The Trail Went Cold

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 173 - Chad Maurer

May 19, 1990. Madison, Wisconsin. After coming home from his job at a bicycle shop to grab food during his lunch break, 19-year old Chad Maurer tells his parents that he is going to return to his workplace, but he soon turns up missing. Two days later, Chad’s body is found in his car inside a garage on the South Side of Chicago and his cause of death is determined to be carbon monoxide poisoning. While the police initially believe that Chad’s death was a suicide, there are numerous bruises and injuries on his body which seem to indicate foul play. Chad’s parents receive information to suggest he may have been murdered because he became involved in drug trafficking, but there are no conclusive answers about what happened to him. This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” explores the bizarre case of a young man who turned up dead under mysterious circumstances at a location over 150 miles from his home. In addition, we will also discuss the strange 1988 death of 25-year old Kenneth Engie, who also succumbed to carbon monoxide inside his garage in his hometown of Edmore, North Dakota.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/chad-maurer/
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-12-11-9104210361-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-08-mn-6302-story.html
https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/columnists/doug-moe/doug-moe-twenty-five-years-on-remembering-chad/article_6a943b8e-e3de-5e6d-8d0d-602f290fa507.html
https://mytruecrime.com/the-mysterious-death-of-chad-maurer/
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-12-11-9104210361-story.html
https://unsolved.com/gallery/kenneth-engie/
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 172 - Claudia Kirschhoch

May 27, 2000. Negril, Jamaica. After she is denied entry into Cuba for a junket, 29-year old travel writer Claudia Kirschhoch is rerouted to a Sandals beach resort in Jamaica while she waits for a flight back home to New York. After last being seen walking along a beach, Claudia vanishes without a trace and most of her personal items are left behind in her hotel room. The investigation leads to a resort bartender whom Claudia went out on a date with before she went missing and there are enough suspicious actions from the resort to suggest that a cover-up might have taken place. Who was responsible for Claudia Kirschhoch’s disappearance and how many people were involved? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” explores a frustrating cold case about an American citizen who went missing during an unscheduled trip to a foreign country and has still never been found. Special thanks to listener Allysa Ramkerrysingh for narrating the opening of this episode.
Additional Reading:
http://www.unsolved.com/gallery/claudia-kirschhoch
http://charleyproject.org/case/claudia-ann-kirschhoch
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Claudia_Kirschhoch
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/natalee-like-case-5-years-later/
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/aug/12/travel/tr-33308
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/22/nyregion/queens-travel-writer-who-vanished-in-jamaica-is-declared-dead.html
http://www.sabrinaerdely.com/docs/MurderInParadise.pdf
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 171 - Claudia Lawrence

March 18, 2009. York, England. 35-year old Claudia Lawrence speaks on the phone with her parents and texts her best friend about meeting for drinks the following evening. When Claudia fails to show up for work the next morning and misses her meet-up with her friend, she is subsequently reported missing. The investigation would uncover allegations that Claudia was involved in some secret relationships which may have led to her disappearance, causing the story to become sensationalized by the media. Over the next decade, a number of different men are arrested on suspicion of Claudia’s murder, but due to a lack of evidence, none of them are formally charged. Was Claudia victimized by someone from her personal life, or could a stranger have been responsible for her disappearance? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel to the United Kingdom to explore one of their most prominent unsolved missing persons cases of recent memory.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Claudia_Lawrence
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/what_happened_to_claudia
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35759574
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/18/ten-years-on-claudia-lawrence-search-frustrated-by-information-withheld-police
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-27418063
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/claudia-lawrence-murder-theories-latest-becky-godden-serial-killer-christopher-halliwell-yorkshire-a7986021.html
http://nyenquirer.uk/did-halliwell-murder-claudia-lawrence/
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/everything-know-disappearance-claudia-lawrence-17946108
http://www.findclaudia.co.uk
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 170 - Sharon Davis

June 13, 2001. Dallas, Texas. 51-year old teacher Sharon Davis drops her daughter off at a bus depot, but fails to show up for a scheduled training session at her school later that morning. Five days later, Sharon’s abandoned minivan is discovered in the parking lot of a local fitness club. Suspicion turns towards Sharon’s estranged husband, Ron Davis, as Sharon had filed for divorce from him only two days before she vanished. Ron maintains his innocence and claims that Sharon stole money from him and took off on her own. Did Sharon disappear voluntarily or was she the victim of a marriage gone bad? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we cover a missing persons case which proved so controversial that “Unsolved Mysteries” produced a segment about the case and elected not to air it on television.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/sharon-eugenia-davis
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Sharon_Eugenia_Davis
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2002-07-18/news/the-reluctant-witness/
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/a-fool-for-a-client-6388562
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 169 - Julie Williams & Lollie Winans

May 19, 1996. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. 24-year old Julianne “Julie” Williams and her 26-year old girlfriend, Laura “Lollie” Winans, leave on a backpacking trip, but are eventually reported missing when they fail to return home. Nearly two weeks later, Julie and Lollie are found dead at a campsite inside the park and have been bound, gagged and had their throats slashed. The murders are looked at as a possible hate crime and a suspect named Darrell David Rice is indicted in 2002. However, when forensic evidence fails to link Rice to the crime, the charges against him are dropped. Was Rice actually the perpetrator or was someone else responsible? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” explores the horrific double-murder of a lesbian couple, as well as its possible connections to some other infamous unsolved crimes from Virginia, including the Route 29 murder of Alicia Showalter Reynolds and the Colonial Parkway Murders.
This episode of The Trail Went Cold is brought to you by Best Fiends, a unique and exciting puzzle experience unlike other puzzle games out there. Download it FREE on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Additional Reading:
https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/features/murder-woods-shenandoah-national-park/
https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/crime_courts/after-years-shenandoah-national-park-double-murder-still-unsolved-but/article_c161cfe5-156e-50e7-8b76-0761f186ae79.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2004/02/26/charges-dismissed-in-shenandoah-park-slayings/962f304e-1111-484b-ad9c-46cbad2362da/
https://barryyeoman.com/1996/11/murder-on-the-mountain/
http://www.readthehook.com/98890/explosive-words
http://www.readthehook.com/94820/cover-after-rice-new-questions-park-murders
http://www.readthehook.com/85777/cover-cold-case-alicia-showalter-reynolds-fall-and-rise-darrell-rice
http://www.readthehook.com/85806/cover-murder-park-rice-release-revives-memories
https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/local/families-want-evidence-checked-in-shenandoah-double-slaying/article_7873a07f-f56a-5448-a2d9-59c88fd5cc07.html
http://unsolved.com/gallery/alicia-showalter
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Alicia_Showalter_Reynolds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Parkway_murders
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 168 - Don "Rainboy" Decker

February 24, 1983. Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. After receiving a temporary furlough from the county jail, 21-year old Don Decker attends his grandfather’s funeral and goes to stay at a friend’s house. It isn’t long before Don appears to go into a trance and water starts materializing from the house’s walls, ceiling and floor. Over the course of the next several days, Don seemingly has the ability to make water appear at different locations, including a pizza parlour and the county jail, and numerous eyewitnesses report seeing strange supernatural events which make them believe that Don is possessed by an evil spirit. The indoor rain finally comes to an end after a meeting between Don and a reverend, but everyone is left completely baffled. Did Don Decker really have the ability to control water with his mind, or was the whole thing nothing more than an elaborate hoax and an example of hysterical social delusion? After 168 full-length episodes and 32 minisodes, our podcast has finally reached its 200th episode and to commemorate the occasion, we are doing something a little different from the norm and chronicling the bizarre saga of Don “Rainboy” Decker, a paranormal-themed mystery of which there is no easy explanation.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/don-decker/
http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20120205/NEWS/202050307
http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20130526/NEWS/305260327
“American Hauntings: The True Stories Behind Hollywood’s Scariest Movies” by Robert E. Bartholomew and Joe Nickell
http://wnep.com/2012/10/19/rainman-charged-with-arson/
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Bonus Episode - The Career of Robert Stack

November 29, 1987. Millions of people tune in to NBC to watch a television special about unsolved mysteries which is hosted by a legendary, well-respected Hollywood actor. The special is eventually turned into a full-time series and this actor becomes the permanent host. Three decades later, after this TV show and the host have become pop culture icons, they inspire a true-crime podcast called “The Trail Went Cold”. For our very first bonus Patreon episode, we will be chronicling the amazing life of Robert Stack from his instant success as a young actor in Hollywood to his incomparable run as the host of “Unsolved Mysteries”.
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 167 - Janice Wessinger

November 22, 1997. Aiken County, South Carolina. The daughter of 47-year old Janice Wessinger returns home to discover that her mother is missing. The following morning, Janice’s body is found in a wooded area near her house and she has been raped and stabbed to death. It is theorized that Janice was attacked after going out for a walk the previous morning, but her killer is never identified. At the personal request of the victim’s daughter, we will be exploring the unsolved murder of Janice Wessinger on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
For more information on this case, please visit the Facebook page, “Janice Wessinger – Help Us Find Her Murderer”.
Additional Reading:
https://www.aikenstandard.com/news/after-years-aiken-county-murder-case-remains-unsolved/article_f822be2a-fd5b-11e7-9b8d-9b6bef056c54.html
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 166 - The Indiana Dunes Women

July 2, 1966. Porter County, Indiana. 21-year old Ann Miller, 19-year old Patricia Blough and 19-year old Renee Bruhl leave their homes in Illinois in order to travel to the Indiana Dunes State Park. After taking a spot on the beach next to Lake Michigan, the three women venture into the water, leaving all of their belongings behind. Eyewitnesses would recall seeing them climb into a boat with an unidentified man before they vanished without a trace and there would be a number of different theories about why they went missing. Did the women take off voluntarily? Were they murdered over possible connections to notorious criminal Silas Jayne and his “horse syndicate”? Could their disappearance have been the result of an illegal abortion gone wrong? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we shall explore the truly baffling disappearance of the “Indiana Dunes Women”.
We would like to send out a special thanks to Smithsonian Channel Plus for supporting “The Trail Went Cold”. Visit www.getscplus.com/cold and get 50% off your first three months of Smithsonian Channel Plus.
Join us on March 21 at 8:00pm Eastern Time for an online streaming Unsolved Mysteries marathon where we will be watching segments about cases covered on episodes of “The Trail Went Cold”. You can enter our screening room by clicking on this link.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/ann-miller
http://charleyproject.org/case/patricia-blough
http://charleyproject.org/case/renee-bruhl
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-06-21-8702170368-story.html
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/justice-story/3-girls-beach-found-article-1.1216303
“Silas Jayne: Chicago’s Suburban Gangster” by Bryan Alaspa
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 165 - Todd McAfee

August 18, 1987. Manatee County, Florida. Todd McAfee, the 27-year old manager of a tomato farm, is discovered to be missing from his trailer after his employees arrive for work. Todd’s body is soon found in a nearby drainage ditch and he has been shot four times. Since a valuable gun collection was stolen from Todd’s trailer, he was apparently killed during a botched burglary, and police investigate a sighting of some potential suspects who were seen in the area in an orange van on the day of the crime. Years later, Todd’s former housekeeper, Ruthie Mae Anderson, is indicted for his murder, but the charges are dropped when the case against her falls apart. Was Ruthie actually involved in Todd’s death, or was someone else responsible for the crime? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” explores a cold case which was featured on one of the rarest segments of “Unsolved Mysteries”. In addition, we will also discuss the bizarre unexplained death of 19-year old Tim Molnar, who vanished from his hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida in 1984 before his skeletal remains were inexplicably discovered over 1,200 miles away in rural Wisconsin.
This episode of The Trail Went Cold is brought to you by Best Fiends, a unique and exciting puzzle experience unlike other puzzle games out there. Download it FREE on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Todd_McAfee
http://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20020826/unsolved-murders-not-forgotten
https://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120818/News/605214130
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Tim_Molnar
“101 Wisconsin Unsolved Mysteries” by Mary Balousek
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.