The Trail Went Cold

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...

September 20, 1994. Oak Grove, Kentucky. 22-year old Candy Belt and 18-year old Gloria Ross are found dead at the massage parlour where they work, as they have both been shot in the head and had their throats slashed. It turns out the business was a front for a brothel and suspicion is directed towards a local police officer named Ed Carter, who is alleged to have been involved in a dispute with t...

June 16, 2009. Rosses Point, Ireland. The body of a man who appears to be in his late fifties or early sixties is found washed up on a beach and his cause of death is believed to be acute cardiac arrest. Four days earlier, the man had arrived in the nearby town of Sligo and checked into a hotel under the name “Peter Bergmann”, but it turns out this name was fake and he carries no identification. I...

May 10, 1941. Carolina Beach, North Carolina. 36-year old Leila Bryan and her three-year old daughter, Mary Rachel Bryan, leave their home in the family car in order to drive to a nearby store, but never return. After they are reported missing, an extensive search fails to turn up any trace of them or their car, but Leila’s family suspects that her husband, E.C. Bryan, might be responsible for the...

March 18, 2000. Whatcom County, Washington. A damaged Jeep belonging to 23-year old Leah Roberts is found at the bottom of an embankment next to a remote highway. Nine days earlier, Leah had left her home in North Carolina to take a cross-country road trip, but even though all of her personal possessions are left behind at the accident scene, Leah herself is missing. The investigation eventually u...

May 31, 1995. Goderich, Ontario. After leaving her school, 16-year old Mistie Murray fails to return home and is subsequently reported missing. Even though there are several eyewitness sightings placing Mistie at numerous locations in the weeks following her disappearance, police focus their attention on her adoptive father, Steve Murray. Over three months later, Steve is arrested for Mistie’s mur...

August 12, 1992. Panama City Beach, Florida. After leaving her home in Georgia on a vacation with her two children, 36-year old Pamela June Ray arrives at a beachfront motel during the early morning hours and parks in front of the office. Pamela’s children are sleeping in the back seat, but when they wake up a few hours later, they learn that their mother has vanished and a patrol officer reports...

September 4, 1964. Great Falls, Montana. 43-year old Jim Arrotta and his 35-year old wife, Lois Arrotta, are found stabbed to death inside a grocery store where Jim works as the manager. Since the couple’s children last saw them at their home when they went to bed the previous night, investigators theorize that Jim and Lois were lured to the store and killed during a botched robbery. Over 37 years...

April 13, 1976. Jessup, Maryland. Ralph Sigler, a 47-year old Chief Warrant Officer with the United States Army, is found dead inside a motel room after an apparent suicide in which he electrocuted himself. For the past decade, Ralph had been working as a counterintelligence agent who provided classified information to spies from the Soviet Union, but since he had fallen under suspicion for failin...

September 10, 2001. New York City. 31-year old Sneha Philip leaves her Lower Manhattan apartment and is last seen purchasing items at a nearby department store alongside an unidentified woman. Sneha does not return home that night and after the September 11 attacks take place the following morning, she is never heard from again. Since Sneha lived only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center,...

January 31, 1976. Bastrop County, Texas. After 73-year old John Whatley and his 68-year old wife, Faye Whatley, fail to show up at the wedding for Faye’s granddaughter, the police are asked to perform a wellness check at their ranch. John and Faye are discovered to be missing, but there is a bullet hole in their bedroom window and the entire bedroom door has been removed from the residence. Years...

May 1, 2002. San Francisco, California. After finishing a phone call with one of her sisters, 24-year old Evelyn Hernandez and her five-year old son, Alex Hernandez, vanish without explanation. At the time, Evelyn was only six days away from giving birth to her second child, but when she fails to resurface by her due date, she is officially reported missing. Over three months later, Evelyn’s torso...

October 4, 1978. Lyon County, Iowa. The decomposed body of a murdered young woman is discovered in a ditch next to a rural road, but since she carries no identification, she remains a Jane Doe for the next 27 years. The victim is eventually identified as 23-year old Wilma June Nissen, who originally hailed from California and lived a transient lifestyle prior to her death. Investigators discover t...

June 1, 1983. Louisville, Kentucky. 12-year old Ann Gotlib leaves her friend's residence in order to ride her bicycle back to her family's apartment, but she never arrives. When Ann's mother goes searching for her, she discovers Ann's abandoned bicycle outside a department store, but no trace of her can be found. 25 years later, investigators announce that new evidence seems to point towards a con...

August 23, 1987. Saline County Arkansas. 16-year old Don Henry and 17-year old Kevin Ives head into the woods to do some late-night hunting, but never return. Hours later, the two boys are seen lying on some railroad tracks before they are run over by a cargo train and the medical examiner concludes they had fallen asleep after smoking marijuana and their deaths were accidental. However, Don and K...

August 23, 1987. Saline County Arkansas. 16-year old Don Henry and 17-year old Kevin Ives head into the woods to do some late-night hunting, but never return. Hours later, the two boys are seen lying on some railroad tracks before they are run over by a cargo train and the medical examiner concludes they had fallen asleep after smoking marijuana and their deaths were accidental. However, Don and K...

July 22, 1983. Redwood City, California. After spending the month travelling through the state, a pair of Swedish nationals - 23-year old Marie Lilienberg and 25-year old Maria Wahlen - leave their friend’s residence in order to hitchhike to Los Angeles. When they fail to make their scheduled flight and do not return home to Sweden, they are officially reported missing and their decomposing bodies...