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Kristin Thorne

Journalist, Creator and Voice for the Voiceless

Kristin Thorne is an experienced investigative journalist who holds people accountable.

Who is Kristin Thorne?

Kristin Thorne is a multi-Emmy-award winning investigative reporter for the country's number one local news station - WABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News in New York. She has dedicated her career to holding public officials accountable and giving a voice to the voiceless. With that goal in mind, Kristin created Hulu’s first-ever, true-crime series dedicated to finding missing people. She is the creator, writer, executive producer, director and host of Missing, which is produced through WABC. The show is also part of WABC's True Crime NYC podcast.

Kristin is the go-to reporter for criminal and law enforcement investigations. She has been featured in several two-hour ABC primetime specials including Truth and Lies: The Hunted produced by ABC Studios and 20/20 on the Long Island Serial Killer and Gabby Petito cases. Kristin has been a regular guest on Nancy Grace’s podcast, Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and she was a featured speaker at CrimeCon 2023 and 2024.

Beyond being a strong, female voice in the world of true crime, Kristin is known for her coverage of crime.

  • She knocks on the doors of potential killers and chases down people who are breaking the law– all to get answers for victims to whom public authorities have not been listening. 

  • Her exclusive interview with the mother of a teenager killed by the violent street gang MS-13 promoted a police investigation and the discovery of several buried bodies believed to be connected to the gang.

  • Kristin's exclusive story about a man wanted for lewd conduct directly resulted in the man’s arrest in less than 24 hours. 

Kristin's journalistic work is unparalleled. She is a tough reporter who asks tough questions to anyone no matter how rich or powerful they are. Her investigations have:

  • resulted in the widescale dismantling of worker's compensation and insurance fraud.

  • forced state agencies to implement programs aimed at protecting taxpayers.

  • compelled several personal injury law firms to walk away from hundreds of fraudulent claims.

  • forced a restaurant owner to pay eight workers $375,000 in back wages. 

Kristin Thorne is an Emmy-award winning reporter specializing in true crime investigations.
Kristin Thorne is a relentless journalist.

Missing

Missing tells the real stories of missing people whose stories have long gone untold. In the series, Kristin helps families piece together clues in their loved ones’ disappearances and works closely with law enforcement and private investigators to produce investigative leads.

 

Kristin receives messages from people all over the country asking her to investigate their family member's or friend’s disappearance. 


Missing has received an Emmy Award, a regional Edward R. Murrow Award and was named Best Local T.V. Series and Investigative Reporting by the Society of Professional Journalist’s prestigious New York City chapter.

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What has she been doing?

As the investigative reporter for the country’s number one local news station – WABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News in New York - Kristin has exposed corruption within government, failures of public policies and botched police and law enforcement investigations.

 

Kristin always operates in a solution-focused way believing in the power of her journalistic voice to improve the world. Through her reporting, Kristin has forced insurance companies to reverse their denials of care for sick children and adults and has gotten money back for people who have been scammed. Kristin's story about a pet organization selling morbidly ill puppies forced animal protection authorities to shut down the group the next day.

Kristin earned her master's degree in broadcast journalism from the prestigious Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is currently pursuing her master's degree in legal studies. 

She is an adjunct assistant professor at Hofstra University in the journalism department of the school's Lawrence Herbert School of Communication.  She teaches advanced investigative journalism to graduate students.

Kristin is passionate about helping her local community and is on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters Long Island and the Society of St Vincent de Paul. There too, she is a voice for the voiceless.

Kristin is represented by Creative Artists Agency.

Awards & Recognition

Kristin has been honored with many awards for her stories including two Emmy Awards, two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, several awards from the Associated Press Broadcasters Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. She's received eight Emmy Award nominations and four awards from the Fair Media Council, including the Council's Robert W. Greene Award for best investigative reporting for her series on the adult guardianship system in New York.  She was honored with the “Excellence in Newscasting Award” at the 2021 Long Island International Film Expo. Kristin was named "Woman of the Year" by a prestigious New York City area business network.

Kristin Thorne has won two Emmy awards and has been nominated for many others.
Kristin Thorne has won awards from the Associated Press.
Kristin Thorne has won several Edward R. Murrow awards for excellence in reporting.
Kristin Thorne received an Excellence in Newscasting Award from the Long Island Film Expo.
Kristin Thorne has received several awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.
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Testimonials

Kristin Thorne is a very special person, with all the things that are going on in the world, it is hard to find someone that helps and cares about other people's problems. She does. She is truly an angel.

Frank Atwell, Jr. Mother Ethel Louise Atwell's disappearance featured in Missing

Kristin and I are colleagues and I've seen her investigative power up close, but she was also one of my first personal calls when this happened to my own family. I knew that she was one of the only people who would be able to provide birds-eye view insight from every angle and explore EVERY possible route with us. She is what I consider to be an expert in a field that doesn't get nearly enough attention.

Colleague with missing loved one

During the dark times, Kristin Thorne arose with a glimmer of light to help bring back hope for the situation with my missing mom. No other journalist took as much time and effort to assist my family and me in getting final closure for my mom who has been missing almost 45 years now.

Ken Atwell.  Mother Ethel Louise Atwell's disappearance featured in Missing
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