The Trail Went Cold

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 w...

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. Investiga...

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 char...

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 inves...

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 tur...

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 ment...

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 t...

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 da...

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 c...

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...

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 o...

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...

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 disc...

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...

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 c...

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 an...

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 J...

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 lac...

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 Sta...

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 insi...

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...

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, Lynett...

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 devel...

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 pod...

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 fa...