Episode description

December 5, 1998. Klamath County, Oregon. Eight-year old Derrick Engebretson travels to Winema National Forest with his father and grandfather in order to get a Christmas tree, but winds up becoming separated from them. An extensive search effort fails to find Derrick, though an eyewitness reports having seen a boy matching Derrick’s description struggling with an unidentified man near the road. Years later, a convicted child predator named Frank Milligan confesses to Derrick’s murder, but he fails to lead authorities to his body and soon recants his confession, so Derrick remains a missing person.

August 31, 1975. Chain of Ponds, Maine. While on a camping trip with his family at the Natanis Point Campground, four-year old Kurt Newton sees his father driving away from the campsite to go chop some firewood and decides to follow him on his tricycle. A short time later, Kurt’s abandoned tricycle is found eight-tenths of a mile away next to a dumpsite, but Kurt himself has disappeared and an extensive search fails to turn up any trace of the boy. Since the campground is located only six miles from the United States-Canada border, Kurt’s family fears that he may have been abducted and taken into Quebec, but there is no evidence to indicate what happened.

On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we cover a pair of unsolved cold cases involving young boys who vanished without a trace in the wilderness.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Derrick Engebretson, please contact the Klamath County Sheriff’s Office at (541) 883-5130. If you have any information on the disappearance of Kurt Newton, please contact the Maine State Police at (207) 289-2155.

Thanks Faherty. Get 20% off your first purchase by going to fahertybrand.com/COLD with promo code COLD at checkout.

Join us on Saturday, December 11 at 8:00pm EST for an online streaming marathon where we will be watching classic segments from “Unsolved Mysteries”. You can enter our screening room by clicking on this link.

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Derrick_Engebretson

https://charleyproject.org/case/derrick-james-engebretson

https://www.oregonlive.com/nwheadlines/2008/12/revisiting_a_tragic_tenyear_my.html

https://tdn.com/news/oregon-boy-still-missing-after-years/article_020033d5-6f82-54aa-aa3d-af560f05b8f5.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cruel-joke-or-mindless-scrawl/

https://ktvl.com/news/local/20-years-later-family-still-holding-out-hope-missing-boy-will-return-home

http://derrickengebretson.blogspot.com/

https://charleyproject.org/case/kurt-ronald-newton

https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-history/kurt-newton-disappearance/

https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1003&context=warden_docs

https://www.sunjournal.com/2010/09/01/mystery-surrounds-boys-disappearance/

http://victimsnewsonline.com/missing-persons/dna-doesnt-match-in-case-of-woman-claiming-to-be-missing-jennifer-klein/

“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.

“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on  GetVokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.