Since “The Trail Went Cold” originally launched in February 2016, we have featured over 300 cold cases and unsolved mysteries on the podcast and a decent amount of them have either wound up being solved or had significant developments take place. Two years ago, we released a special “update” episode which detailed a lot of these developments, but there have since been many more new updates to share. Examples include the identification of the Sumter County Does; an arrest in the murders of Bobbie...
Dec 29, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep 359•Transcript available on Metacast Christmas Eve 1924. Babbs Switch, Oklahoma. A fire breaks out at a Christmas party taking place at a schoolhouse and claims the lives of 36 people. The remains of one of the presumed victims, three-year old Mary Elizabeth Edens, cannot be found and since Mary’s aunt recalls handing the child to an unknown person, her family believes Mary might have been abducted. Over 32 years later, evidence is found to suggest that a California woman named Grace Reynolds might be Mary and she winds up having a...
Dec 22, 2021•46 min•Ep 358•Transcript available on Metacast December 15, 2000. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The former boss of 53-year old Colleen Wood calls her on her cell phone to invite her to an upcoming Christmas party, but even though Colleen says she will attend, she never shows up and is not heard from again. At the time, Colleen and her boyfriend, John Paul, were planning to leave on a five-year sailing trip around the world on John’s boat, but when John is tracked down and questioned about this months later, he claims that Colleen broke up with h...
Dec 15, 2021•49 min•Ep 357•Transcript available on Metacast 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 fa...
Dec 08, 2021•50 min•Ep 356•Transcript available on Metacast May 14, 1991. Vidor, Texas. 34-year old Kathy Page is found dead inside her car after an apparent crash into a drainage ditch just over 100 yards from her residence. While the scene resembles an accident, the evidence shows that Kathy was actually strangled to death before the crash was staged. Since Kathy’s marriage to her estranged husband, Steve Page, was falling apart and there were a number of suspicious actions on his part, Kathy’s family believe that Steve was responsible for her death. O...
Dec 01, 2021•56 min•Ep 355•Transcript available on Metacast September 30, 1987. Northumberland County, Virginia. The body of 45-year old Kay Hall is discovered on a back road underneath her pick-up truck. She has been run over and her husband, Bob Hall, immediately becomes the prime suspect. Even though Bob stood to collect on an inheritance Kay had just received and there are issues with his alibi, there is some question about whether he would have been able to track down Kay and commit the crime during a very narrow timeframe. Years later, Bob is charg...
Nov 24, 2021•41 min•Ep 354•Transcript available on Metacast October 8, 2009. Latimer County, Oklahoma. 44-year old Bobby Jamison, his 40-year old wife, Sherilynn Jamison, and their six-year old daughter, Madyson Jamison, leave their home to go look at a plot of land in a remote mountainous area, but never return. Eight days later, their abandoned pick-up truck is discovered on a dirt road located thirty miles from their residence, but even though the family’s dog and many of their personal items are locked inside the truck and a bag containing $32,000 is...
Nov 17, 2021•58 min•Ep 353•Transcript available on Metacast May 25, 2000. Mercer County, Pennsylvania. After last being seen at a convenience store, 46-year old Sandra Kay Baker supposedly phones her fiancée, Billy Crea Jr., to say that she is in danger and cannot return home, but she is never heard from again. Five years later, Billy is named as a suspect in Sandy’s disappearance after a private detective he had once hired named Clifford Aley is charged with lying to law enforcement. Aley reveals that he heard Billy confess to Sandy’s murder, but there ...
Nov 10, 2021•39 min•Ep 352•Transcript available on Metacast June 15, 1994. Loxahatchee, Florida. 31-year old Moses Lall and his 36-year old aunt, Lila Buerattan, are discovered to be missing from their ranch, where they run a business breeding and selling exotic birds. They were last heard from eleven days earlier and one of their employees, Daljeet “Hari” Gobin, had reportedly shared a story about seeing them get abducted at gunpoint by two men. Investigators soon learn that Gobin was picked up by police in Georgia while driving Moses’ van and using his...
Nov 03, 2021•40 min•Ep 351•Transcript available on Metacast June 12, 1987. Flagstaff, Arizona. After finishing her shift at the Flagstaff Medical Center, 40-year old Navajo woman Sarah Saganitso never returns home and her nude body is found in a nearby wooded area the following day. Her exact cause of death is asphyxiation via suffocation and there appear to be bite marks around her left breast. Nearly two months later, a suspect named George Abney is charged with the murder after making a confession, but he maintains that it was coerced. At trial, Abney...
Oct 27, 2021•56 min•Ep 350•Transcript available on Metacast July 16, 1996. Nutley, New Jersey. 36-year old Susan Walsh leaves her son in the care of her estranged husband and says she needs to step out to make some phone calls, but she never returns to her apartment and is not heard from again. At the time, Susan had been working as a freelance journalist and an exotic dancer, but was also struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues. The investigation into Susan’s disappearance explores a number of different angles – including Russian mobste...
Oct 20, 2021•56 min•Ep 349•Transcript available on Metacast February 14, 1945. Lower Quinton, England. 74-year old farm labourer Charles Walton leaves his home in order to spending the day slashing hedges on the slopes of Meon Hill. Later that evening, Charles’ body is discovered next to the hedgerow and he has been beaten with his walking stick, had his throat slashed with a billhook, and been stabbed with a pitchfork. While the original investigation turns up a potential suspect, there is not enough evidence to implicate him, but as the years go on, Ch...
Oct 13, 2021•55 min•Ep 348•Transcript available on Metacast January 15, 2008. Chicago, Illinois. 15-year old Yasmin Acree is seen going to bed in the basement of her residence, but she is discovered to be missing the following day and there are signs of a break-in on the exterior basement door. Over one year later, Jimmie Terrell Smith, who had previously lived in the upstairs apartment at Yasmin’s residence, is charged with a series of sex crimes and mentions of Smith’s name are found in Yasmin’s diary. Even though Smith claims to have knowledge of what...
Oct 06, 2021•40 min•Ep 347•Transcript available on Metacast July 19, 1996. Westwego, Louisiana. After leaving her apartment to walk to a supermarket, 14-year old Crystal Champagne fails to return and is found strangled to death in a wooded area the following evening. When Crystal’s 22-year old step-cousin, Damon Thibodeaux, is interrogated by police, he confesses to her murder and is subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. However, Damon maintains that his confession was coerced and none of the physical evidence from the crime matches him, so afte...
Sep 29, 2021•47 min•Ep 346•Transcript available on Metacast March 27, 2004. London, England. 50-year old Richard Lancelyn Green, considered to be the world’s foremost scholar on Sherlock Holmes, is discovered dead on top of his bed inside his flat. His cause of death is determined to be asphyxiation, as he was garrotted with a shoelace which was tightened around his neck with a wooden spoon. Prior to his death, Lancelyn Green told people his life was in danger over a dispute involving a collection of rare documents from author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but...
Sep 22, 2021•46 min•Ep 345•Transcript available on Metacast October 28, 1991. Wheeling, Illinois. A 911 dispatcher receives an anonymous call from a payphone by a man asking for medical attention for a woman. When paramedics arrive at the address the caller provides, they discover the unconscious body of 27-year old exotic dancer Jamie Santos on her bedroom floor and it turns out she has been suffocated with a pillow. There is ambiguity about whether the caller was Jamie’s killer or an innocent bystander who found her body, but he cannot be identified an...
Sep 15, 2021•42 min•Ep 344•Transcript available on Metacast November 7, 1997. New York City. 54-year old Michael Sullivan and his 36-year old girlfriend, Camden Sylvia, vanish without explanation from their loft in Manhattan and are reported missing six days later. Suspicion falls upon the couple’s landlord, Robert Rodriguez, who was involved in a dispute with them prior to their disappearances and refuses to cooperate with the investigation. It turns out that Rodriguez is connected to the unsolved disappearance of another man named David King which took...
Sep 08, 2021•41 min•Ep 343•Transcript available on Metacast June 29, 2001. Marysville, Ohio. After completing her shift at the Honda automotive plant, 29-year old Patti Adkins clocks out in order to leave on what she claims is a vacation to Canada with her boyfriend. When Patti fails to return after a week-and-a-half, she is reported missing, but her boyfriend denies this trip took place or that he was even involved in a relationship with Patti. It turns out this man was married and Patti had been paying him large sums of money during their affair, but e...
Sep 01, 2021•44 min•Ep 342•Transcript available on Metacast March 1, 1976. Bethesda, Maryland. 37-year old Annette Bishop, her 68-year old mother-in-law Lobelia Bishop, and Annette’s three sons – 14-year old Brad, 10-year old Brent and five-year old Geoffrey – are all bludgeoned to death inside their home. The following day, the victims’ burning bodies are discovered in a shallow hole in a remote area of North Carolina, but the family’s patriarch – 39-year old William Bradford Bishop – is missing. Since the evidence shows that Bishop committed the crime,...
Aug 25, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep 341•Transcript available on Metacast February 23, 1974. Los Angeles, California. Police are summoned to the home of 41-year old orthopedic surgeon Ted Loseff after his wife, Wilda, claims that he threatened her with a gun. When police search the residence, they find Ted’s body inside his car in the garage and he has seemingly taken his own life via carbon monoxide poisoning. However, Ted’s mother discovers a number of suspicious discrepancies to suggest her son did not kill himself and that Wilda may hired someone to murder him and...
Aug 18, 2021•45 min•Ep 340•Transcript available on Metacast July 26, 1993. Llanharry, Wales. 65-year old Harry Tooze and his 67-year old wife, Megan Tooze, are both shot to death at their remote farm before their bodies are hidden inside the cowshed. The investigation eventually focuses on Jonathan Jones, the boyfriend of the Toozes’ daughter, and after his thumbprint is found on a saucer inside the farmhouse, he is charged with the murders. While Jonathan is found guilty of the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment, the Court of Appeal deems his conv...
Aug 11, 2021•43 min•Ep 339•Transcript available on Metacast June 13, 1977. Ohio County, West Virginia. Roberta Elam, a 26-year old postulant known as “Sister Robin” who is planning to become a nun, is seen living the motherhouse of the Mount St. Joseph convent. Hours later, Sister Robin’s body is found on top of a nearby hill in a secluded mediation area and she has been raped and strangled to death. There is immediate speculation that the crime might be connected to the murders of four other young women, which took place in neighbouring Washington Count...
Aug 04, 2021•43 min•Ep 338•Transcript available on Metacast November 15, 1986. Willow Creek, California. A fire breaks out at a mobile home belonging to the family of 16-year old twin sisters, Jill and Julie Hansen. Both girls receive shotgun blasts to the stomach and while Jill dies at the scene, Julie passes away at the hospital one month later. Since evidence implicates their 21-year old half-brother, Donny Hansen, he is charged with arson and murder and goes on trial for the crime. However, since eyewitnesses reported seeing two other unidentified me...
Jul 28, 2021•43 min•Ep 337•Transcript available on Metacast July 6, 1986. Owensboro, Kentucky. 16-year old Shannon Green disappears after leaving her residence to visit a family friend. Days later, Shannon’s mother receives a phone call from someone calling himself “Dewayne”, who claims that he and Shannon ran away together to get married. Shortly thereafter, an 18-year old acquaintance of Shannon’s named David Dewayne Bell also goes missing. A man named John Reneer eventually provides the authorities with a tape of a recording in which Dewayne seemingly...
Jul 21, 2021•42 min•Ep 336•Transcript available on Metacast February 3, 1972. Boone, North Carolina. 51-year old Bryce Durham, his 44-year old wife Virginia, and their 18-year old son Bobby Joe are found strangled to death and drowned inside their bathroom after an apparent home invasion. Months later, four suspects with a history of burglary are arrested for their alleged roles in the murders, but the charges against them are eventually dropped due to lack of evidence. Suspicion falls upon the Durhams’ son-in-law, Troy Hall, who claims that he received ...
Jul 14, 2021•44 min•Ep 335•Transcript available on Metacast January 10, 1983. Tacoma, Washington. Two-year old Wallace Guidroz is reported missing by his father, Stanley Guidroz, who claims that he brought Wallace to a local park and last saw him in the company of an unidentified couple and a young girl. 28 years later, Stanley is charged with an unrelated murder and confesses that he accidentally killed Wallace and disposed of his body. However, since Stanley’s confession is supressed by the court, he does not go on trial for the crime. A search fails t...
Jul 07, 2021•49 min•Ep 334•Transcript available on Metacast October 15, 1974. Overland Park, Kansas. 32-year old businessman Gary Simmons leaves his office in order to purchase a horse from a man named Tom Dixon. Later that day, Gary provides authorization for Dixon to cash a $30,000 cheque he paid him, but Gary is never heard from again and Dixon also disappears after collecting the money. Seventeen years later, Gary’s skeletal remains are discovered inside a cave and it turns out he has been shot in the head. While Dixon is believed to be involved, he ...
Jun 30, 2021•44 min•Ep 333•Transcript available on Metacast January 14, 1950. West Point, New York. 21-year old Richard Colvin Cox, a second-year cadet at the United States Military Academy, tells his roommate that he is planning to go out to dinner with a visitor, but he does not return and is eventually reported missing. During the preceding week, Cox was visited on multiple occasions by a man whose name may have been “George” and Cox is believed to have been with him when he vanished. George’s identity is never conclusively established and over the ye...
Jun 23, 2021•58 min•Ep 332•Transcript available on Metacast May 6, 1975. Pocatello, Idaho. After leaving her school on her lunch break, 12-year old Lynette Culver vanishes without a trace and is subsequently reported missing. Nearly 14 years later, prior to his execution, notorious serial killer Ted Bundy confesses to being responsible for Lynette’s murder. While Bundy provides specific details to make many people believe his confession was genuine, Lynette’s body is never found, and in the years following her disappearance, four other girls from Pocatel...
Jun 16, 2021•47 min•Ep 331•Transcript available on Metacast April 6, 1986. Gallup, New Mexico. The mother of nine-year old Anthonette Cayedito wakes up to discover that her daughter is missing from their home and she cannot be found anywhere. Anthonette’s sister would later claim she was abducted by two men after answering the door in the middle of the night, though she does not reveal this information until years later. There are a number of strange developments in the investigation, including a frantic phone call to the police from a girl claiming to b...
Jun 09, 2021•49 min•Ep 330•Transcript available on Metacast