What to Watch Friday: ‘Dateline’ updates case of murdered Arkansas college student

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Here’s what’s on TV tonight.

Dateline: Secrets in the Ozarks (9 p.m., NBC)

Dennis Murphy has the latest on the 16-year investigation into the murder of Rebekah Gould, a 22-year-old college student in Mountain View, Arkansas. Gould’s body was found a week after she disappeared in September 2004, on a hillside along a highway. She had been beaten to death and the murder weapon was later determined to be a piano leg.

Theories about her murder ran rampant through the Arkansas Ozarks, reports Dateline, but a fresh look at the case 16 years later would lead to an arrest.

Murphy has network exclusive interviews with family members and details from key players in the case.

20/20: The Murder of Scott Sessions in Colorado (9 p.m., ABC)

“20/20” reports on the forensic data tracking methods used to find the killer of musician Scott Sessions, found nearly decapitated in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in February 2020.

Sessions had failed to appear at a performance on the night of February 10, 2020, and was reported missing the next day by his father. His body was found by a snowplow driver, “intentionally burned and wrapped in plastic and that plastic had been duct-taped,” 20/20 reports. His throat had been slit so severely that it nearly decapitated him. Investigators determined there was “rage involved” in Sessions’ horrific murder.

The big break in the case came from access to Sessions’ Facebook Messenger account, from which he had been communicating with Heather Frank, a waitress and divorced mother of three whom Sessions had been seeing. Frank and her former boyfriend became suspects in Sessions’ murder, but in a surprising twist, Frank also turned up dead.

ABC’s Matt Guttman has the full report. You can stream this the next day on Hulu.

Little Richard: The King and Queen of Rock and Roll (9 p.m., PBS NC)

This American Masterpiece documentary celebrates the life and influence of Little Richard as well as his role in rock history with Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Prince and Bruce Springsteen.

Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets (Amazon)

If messy reality stars are your thing, the new documentary series on the reality TV mega-family The Duggars delivers.

The series promises to “expose the truth beneath the wholesome Americana surface” shown in the “19 Kids & Counting” TLC series, including the controversial Institute of Basic Life Principles they followed. There was a lot of abuse going on behind the scenes, and for the first time, Jill Duggar Dillard tells her story. She’s joined by family and friends who were witness to the abuse and scandals.

Searching for Soul Food (Hulu)

In this new eight-episode series, Alisa Reynolds, a French-trained celebrity chef with a “soul food foundation,” goes on a journey to find out what soul food looks like around the world. She explores the food of Appalachia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Los Angeles, Jamaica, Italy, Peru and South Africa, meeting people in these regions and hearing their stories.

The series starts in Mississippi with a lesson in “the roots of the soul food story.”

Some programming descriptions are provided by networks.

New season of popular ‘Dateline: Missing’ podcast opens with North Carolina case