Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

In the small town of Stamford, Texas, in September of 1988, seven-year-old Cortney Clayton disappeared after walking to a convenience store down the block from her house to buy a coke. Searches and pleas for information in the media turned up nothing and no sign of the young girl was found until seven months later when hunters discovered her remains in a remote grassland in a neighboring county. N...

West Texas in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s was seeing more violent crime than ever; the ultimate violence, murder, was certainly no exception. Many cases were solved throughout the region, cases that seemed to have the full attention of the press and of county and city law enforcement agencies...but what about the crimes that were never solved...and that saw little to no media coverage...

From October 1968 to June 1971, five murders shook the residents of Odessa, Texas. Linda Cougot, Eula Miller, Ruth Maynard and Gloria Sue Greene in Odessa, and Nancy Mitchell in nearby Kermit. The deaths had the Odessa Police baffled. A writer for the Odessa American theorized that there was a madman on the loose who chose to perpetrate the slayings in close proximity to full moons. The police, ho...

The first half of 1979 kept Houston Police’s homicide department busier than they’d ever been; the year had already broken records for the most violent crimes and murders the city had ever seen. The second half was no different with a series of murders taking place between the end of July and the first several days of October that were so gruesome, so violent in nature – two beheadings and two vic...

When Kathy Page’s father erected three signs along Interstate 10 implicating his daughter’s husband in her 1991 killing, it was out of frustration resulting both from the Vidor Police’s failure to put together a case against their number one suspect and the suspect’s blatant falsehoods and odd behavior. Eventually, years after Kathy’s murder, her parents took Steve Page to civil court alleging tha...

In the early morning of May 14th, 1991 off the Interstate 10 access road in Vidor, Texas, a newspaper carrier discovered what appeared to be the scene of a tragic accident. When police arrived on the scene, however, everything was not what it looked like upon a first glimpse. It was too clean for an auto accident; something wasn’t right...and everything began pointing to the deceased woman’s husba...

After Kristen Charbonneau disappeared on Thursday, August 11th, 2005, a person of interest quickly emerged – a good one – but Euless Police were unable to make an arrest. Kristen’s parents, out of frustration, took matters into their own hands and began a campaign to drive the suspect out of his silence. They either wanted him to break under pressure or provide police answers to the many questions...

On Thursday, August 11th, 2005, Kristen Charbonneau was asked to go home early from the club she danced for in far east Fort Worth. Her employer called a cab but when the driver arrived, Kristen wasn’t there…and she hasn’t been seen since. A person of interest emerged early in the investigation, however, detectives were having trouble obtaining evidence to use against him, save several eye witness...

The carefree Summer of 1990 in San Antonio, Texas ended in unimaginable tragedy for two families, the entire city, and, most of all, two innocent children. In the month of August, only 19 days apart, Heidi Seeman and Erica Botello disappeared. Heidi’s disappearance resulted in one of the biggest search efforts the State of Texas, if not the entire US, had ever seen. Not long after Erica Botello va...

Marilu Geri and her husband, Stephen, were doing well for themselves; they had a big house in a nice neighborhood, a successful business, and appeared to be content with their lives. On February 14th, 1986, Valentine’s Day, however, it all came crashing down when Marilu’s mother found her murdered in the master bedroom of the couple’s home. Thirty-three years later, despite Marilu’s family’s persi...

On Tuesday, July 5th, 1966, a young woman and young man checked into the Ropers Motel in Pecos, Texas. Hours later, the guests and staff were startled by the sounds of flailing slashes and screams for help at the motel’s pool. They rushed to the scene, only to find the young woman who’d just checked in submerged in the oasis, lifeless. She was rushed to the hospital and her companion was notified...

Tamara Jean Holcknecht was known as “Mousey” by her friends and family, all who adored the funny, sweet, and talented young woman. Mousey went missing in late February of 2007, and though everyone thought she’d simply gone off the radar, which wasn’t uncommon for her, their worst fears would be realized a month later when two boys found her body facedown and partially submerged in a stock pond. Th...

In the Summer of 2002, the national press was ablaze with stories of missing and murdered children; one case in particular held the attention span of the national media machine and many others fell through the cracks, receiving virtually no coverage. The kidnapping and murder of a 4-year-old Orange, Texas girl, Dannarriah Finley, on July 4th was one of those cases. Though police from multiple juri...

(SOLVED 5/20) On Wednesday, August 31st, 1983 the nude body of Susan Lee Eads was discovered among the brush in a ditch on an empty lot at NASA Road One and Elam Street in Seabrook. Susan had been raped and strangled. The investigation went cold almost as soon as it began; there was little evidence and a man seen leaving behind Susan from a local bar the last time she was seen alive was a stranger...

Shelley Sikes was last seen in the late-night hours of Saturday, May 24th as she left work to head home. She never made it and a couple hours later, her boyfriend and his father found her 1983 Ford Pinto on the access road of Interstate 45 northbound. Foul Play was obvious. Though an extensive search was conducted, Galveston Sheriff’s Office Investigators remained stumped for thirteen months when,...

Don Martinson returned home from jury duty on March 31st, 1980 to find his wife slain on the floor of the couple’s bedroom at their home in North Dallas. Don was devastated by most accounts but insight into the couple’s marriage provided by friends painted their relationship as one that had its problems. When Don refused to speak with investigators, they began wondering what else he was hiding. Hi...

On January 8th, 1973, a worried friend of Candy Anne Fletcher-Mora entered her apartment in Harlingen, TX to find her baby daughter sound asleep in her crib but found Candy viciously murdered; she’d been slashed, stabbed, and strangled…her neck broken. Police were tight-lipped, more so than most departments at the time, but a violent rapist who committed a depraved act against another young woman...

While the 1970s were a time of independence and fulfillment, they were also a time when many, especially women, lived in fear. Dallas, over a short time span from 1970 to 1971, was bombarded with a slew of slayings which the press dubbed the “Bizarre Lust Murders.” On August 8th, 1971, Carolyn Montgomery’s son awoke to find his Mother’s mutilated body under a blanket in their apartment’s living ro...

Over a short time span in 1970 and 1971, a slew of murders occurred in Dallas, Texas in which the press dubbed the “Bizarre Lust Murders.” Most of the crimes were considered to be sexually motivated, though sexual assault didn’t necessarily occur, and there were striking similarities shared across many. Even though police were able to solve some, closure for others remained elusive…and it wasn’t b...

On Wednesday, October 28th, 1970, Beverly Jean Hope, known as Jean to most, was supposed to pick up a friend for a lunch date, but never arrived. Jean’s husband was sent to check on her and upon his arrival at their home, he discovered the body of his wife in a pool of blood; she’d been violently bludgeoned to death. The investigation into Jean’s murder took some twists and turns – Dallas City and...

Patricia Bolton Wright’s death on October 23nd, 1987, launched an investigation that uncovered a complicated and convoluted list of potential suspects, motives, missing pertinent documents, and even other deaths that had to be checked out for elimination or connections. When it was all said and done, the potential motive for one person of interest was striking and when considering a young man who...

Patricia Bolton Wright had everything going for her; the Wax Museum of the Southwest, her business in Grand Prairie, was a tourist draw and a local staple, she’d just purchased a ranch, and she was living her dream as a champion horse-cutting rider. On October 23nd, 1987, the healthy, wealthy, and happy 43-year-old died of mysterious circumstances. The Arlington police knew something wasn’t right,...

On November 15th, 1971, best friends Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson went missing after reportedly hitchhiking to Houston. Two days later, their bodies were found in Turner’s Bayou outside of Texas City. Their murders were two of the many confessed to by convicted murderer Edward Harold Bell, the murders he referred to as “The Eleven Who Went to Heaven.” Although countless articles and a televis...

Today, April 19th, 2019, Fort Worth Police dropped a press release concerning the February 1974 abduction, sexual assault, and murder of Carla Walker. To view the release, please visit our Facebook page at facebook.com/gonecoldpodcast or the Fort Worth Police Department's Facebook page at facebook.com/InsideFWPD We’d appreciate as many shares as possible on the post, either ours or the Fort Worth...

After not hearing from their prized employee for almost an entire work week, Cameron International contacted law enforcement and asked that they perform a welfare check at Maoye Sun’s home. They did at 7 PM on Thursday January 30th 2014, and when there was no answer at the door, police found that there were signs of forced entry at the Sun home’s back door. They entered the house and made a grisly...