INVESTIGATIVE PROJECTS



Longform Investigations


Wasteland Underwater article

WASTELAND UNDERWATER

Texas Observer/Inside Climate News

On the central Texas coast, Lavaca Bay is already poisoned by mercury. Climate change will only make matters worse there—and at 944 other hazardous-waste sites across the country.

Up In The Tower Article

UP IN THE TOWER

Texas Monthly

When a deadly gas began leaking at the DuPont plant in La Porte, endangering hundreds of lives, the workers on the B shift did what they had to do. They grabbed their gear and went in.

Disappeared article

DISAPPEARED

Texas Observer

Genetic genealogy is helping to crack cold cases and identify victims left nameless for decades. The process is surprisingly effective—and controversial.


TV/Radio

The Eleven image

THE ELEVEN

About the A&E Series

Watch the trailer of "The Eleven," which follows investigators as they re-examine the murders of eleven teenage girls after a confession letter from inmate and convicted murderer Edward Harold Bell. Bell also confessed to Olsen in an interview.
Watch the trailer of the Eleven, released in 2017.

Netflix series, The Texas Killing Fields

THE TEXAS KILLING FIELDS

Media Links

An overgrown field and a stretch of highway connect a series of grisly murders spanning several decades as grieving families search for answers.


Watch all episodes on Netflex.

picture from The Wrong Man

THE WRONG MAN

Houston Chronicle/ CNN

Texas executed its fifth teenage offender at 22 minutes after midnight on Aug. 24, 1993, after his last request for bubble gum had been refused and his final claim of innocence had been forever silenced. This investigation was the subject of the CNN Death Row Stories episode,The Wrong Man.  


Collaboration/Datajournalism

Up in the Tower article

ABUSE OF FAITH

Houston Chronicle/ San Antonio Express News

20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms

Picture from article, The Silent Spills

SILENT SPILLS

Houston Chronicle/Associated Press

As first responders and residents struggled to save lives and property during the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey, the toxic onslaught from the nation's petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed.

Superfund Superthreats

SUPERTHREATS

InsideClimate News/NBC/Texas Observer

Battered, Flooded and Submerged: Many Superfund Sites are Dangerously Threatened by Climate Change The Obama administration directed the EPA to focus on climate-related threats. Now, the Trump administration refuses to even use the word.


Recent Work

Who killed Dean and Tina Clouse

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Texas Observer

A double murder. A missing baby. And a mysterious band of wandering Jesus Freaks. Who killed Dean and Tina Clouse in 1981? And is their daughter still alive?

Election Integrity or Voter Intimidation?

POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Texas Observer

In Texas, Corrupt Politicians Face Little Accountability. The Texas Rangers are tasked with investigating corruption and crimes by public officials. Those officials are rarely held accountable. For our full collaborative investigation "Justice For Some" on the Texas Rangers with KXAN, KTEP, and the Fort Worth Report, go here..

Uninvestigated, Uncounted:

UNATURAL CAUSES

AARP

The Case of the Texas Serial Elder Murders.
How the fatal age bias of police and others made it easy for a serial killer to continue his spree against two dozen older women in the Dallas area


Editing/Training

Uninvestigated, Uncounted:

CORONAVIRUS PIPELINE

Texas Observer

U.S. deportations of migrants have exported COVID-19 to Guatemala and prompted fear, chaos, and a collapse of already fragile health services.

Editing

Colpin

TRAINING

Lise has conducted training and worked on behalf of nonprofit investigative journalism organizations for years, including Investigative Reporters & Editors, the International Center for Journalists, Quinto Elemento and the Border Center for Journalists and Bloggers. She serves as a member of el jurado (the awards committee) for La Conferencia Latinoamericana de Periodismo de Investigación. Photo: Lise with journalist Adriana León of IPYS at COLPIN 2019