CrimeConVersations is a brand-new true crime podcast brought to you by CrimeCon UK. As part of the lead-up to CrimeCon UK in London, Crimecon UK is bringing two true crime podcasts together to find out more about their fascination with true crime. Each episode will explore subjects such as how they got involved in true crime, the cases that have stuck in their mind and the process behind their podcast. On this particular episode, Robin Warder from “The Trail Went Cold” and Aaron from “Generation...
Jun 07, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep 329•Transcript available on Metacast May 25, 2003. Luanda, Angola. 50-year old Ben Charles Padilla, an American citizen overseeing a rebuilding project on a Boeing 727 at Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport, is reportedly seen boarding the plane alongside a Congolese mechanic named John Mikel Mutantu. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft takes off without clearance before it vanishes without a trac and an extensive search effort fails to find it. Since neither Padilla or Mutantu seemed to have the necessary training required to f...
Jun 02, 2021•41 min•Ep 328•Transcript available on Metacast September 20, 1994. Oak Grove, Kentucky. 22-year old Candy Belt and 18-year old Gloria Ross are found dead at the massage parlour where they work, as they have both been shot in the head and had their throats slashed. It turns out the business was a front for a brothel and suspicion is directed towards a local police officer named Ed Carter, who is alleged to have been involved in a dispute with the massage parlour’s owner. Nineteen years later, Carter and two other suspects are charged for thei...
May 26, 2021•54 min•Ep 327•Transcript available on Metacast June 16, 2009. Rosses Point, Ireland. The body of a man who appears to be in his late fifties or early sixties is found washed up on a beach and his cause of death is believed to be acute cardiac arrest. Four days earlier, the man had arrived in the nearby town of Sligo and checked into a hotel under the name “Peter Bergmann”, but it turns out this name was fake and he carries no identification. Investigators believe that he travelled to Ireland from another country and use CCTV footage to track...
May 19, 2021•44 min•Ep 326•Transcript available on Metacast May 10, 1941. Carolina Beach, North Carolina. 36-year old Leila Bryan and her three-year old daughter, Mary Rachel Bryan, leave their home in the family car in order to drive to a nearby store, but never return. After they are reported missing, an extensive search fails to turn up any trace of them or their car, but Leila’s family suspects that her husband, E.C. Bryan, might be responsible for the disappearances. Decades later, investigators perform a dig under the concrete foundation of E.C.’s ...
May 12, 2021•42 min•Ep 325•Transcript available on Metacast March 18, 2000. Whatcom County, Washington. A damaged Jeep belonging to 23-year old Leah Roberts is found at the bottom of an embankment next to a remote highway. Nine days earlier, Leah had left her home in North Carolina to take a cross-country road trip, but even though all of her personal possessions are left behind at the accident scene, Leah herself is missing. The investigation eventually uncovers evidence to suggest that the accident might have been staged and the Jeep was unoccupied whe...
May 05, 2021•45 min•Ep 324•Transcript available on Metacast May 31, 1995. Goderich, Ontario. After leaving her school, 16-year old Mistie Murray fails to return home and is subsequently reported missing. Even though there are several eyewitness sightings placing Mistie at numerous locations in the weeks following her disappearance, police focus their attention on her adoptive father, Steve Murray. Over three months later, Steve is arrested for Mistie’s murder after he is accused using his boat to dump her body in Lake Huron. However, since there is virtu...
Apr 28, 2021•48 min•Ep 323•Transcript available on Metacast August 12, 1992. Panama City Beach, Florida. After leaving her home in Georgia on a vacation with her two children, 36-year old Pamela June Ray arrives at a beachfront motel during the early morning hours and parks in front of the office. Pamela’s children are sleeping in the back seat, but when they wake up a few hours later, they learn that their mother has vanished and a patrol officer reports having seen Pamela in the company of an unidentified man shortly before she went missing. Years late...
Apr 21, 2021•45 min•Ep 322•Transcript available on Metacast September 4, 1964. Great Falls, Montana. 43-year old Jim Arrotta and his 35-year old wife, Lois Arrotta, are found stabbed to death inside a grocery store where Jim works as the manager. Since the couple’s children last saw them at their home when they went to bed the previous night, investigators theorize that Jim and Lois were lured to the store and killed during a botched robbery. Over 37 years later, Alan Reavley, a former employee who had been fired from the grocery store for theft, is char...
Apr 14, 2021•53 min•Ep 321•Transcript available on Metacast April 13, 1976. Jessup, Maryland. Ralph Sigler, a 47-year old Chief Warrant Officer with the United States Army, is found dead inside a motel room after an apparent suicide in which he electrocuted himself. For the past decade, Ralph had been working as a counterintelligence agent who provided classified information to spies from the Soviet Union, but since he had fallen under suspicion for failing several polygraph tests, the Army concludes that Ralph elected to take his own life. However, Ralp...
Apr 07, 2021•52 min•Ep 320•Transcript available on Metacast September 10, 2001. New York City. 31-year old Sneha Philip leaves her Lower Manhattan apartment and is last seen purchasing items at a nearby department store alongside an unidentified woman. Sneha does not return home that night and after the September 11 attacks take place the following morning, she is never heard from again. Since Sneha lived only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center, it is theorized that she may have gone there and been killed when the towers collapsed. However, si...
Mar 31, 2021•51 min•Ep 319•Transcript available on Metacast January 31, 1976. Bastrop County, Texas. After 73-year old John Whatley and his 68-year old wife, Faye Whatley, fail to show up at the wedding for Faye’s granddaughter, the police are asked to perform a wellness check at their ranch. John and Faye are discovered to be missing, but there is a bullet hole in their bedroom window and the entire bedroom door has been removed from the residence. Years later, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confesses to having murdered the Whatleys and disposed of their...
Mar 24, 2021•46 min•Ep 318•Transcript available on Metacast May 1, 2002. San Francisco, California. After finishing a phone call with one of her sisters, 24-year old Evelyn Hernandez and her five-year old son, Alex Hernandez, vanish without explanation. At the time, Evelyn was only six days away from giving birth to her second child, but when she fails to resurface by her due date, she is officially reported missing. Over three months later, Evelyn’s torso and legs wash up onshore along San Francisco Bay, but neither Alex nor the fetus for Evelyn’s unbor...
Mar 17, 2021•40 min•Ep 317•Transcript available on Metacast October 4, 1978. Lyon County, Iowa. The decomposed body of a murdered young woman is discovered in a ditch next to a rural road, but since she carries no identification, she remains a Jane Doe for the next 27 years. The victim is eventually identified as 23-year old Wilma June Nissen, who originally hailed from California and lived a transient lifestyle prior to her death. Investigators discover that Wilma was involved with an escort service and two women she worked with may have been responsibl...
Mar 10, 2021•39 min•Ep 316•Transcript available on Metacast June 1, 1983. Louisville, Kentucky. 12-year old Ann Gotlib leaves her friend's residence in order to ride her bicycle back to her family's apartment, but she never arrives. When Ann's mother goes searching for her, she discovers Ann's abandoned bicycle outside a department store, but no trace of her can be found. 25 years later, investigators announce that new evidence seems to point towards a convicted sex offender named Gregory Oakley being responsible for Ann's disappearance. However, since O...
Mar 03, 2021•44 min•Ep 315•Transcript available on Metacast August 23, 1987. Saline County Arkansas. 16-year old Don Henry and 17-year old Kevin Ives head into the woods to do some late-night hunting, but never return. Hours later, the two boys are seen lying on some railroad tracks before they are run over by a cargo train and the medical examiner concludes they had fallen asleep after smoking marijuana and their deaths were accidental. However, Don and Kevin’s families push for a new investigation, which uncovers evidence that they were violently attac...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep 314•Transcript available on Metacast August 23, 1987. Saline County Arkansas. 16-year old Don Henry and 17-year old Kevin Ives head into the woods to do some late-night hunting, but never return. Hours later, the two boys are seen lying on some railroad tracks before they are run over by a cargo train and the medical examiner concludes they had fallen asleep after smoking marijuana and their deaths were accidental. However, Don and Kevin’s families push for a new investigation, which uncovers evidence that they were violently attac...
Feb 17, 2021•53 min•Ep 313•Transcript available on Metacast July 22, 1983. Redwood City, California. After spending the month travelling through the state, a pair of Swedish nationals - 23-year old Marie Lilienberg and 25-year old Maria Wahlen - leave their friend’s residence in order to hitchhike to Los Angeles. When they fail to make their scheduled flight and do not return home to Sweden, they are officially reported missing and their decomposing bodies are eventually found in Los Padres National Forest. Eight years later, the Swedish consulate in San...
Feb 10, 2021•39 min•Ep 312•Transcript available on Metacast July 25, 1995. Lincoln, Nebraska. 18-year old university student Tina McMenamin fails to show up for her shift at work and her body is found inside her apartment bedroom later that night. Tina has been sexually assaulted and stabbed seven times and the apartment is ransacked. Nearly one year later, DNA testing links a suspect named Gregory Gabel to a strand of hair found in Tina’s hand and he is subsequently charged with her murder. However, before Gabel can go to trial, a second round of DNA te...
Feb 03, 2021•49 min•Ep 311•Transcript available on Metacast August 4, 1984. Fort Myers, Florida. 20-year old Carol Woolsoncroft fails to show up for her shift at her workplace and is never heard from again. Three days later, Carol’s parents return home from vacation and discover her car parked outside their residence, as well as a note from Carol’s boyfriend, Eugene LaFaye Jr., who claims she has gone missing without explanation. Due to their troubled relationship, there is evidence to suggest that Eugene was responsible for Carol’s disappearance, but ev...
Jan 27, 2021•40 min•Ep 310•Transcript available on Metacast April 10, 1967. Hometown, Illinois. Ralph Probst, a 30-year old officer with the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department, spends the night at home watching television with his wife before he heads into the kitchen. Moments later, Ralph is fatally shot in back of the head after an unknown assailant fires a bullet through the kitchen window. Investigators look into the possibility that Ralph’s murder may have been orchestrated by a notorious mobster or that he was killed because he was secretly wo...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep 309•Transcript available on Metacast December 15, 1996. Willingboro Township, New Jersey. After saying goodnight to her family, 12-year old Celina Mays heads for her bedroom, but is discovered to be missing the following morning. At the time, Celina was living with her father and a number of other relatives, who were all members of Gospel of Christ Ministries Inc., a church run by her paternal aunt which has been accused of operating like a cult. It also turns out that Celina was nine months pregnant at the time she went missing an...
Jan 13, 2021•44 min•Ep 308•Transcript available on Metacast October 16, 1987. Indiana, Pennsylvania. Jack Davis Jr., a 20-year old sophomore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, spends the night partying and drinking with members of his fraternity, but he never returns to his apartment. Five days later, Jack’s body is found at the bottom of an exterior stairwell on the university’s campus and the county coroner concludes that Jack passed out there while intoxicated and choked to death on his own vomit. However, there are a number of discrepancies which...
Jan 06, 2021•51 min•Ep 307•Transcript available on Metacast In 2018, “The Trail Went Cold” released a special Q&A episode in which Robin Warder answered a number of questions from listeners. This year, we decided to do a follow-up episode and received some more interesting questions. Of all the cases you’ve covered, which ones have the best chance of being solved in the near-future? What do your family and co-workers think about the podcast? What is the average day in the life of a podcaster like? What cases would you like to cover, but need addition...
Dec 30, 2020•2 hr 3 min•Ep 306•Transcript available on Metacast Christmas Day 1929. Stradbally, Ireland. After completing his holiday route, 49-year old postman Larry Griffin fails to return home and his bicycle is found on a road outside the village the following morning. Once a missing persons investigation is launched, rumours start circulating that Larry was killed after an incident at a local pub and a massive cover-up took place. Ten people are eventually charged for their alleged roles in Larry’s death, but his body cannot be found and the key eyewitn...
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep 305•Transcript available on Metacast Christmas Eve 2002. Port Allen, Louisiana. After leaving her home on a road trip to visit her husband in prison for the holidays, 65-year old Mari Ann Fowler stops at a strip mall to purchase some food from a Subway sandwich shop. When she walks back into the parking lot, Mari Ann vanishes without a trace and surveillance footage from a security camera shows that she was abducted by the unidentified driver of a pick-up truck. Months later, serial killer Derrick Todd Lee is arrested after being l...
Dec 09, 2020•42 min•Ep 304•Transcript available on Metacast December 17, 1988. Miami, Florida. Lisa Bishop, a 23-year old journalism student from the University of Georgia, leaves on a trip to Haiti on a boat called the Freedon, which is being captained by a German national named Florian Meyer Bourch. When they do not arrive at their destination and Lisa does not contact her family, a search from the Coast Guard fails to find the missing boat. Months later, an eyewitness reports having seen the Freedon in Grand Cayman weeks after it originally went missi...
Dec 02, 2020•53 min•Ep 303•Transcript available on Metacast November 28, 1985. Tarrant County, Texas. The family of 44-year old Joe Blount gathers together for Thanksgiving dinner in their trailer at the Hilltop Mobile Home Park. After making a trip to a convenience store later that night, they return home to discover a briefcase on their front doorstep. When the briefcase is opened, a bomb goes off, claiming the lives of Joe, his 15-year old daughter, Angela, and Joe’s 18-year old nephew, Michael Columbus. Fourteen years later, a suspect named Michael R...
Nov 25, 2020•56 min•Ep 302•Transcript available on Metacast February 7, 1999. Kettering, Ohio. Nine-year old Erica Baker leaves her family’s home to take their dog for a walk. While a pair of eyewitnesses see Erica in a nearby park, she soon vanishes without a trace and the dog is found unattended. Six years later, a suspect named Christian Gabriel is indicted on the charges of evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse after confessing that he was in a van which fatally struck Erica in a hit-and-run accident before the responsible parties disposed of her ...
Nov 18, 2020•44 min•Ep 301•Transcript available on Metacast January 25, 1977. Lexington, Kentucky. 24-year old Melanie Flynn leaves her workplace, but fails to show up for an appointment and does not return home for dinner with her family. Two weeks later, Melanie’s abandoned car is discovered in an apartment complex parking lot and her purse is found washed up next to the Kentucky River later that summer. After numerous eyewitnesses claim to have seen Melanie alive in Florida, the police close the investigation, but her family is convinced she was murde...
Nov 11, 2020•55 min•Ep 300•Transcript available on Metacast 
