Have you ever wondered if you were a witness to a crime? By nature, humans give others the benefit of the doubt when someone is doing something kind of off. You might see someone dragging a large trash bag on the ground and think, "I wonder if there's a body in there. Probably not, though," but still half-expecting to wake up in the morning to see a murder on the news.
These storytellers actually lived that reality. They were true witnesses to gruesome crimes without knowing about it until it was too late.