The Trail Went Cold

Latest Episodes:

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 23 - Alan Jeal Jul 12, 2017

Show notes

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 learn that he travelled to two other nearby towns before he went to Perranporth. The footage opens up a lot of perplexing questions, but no answers about how Alan wound up dead. Did Alan commit a very bizarre suicide or was he a victim of foul play? We look at both angles on this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”.

Special thanks to Casper for supporting our podcast. In order to save $50 on a mattress, please visit http://www.casper.com/cold and enter the promo code “cold”.

Additional Reading:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-27505054

http://www.cornwalllive.com/police-reveal-information-case-wadebridge-man/story-21119561-detail/story.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-26674176

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-27678525

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 37 - L’Enfant Jul 05, 2017

Show notes

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 only as “L’Enfant”. The calls continue for an entire decade and take a toll on Bashir’s mental health, but even after they come to an end, there are still no answers about why they happened. Who was “L’Enfant” and were the phone calls somehow connected to Bashir’s unexplained kidnapping ordeal in Beirut? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” might be the most bizarre story we’ve ever featured, as it covers one of the relentless harassment campaigns imaginable.

Thanks to HelloFresh for supporting our podcast. Go to www.HelloFresh.com and use the code cold30 to get $30 off your first week of deliveries.

Additional Reading:

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Bashir_Kouchacji

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-08-19/news/vw-5724_1_phone-call

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/07/11/the-reliable-source/b457913c-d84c-4b3d-8926-15fb01be78e6/?utm_term=.cb72eb2396f0

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 22 - Paige Renkoski and Danielle Stislicki Jun 28, 2017

Show notes

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 speak with a man outside her vehicle at that location, but he is never identified and Paige is never found.

In addition to Paige Renkoski’s story, this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold” will also be covering the recent unsolved disappearance of 28-year old Danielle Stislicki, who vanished after leaving her workplace on December 2, 2016. Her Jeep was later found parked outside her apartment in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more details about this case, please visit the website, finddani.org, and if you have any information, contact the Farmington Hills Police Department at 248-871-2610. Be sure to check out Nina Innsted’s episode about Dani’s disappearance on the “Already Gone” podcast.

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Paige_Renkoski

http://charleyproject.org/case/paige-marie-renkoski

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/05/24/mom-hope-can-bring-little-girl-home/27845653

https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/05/31/new-search-in-the-case-of-paige-renkoski-missing-for-over-20-years/

https://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/2011/11/cadaver_dogs_find_potential_bu.html

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 36 - Clarence and Geneva Roberts Jun 21, 2017

Show notes

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 insurance policies. Ten years later, Geneva Roberts is killed in a mysterious house fire… alongside a man who is identified as her supposedly deceased husband, Clarence! But what caused the couple’s deaths and whose body was burned in 1970? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” chronicles the incredibly bizarre tale of a man who supposedly died in two different fires ten years apart.

Additional Reading:

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Clarence_and_Geneva_Roberts

“Notorious 92: Indiana’s Most Notorious Murders in All 92 Counties” by Andrew E. Stoner

https://www.leagle.com/decision/19801787410ne2d137711761

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 21 - Maoma Ridings Jun 14, 2017

Show notes

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 in black inside Ridings’ room. Who was this mysterious woman in black and was she responsible for Ridings’ murder? This week, “The Trail Went Cold” tackles an unsolved World War II-era murder of a servicewoman who once worked as a physical therapist for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Additional Reading:

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2013/10/01/indiana-unsolved-the-1943-murder-of-cpl-maoma-ridings-at-the-upscale-claypool-hotel-remains-a-mystery/2901193/

“The Mammoth Book of Killers at Large” by Nigel Clawthorne

A huge thank you to Audible for supporting our podcast. To thank you for your support, we’d like to invite you to get a free audiobook with a free 30 day trial at audible.com/cold.

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 35 - Cindy Anderson Jun 07, 2017

Show notes

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 persons case which includes some haunting graffiti, a pair of chilling anonymous phone calls describing Cindy’s abduction, and a drug trafficking ring involving one of the lawyers at the firm. In this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we chronicle the baffling unsolved disappearance of Cindy Anderson.

Thanks to HelloFresh for supporting our podcast. Go to www.HelloFresh.com and use the code cold30 to get $30 off your first week of deliveries.

Additional Reading:

http://www.unsolved.com/gallery/cynthia-anderson/

http://charleyproject.org/case/cynthia-jane-anderson

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2011/08/04/Woman-s-disappearance-a-mystery-after-30-years.html

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 20 - Leigh Occhi May 31, 2017

Show notes

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 Leigh abducted and murdered by an unknown intruder… or could her own mother have been responsible for her disappearance and fabricated an elaborate cover story? In this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we analyze a very disturbing and bizarre missing persons case.

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Leigh_Occhi

http://charleyproject.org/case/leigh-marine-occhi

https://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/13/grace.coldcase.occhi/index.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20090803091158/http://blogs.discovery.com/criminal_report/2009/07/leigh-marine-occhi.html#more

http://web.archive.org/web/20090803103803/http://blogs.discovery.com:80/criminal_report/2009/07/leigh-marine-occhi-2.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20090803103803/http://blogs.discovery.com/criminal_report/2009/07/leigh-marine-occhi-3.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20090803091153/http://blogs.discovery.com:80/criminal_report/2009/07/leigh-marine-occhi-4.html

Listeners attending CrimeCon 2017 from June 9th-11th at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis can receive a 20% discount on their ticket purchase by using the code “TTWC20”

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 34 - Dickie Hovey and Eric Jones May 24, 2017

Show notes

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 years until clay busts of their heads are constructed and shown on television. They are both eventually recognized and identified by their families as Richard “Dickie” Hovey and Eric Jones. However, the exact circumstances of their murders are still unknown. This week, “The Trail Went Cold” will be venturing back to its native country for an episode about two young men who may have been victims of Canada’s first known serial killer.

Additional Reading:

“Unsolved: True Canadian Cold Cases” by Robert J. Hoshowsky

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/body-found-in-68-identified-as-new-brunswick-youth-1.615309

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-shattering-conclusion-to-42-year-old-mystery/article17940176/

Listeners attending CrimeCon 2017 from June 9th-11th at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis can receive a 20% discount on their ticket purchase by using the code “TTWC20”

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Bonus Episode - Pamela Butler Update May 20, 2017

Show notes

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 disappearance. On April 8, 2017, Jose was finally arrested and charged with Pam’s murder. Incredibly, it has now been revealed that Jose is also the prime suspect in the unsolved 1989 disappearance of his estranged wife! For the first time, “The Trail Went Cold” is presenting a bonus update minisode about one of the cases featured on our podcast, as we reveal what finally led to Jose Rodriguez-Cruz being charged with Pamela Butler’s murder and some shocking secrets which have emerged about his past.

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 19 - Penny Bell May 17, 2017

Show notes

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 and no one uncovers the reason for the mysterious appointment which led to Penny’s death. “The Trail Went Cold” will be travelling back to the United Kingdom for this week’s minisode, as we chronicle one of the country’s most baffling unsolved murders.

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Penny_Bell

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4233444.stm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3199425/My-precious-Penny-baby-s-helped-reclaim-mother-murder-Daughter-woman-stabbed-50-times-horrific-unsolved-killing-parent-herself.html

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/WHAT+DROVE+PENNY+TO+MAKE+A+DATE+WITH+DEATH%3F%3B+Wealthy+career+woman…-a061177067

Listeners attending CrimeCon 2017 from June 9th-11th at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis can receive a 20% discount on their ticket purchase by using the code “TTWC20”

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

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