The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin -Sulkowski. And I'm your co -host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm your
host, Ali . And I'm your co -host, Eli. Welcome back, everyone. And welcome back to me, because I was out last week. Yes, Eli is back, and we are here to bring you a cold case. That's right, and we are on episode 131 this week. So let's go ahead and just get into it. So just as a quick content warning, there are some brief mentions of sexual assault. Today, we are talking about the cold case of Marisa Lee Rose, and this takes place in July of 2001 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
But first, a little bit about Marisa. Marisa is 24 years old in 2001. She had grown up in New Jersey, but moved to South Philly a few years before her timeline picks up. She had bought a house on the 1500 block of South 26th Street. She lived there by herself. Marisa was married, but her husband, Stokely Orlando Rose, was serving time in a New Jersey prison for drug offenses. Marisa kept to herself, but always offered her
neighbors a wave when she saw them out. They would see her sitting on her front porch with her cat smoking cigarettes. She would often stop by the pizza place that was on the corner of her street. Neighbors remember her for her sense of style. More than one neighbor mentioned that she was always very well -dressed. Marisa worked as a hairdresser at Regis Hairstyles at the Springfield Mall in Delaware. She had dreams of owning her own studio one day. Marisa had worked hard to
get here. She had dropped out of school at 16 years old. In order to make money and save for beauty school, She would be hired for private parties as an exotic dancer as a young teenager. She quit dancing when she met her future husband. Her parents didn't know about this before the timeline starts. On top of cutting hair, she would also flip cars. Neighbors said she would
park them in front of her house. She had recently sold a Volkswagen Jetta and wanted to use part of the money to take a vacation to the Caribbean. Marisa was someone who was always fun to be around. She was the friend that you would call when you were having a bad day, as she had a way of making you feel lighter. The conversation would always end in a good place. Marisa was extremely loyal, loyal to her family and friends. She was extremely close to her parents and sister
and protective over her nephew. She talked on the phone with her family nearly every day. Her father, Dennis Torrey, says, quote, To raise a person as precious as Marisa is more than anything a father could ever wish for. As a young girl, she would always play with her dolls. She was into makeup and cosmetology. I'm so proud that she's gotten as far as she did with her
career. And now a timeline of events. On July 3, 2001, so the day before the 4th of July, this is the last day that Marisa sees her family. She had visited her parents and sister in New Jersey and had spent the day dyeing her sister's hair. On Monday, July 9, 2001, Marisa talks on the phone with her husband after 10 p .m. Again, her husband is serving time in prison. This is the last known contact that anyone has
with Marisa. The next day, Tuesday, July 10, 2001, Marisa's family start calling her after 9 a .m. which was normal for the tight -knit family. But what was strange is that no one could get a hold of Marisa, not her dad or mom or her sister. Her family grows more and more concerned throughout the day as each one of their phone calls goes unanswered. The next day, Wednesday, July 11, 2001, after not hearing from Marisa, her father and sister decide to head into Philly
and check on her at her home. They get to her house around 9 .30 in the morning. They knock on the doors and windows, but Marisa doesn't answer. Her younger sister, Nicole, ends up prying a window open and climbing inside to get in. She unlocks the front door for her dad and they start checking the house. As Nicole and Dennis are checking the house, they make the horrifying discovery of Marisa. They find her in the basement.
She was lying on her stomach. She had been shot once in the back of the head and looked as if she had been beaten. Her hands were tied behind her back with duct tape. She also had duct tape on her mouth and ankles. Her pants and underwear had been pulled down around her knees. Police respond to a 911 call around 9 .45 a .m. The neighborhood where Marisa lived was a block of row homes. There was some drug problems in the neighborhood, but rarely any violence like
this. When police arrive, they begin to process the scene. They believe that Marisa had been dead for more than 24 hours when they found her. Based on how she was found, they assume that she had been sexually assaulted. The house is a mess. It had been ransacked. Captain Thomas Lippo with the Philadelphia PD says, quote, We're not sure if there was forced entry at this point. We can tell you the house appears ransacked. investigators will have to work through the home
to determine if anything was stolen. However, they do know right away that her 1999 silver mercury trace was stolen. She had rented the car from Alamo Renta Car as she had gotten in a wreck the week beforehand and was using the rental car to get around. Her family is shocked by her murder. Her father says, quote, she was fragile and little and beautiful and some bastard took her away from me. Some low life, some son of a bitch. It is so hard to describe seeing
her there. It's a total loss. I felt empty inside as if a piece of me was no longer there. We were very, very close. She's my number one baby. She always will be. The neighbors are shocked by the murder of their well -dressed neighbor. A friend of Marisa's who worked around the corner at a barber shop says, quote, this is real shocking that anybody would do that to her. This is a real calm block. The next day, Thursday, July
12th, Marisa's autopsy is conducted. It confirms that the cause of death was a bullet to the back of the head. Her autopsy shows that there were no apparent signs of sexual assault, but they are still waiting on further testing. To date, police have never confirmed if she was or was not assaulted. but today on their website, they do not mention sexual assault as part of her murder. Police don't have any suspects this early in the investigation, but they are chasing down
some leads. It comes to light that U .S. Marshals had visited Marisa's home a few weeks before her murder. They were looking for a fugitive who had escaped from a halfway house, Patrick Brown. Brown was an associate of her husband's, but Marisa had told them that she didn't know where he was. After her murder, the marshals returned to the neighborhood, presuming to continue to search for Brown, but it's never really mentioned
anymore after this. Police are looking into Marisa's husband's other associates to see if any of them could have been involved in her murder as part of retaliation. Marisa's husband had cooperated with authorities previously, and they thought that Marisa's murder could be in retaliation of that. Police are also trying to determine if the murderer had forced their way inside or if Marisa had let them in. To date, police have
never been firm on this detail. Another question that they have, was there only one killer or multiple? Her father believes that there had to be more than one person because, quote, she was physically strong and street smart. On Friday, July 13th, 2001, so it's been two days since Marisa was found, and police get a break in the case. They are able to locate the stolen rental car. A resident in the Olney neighborhood spots Marisa’s stolen vehicle and calls police.
The Olney neighborhood, or Olney as I've also heard it pronounced, is about a 20 -minute drive north of Marisa's apartment. The neighbor spotted the car just after 8 a .m. Police tow the vehicle to a crime lab so techs can go through the car and try to get any evidence. Police say, quote, maybe she was transported in the vehicle. Maybe she was killed in the vehicle. Anything's possible. We do know that police are able to pull fingerprints from the car, but to date there has never been
any confirmed matches. Police at this point have also made progress going through the ransacked home. Police say that the intruder, or intruders, seem to focus on the second floor bedroom specifically. Police say, quote, Her wedding band wasn't there. Neither was her engagement ring. Marisa was also known to wear her husband's wedding band while he was locked up, and this was missing as well. As the days press on, police announce
that they do have a suspect. It's an associate of her husband's that is also serving time in prison. They don't name the suspect, but they believe he could have targeted Marisa in retaliation against her husband. Her sister Nicole said, quote, Police also say that they have other leads that are pointing them in different directions. Quote, But no suspect is ever named by police. No one is ever arrested. The case appears to
go cold very quickly. In February of 2002, so seven months after the murder, Crime Stop offers a $2 ,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. However, the media really stops covering her case fairly quickly, and I couldn't find any updates after 2002. So if you know anything about the murder of Marisa Rose in 2001, please call the Philadelphia Police at 215 -686 -8477. So that is the case of Marisa
Lee Rose. I really loved hearing about Marisa's aesthetic and personality and what she did for both what seemed for a living and for joy. I was happy listening to you talk about her. My mom was a hairdresser, so I grew up. And I had a little salon in my childhood home in our basement. And I just grew up around hairstylists and hairdressers and in that environment. And it's kind of a whole culture in its own. So she immediately felt familiar
to me. So it's really sad to me to know that she's not here anymore because, I don't know, she sounded awesome, like badass, flipping cars. going after what she wanted in life. I don't know. Yeah, I'm sad because, you know, no one should depart this world in the way that she did. But with that, you know, I'm very glad to know this case now. Her father seems like an incredible advocate for her. So I'm... I'm just really interested to dig in more about the case
with you. Yeah, this is one of those instances where I had more information on the person than the actual crime, which is always a joy in a lot of ways to know more about the person than the last days of their life to just really get a full picture of them. Unfortunately, it's not the case. Every case we cover, sometimes we know very little about the victim in the story. But
here with Marisa, I agree. I felt like I got to know a bit of her and could really sense like her vibe, you know, like the aura that she would cast around her. Like I could really feel that through the way her family talked about her. You mentioning her family. Yeah, it seemed like they had an incredible family dynamic. all up in each other's lives and living near each other
and connected. Honestly, talking about them makes me want to get into the timeline a bit because when they show up to her place, when you were talking about how they just kind of broke in, I said out loud to myself, of course they did. It's instinctual. It's automatic. It seemed like they were that type of family. Like they knew something was wrong. But I wanted to talk about, you know, what happened and that moment a little
bit more with you. But if you want to move backwards a little bit in the timeline, I wanted to clarify some things. Just the details of what was happening the day before they got into her place. And, you know, the last known bits. Yeah, so there's really not a lot known. We know that her last contact comes on Monday, July 9th at 10 p .m. or after 10 p .m., I believe. She was talking on the phone with her husband. So that is the
last known contact we have. I don't have any details surrounding what the conversation was like or, you know, if anything was discussed that maybe is pertinent to the case. I believe the phone call would have been recorded since he's in. So that would have likely been known to investigators. But then it appears that the next day, starting very early in the morning, her family couldn't get a hold of her anymore.
So based off of what police say, when they find her the next day on July 11th, they believe she had been dead for over 24 hours at that point. So that would put time of death roughly. After the phone call with her husband, like kind of through that night. So that's what I gather based off the information. But police never really officially give a timeline. And her family marks her date of death as July 11th, the date she was found. So I do just want to like say that
and honor that. I've spoken about before that details of cold cases are. I think a baseline, of course, it's difficult for anyone to digest and listen to, but everyone has varying levels of that, and my threshold is just very small. And this was one of those times. It's almost like my brain works very, very hard to try to not comprehend it. like to almost like pretend
it isn't happening. Even though I'm just listening to you tell me this, immediately I think I try to protect my mind from that information because I don't want to think about that. And, you know, I don't think that they would, you know, listen to this. Or maybe they do. I don't know. I don't know how families of... Loved ones in this circumstance navigate that kind of thing, but I'm just so sorry. So, so sorry. Because it's, I don't know, Al, unimaginable. Yeah, Marisa seemed to have
a pretty violent death. And, you know, we know her family breaks in when they can't get a hold of her. And I think partly to what would have motivated them if the house was ransacked, it likely looked a little chaotic inside, maybe even from where they could see, you know, on the front porch. So, you know, it makes complete sense to me that, you know, her family would try to get in right away. But it is devastating
that. they were the ones to find her body in that condition and have to take her in in that way because it's something that they can never unsee. So that is deeply devastating. You know, knowing the details, obviously, you know, sadness and horror and shock, and I also had the response of, Very, very heated and enraged, honestly, which makes me feel motivated to do my own investigating in this case. And it seems like maybe her case
calls for that. You know, at the very least, she deserves that, like more energy, a little bit more eyes on her case. Because it's not that I want to know specifically who did this. I just want them held. Which is where I have some more questions for you, which is what do you think? To me, it reads as that it was someone that maybe she knew. I think there's still so much left to the unknown that it's hard to say. The house was ransacked. So to me, that's a lot of chaos.
We know it was kind of focused on the second floor bedroom. Is there in that chaos evidence of a fight, a physical fight of retaliation? That's something I have a question about. And, you know, police have never said if there was forced entry or, you know, if she could have let the person in. But this kind of got me spinning in a whole other direction of there's a lot of ways to get somebody to open a door and then
force your way in without. breaking a window, jimmying a lock, you know, kicking in a door, like those very obvious forces of entry. So I think sometimes, and I think I'm guilty of this too, when I'm looking at a case and it says there were no signs of forced entry, I kind of start to assume that maybe it was somebody they knew. But I think there's a lot of ways to get somebody
to open their door without force. You know, I know it's a rumor, but With the serial killer, Derek Todd Lee, you know, there was that rumor that kind of surrounded him that he would play a baby crying and to get women to open their door. That's a rumor, but it's very much tied to his case because of pop culture. But that kind of stuff happens, like, not all the time, but someone can yell fire. Someone can knock on your door and say they're having car trouble.
They need to use a phone, especially in 2001 before cell phones were super prevalent. So there's just a lot of ways to get someone to open a door. It just leaves me with a lot of questions, so I'd love to sit down and just see the case file and know everything about the case to kind of see what do investigators know and what do they not know. Well, you know, I couldn't agree more, honestly, just listening to you and thinking about, you know, opening the door to our home.
I'm a pretty... small I'm a pretty petite guy and if I wasn't uh thinking if I wasn't trying to you know brace the door yeah a hundred percent very easily you could be knocked backwards because you're not trying to stop anything because you don't know so yeah um thank you for like giving me a different perspective because again it It can be so easily pointed, but really, because there is limited information in this case, especially details about the timeline, it's a vast possibility.
I'm just very grateful that, again, like I said earlier, that you brought it to our attention and that our listeners do what they do and share it with folks. and get Marisa's name out there. Yeah, this is definitely a case that I really hope gains some traction and people start covering it, people start talking about it and get some
energy behind her case. So that way police will put some resources towards it and try to open it back up and get some answers for her family, for her nephew, for everyone that loved her. 2001 doesn't feel like that long ago. So it definitely feels like... There's still people out there who could know something about this case, could
know something, heard something. And you know, if you're new here and maybe think we shared too many details about Marisa's case, our thinking here is that we want to share as much information. that we can because we never know what someone might have slipped up and said one night when they were drunk or on drugs or even sleeping. We never know what someone will say in rage or admit things to somebody, like what details will
slip up over the years. So I try to give every detail that I can as a way to try to bring answers and closures to the case. But again, if you know anything about the murder of Marisa in 2001, please call the Philadelphia Police at 215 -686 -8477. As always, I will be providing graphics of Marisa. They'll be up on our Instagram, at coldandmissing. They will also be up on our website,
coldandmissing .com. yes so if you're not following us please follow us on instagram at cold and missing not only will we have pictures but also any updates or if we ever need to skip a week on the podcast we'll always be sure to update you there and then also on our website our transcripts in case you or someone you love is hard of hearing you can find the official transcripts to all of our episodes on there um as well as all of our old episodes and then if you could take a
minute to rate and review our podcast in your podcast player, five stars, drop us a comment, wherever you're listening, a thumbs up, a five stars goes a really long way to getting this podcast out there and getting Marisa's case out there. So if this was a case that you hadn't heard of before, maybe give us a review, maybe share it on your social network, whatever it feels good for you, feels good to me. So thank
you. But that is all I have for you today. Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Ali. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Have a good week and stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe, y 'all.