DENVER (CN) - Jeffrey Lynn Smith was 16 years old the last time her family saw her in Hot Springs, Arkansas on Dec. 4, 1985.

Four decades later, Smith's big sister, Lisa Allen, is still looking for her. At CrimeCon in Denver on Friday, Allen held up her sister's picture alongside a wall covered with hundreds of images of missing persons, both recent and from long ago.

"Everything that I do, I do in her name," said Allen, who works as a consultant for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Like many attendees of the annual true crime conference, Allen believes talking about losing her sister can still bring her justice, no matter how much time has passed.

Allen has long suspected her sister's boyfriend of murdering her, and has learned he carried a long history of domestic violence over the years. By conducting her own interviews with the women he abused, Allen convinced investigators to reopen the case in the 2000s, though charges were never filed and Smith's body was never found.

Hearing stories of cold cases getting solved, even years later, gives Allen hope that she can find closure for her little sister and their mother.

"Obviously, the grief I feel is nothing compared to what my mom feels, and I'm really doing this more for her than for me," Allen said.

For years, Smith's main claim to fame has been that her mother worked as a housekeeper for Bill Clinton's mother, who then named her after the future president's grandfather. Even with a powerful connection in Hot Springs, Allen said local police initially mischaracterized her sister's disappearance as a runaway.

The explosion of true crime podcasts and documentaries in recent years has provided Allen with new ways to tell her sister's story, in hope of enlisting help to solve the mystery of her disappearance.

"This is my first CrimeCon, and I was hoping that I could highlight her because getting media exposure has been the struggle all these years," Allen said.

According to the Pew Research Center, one-third of Americans report listening to true crime podcasts. With content ranging from identity theft investigations to interviews with murderers, the genre proves to be the rare medium that bridges political divides.

A Vivint survey of 1,000 listeners found three-quarters of people who tune into true crime do so out of curiosity, while a little less than half said they enjoyed the mystery. A small fraction, 7%, admitted to consuming the genre in preparation for carrying out crimes of their own.

"When I came here, my husband said, 'Watch out, there's probably a lot of serial killers there,'" said Leslie Atkinson, who lives in Sacramento. Atkinson traveled to the conference with friends who sported matching murder weapon earrings.

A fan of Kendall Rae and Annie Elise podcasts, Atkinson said listening to true crime helps her believe justice wins out in the end.

"I like the way the story unfolds, it's like a puzzle where you glean little bits of information as you go through the story, and then the ultimate satisfaction for me is when they get the guy and they lock them up," Atkinson said.

A YouGov survey of 1,091 adults last year found more than half of people who consume true crime content believe doing so makes them more vigilant and teaches them about the criminal justice system. The line between consuming and contributing to content can become blurred as listeners become inspired to help solve cases of their own.

"I always hope someday I'll see something sketchy while driving and take a picture of the car, and help catch the guy," said Dawn Knight, an accountant who lives in Denver.

Wearing a black "Forensic Files" t-shirt, Knight said she loves learning about the science driving investigations, and how it has changed over time. In addition to following the cold case of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, who was murdered nearly 30 years ago in Boulder, Colorado, Knight is still hoping to see justice served for her friend Darrel Volway, whose body was left on his mother's porch in Bridgeport, Michigan, riddled with bullet holes on May 25, 2016.

"At the end, justice look like the bad guys put away forever, never to hurt anybody else again," Knight said.

The event's founder, Kevin Balfe, recalled becoming interested in true crime when a horrific murder made the papers in his home of Cheshire, Connecticut. After the podcast series "Serial" and Netflix's "Making a Murderer" came out, he noticed the true crime community needed a place to gather, learn and share ideas.

Amid a genre often obsessed with death and darkness in society, Balfe focuses on the positives.

"The community is keeping a lot of these cases alive and in the spotlight," Balfe said. "Every year, this community makes sure that they are loved and supported and that the police know we're all watching that they stay on a case."

Source: Courthouse News Service