EXCLUSIVE: The murder of Elizabeth Short – otherwise known as the Black Dahlia – in 1947 has remained one of the highest-profile unsolved crimes in LA history.

It has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, movies and films including Brian De Palma’s 2006 feature starring Scarlett Johansson and Josh Hartnett, and Chris Pine-led series I Am The Night.

The team behind a new docuseries that is in the works has claimed that they have uncovered a series of “startling” new leads, including a primary suspect and evidence proving the location of the murder, and is currently pushing the LA Police Department to release key pieces of evidence that have been withheld for nearly eight decades

The project, Deconstructing Dahlia, comes from production company Talestorm. The team behind the series said that they have discovered a “major bloodshed event and a concealed, walled-up room at a location tied to the investigation”, evidence suggesting that the original crime scene was “altered” and new witnesses that never came forward as well as other new information.

This comes days after forensic examiner Alex Baber claimed that he found evidence that links Short’s ex-boyfriend Marvin Margolis to the brutal crime as well as to the Zodiac killer.

The Deconstructing team have received the support of Elizabeth Short’s family.

“As family members of Elizabeth Short, we have lived for years without knowing what happened to our daughter, sister, and aunt. We respect the work Talestorm has done,” the Short family said in a statement to Deadline.

Short’s body was found on January 15, 1947 in the Leimert Park neighborhood; it had been severely mutilated and drained of blood.

The Deconstructing team features filmmakers, investigators, and retired law enforcement officials who have been embedded in the case for five years, including former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, investigator and retired US Marshal Commander Lenny DePaul, former White House Chief Information Officer Theresa Payton, and author and retired LAPD detective Mike Rothmiller.  

“There is finally enough evidence in the Black Dahlia case to qualify for a grand jury indictment against a suspect,” said Cooley. “What came before would not even be circumstantial, a lot of it’s just pure speculation or pure fiction. This team’s efforts brought it to a much higher level of confirming who actually killed the Black Dahlia.”

“We came into this without a preconceived suspect and started from the ground up, reviewing case files across multiple sources and, for the first time, comparing them side by side,” added DePaul. “As that work deepened, a clear picture began to emerge. After nearly 80 years, this investigation brings a level of clarity the case hasn’t seen before. It speaks to what’s possible in cold cases, and why there’s still reason for families to believe answers can come.”

The team is currently trying to obtain evidence in Short’s case file, including the only full, unredacted autopsy report that’s been withheld by the Los Angeles Police Department for almost 80 years.

It is being directed by Jeff Thomas VII and produced by Kimberly Lupini.

“We embarked on this project after receiving an unprecedented case tip containing details that were never made public and never referenced in any known case materials, including the still-unreleased LAPD file,” said Thomas. “At that point, walking away was no longer an option. What began as a single lead quickly evolved into a full-scale investigation. As our work progressed, we were granted extraordinary access to protected files connected to the original investigators, materials we were told may have vanished from both LAPD and LADA records following the Grand Jury proceedings of 1949 and 1950.” 

“Our mandate was simple: follow the evidence,” added Lupini. “As we re-examined protected materials across multiple sources, we began uncovering mountains of information and interviewed sources never interviewed in the original investigation. This was all evidence that we believe could solve this case. While the investigation is ongoing, it is clear that we don’t have another never-ending Dahlia theory. Long-overdue closure is finally within reach for the Short family.”