The Trail Went Cold

Latest Episodes:

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 4 - Donna Lass Oct 19, 2016

Show notes

September 6, 1970. South Lake Tahoe, California. 25-year old nurse Donna Lass is nearing the end of her shift at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel-Casino when she vanishes without explanation. Her landlord and boss soon receive phone calls from an unidentified man, who claims that Donna will be absent for awhile because of a family emergency. However, this claim turns out to be false and Donna is never seen again. Months later, the San Francisco Chronicle receives a cryptic postcard which is allegedly sent by the infamous Zodiac killer, who implies that Donna Lass was one of his victims. Was the Zodiac responsible for Donna’s disappearance or was the postcard nothing more than a giant red herring? We attempt to answer that question in this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”.

Additional Reading:

http://charleyproject.org/case/donna-ann-lass

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2000/nov/15/was-tahoe-disappearance-linked-to-zodiac-killer/

http://www.zodiacciphers.com/lake-tahoe-disappearance.html

http://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/category/donna-lass

“Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America’s Most Elusive Serial Killer Revealed” by Robert Graysmith

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 18 - Cindy James Oct 12, 2016

Show notes

June 8, 1989. Richmond, British Columbia. Two weeks after she disappeared, the body of 44-year old Cindy James is found in the yard of an abandoned house. Her hands and feet have been tied behind her back and her cause of death is determined to be an overdose. Cindy’s death brings an end to six-and-a-half-years of terror, where she reported nearly one hundred incidents of being stalked, tormented and attacked by an unknown assailant. However, police believe that Cindy was a mentally ill woman who staged all the attacks against herself before committing suicide. Did Cindy concoct an elaborate hoax before taking her own life or was she murdered by her mysterious tormentor? In this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, I analyze one of Canada’s most baffling and hotly debated unsolved mysteries.

Additional Reading:

http://unsolved.com/archives/cindy-james

http://www.melaniehack.com/

“The Deaths of Cindy James” by Neal Hall

“Who Killed Cindy James?” by Ian Mulgrew

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 3 - Albert Dekker Oct 05, 2016

Show notes

May 5, 1968. After not hearing from him for three days, the fiancee of 62-year old character actor Albert Dekker (star of such films as “Dr. Cyclops”, “Kiss Me Deadly” and “The Wild Bunch”) enters his Hollywood apartment. She is horrified to discover him hanging dead inside the bathroom. The bizarre manner in which Dekker is found suggests that he was involved in some sort of sadomasochistic sexual activity when he died. The initial ruling is suicide before it is changed to accidental death via autoerotic asphyxiation, but since a large amount of money and valuables seem to be missing from the apartment, suspicion mounts that Dekker was a victim of foul play. On this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine one of the strangest unexplained deaths in Hollywood history.

Additional Reading:

“Tales of Hollywood: The Bizarre” by John Austin

“The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals” by Michelle Morgan

http://www.lauriejacobson.com/hollywood_heartbreak_ex.php

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 17 - The Lady of the Dunes Sep 28, 2016

Show notes

July 26, 1974. The nude decomposed body of a young woman is discovered at the Race Point Dunes outside of Provincetown, Massachusetts. The woman has been murdered via blunt force trauma to the head, but carries no identification. In spite of an extensive investigation, police are unable to uncover the identity of the victim or her killer, so she simply becomes known as the “Lady of the Dunes”. Over the years, there are a number of intriguing leads in the case, including a potential connection to a notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, and an alleged sighting of the victim in one of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters of all time. Join me for this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” as I try to figure out the true identity of the “Lady of the Dunes”

As a bonus, this episode will also contain a review of the true crime book, “The Blood on My Hands”, an autobiography written by Shannon O’Leary, which is available for purchase at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-My-Hands-Autobiography/dp/151969587X

Also, please check out the Doe Network profile page for the “Lady of the Dunes”, which contains facial reconstructions for the victim, her vital statistics, and contact info for the proper authorities should you happen to know who she is: http://doenetwork.org/cases/119ufma.html

Additional Reading:

http://www.masslive.com/bostonspirit/2014/10/whitey_bulger_gays_and_the_lad.html

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2014/07/23/40-years-later-provincetowns-lady-of-the-dunes-remains-a-mystery

“The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes” by Michael Newton

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 2 - Lynne Schulze Sep 21, 2016

Show notes

December 10, 1971. Middlebury, Vermont. 18-year old Middlebury College student Lynne Schulze is scheduled to take one of her final exams. While walking to the exam with her friends, Lynne remembers that she has forgotten her pen and returns to her dorm room to retrieve it. Lynne never shows up for the exam and vanishes without a trace. Four decades later, an unlikely connection is made between this case and one of the most sensational crime stories of the modern era. Was Lynne Schulze’s baffling unsolved disappearance somehow connected to notorious millionaire Robert Durst? We shall try to answer that question on our latest minsode of “The Trail Went Cold”.

Additional Reading:

http://charleyproject.org/case/lynne-kathryn-schulze

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/24/robert-durst-linked-disappearance-lynne-schulze-vermont-student-1971

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/robert-durst/robert-durst-case-missing-student-lynne-schulze-shopped-his-business-n329551

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 16 - Tommy Zeigler (Part 2) Sep 14, 2016

Show notes

Christmas Eve 1975. Winter Garden, Florida. Police respond to call for help at the W.T. Zeigler Furniture Store and find one of the store’s owners, 30-year old Tommy Zeigler, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Inside, they discover that four people have been murdered: Tommy’s wife, Eunice Zeigler; her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards; and a customer named Charlie Mays. Tommy claims he was attacked and shot by unknown intruders, but authorities believe Tommy committed the murders himself and that his gunshot wound is self-inflicted. Months later, he is put on trial and sentenced to death. In Part 1 of this convoluted story, we chronicled this horrific crime and Tommy Zeigler’s trial. Now, in Part 2, we shall examine the many shocking developments from the past four decades which have cast doubt on the conviction. Did Tommy Zeigler actually commit these murders or has an innocent man spent 40 years on death row?

For this episode, we have consulted with Tommy’s full time pro bono private investigator, Lynn-Marie Carty, who has spent the past five-and-a-half years uncovering new evidence in her attempts to get Tommy out of prison. Be sure to check out her website about the case, “Tommy Zeigler is Innocent”, along with her personal website about her investigation services, “Reunite People”. We thank Lynn-Marie for her assistance at helping us put together our most extensive episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.

Additional Reading:

“Fatal Flaw: A True Story of Malice and Murder in a Small Southern Town” by Philip Finch

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-tommy-zeigler-medill-justice-project-20160308-story.html

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/defense-seeks-touch-dna-to-question-death-row-inmates-guilt/2236115

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Minisode 1 - The Blind River Rest Stop Murders Sep 07, 2016

Show notes

June 28, 1991. An elderly couple named Gord and Jackie McAllister drive their motor home into an isolated rest stop near Blind River, Ontario, in order to spend the night. They are awakened by an armed man, who robs them before shooting Jackie to death and wounding Gord. When a motorist named Brian Major pulls into the rest stop, the suspect fatally shoots him as well before fleeing the scene. Years later, a former Blind River resident is tied to two unsolved murders from 1970 and becomes a potential suspect in the rest stop killings. This terrifying case was featured on “Unsolved Mysteries” and is our first Canadian story. Join us for the very first minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”.

Additional Reading:

http://unsolved.com/archives/gordon-jackie-mcallister

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/dna-leads-to-arrest-in-30-year-old-sex-slayings-1.176374

“Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder” by Lee Mellor

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 15 - Tommy Zeigler (Part 1) Aug 31, 2016

Show notes

Christmas Eve 1975. Winter Garden, Florida. Police respond to call for help at the W.T. Zeigler Furniture Store and find one of the store’s owners, 30-year old Tommy Zeigler, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Inside, they discover that four people have been murdered: Tommy’s wife, Eunice Zeigler; her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards; and a customer named Charlie Mays. Tommy claims he was attacked and shot by unknown intruders, but authorities believe Tommy committed the murders himself and that his gunshot wound is self-inflicted. Months later, he is put on trial and sentenced to death. However, the prosecution’s case was shaky at best and over the years, evidence has emerged to cast doubt on the conviction. Tommy Zeigler has remained on death row for over 40 years, but has never stopped maintaining his innocence and his supporters continue to fight to get him released. This is undoubtedly the most convoluted case “The Trail Went Cold” has ever profiled, so we will be making this a two-part episode. This week, Part 1 will chronicle the incredible series of events surrounding this horrific crime and the controversial trial of Tommy Zeigler.

Additional Reading:

“Fatal Flaw: A True Story of Malice and Murder in a Small Southern Town” by Philip Finch

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-tommy-zeigler-medill-justice-project-20160308-story.html

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/defense-seeks-touch-dna-to-question-death-row-inmates-guilt/2236115

http://tommyzeiglerisinnocent.com

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 14 - Edward Maps Aug 17, 2016

Show notes

January 21, 1962. Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Authorities arrive at the burning home of Edward Maps to discover that his wife, Christine, has been bludgeoned to death and their four-month old daughter, Julie Louise, has died of smoke inhalation. Edward Maps himself has disappeared and a warrant is issued for his arrest. Maps is soon placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, but to this day, he has never been found. However, over the years, allegations have surfaced that another suspect might have been the real perpetrator and disposed of Maps’ body to frame him for the crime. Did Edward Maps get away with the murder of his family or was he actually an innocent victim all along? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, I analyze one of the most baffling wanted fugitive cases ever.

Additional Reading:

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20080121/NEWS/801210331

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20080128/NEWS/801280322

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20080211/NEWS/802110332

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20080413/NEWS/804130349

http://articles.mcall.com/1992-05-03/news/2858965_1_christine-fine-artist-murders

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 13 - Father Rivera and Father Kerrigan Aug 03, 2016

Show notes

August 7, 1982. Santa Fe, New Mexico. A Catholic priest named Father Reynaldo Rivera receives a phone call from a man asking him to administer last rites to a dying relative. After leaving to meet this man at a rest stop, Father Rivera disappears and is soon found murdered. Two years later, another Catholic priest named Father John Kerrigan disappears from the community of Ronan, Montana and though his body is never found, the evidence suggests he was also murdered. There are enough similarities between the two crimes that investigators start wondering if they might be connected and committed by a serial killer targeting Catholic priests. However, allegations have surfaced to suggest that one of the priests may have been harboring dark secrets which contributed to his death. I will be analyzing two unsolved cases on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, as I attempt to figure out what happened to both Father Rivera and Father Kerrigan.

Additional Reading:

https://unsolved.com/gallery/fr-reynaldo-rivera/

http://charleyproject.org/case/john-patrick-kerrigan

https://missoulian.com/news/local/list-of-priests-accused-of-sex-abuse-includes-believed-to/article_260a2a21-8c7f-5b29-ad6a-2cbc8583426d.html

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.