The Trail Went Cold

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...

July 25, 1995. Lincoln, Nebraska. 18-year old university student Tina McMenamin fails to show up for her shift at work and her body is found inside her apartment bedroom later that night. Tina has been sexually assaulted and stabbed seven times and the apartment is ransacked. Nearly one year later, DNA testing links a suspect named Gregory Gabel to a strand of hair found in Tina’s hand and he is s...

August 4, 1984. Fort Myers, Florida. 20-year old Carol Woolsoncroft fails to show up for her shift at her workplace and is never heard from again. Three days later, Carol’s parents return home from vacation and discover her car parked outside their residence, as well as a note from Carol’s boyfriend, Eugene LaFaye Jr., who claims she has gone missing without explanation. Due to their troubled rela...

April 10, 1967. Hometown, Illinois. Ralph Probst, a 30-year old officer with the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department, spends the night at home watching television with his wife before he heads into the kitchen. Moments later, Ralph is fatally shot in back of the head after an unknown assailant fires a bullet through the kitchen window. Investigators look into the possibility that Ralph’s murde...

December 15, 1996. Willingboro Township, New Jersey. After saying goodnight to her family, 12-year old Celina Mays heads for her bedroom, but is discovered to be missing the following morning. At the time, Celina was living with her father and a number of other relatives, who were all members of Gospel of Christ Ministries Inc., a church run by her paternal aunt which has been accused of operating...

October 16, 1987. Indiana, Pennsylvania. Jack Davis Jr., a 20-year old sophomore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, spends the night partying and drinking with members of his fraternity, but he never returns to his apartment. Five days later, Jack’s body is found at the bottom of an exterior stairwell on the university’s campus and the county coroner concludes that Jack passed out there while...

In 2018, “The Trail Went Cold” released a special Q&A episode in which Robin Warder answered a number of questions from listeners. This year, we decided to do a follow-up episode and received some more interesting questions. Of all the cases you’ve covered, which ones have the best chance of being solved in the near-future? What do your family and co-workers think about the podcast? What is th...

Christmas Day 1929. Stradbally, Ireland. After completing his holiday route, 49-year old postman Larry Griffin fails to return home and his bicycle is found on a road outside the village the following morning. Once a missing persons investigation is launched, rumours start circulating that Larry was killed after an incident at a local pub and a massive cover-up took place. Ten people are eventuall...

Christmas Eve 2002. Port Allen, Louisiana. After leaving her home on a road trip to visit her husband in prison for the holidays, 65-year old Mari Ann Fowler stops at a strip mall to purchase some food from a Subway sandwich shop. When she walks back into the parking lot, Mari Ann vanishes without a trace and surveillance footage from a security camera shows that she was abducted by the unidentifi...

December 17, 1988. Miami, Florida. Lisa Bishop, a 23-year old journalism student from the University of Georgia, leaves on a trip to Haiti on a boat called the Freedon, which is being captained by a German national named Florian Meyer Bourch. When they do not arrive at their destination and Lisa does not contact her family, a search from the Coast Guard fails to find the missing boat. Months later...