The Trail Went Cold

May 14, 2008. Marshall, Minnesota. The parents of 19-year old Brandon Swanson receive a late-night phone call from their son, who claims that his car has become stuck in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. The Swansons leave to go pick Brandon up, but have trouble finding him. At one point, Brandon’s father hears him shout a swear word over the phone before the call abruptly cuts off, and there is n...

October 27, 2007. Grand Forks, North Dakota. 38-year old Joel Lovelien and his fiancée attend a Halloween party at a local bar. When Joel takes a moment to step outside, he is beaten to death in the parking lot. The investigation leads to a suspect named Travis Stay, who was so intoxicated that night that he cannot even remember what happened. Travis goes on trial for Joel’s murder, but his defenc...

October 31, 1986. Long Beach, New York. Chaim Weiss, a 15-year old Orthodox Jewish rabbinical student, returns to his dormitory after attending Shabbat services at his yeshiva high school. The following morning, Chaim’s body is found on his dorm room floor. At some point during the night, an unknown individual entered his room and brutally murdered him while he slept. Police conduct an extensive i...

October 24, 1961. Lincoln, Massachusetts. 30-year old housewife and mother Joan Risch vanishes from her home and the evidence at the scene suggests a violent abduction. Witnesses report seeing a bloody, disoriented woman matching Joan’s description walking down the road that day, but this woman is never found. Over one year later, evidence is uncovered to suggest Joan might have decided to stage h...

June 4, 1999. Wasilla, Alaska. While spending the night at a friend’s house, 15-year old Michael Palmer slips out to attend a graduation party. While biking home with friends, Michael vanishes without a trace, but his bicycle and sneakers are soon discovered at separate locations. In April 2010, Michael’s older brother, Chucky, disappears while riding a snow machine in the Talkeetna Mountains. Eve...

September 13, 1992. Boston, Massachusetts. While working as the ramp supervisor for Northwest Airlines at Logan International Airport, 27-year old Susan “Su” Taraskiewicz leaves in the middle of her shift to purchase food for her crew. She never returns and is not reported missing by her co-workers before she is found murdered inside the trunk of her car the following morning. One year later, Su’s...

May 22, 1982. Hamersville, Ohio. 46-year old appliance repairman Permon Gilbert leaves his family’s home to perform some service calls. He never returns and his nude body is found in a ditch the following day. Investigators fail to turn up any strong leads, but numerous theories surround Permon’s murder. Was his death connected to drug trafficking? Was he killed because of his brother’s recent tes...

May 15, 1930. Chicago, Illinois. After a newspaper ad seeks assistance for the poverty-stricken family of two-year old Mary Agnes Moroney, a woman calling herself Julia Otis shows up at their home to help. She offers to take Mary Agnes shopping to buy her new clothes, but they never return. 22 years later, a woman named Mary McClelland comes forward after suspecting she might be Mary Agnes and exp...

November 30, 1990. Parma, Ohio. 41-year old Elaine Johnson vanishes without explanation from her apartment complex. She leaves behind her car and wallet, along with clothes in the laundry room dryer, and is officially reported missing three days later. A series of strange cryptic notes are found in Elaine’s apartment, leading to much speculation about her mental state at the time she went missing....

December 4, 1982. Boise, Idaho. A stranger enters the Sacred Heart Catholic Church and takes his own life by swallowing a cyanide capsule. He carries a suicide note signed “William L. Toomey”, but this turns out to be a false name and the man is never identified. Years later, investigators explore a theory that Toomey’s suicide might be connected to the murders of two Catholic priests, Father Patr...

April 4, 1991. Clinton, Missouri. While driving home, 20-year old Angela Hammond stops at a phone booth to call her fiancee, Rob Shafer, and describes a suspicious-looking man in a pickup truck in the parking lot. Rob suddenly hears Angela scream and drives into town to check on her. He passes by a pick-up truck and sees Angela struggling with an unidentified man, but after attempting a pursuit, t...

December 27, 1993. Lockhart, Texas. The body of 38-year old Latricia White is discovered in her bed after having been shot six times. Latricia’s live-in boyfriend, Lee “Dub” Wackerhagen, has vanished from their home, alongside his nine-year son, Chance. Three days later, Dub’s abandoned pick-up truck is discovered, containing many of his personal items and blood which does not belong to Latricia....

July 13, 2007. Nannup, Australia. 27-year old Chantelle McDougall lives with her six-year old daughter, Leela, Leela’s 45-year old father, Simon Kadwell, and their 40-year old friend, Tony Popic. Chantelle tells her parents that they are all taking a trip to Brazil together, but the group never returns and no paper trail can be found to suggest they left the country. It turns out that Simon Kadwel...

October 14, 1965. Atlanta, Georgia. After having dinner with a friend, 25-year old bank secretary Mary Shotwell Little vanishes without explanation. The following day, her abandoned vehicle is discovered with traces of blood and Mary’s neatly folded undergarments inside. Mary’s gasoline card is also used at two separate service stations in North Carolina by a woman matching her description and two...

February 25, 2014. Perranporth, England. The nude body of an unidentified male is discovered after washing up on Perranporth Beach. The victim has a sock stuffed in his mouth, which has been tied in place by headphones. He is soon identified as Alan Jeal, a 64-year old loner from the town of Wadebridge. Investigators use CCTV footage to track Alan’s movements on the night before he was found and l...

July 1, 1974. Beirut, Lebanon. Bashir Kouchacji is kidnapped by a group of unidentified men who spend the next five days interrogating and torturing him for reasons he doesn’t understand. Nine years later, after Bashir has moved to Washington, D.C. and become a successful restaurateur, he finds himself being tormented by a non-stop series of threatening phone calls from a mysterious figure known o...

May 24, 1990. Livingston County, Michigan. After dropping her mother off at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and spending the afternoon with a friend, 30-year old Paige Renkoski starts driving home. That evening, her abandoned vehicle is discovered with the engine running on the shoulder of Interstate 96, but Paige has vanished without a trace. Before she went missing, witnesses recalled seeing Paige...

November 18, 1970. Nashville, Indiana. A barn located on the property of 52-year old Clarence Roberts burns to the ground and a charred body is found in the rubble. Clarence’s family assume the body is him, but since he was experiencing serious financial problems at the time, the authorities suspect that Clarence faked his own death, so that his wife, Geneva, could collect on some substantial life...

August 29, 1943. Indianapolis, Indiana. 33-year old Maoma Ridings is serving as a corporal in the Women’s Army Corps at Camp Atterbury and checks into a room at the Claypool Hotel. Later that evening, Corporal Ridings is found murdered on her bed. She has been beaten and slashed with a whiskey bottle and is nude from the waist down. Less than two hours earlier, a bellboy had seen a woman dressed i...

August 4, 1981. Toledo, Ohio. 20-year old Cindy Anderson shows up for her job as a legal secretary at a law firm. Later that morning, Cindy’s co-workers arrive at the locked office and are surprised to discover that she has vanished. A romance novel is lying on Cindy’s desk and is open to a page describing a scene where a woman is abducted. This would only be one of many bizarre clues in a missing...

August 27, 1992. Tupelo, Mississippi. While Hurricane Andrew moves over the area, 13-year old Leigh Occhi is left home alone for the day by her mother, Vickie Felton. When Vickie fails to reach her daughter from work, she rushes home to discover that Leigh is missing and the presence of blood in the house suggests foul play. Weeks later, Vickie is mailed an envelope containing Leigh’s glasses. Was...

December 17, 1967. The skeletal remains of an unidentified male are found in Balsam Lake Provincial Park near Coboconk, Ontario, Canada. Five months later, the decomposing body of another unidentified male is discovered in a field near the village of Schomberg, and the similarities between the two scenes suggest that both victims were murdered by the same killer. The victims go unidentified for 40...

Back in January, we released a minisode about the disappearance of 47-year old Pamela Butler, who vanished from her Washington, D.C. home in February 2009. Even though Pam’s house was covered by security cameras, none of the surveillance footage showed her leaving, but her boyfriend, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, was seen entering and exiting the home on multiple occasions in the days following her disappe...

June 6, 1991. Greenford, England. While leaving her family’s home, 43-year old Penny Bell tells a group of builders that she is running late for an appointment. Later that morning, Penny is discovered dead inside her vehicle after being brutally stabbed 50 times. Three days before her death, Penny had withdrawn £8,500 from her bank account without telling anybody, but the money is never recovered...

January 6, 1982. Breckenridge, Colorado. After finishing her shift at work, 29-year old Bobbie Oberholtzer phones her husband to say she is going out for drinks with friends. Bobbie never returns home and is found shot to death the following day. Strangely, an orange sock which does not belong to Bobbie is found at the murder scene. Six months later, the body of a 21-year old missing woman named A...