Gone Cold: Philadelphia Unsolved Murders

Jhalil Shands, 25 years old, was out on a date with his high school sweetheart in Old City, Philadelphia, when three people jumped out of a car and brutally shot and killed him. He was loved by his family and lived a good life, but still found himself in the middle of a dangerous world. In the final episode of “Ricochet”, we hear from Jhalil’s family and other mothers who have lost their children...

Sixteen-year-old Kahree Simmons was playing basketball on a Thursday evening when a van pulled up and bullets started firing. He was hit in the neck and died. We hear Kahree’s story, ride along on patrol with police officers in the neighborhood where he was killed, and talk with law enforcement and prosecutors about what goes into a shooting investigation and charging. Plus, we talk about what the...

Lou Berrios was coming home from his first Eagles game, about to open his front door, when he was shot in the back in a suspected attempted robbery. He survived, but between surgeries and PTSD, his recovery is a lifelong struggle. In this episode, we focus on the physical impacts of getting shot, how doctors respond, and how guns and ammunition have become more powerful over the years. Medics tell...

Jermaine Robinson was bullied as a kid, until his mom, Andrea, taught him how to box and “protect himself.” She says something clicked in her son’s head that day. He began to carry a gun, run with the wrong crowd, and get picked up by police. His friends called him "Shooter". He was in and out of the court system for years, and Andrea says she tried everything, until one day, Jermaine was shot and...

In October of 2019, two children were shot within hours of each other, including two-year-old Nikolette Rivera.  A bullet from an assault rifle struck her head and instantly killed her. It was at the hands of a man named Tayvon Thomas, who grew up abused and neglected, and turned to drugs. We dig into both sides of this tragedy, examine the systemic failures that contributed, and ask why the most...

Danelo Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison on August 31 after being sentenced to life in prison without parole the week before for the brutal murder of his ex-girlfriend. For two weeks, neighbors in a quiet and mostly rural suburban county west of Philadelphia anxiously waited for the capture of the 34-year old Cavalcante, as state police launched a massive manhunt. How did a late-night...

His name is Joseph Augustus Zarelli. He was found dead in a cardboard box in February 1957, naked, scratched, bruised and scarred. More than 65 years after he was found, investigators have answered maybe the most important question in the mystery of the “Boy in the Box.” This is the story of how they found Joseph's name, and what it means to the people who have spent a lifetime searching for his i...

The Philadelphia Police Department has released a new composite picture of the suspect known as the “Fairmount Park Rapist” based on his genetic profile. It’s the first time the department has used the technology. Parabon NanoLabs used DNA collected at the crime scenes to create a composite of the suspect, using genetic markers.  You can look at the photo on social media or on kywnewsradio.com --...

September 11th is a day America will never forget. What began as a ‘bright blue day’, quickly turned into a generationally traumatic event -- the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in US history. While the nation watched in horror, first responders and investigators jumped in, trying to pick up the pieces and give the victims back to their loved ones.   Two of those people were from the P...

In July of 2003, a woman driving through Fairmount Park called 911 after hearing a bloodcurdling scream. Police followed her back to the spot where she first heard the scream and then walked into the woods. There, they found the body of med student Rebecca Park. She had been raped and murdered while out for a jog. It's been nearly two decades since Rebecca Park was murdered. Philadelphia Police ha...

The young woman known only as Publicker Jane Doe for more than three decades was identified as Lisa Todd earlier this year. It was a triumph of investigative work and genealogy, and it was also the first time that we here at Gone Cold worked on a story -- and then saw a major update happen in the story. On this bonus episode, Gone Cold's Kristen Johanson and Tom Rickert talk about what that was li...

This is an update to the episode "What happened to Publicker Jane Doe," from November of 2020. Make sure you listen to that episode before starting this one. The remains of a young woman were found on the property of the abandoned Publicker distillery in Bensalem in January of 1988. For more than 30 years, she was known only as Publicker Jane Doe. Bensalem Police Detective Chris McMullin has spent...

On March 15th, 2018, Shelton Hayes was shot and killed in his mother's house in Northwest Philadelphia. Shelton's mother, Rhonda, was upstairs. He was 39 years old. He was a son, a brother, and a father.  If you know what happened to Shelton Hayes, please call Philadelphia Police. The tip line is 215-686-tips, or send an email to tips@phillypolice.com   Gone Cold: Philadelphia Unsolved Murders is...

On the morning of October 20th, 2005, a man was cutting the grass around Memorial Park in Lansdale, PA. The 10-acre park has a veterans memorial wall, tennis courts, and a baseball field with a dugout. After he drove by the dugout a few times and looked inside, he knew that something horrible had happened. More than 15 years after the murder of Michael Ewer, Lansdale Police Chief Mike Trail and Mo...

On August 8, 1986, a couple drove from Philadelphia to Buena Vista, New Jersey to check on a home they were building. They pulled into the driveway, walked around the property, and found something horrible: the mangled body of a woman, wrists shackled, in the blood soaked yard. This story started in the last episode, "What Happened to Publicker Jane Doe?" When Bensalem Police Detective Chris McMul...

In January of 1988 a young girl's remains were found near the old Publicker Distillery in Bucks County, PA. She was pregnant when she died. For more than 30 years, her name has remained a mystery. Bensalem Police Detective Chris McMullin has followed leads in the case that have taken him across state lines and even across the country in his mission to find two things: Who was the girl known as Pub...

It was the Thursday after Mother's Day. A group of teenagers on Park Avenue in Philadelphia saw something large, wrapped in blankets on the back seat of a white Pontiac. A few days earlier, Melvin Dunn's family sent out a desperate plea for help. Melvin had missed Mother's Day for the first time ever, and they couldn't find him.  If you have any information about what happened to Melvin Dunn, cont...

In February of 1957 the body of a young boy was found in a box in the woods near Susquehanna Road in Philadelphia. More than 60 years later, the identity of The Boy in the Box and the identity of his killer remain unknown.  When the Boy was found, his body was photographed and flyers seeking information were distributed all over Philadelphia. Bill Fleisher and Barb Cohan were kids at the time. The...

Jennifer Tong was taken from her Marple Township home and murdered in 1993. Her children were 11 and 14 years old, left without a mother. Jeanette Tong doesn't like to talk about the day her life changed forever, 26 years ago, when she learned her mom was murdered. But she came to talk to us anyway. Joe Maguire clearly remembers June 26, 1993. He was the Radnor Police detective on duty that weeken...

Pete Kane is a photojournalist at NBC10 in Philadelphia. You met him in Episode 7: Officer Cione -- he talked about what it was like living in the neighborhood where Fred Cione was murdered, and described what the next few weeks and months were like in the middle of an intense investigation. But that's just what we used in the actual episode. Pete also told us incredible stories about growing up i...

Kristen and Tom took Gone Cold to a live audience for the Philadelphia Podcast Festival at the end of July. Special guests Jacque Davis and Greg Yatcilla dive into what it's like to be crime scene officers for the Philadelphia Police Department, and Tom and Kristen have some updates to episodes 1 - 6. Special thanks to the Philadelphia Podcast Festival, Indy Hall, and Jacque, Greg, and the Philade...

You met Gerald Ross Jr. in Episode 7: Officer Cione. He was a police officer and homicide detective in Philadelphia in the 60s and 70s -- one of the detectives who arrived at the scene of Fred Cione's murder the night Fred was shot. That part of his story is in Episode 7. But Gerald Ross has more stories to tell than just the ones that made it into the last episode. We wanted to share some of them...

On Jan. 30, 1970, Officer Frederick Cione was shot and killed on Oxford Street in North Philadelphia. He was 25 years old. Nearly 50 years later, his killing is still the only unsolved murder of a Philadelphia police officer in department history. If you have information about the killing of Officer Cione, please contact the Philadelphia Police Department. Their website is phillypolice.com. Tom an...

Eric Birnbaum was a beloved father, brother, and son, working as an attorney in a quiet Bucks County town. On February 11, 2009, Eric was murdered in the parking lot of his Northampton Township office. A decade later, investigators still actively search for his killer, and have just released a composite sketch of the shooter in hopes of helping the cold case gain traction. If you know something ab...

Dr. Erin Kimmerle digs up bodies. She's carefully picked through mass graves in Kosovo and Croatia to identify victims of war crimes. She did the same thing in Peru, where men, women, and children were executed by the military forty years ago. She dug up the bones of young boys murdered at a Florida reform school. And this summer, she came to Philadelphia, to dig up bodies. This is a special editi...