Episode description

February 14, 1985. Colorado Springs, Colorado. The bodies of 37-year old Cassandra Rundle and her two children, 12-year old Detrick Sturm and 10-year old Melanie Sturm, are discovered inside their respective bedrooms at their residence. The two females were sexually assaulted and beaten and all three victims have been strangled to death. Since Cassandra had placed some personal ads in a local newspaper and received responses from a number of men, there is speculation that this might be connected to the crime. Years later, Philip Wilkinson, an inmate serving time on death row for the similar murders of another family, is looked at as a possible suspect, but there is no conclusive evidence to implicate him or anyone else. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore an unsolved Valentine’s Day cold case involving a mother and her children which is sometimes referred to as the “Lonely Hearts Murders”.

If you have any information about this case, please contact the Colorado Springs Police Department at (719) 444-7000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

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Additional Reading:

https://gazette.com/colorado-cold-case/lonely-hearts/colorado-cold-case-friends-investigators-share-hope-for-justice-in-triple-homicide/article_09b105f2-6c63-11ea-bbe4-ff7d230cbb94.html

https://gazette.com/colorado-cold-case/colorado-cold-case-episode-2-looks-at-early-days-of-investigation-into-1985-triple-homicide/article_de18ef04-54c5-11ea-ba2b-4335768f1928.html

https://gazette.com/colorado-cold-case/lonely-hearts/colorado-cold-case-confession-in-north-carolina-triple-homicide-raises-questions-about-unsolved-1985-valentine/article_bd18f512-64a9-11ea-97a7-b3f5ea72b74b.html

https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/mother-children-murder-colorado-springs-cold-case/73-6678d864-81f4-45a1-841e-32a5bc564023

https://apnews.com/2b7879bf5bc9db6be84fd8344123dd91

https://web.archive.org/web/20160322164426/https://gazette.com/few-left-to-remember-horrific-valentines-day-killings/article/133323/

https://web.archive.org/web/20100307083729/http://blogs.denverpost.com/coldcases/2010/02/21/family-of-3-beaten-with-hockey-stick-strangled/

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“The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at  “Crimecon 2022: Vegas” at Paris & Bally’s in Las Vegas from April 29-May 1, 2022. To get a 10 % discount off a standard badge, please use our specialized promo code, “TRAIL”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.com/.

“The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Leonardo Royal Hotel &  Spa in London on June 11-12, 2022. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to the event, please use our specialized promo  code, “COLD22”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk.

“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.