Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

34-year-old Alton Peek, Red River County Precinct 4 Commissioner, had everything going for him. He’d been working his way into local politics since high school and was moving up. He had the admiration and respect of the community, particularly in his hometown, Boxelder, Texas. Alton had a beautiful family, a wife and two young boys. So, when he was shot to death while feeding his cattle in August...

26-year-old Luara Pippin Danka had everything going for her in 1980 – a solid job, a nice little bungalow not far from Corpus Christi Bay, and most importantly, her two children. She’d come to Texas several years before with her husband, but they’d since divorced and were splitting up there time with the kids cooperatively and amicably, by all indications. But in April of that year, on a day seemi...

Soon after the murder of 28-year-old Bridgette Gearen at Crystal Beach, Texas, Galveston County Sheriff’s Office investigators came upon a lead that would be the impetus and direction of their investigation. A dark colored SUV was reported as the vehicle driven by Bridgette’s abductor(s). Throughout the past one and a half decades, Lt. Tommy Hansen, who has continued to work the case almost 15 yea...

In July of 2007, 28-year-old Bridgette Gearen took her little girl to Crystal Beach, located on the Bolivar Peninsula on the Texas coast. A few couples from the law firm where she worked had rented a beach house for the weekend, and as a hard-working mother, Bridgette was looking forward to the down time. At about the weekend’s halfway point, the young mother left the house alone to wait outside f...

As the Fort Worth Police investigated the murder of 24-year-old Hurst, Texas resident Paula Jean Puckett Davenport, evidence and leads ran out fast. But it didn’t mean they were short of a suspect. In fact, the cops were almost certain they knew exactly who killed Paula in the parking lot of the Brunswick Bowlerland. Everything led back to her physically and psychologically abusive ex-husband. He...

On April 25th, 1978, 24-year-old Hurst, Texas resident Paula Jean Puckett Davenport left home to go bowling with her company’s league. Though she made it to the parking lot, Paula never made it inside the Brunswick Bowlerland. And more troubling, she never made it back home that night. Paula’s parents reported her missing to authorities in Hurst, but a couple days later another jurisdiction, the F...

In late August of 1971 11-year-old Johnnye Henderson should have been entering the sixth grade alongside her peers. One morning, however, her mother returned home from a short trip to the store to find Johnnye had vanished. The Odessa Police Juvenile Division didn’t seem too worried about the disappearance, since there were no signs of foul play and civilians who’d searched the large field behind...

As the search for Kimberly continued, more folks who craved the spotlight emerged. There was Dallas psychic extraordinaire John Catchings, whose “visions” resulted in nothing more than heartache and wasted time and resources. There were well-meaning folks who came to help, of course, like the Heidi Search Center and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Unfortunately their altrui...

When The Shreveport Times released verbatim portions of troubling letters Kimberly Norwood had written months before her disappearance, it was the first time her parents, Bobby and Janice Norwood, had read them. It was another blow, they said, like the many they felt they’d been hit with at the hands of Harrison County Sheriff Bill Oldham. Out of desperation, the family brought in a Dallas psychic...

In early May 1989, sixteen-year-old Michelle Lee Richardson vanished from East Texas, the city of Palestine specifically. Just weeks later, on May 20th, another East Texas girl turned up missing under similar circumstances. Kimberly Norwood was a twelve-year-old who loved life and, believe it or not, school. She was experiencing the normal throes of being a preteen, but Kimberly was a good kid who...

Case updates. If you have information that might further help authorities secure a conviction against David Paul Cady for the murder of Mary Moore Searight, please call the Paris Police Department at (903)784-6688 or contact Lamar County District Attorney Gary Young (903) 737-2458. You can support Gone Cold – Texas True Crime and listen to the show ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast Find us at...

After 18-year-old Caleb Ray Diehl disappeared from Nocona, Texas, one person, and one person only, began an attempt to steer the missing person investigation in a particular way. Only, this individual – close family friend Ricky Dale Howard – was a terrible director whose statements and actions were far-fetched and downright bizarre. Though he tried to make Caleb’s family and law enforcement inves...

On the outside, 18-year-old Caleb Ray Diehl was a normal teenager living a relatively normal teenage life. He was born and raised in a small town – Nocona, Texas – and extremely close to his family. After celebrating his 18th birthday party at his Mom’s house, Caleb prepared to make the hour and a half drive to his sister’s house in Bedford, where he was living while he finished high school. He ne...

The people of Paris, Texas and Lamar County mourned the loss of hermit 79-year-old Auvord Bevans Braithwaite Jones, many in an…unconventional way. On February 1st – just a few days after Auvord’s body was found, tourists of the macabre descended upon his series of shacks on the outskirts of town, looking, likely, for his hidden fortune as if he were some kind of exiled leprechaun. “Keep out by ord...

On January 24th, 1963, A. Jones, as the townsfolk of Paris, Texas knew him, picked up a couple things at the grocery store. Then, he stopped by the drugstore on his way home. Auvord, his actual name, lived on the northeast outskirts of town. Though he could be seen around town plenty, and was a friendly, intelligent, and gracious man to speak with, he was as much a stranger as he was a local. That...

In June of 2001, 51-year-old Sharon Ware Davis dropped off her daughter at a bus stop near the Red Bird Neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. They exchanged “I love yous,” and Sharon went on her way. She was supposed to get ready for a training class for her job, which was an elementary school teacher. She never made it. In fact, Sharon hasn’t been seen since. Her husband Ron Davis avoided speaking with...

After the initial investigators working the murder of 18-year-old Cheryl Ann Callaway moved on, and the case had long gone cold, the voluminous file fell on the lap of Arlington, Texas Police Sgt. Dennis Rhoten. Rhoten hit the ground running, but eventually, like Sgt. Mike Adair and Detective Mike Leyman before him, began grasping at straws. In 1981, he looked at recently arrested serial killer Te...

As Arlington Police Crimes Against Persons Detectives Mike Leyman and Sgt. Mike Adair continued to investigate the January 30th, 1974, murder of 18-year-old Cheryl Ann Callaway, answers seemed to get more and more elusive. Interviews with friends, family, and coworkers provided virtually no potential motive. An exhaustive search of VIN numbers of cars matching the suspect vehicle provided by witne...

One detective called the slaying of Cheryl Ann Callaway “the most vicious murder in Arlington’s history.” Arlington Police Crimes Against Person Unit Detectives Sgt. Mike Adair and Mike Leyman call it the one that got away. On January 30th, 1974, just months before she was to be married, 18-year-old Cheryl’s life was taken. The murder was brutal and unimaginable, and the killer, it seemed, came ou...

In July of 1991 26-year-old Don Tate took his 5-year-old daughter Boston on a camping trip to Big Bend National Park in Brewster County, Texas. The day after they were supposed to have returned but had not, Boston’s mother and Don’s ex-wife asked Rangers at the park to issue a request to locate. Don and Boston never came out of Big Bend, not alive. Later that day, Don’s brutalized body was found....

On the last day of September 1991, off-duty Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Roxyann Allee took the evening to do some shopping. After buying and browsing, she headed back to her minivan to return home. Little did she know, two men had followed her. As she approached her vehicle, the men accosted and abducted her. Later, her minivan was discovered ablaze on a secluded North Houston street, and later...

After the Christmas Day 1980 murder of Cheryl Lynn Springfield, her unclothed strangled body found lying by the Christmas tree, Fort Worth Police Detectives quickly theorized her killer was someone she knew. Upon learning the criminal record of the boyfriend of Cheryl’s roommate Cindy, they set their sights on parolee Barry Dean Kelly. However, evidence was lacking, and Cheryl’s murder went cold....

Scott and Cheryl Springfield married young, and although they were divorced by the time the 1980 Christmas season rolled around, he was having second thoughts about wanting his freedom. They’d always gotten along, even after the divorce, so things were patching up nicely. Cheryl decided it would be nice if her ex-husband and their boy, Scotty, spent Christmas Moring together, so both arranged the...

There are more than one viable possibilities as to what happened to 13-year-old Blanca Elisa Roberson when she disappeared on August 6th, 1989. Though the initial investigators had their primary suspect, and for good reason, Private Investigator Richard Norgard isn’t so sure. He’s uncovered information that suggests several different possibilities and even recently released new details in order to...

In 2016, Elisa Roberson’s case saw the most activity it had since 1989. First, Texas Equusearch came to Aransas Pass to search property once owned by original detectives’ prime suspect. But nothing was found. Then, police took a different approach and used ground penetrating radar and jackhammers, presumably, to break up concrete in the garage under the former Roberson home. Although it was report...