The Trail Went Cold

February 8, 2002. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After closing up the bar she manages and drinking at various clubs in the downtown area, 33-year old Jamie Stickle drives back home to her apartment. Shortly thereafter, Jamie’s Jeep Wrangler is found engulfed in flames near her front door and her badly burned body is in the driver’s seat. […]

May 16, 1987. Denver, Colorado. After a collision with another vehicle, the unidentified driver of a pick-up truck runs away from the accident scene. Police discover that the man was registered at a local motel under the name “Larry Monroe” and the truck is registered to a 55-year old California resident named Don Smith. Five […]

Since “The Trail Went Cold” originally launched in February 2016, we have featured over 200 unsolved cold cases on the podcast, but a decent number of these cases have either wound up being solved or had some significant developments take place. Examples include the disappearance of Pamela Butler, the murder of Jodine Serrin, the disappearance […]

December 19, 1959. Osprey, Florida. After spending the day running errands and visiting a family friend, 25-year old Cliff Walker, his 24-year old wife Christine, and their two children, three-year old Jimmie and 23-month old Debbie, head back to their rural home in separate vehicles. The following morning, the family’s bodies are discovered inside their […]

December 17, 2006. Sydney, Australia. After spending the day with her family, 25-year old Katrina Ploy drives away from her parents’ house. Hours later, Katrina’s abandoned car and some of her possessions are found next to an oceanside cliff known as “The Gap”, but Katrina herself is missing. Katrina’s body is found floating in Sydney […]

December 27, 1928. Orrville, Ohio. Four-year old Melvin Horst leaves his home to play in the neighbourhood with friends, but never returns and a search of the area fails to turn up any trace of him. Over the course of the next two years, a number of different suspects would be arrested after allegations surface […]

February 10, 1990. Las Cruces, New Mexico. A pair of armed gunmen enter a bowling alley called the Las Cruces Bowl and bring everyone inside into the manager’s office. After stealing money from the safe, the assailants fire several bullets into seven people before fleeing the scene. Three of the victims – 33-year old Ida […]

March 5, 1974. Coconut Grove, Florida. 17-year old Amy Billig phones her father from her home and arranges to meet him at his workplace in order to borrow money to have lunch with friends. Amy is last seen hitchhiking next to a highway, but she never shows up to meet her father or her friends […]

July 28, 2013. Newtown, Connecticut. 50-year old Robert “Hoagy” Hoagland is last seen mowing the lawn outside his house. The following day, his wife, Lori, returns from a trip to Turkey, but Hoagy fails to pick her up at the airport as scheduled. When Lori returns home, she discovers that her husband is missing and […]

April 9, 1947. Woodward, Oklahoma. Four-year old Joan Gay Croft is taken to the local hospital after an F5 tornado devastates her hometown and takes the lives of over 100 people, including her mother. While Joan Gay and her half-sister are recovering from injuries in the basement, two men show up and take her away. […]

September 12, 1982. Lewiston, Idaho. 21-year old Kristina Nelson and her 18-year old stepsister, Jacqueline “Brandy” Miller, leave Kristina’s apartment, but never return. That very same night, 35-year old Steven Pearsall vanishes after being dropped off at his workplace, the Lewiston Civic Theatre, where Kristina had previously held Steven’s job as a janitor. The disappearances […]

March 18, 1950. Columbia, Missouri. 13-year old Janett Christman shows up at a married couple’s residence to spend the evening babysitting their child. When the couple returns home, they discover that Janett has been raped and strangled to death by an intruder, and the local sheriff’s department would report having received a phone call from […]

October 31, 1988. Hidalgo County, New Mexico. 29-year old David Stone, a stock market analyst from California, is seen wandering through the desert and exhibiting strange behaviour. Two days later, David’s abandoned car is discovered next to the highway, but David himself is nowhere to be found. Search efforts uncover a number of cryptic clues […]

October 27, 2016. Las Vegas, Nevada. 21-year old Sydney Land and her 20-year old boyfriend, Nehemiah “Neo” Kaufmann, are found shot to death inside Sydney’s apartment. The prime suspect is an alleged pimp named Shane Valentine, who had threatened the couple and fired a bullet into the home of Neo’s mother weeks earlier. Allegations eventually […]

January 24, 1987. Burbank, California. 35-year old Charlie Anderson, a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, returns to his suburban home with his wife and two children. He is shot to death after entering the house in what appears to be a burglary gone wrong. Over one year later, 43-year old Carol Montecalvo […]

March 26, 1993. Dublin, Ireland. 26-year old Annie McCarrick, an American-born citizen living in Ireland, leaves her apartment to travel to the Wicklow Mountains, but never returns. Even though Annie is allegedly seen in a pub that night with an unidentified man, no trace of her is ever found. Over the course of the next […]

June 19, 1984. Fernald, Ohio. 39-year old Dave Bocks shows up to work the graveyard shift at the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center, a plant which processes uranium for nuclear weapons. Dave vanishes before his shift ends and evidence soon emerges that he fell into some molten liquid inside one of the plant’s furnaces. The […]

September 11, 2001. Tioga County, New York. 35-year old Michele Harris finishes her evening shift at her workplace, but never returns home. The following morning, Michele’s abandoned minivan is discovered on a road next to the driveway of her family’s rural property. Suspicion turns towards Michele’s estranged husband, Cal Harris, as the couple are in […]

“The Trail Went Cold” is taking a break this week after a busy summer of live shows and conventions! In place of a brand new episode, please enjoy this Patreon-exclusive bonus episode from last year covering the case of Kent Heitholt. Robin covered this same case at the Ottawa Podcast Festival in August 2019. November […]

August 15, 2002. Bassett, Virginia. 50-year old Michael Short and his 36-year old wife, Mary, are found shot to death inside their home, but the couple’s nine-year old daughter, Jennifer, is missing. Over one month later, Jennifer’s remains are discovered over 30 miles away in a rural area of North Carolina and it turns out […]