The Trail Went Cold

February 2, 2008. Tinley Park, Illinois. Police are summoned to a Lane Bryant clothing store at the Brookside Marketplace Shopping Center and discover that five victims have been fatally shot in the back room: the 42-year old store manager Rhoda McFarland, and four customers, 37-year old Connie Wolfolk, 34-year old Jennifer Bishop, 33-year old Carrie Hudek Chiuso, and 22-year old Sarah Szafranski....

August 4, 1990. San Antonio, Texas. While walking home from her friend’s house, eleven-year old Heidi Seeman goes missing after an apparent abduction. Nineteen days later, another San Antonio girl, seven-year old Erica Botello, is abducted from outside her apartment complex. The bodies of each victim are soon found at separate locations one day apart on the same weekend, but investigators are incl...

June 14, 1974. Clearwater, Florida. After borrowing her daughter’s car and leaving her home, 38-year old Margaret Dash never returns and the abandoned vehicle is discovered in St. Petersburg one month later. It turns out that Margaret had been involved in an extramarital affair with a man named Cleveland Hill, who supposedly threatened to kill her. Over the next 15 years, two other Florida women –...

January 11, 1984. Ypsilanti, Michigan. Two armed men enter a real estate and insurance office before one of them fires a shot into the neck of the 47-year old owner, Jack Brown. The assailants then lock the office’s other employees inside the bathroom before fleeing the scene and Jack dies in the hospital several hours later. Prior to his death, Jack had hinted that he might be involved in somethi...

January 27, 2013. Bradenton, Florida. After taking his boat out onto the Braden River, 52-year old Patrick Mullins fails to return home and the abandoned boat is discovered several miles away in Egmont Channel the following day. Nine days after he vanished, Pat is found floating in Tampa Bay and it turns out he was fatally shot through the head and weighed down in the water with an anchor tied to...

The New Year’s holiday is a celebration of new beginnings. With that in mind, we know this collaboration will introduce you to several amazing new true-crime podcasts (including “The Trail Went Cold”) that will quickly become your newest true-crime binges as we enter 2024 because, let’s face it, we know that’s exactly what you needed! With tons of episodes each, investigative curiosity, and a focu...

Since “The Trail Went Cold” originally launched in February 2016, we have featured over 400 cold cases and unsolved mysteries on the podcast. A number of these cases have wound up either being solved or having major developments, so things have reached the point where we have been able to release four special “update” episodes over the past four years. On this particular episode, we’ll be discussi...

December 26, 1983. Dallas, Texas. Two-year old Amber Crum is reported missing after James Britt Monroe, the live-in boyfriend of Amber’s mother, Stephanie Hughes, informs police that Amber was abducted from his parked pick-up truck while he was inside a grocery store. Weeks later, Britt is arrested on suspicion of murder after Stephanie implicates him in Amber’s death. However, when Stephanie test...

December 23, 1993. Consett, England. 25-year old delivery driver Paul Logan brings a food order from a Chinese takeaway restaurant to a remote farm, but when he arrives, the property’s owners inform him that they never placed the order. When Paul attempts to leave, he is ambushed at the farm’s gate and bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument. It becomes apparent that the takeaway order was a s...

December 26, 1993. Monticello, Iowa. After she fails to show up for work, 22-year old Cathy Jo Bohlken is found dead inside the bedroom of her apartment. She has been bound with duct tape and has a plastic bag over her head and was sexually assaulted and stabbed at least 54 times. Two years later, Travis Jamieson, a friend of Cathy’s younger brother who was only 16 years old at the time of the cri...

July 24, 1997. Fremont County, Wyoming. After spending the day running errands, 24-year old Amy Wroe Bechtel never returns home and her abandoned car is discovered on a remote road in Shoshone National Forest. Even though he claims to have an alibi, Amy’s husband, Steve Bechtel, is looked at as a potential suspect by law enforcement, due to his unwillingness to take a polygraph test. However, the...

December 31, 2002. Vancouver, British Columbia. The Vancouver Police Department receive an anonymous letter containing a remorseful confession from someone who claims to have been responsible for the death of a sex worker. While the victim’s name is not mentioned, investigators eventually suspect that she might be 24-year old Danielle LaRue, a sex worker from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbou...

October 8, 2014. Guilderland, New York. The bodies of a Chinese immigrant family – 39-year old Jin Feng Chen, his 38-year old wife Hai Yan Li, and their two sons, 10-year old Anthony and 7-year old Eddy – are found inside their bungalow and they have been stabbed and bludgeoned to death. While Jin Feng worked at a local Chinese restaurant, rumours circulate that he may have been involved in illega...

February 4, 1986. Roanoke, Virginia. 21-year old Rae Ann Mossor is found dead on the street outside her estranged boyfriend’s house with a shotgun wound to the chest. The shotgun is lying on the trunk of a nearby parked car and according to her boyfriend, Rae Ann had implied she would kill herself if he did not reconcile their relationship and he said he heard the fatal gunshot shortly after she l...

October 31, 1975. Greenwich, Connecticut. After she fails to return home the previous night, the body of 15-year old Martha Moxley is discovered in her backyard. She has been stabbed in the neck and bludgeoned with a golf club and pieces of the shattered club are traced to the residence of the Skakels, a prominent family from the neighborhood. Decades later, one of the family’s children, Michael S...

1 eerie corn maze… 9 haunting figures… 9 spine-tingling tales… Will YOU find your way out This Halloween, step into a labyrinth of shadows and suspense with Shane Waters as your guide. In this chilling collaboration, you’ll encounter the hosts of nine acclaimed true crime podcasts (including Robin Warder of “The Trail Went Cold”), each offering a dark tale and a life lesson to send shivers down yo...

October 31, 1975. Greenwich, Connecticut. After she fails to return home the previous night, the body of 15-year old Martha Moxley is discovered in her backyard. She has been stabbed in the neck and bludgeoned with a golf club and pieces of the shattered club are traced to the residence of the Skakels, a prominent family from the neighborhood. Decades later, one of the family’s children, Michael S...

October 31, 1981. New York City. The bodies of 39-year old Ronald Sisman and 20-year old Elizabeth Platzman are discovered inside Ron’s apartment in the Chelsea neighbourhood of Manhattan. Both victims have been shot to death, execution-style, and since the apartment was ransacked, there is speculation that the crime might be drug-delated. However, notorious serial killer David Berkowitz, who is s...

October 31, 1981. Wahneta, Florida. The mother of 13-year old Tina Marie Janose wakes up to discover that she is missing from their mobile home. That same morning, Tina Marie’s body is found twelve miles away on Interstate 4 and it turns out she was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered before the killer tossed her off a highway overpass. Over the years, James Norman Ulmer and Frank Potts, a p...

December 10, 1999. Los Angeles, California. After attending a party at the Dykstra Hall dormitory at UCLA, 18-year old freshman Michael Negrete returns to his room and spends a few hours playing an online video game on his computer with a friend. Mike is last seen at around 4:00 AM and when his roommate wakes up later that morning, he discovers that Mike has vanished and left behind his wallet and...

Since we are currently on vacation, “The Trail Went Cold” will not be releasing a new episode this week. Instead, please enjoy one of our exclusive bonus Patreon episodes from our archives. Thanks for your patience. During its 15-year run on television, “Unsolved Mysteries” profiled a lot of memorable murders and missing persons cases, but the show was just as well-known for its paranormal-themed...

February 18, 1976. Orlando, Florida. 15-year old Linda Kerr leaves her home in order to walk to her boyfriend’s residence, but she never arrives and is subsequently reported missing. Investigators look into the possibility that Linda may have left the area with a biker gang and become an exotic dancer in another city, but this is never officially confirmed. Seven years later, one of Linda’s brothe...

May 11, 1999. Barry County, Missouri. 34-year old Gary McCullough vanishes from his farm and his abandoned pick-up truck is found on a rural road five days later. Suspicion is directed towards Gary’s wife, Sandy, who was having an affair with another man named Kristopher Klemp and the couple immediately move in together before they get married. In 2006, Sandy’s 20-year old daughter, Lena Chapin, d...

July 20, 1986. Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. 66-year old Jim Rice phones his daughter to let her know that he will be traveling to California to undergo shoulder surgery the following week, but he never arrives and no one ever hears from him again. Jim’s common-law wife, Astarte Davis-Rice, initially claims that he took off to Australia with another woman, but evidence soon emerges that Astart...

December 6, 1991. Austin, Texas. After responding to a fire at a local yogurt shop, the authorities discover the burned nude bodies of four victims who have all been shot in the head: 17-year old employees Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison; Jennifer’s 15-year old sister, Sarah Harbison; and Sarah’s 13-year old friend, Amy Ayers. Nearly eight years later, investigators arrest four suspects for the...