Cold Case Unsealed

This episode details the unsolved 2013 death of Livia Rose Smith, a Nashville resident who died after exiting a moving vehicle believed to be a taxi. Despite witnesses seeing her enter a yellow van outside a bar, investigators have never identified the driver or determined exactly what caused her to fall. Her family, led by her brother, suspects she was fleeing an attempted assault during the shor...

In 2025, an international police effort known as Operation Identify Me successfully identified Liudmila Zavada, a Russian woman whose body was discovered on a Spanish roadside two decades earlier. Long referred to as "the woman in pink," her identity was finally restored through a fingerprint match in a Turkish database and subsequent DNA verification from a relative in Russia. This breakthrough h...

This source provides a detailed account of the 1987 cold case murder of Donna Sue Hyatt in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Through the lens of the true crime program "Bloodline Detectives," the text illustrates how a brutal crime remained unsolved for over three decades despite the diligent efforts of initial investigators. The narrative highlights the transformative role of investigative genetic genealogy,...

This episode details the decades-long quest for justice led by Sheila Wysocki following the 1984 murder of her college roommate, Angie Samota. For twenty years, the case remained cold as investigators incorrectly focused on Samota’s acquaintances, eventually exhausting all leads. Driven by a personal vision, Wysocki pressured the Dallas Police Department and even became a private investigator to f...

The episode details the enduring investigation into the 1974 death of Karen Caughlin, a 14-year-old girl who vanished after being dropped off at a friend’s house in Sarnia, Ontario. Although initially treated as a homicide, a forensic reassessment in 2017 suggests she was likely killed in a vehicle collision before her body and belongings were moved to a rural ditch. Authorities are specifically s...

This episode details the decades-long investigation into the 1996 murder of Sharon Hammack, whose body was discovered bound and discarded in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Although law enforcement initially struggled with a lack of witnesses and limited forensic technology, the case was eventually revitalized through investigative genetic genealogy. By analyzing DNA from a blanket found at the crime scen...

The episode details the chilling life and crimes of Carl Eugene Watts, an American serial killer known as the "Sunday Morning Slasher." It chronicles his early childhood illness and the subsequent violent fantasies that escalated from stalking to a prolific murder spree across Michigan, Texas, and Canada. Despite multiple warnings from psychiatric experts and several arrests, systemic failures and...

The episode details the investigation into the 1964 murder of nine-year-old Marise Chiverella in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. After the case remained cold for over half a century, authorities finally identified the killer as James Forte through the use of investigative genetic genealogy. A critical turning point occurred when Eric Schubert, an eighteen-year-old genealogy prodigy, volunteered his expert...

This episode details the decades-long investigation into the 1980 murder of Nadine Madger, a young mother found stabbed to death in her Willoughby, Ohio, home. For years, the case remained cold as police struggled with limited evidence, while Nadine's husband, Mark Madger, faced unjust public suspicion. The narrative highlights the persistence of law enforcement and the revolutionary impact of inv...

This source details the investigation into Bryan Patrick Miller, the infamous "Phoenix Canal Killer" responsible for the brutal 1990s murders of Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas. For over two decades, these horrific cold cases remained unsolved despite DNA evidence linking the two crime scenes near Arizona waterways. A breakthrough occurred when investigative genetic genealogy identified the Mille...

In 2019, the FBI officially designated Samuel Little as the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States. Though he confessed to 93 murders committed between 1970 and 2005, he evaded detection for decades by targeting vulnerable women whose deaths were often misattributed to natural causes or accidents. Little's nomadic lifestyle and the lack of communication between different p...

The provided transcript details the decade-long reign of terror of Andrew Urdiales, a former Marine and security guard who committed a series of brutal murders across California and Illinois. The narrative begins with his first undetected killing in 1986 and follows the subsequent cold cases that left investigators baffled for years. A breakthrough finally occurred in 1997 when a firearm violation...

This transcript details the thirty-five-year investigation into the cold-case murders of Shannon Lloyd and Renee Cuevas in Orange County, California. Though the brutal killings occurred years apart in the late 1980s, forensic advancements eventually linked the crimes to a single perpetrator through matching DNA profiles. The breakthrough came decades later when Detective Terra Ramirez and forensic...

This transcript details the 1980 cold case murder of Robin Brooks, a young woman found dead in her California apartment. Despite leaving behind blood and fingerprint evidence, the killer remained unidentified for decades as traditional investigative methods and standard DNA databases failed to produce a match. The case was finally cracked through revolutionary forensic technologies, including DNA...

The episode details the 2021 guilty plea of Richard Francis Cottingham, a notorious serial killer known as the “Torso Killer,” for the 1974 murders of two teenage girls in New Jersey. After nearly five decades, Cottingham admitted to the kidnapping, assault, and drowning of Mary Ann Pryor and Lorraine Marie Kelly, resolving one of the state's most enduring cold cases. This breakthrough was the res...

This source chronicles the investigation into the 2002 murder of Roberto Caraballo, whose remains were discovered burned inside a trunk in a Michigan blueberry field. The case remained unsolved for over a decade until the victim's stepdaughter, Dineane Ducharme, contacted authorities after watching a documentary produced by local students. Her confession implicated her mother, ...Beverly McCallum,...

The episode details the decade-long investigation into the 1993 disappearance and murder of Zilpha Lowery in North Carolina. After hunters discovered her skeletonized remains near Lake James, forensic experts used unique sinus X-ray patterns to confirm her identity and determined her cause of death was blunt force trauma. While detectives initially suspected her ex-husband and a violent relative,...

This episode details the successful resolution of a thirty-year-old cold case involving the 1989 sexual assault and murder of twenty-year-old Krista Martin in Wichita, Kansas. Despite extensive initial efforts, local police were unable to identify a suspect, and the investigation remained stagnant for decades until modern forensic science provided a breakthrough. Using investigative genetic geneal...

The episode examines the disproportionately high rates of violence against Indigenous communities, focusing on the potential presence of serial killers in both tribal and urban areas. It highlights how systemic failures, such as jurisdictional complexities and inadequate data collection by law enforcement, frequently obscure lethal patterns and allow predators to remain undetected. The sources det...

This transcript recounts the 1989 cold case of Stephanie Isaacson, a fourteen-year-old girl who was tragically assaulted and murdered while walking to school in Las Vegas. Despite an initial investigation that yielded few leads, the case was finally resolved over thirty years later through forensic genetic genealogy. Local detectives collaborated with Othram, a specialized laboratory, using a reco...

After fourteen years, law enforcement officials in Arlington, Texas, have arrested Mayra Velasquez for the 2012 brutal killing of Irasema Chavez. The victim was discovered in her home with nearly 100 stab wounds, but the investigation stalled for over a decade due to a lack of direct matches in traditional DNA databases. Authorities finally identified Velasquez, a local real estate agent, by using...

In 1986, the violent murder of 16-year-old Deanna Ogg in Montgomery County, Texas, left a community reeling and sparked a decades-long search for the truth. The investigation was initially marred by the wrongful conviction of Roy Criner, who spent ten years in prison before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2000. For nearly forty years, the case remained cold until the Texas Rangers’ Sexual Assault K...

This episode examines several unsolved cold cases involving women who vanished or were found murdered in the Houston and Galveston areas. It specifically details the 1999 disappearance of Hope Moore, whose family and investigators suspect her husband and his brother of a cover-up. The text also highlights the decades-long mystery of "Princess Blue," an unidentified victim found in 1990, and the ev...

In 1960, the remains of an unidentified four-year-old girl, nicknamed "Little Miss Nobody," were discovered in the Arizona desert. Although investigators initially suspected the child was Sharon Lee Gallegos, a girl abducted from New Mexico ten days earlier, primitive forensic techniques and a flawed autopsy led officials to rule out a match. The case remained cold for over six decades until the Y...

The episode details the 1989 cold case murder of sixteen-year-old Fawn Marie Cox, who was killed in her Kansas City home. For over three decades, her family tirelessly campaigned for justice while the investigation stalled due to a lack of forensic technology. The breakthrough finally occurred in 2020 when federal funding from Operation Legend allowed investigators to utilize forensic genealogical...