for this. As my boss always says, “we’re in the today business,” something that should go without saying for local news reporters, though I’ve often needed the reminder. He’s right, but to me, decades-old murders are still very relevant and newsworthy-especially if they’re unsolved. I’ve been extremely fortunate to be given the opportunity here at 17 News to pursue cases that many of our viewers haven’t heard of or thought about in well over twenty years.
Not all of the work done on cold cases makes air, in fact, much doesn’t. Sometimes families of victims simply ask that I help them arrange a meeting with detectives or ask for the phone number of the crime lab. Some of our stories on cold cases have taken a day, some over a year. Each story is unique, but the common thread is the utter devastation the victim’s loved ones suffer from. Time does little to nothing for loved ones of homicide victims if the case is unsolved, in fact, I believe time can make it worse.
The more years that go by, the less attention the cases typically get from law enforcement, the media, and the general public. I truly believe there is a real benefit to giving these cases a media platform. At the very least, it reminds the public that there’s been no justice for the victim and the killer remains a mystery. I appreciate every person who’s ever trusted me enough to look into an unsolved homicide. I hope it continues to be a part of my job for many years to come.
Olivia Lavoice Reporter
Olivia LaVoice joined KGET as a reporter in December 2015. Olivia is passionate about covering the crime and the criminal justice system in Kern County. Olivia is particularly interested in covering cold cases and shedding light on unsolved crimes that haven’t received media attention in decades.
Before coming to KGET, Olivia studied journalism and got her master’s degree at the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. In her spare time, Olivia spends time with her two rescue dogs, both of whom she found while reporting out in the field. She also watches a lot of Forensic Files and Dateline NBC.
