June 19, 1984. Fernald, Ohio. 39-year old Dave Bocks shows up to work the graveyard shift at the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center, a plant which processes uranium for nuclear weapons. Dave vanishes before his shift ends and evidence soon emerges that he fell into some molten liquid inside one of the plant’s furnaces. The authorities initially suspect that Dave could have committed suicide and find no evidence of foul play, but months later, the plant is implicated in a major scandal invo...
Sep 18, 2019•46 min•Ep 240•Transcript available on Metacast September 11, 2001. Tioga County, New York. 35-year old Michele Harris finishes her evening shift at her workplace, but never returns home. The following morning, Michele’s abandoned minivan is discovered on a road next to the driveway of her family’s rural property. Suspicion turns towards Michele’s estranged husband, Cal Harris, as the couple are in the midst of a heated divorce and tiny specks of blood are soon found inside their residence. Years later, Cal is charged with Michele’s murder an...
Sep 11, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep 239•Transcript available on Metacast “The Trail Went Cold” is taking a break this week after a busy summer of live shows and conventions! In place of a brand new episode, please enjoy this Patreon-exclusive bonus episode from last year covering the case of Kent Heitholt. Robin covered this same case at the Ottawa Podcast Festival in August 2019. November 1, 2001. Columbia, Missouri. Kent Heitholt, a 48-year old sports editor for the Columbia Daily Tribune, is severely beaten and strangled to death in their parking lot. Two-and-a-ha...
Sep 04, 2019•50 min•Ep 238•Transcript available on Metacast August 15, 2002. Bassett, Virginia. 50-year old Michael Short and his 36-year old wife, Mary, are found shot to death inside their home, but the couple’s nine-year old daughter, Jennifer, is missing. Over one month later, Jennifer’s remains are discovered over 30 miles away in a rural area of North Carolina and it turns out she has been shot to death as well. The investigation turns up some promising leads, including a person of interest named Garrison Bowman, as well as an eyewitness sighting o...
Aug 28, 2019•41 min•Ep 237•Transcript available on Metacast April 19, 1988. Suncrest, Washington. 36-year old Doyle Wheeler, a former police officer from the San Diego Police Department, is attacked inside his home by a group of armed intruders. They force Wheeler to write a suicide note at gunpoint, hog-tie him, and fire a shot which grazes the side of his head, but he winds up surviving the attack. Evidence seems to link the intruders to another San Diego police officer named Donovan Jacobs whom Wheeler had testified against at a previous murder trial....
Aug 21, 2019•58 min•Ep 236•Transcript available on Metacast October 21, 1954. Verdun, Quebec. Nine-year old Clifford Sherwood leaves for school and meets up with his 12-year old friend, George Gumbly. The two boys never arrive at school or return home and are subsequently reported missing. Clifford’s mother, Frances Sherwood, believes that her abusive ex-husband, Nephi “Tex” Sherwood, abducted Clifford and took him across the country to British Columbia, but there is no evidence to implicate him. When Tex passes away three decades later, his family disco...
Aug 14, 2019•52 min•Ep 235•Transcript available on Metacast March 29, 1995. Somerville, Massachusetts. 17-year old Deanna Cremin spends the evening with her boyfriend, Tommy LeBlanc, but fails to return home. The following morning, Deanna’s body is found behind a senior housing complex and she has been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. According to Tommy, he had walked Deanna halfway to her house before turning around and heading back home, but he denies any involvement in her murder. While Tommy and two other individuals are looked at as person...
Aug 07, 2019•46 min•Ep 234•Transcript available on Metacast July 10, 1958. Monterey County, California. 26-year old First Lieutenant Paul Whipkey leaves Fort Ord, the Army base where he is stationed. When he fails to return, he is declared AWOL before being declared a “deserter” 30 days later. Five weeks after he went missing, Whipkey’s abandoned car is discovered nearly 500 miles away in a remote section of Death Valley. Since Whipkey’s body cannot be found, the Army believes he suffered a mental breakdown and wandered into the desert and died. However,...
Jul 31, 2019•43 min•Ep 233•Transcript available on Metacast April 26, 1980. St. Kilda, Australia. 43-year old Louise Faulkner and her two-year old daughter, Charmian Faulkner, are seen climbing into a car driven by an older man. Louise had told a neighbour she was planning to visit her boyfriend at his farm, but she does not return and both Louise and her daughter are reported missing. The investigation eventually focuses on George Sutherland, a married man who had been carrying on an affair with Louise and is believed to be Charmian’s biological father....
Jul 24, 2019•45 min•Ep 232•Transcript available on Metacast April 30, 1991. Santa Clara County, California. After spending the night in downtown San Jose with his friend, Jean, 36-year old Dick Hansen notices that he is being watched by a man in a car. When Dick and Jean leave the city in their respective vehicles, they are followed by this man for over ten miles, prompting Dick to leave the freeway and pull over. When Dick walks over to the man’s vehicle to confront him, he is shot twice before the driver flees the scene. Jean is left alive as a witness...
Jul 17, 2019•43 min•Ep 231•Transcript available on Metacast January 19, 1944. Chicago, Illinois. 54-year old Adele Born Williams returns to her eighth-floor suite at the Drake Hotel alongside her daughter, Patricia Goodbody. A woman dressed in black suddenly emerges from the bathroom and fires a shot into Adele’s head before fleeing the scene and Adele dies the following day. To everyone’s surprise, one police lieutenant suspects Patricia of being the killer and believes that the mysterious “woman in black” did not exist. However, other evidence seems to...
Jul 10, 2019•47 min•Ep 230•Transcript available on Metacast August 23, 2009. Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. 29-year old Toni Lee Sharpless attends a party with her friend, Crystal Johns, but when Toni becomes intoxicated and starts displaying erratic behaviour, both she and Crystal are asked to leave. While driving away, the two friends get into an argument which leads to Crystal being kicked out of the car. This is the last time Toni or her vehicle are ever seen and there is concern that her disappearance might be connected to her struggles with bipolar disord...
Jul 03, 2019•41 min•Ep 229•Transcript available on Metacast August 4, 1992. Houston, Texas. While working her shift as a waitress at a strip club, 23-year old Tara Breckenridge volunteers to go home early. Tara leaves at around 12:30 AM, but when she fails to return to her apartment by morning, Tara’s boyfriend, Wayne Hecker, goes searching for her. Wayne soon discovers Tara’s abandoned car next to a freeway and the vehicle’s alternator belt is missing. Wayne becomes a potential suspect, as his relationship with Tara was troubled and he has a shaky alibi...
Jun 26, 2019•40 min•Ep 228•Transcript available on Metacast February 19, 1971. Sumter County, Florida. The body of a young woman is found floating beneath a bridge in Lake Panasoffkee. She has been strangled to death with a belt, but in spite of some intriguing clues, the victim cannot be identified and is named “Little Miss Panasoffkee”. Four decades later, investigators explore the possibly that she may have originally hailed from Greece and was murdered after travelling to the United States, but Little Miss Panasoffkee’s true identity cannot be conclu...
Jun 19, 2019•57 min•Ep 227•Transcript available on Metacast November 21, 1985. Littleton, Colorado. A masked gunman enters the home of 51-year old businessman Roger Dean and forces him to tie up and blindfold his wife, D.J.. After an apparent dispute over money, the gunman fatally shoots Roger and flees the scene, but investigators find evidence to suggest that Roger may have hired the intruder himself in a failed attempt at a kidnapping-robbery scheme. Nearly five years later, D.J. receives an anonymous letter from a man claiming to be Roger’s killer, w...
Jun 12, 2019•43 min•Ep 226•Transcript available on Metacast March 2, 1995. New Orleans, Louisiana. After leaving a restaurant with his date in the French Quarter, 25-year old Michael Gerardi is fatally gunned down by a trio of robbers. Weeks later, 16-year old Shareef Cousin is implicated in the crime and charged with first-degree murder. Even though Shareef seems to have an airtight alibi, Michael’s date identifies him as the shooter at trial. Shareef is found guilty and becomes one of the youngest people to ever be sentenced to death, but the verdict i...
Jun 05, 2019•56 min•Ep 225•Transcript available on Metacast August 16, 1996. Clayton County, Georgia. 34-year old Sherri Holland leaves her vacation home in Flagler Beach, Florida in order to drive back to her residence in Atlanta, but never arrives. Eight days later, Sherri’s abandoned BMW is discovered on the northbound shoulder of Interstate 75 with a nail in one of the tires and her two dogs are soon found in a field a few miles away. An investigation into Sherri’s background uncovers a lot of surprising secrets, as it turns out she operated an escor...
May 29, 2019•41 min•Ep 224•Transcript available on Metacast August 28, 1991. Houma, Louisiana. 50-year old A.J. Breaux leaves an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at the local Easy Does It Club, but never returns home. Two days later, A.J.’s abandoned car is found in a park across the street from the club and many of his possessions are still inside. That very same day, multiple eyewitnesses reporting seeing A.J. with three unidentified men in a red compact car, and the case would feature more strange developments, including an anonymous note stating that A.J...
May 22, 2019•41 min•Ep 223•Transcript available on Metacast September 4, 1993. Plano, Texas. While attending a soccer game at Carpenter Park with her family, seven-year old Ashley Estell goes missing after an apparent abduction. The following day, Ashley is found strangled to death next to an isolated dirt road six miles away. The investigation soon leads to a paroled sex offender named Michael Blair, who is subsequently convicted of Ashley’s murder and sentenced to death. However, as the years go by, the case against Blair begins to fall apart and DNA t...
May 15, 2019•43 min•Ep 222•Transcript available on Metacast November 21, 1979. Craig, Colorado. After spending the evening at a dance, 15-year old Marie Blee heads to a party at a mobile home park, but never returns home. Two days later, Marie’s parents receive an anonymous phone call demanding a $5,000 ransom for her return. The caller is soon revealed to be 18-year old Monty Doolin, who drove Marie to the party, but he denies any involvement in her disappearance. Over the next few decades, investigators would receive contradictory accounts from several...
May 08, 2019•40 min•Ep 221•Transcript available on Metacast April 22, 1985. Vinita Park, Missouri. 27-year old wife and mother Linda Sherman does not show up for shift at work and her abandoned car is soon discovered in an airport parking garage. Since Linda had recently filed for divorce from her controlling husband, Don Sherman, he is suspected of being responsible for her disappearance. Five years later, a skull is discovered outside Don’s favourite restaurant and after it is kept in an evidence room for 14 months, police receive an anonymous note con...
May 01, 2019•40 min•Ep 220•Transcript available on Metacast November 15, 1928. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. 29-year old Glen Hyde and his 22- year old wife, Bessie, decide to spend their honeymoon taking a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon down the rapids of the Colorado River and hope to attain a new speed record. Shortly after stopping at the home of a photographer named Emery Kolb, the Hydes vanish without a trace. Their empty boat is eventually discovered on the river nearly 150 miles away with all of the couple’s supplies and possessions...
Apr 24, 2019•47 min•Ep 219•Transcript available on Metacast August 18, 2010. Leduc County, Alberta. While staying with her infant son and a friend at a motel, 20-year old Amber Tuccaro decides to hitchhike to Edmonton. She never returns and is subsequently reported missing. Two years later, police release audio of a recording from Amber’s cell phone in which she can be heard conversing with a male driver on the night of her disappearance. Amber expresses fear that this man is taking her to a remote area and it seems likely she was murdered shortly after ...
Apr 17, 2019•53 min•Ep 218•Transcript available on Metacast June 26, 2009. McCleary, Washington. After stopping by a friend’s house, 10-year old Lindsey Baum leaves walk home. Even though her trip should have only taken ten minutes, Lindsey never arrives and is soon reported missing, but a massive search effort fails to turn up any trace of her. Eight years later, skeletal remains are discovered in a remote area 150 miles away and DNA testing eventually matches them to Lindsey. While the investigation turns up a couple of persons of interest, including t...
Apr 10, 2019•45 min•Ep 217•Transcript available on Metacast September 13, 1991. Burbank, California. 37-year old Tom Roche makes plans to meet his spouse, Barbara Rondeau, for lunch, but never shows up. When Barbara returns to their apartment, she discovers that the front door is unlocked and Tom is missing. Six days later, Barbara receives an envelope containing some of Tom’s personal items, along with an anonymous confession letter to his murder. While there is some speculation that Tom could have staged his own disappearance, some of his skeletal rema...
Apr 03, 2019•39 min•Ep 216•Transcript available on Metacast January 10, 1999. Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. While walking home from a friend’s house during the early morning hours, 17-year old Ricky Hochstetler is fatally struck by a vehicle on the shoulder of a county highway in a hit-and-run. The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department soon announce that parts from a Chevrolet truck or van were found at the scene, but an extensive investigation fails to turn up the vehicle which hit Ricky. As the years go on, the sheriff’s department start facing allegati...
Mar 27, 2019•54 min•Ep 215•Transcript available on Metacast February 11, 1979. Hana, Hawaii. Five men – 27-year old Scott Moorman, 31-year old Peter Hanchett, 38-year old Benjamin Kalama, 26-year old Patrick Woesner and 27-year old Ralph Malaiakini – leave the island of Maui on a fishing trip in a boat named the “Sarah Joe”. When a violent storm hits the area, the Sarah Joe and its crew do not return and an extensive search effort fails to find them. Nine-and-a-half years later, the Sarah Joe is discovered over 2,300 miles away on a remote atoll in the M...
Mar 20, 2019•41 min•Ep 214•Transcript available on Metacast July 12, 2007. Sykesville, Pennsylvania. The fire department shows up at the burning home of 33-year old Joey Lynn Offutt. The body of her six-week old infant son, Alexis Alfred Borden III, is found in the bathtub, but Joey herself is nowhere to be found. Three days later, Joey’s abandoned car is discovered over 60 miles away at an apartment complex in State College where she had previously lived. It turns out that no one can actually confirm having seen Joey or her son in the week prior to the ...
Mar 13, 2019•46 min•Ep 213•Transcript available on Metacast May 30, 1973. East Lansing, Michigan. The sister of 21-year old university student Henry Baltimore Jr. goes to meet him at his apartment, but discovers he is not there and eventually reports him missing. Nearly three months earlier, a pair of attackers had broken into Henry’s apartment to assault and rob him and police arrested a suspect named Roy Davis. After Henry testified against Davis at his preliminary hearing, Davis allegedly threatened him and Henry would go missing two days before Davis...
Mar 06, 2019•43 min•Ep 212•Transcript available on Metacast September 1, 1974. Jackson County, Oregon. 28-year old Richard Cowden, his 22-year old wife Belinda Cowden, and their two children, five-year old David and five-month old Melissa, are in the midst of a camping trip when they inexplicably vanish from their campsite near Carberry Creek, leaving all their possessions behind. Seven months later, the entire family’s remains are found at a remote location seven miles away and it turns out they were the victims of foul play. Investigators discover that...
Feb 27, 2019•39 min•Ep 211•Transcript available on Metacast 
