The Trail Went Cold

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 353 - The Chen Family Murders

October 8, 2014. Guilderland, New York. The bodies of a Chinese immigrant family – 39-year old Jin Feng Chen, his 38-year old wife Hai Yan Li, and their two sons, 10-year old Anthony and 7-year old Eddy – are found inside their bungalow and they have been stabbed and bludgeoned to death. While Jin Feng worked at a local Chinese restaurant, rumours circulate that he may have been involved in illegal activity, such as the trafficking of undocumented workers, and this led to his family being killed. However, these rumours are never substantiated, so the motive for the crime and the identity of the perpetrator is never determined. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the Chen family murders, a brutal crime involving four victims in which there has been a surprisingly low number of strong leads.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the New York State Police, Troop G, Major Crimes at (518) 783-3212
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_family_killings
https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/chen-family-murder
https://web.archive.org/web/20181001142359/https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/chinatown-community-eyed-as-cops-work-to-solve-quadruple-slaying-upstate-1.9601236
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/nyregion/2-children-among-4-found-dead-in-an-upstate-home.html
https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Year-after-slaughter-of-Guilderland-family-6551378.php
https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Evidence-technicians-return-to-seen-of-4-killings-5813957.php
https://altamontenterprise.com/10092015/year-after-chinese-family-murdered-no-suspects-here-or-elsewhere-0
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/cookas-tale
https://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/03/mississippi_gulf_coast_triple.html
https://abc13.com/sun-family-killings-feng-lu-arrest-murder-of-4-members-massacre/12228938/
“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 352 - Rae Ann Mossor and Norman Ladner

February 4, 1986. Roanoke, Virginia. 21-year old Rae Ann Mossor is found dead on the street outside her estranged boyfriend’s house with a shotgun wound to the chest. The shotgun is lying on the trunk of a nearby parked car and according to her boyfriend, Rae Ann had implied she would kill herself if he did not reconcile their relationship and he said he heard the fatal gunshot shortly after she left his residence. While Rae Ann’s death is officially ruled to be a suicide, her parents discover some suspicious discrepancies to make them believe she was murdered.
August 21, 1989. Pearl River County, Mississippi. 17-year old Norman Ladner leaves his family’s farm to go hunting in a wooded area on their property. When Norman fails to return, his father eventually discovers his body in the woods with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. The local authorities rule that Norman’s death was a suicide and that he likely shot himself with his own hunting rifle, but his parents dispute this and uncover some strange details which make them suspect that Norman may have been murdered after stumbling upon a drug deal.
On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we cover two controversial suicide cases featured on “Unsolved Mysteries” in which the victims’ loved ones believed that foul play had taken place.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/rae-ann-mossor/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Rae_Ann_Mossor
https://www.newspapers.com/image/919610869/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/918403944/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/920949898/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/919402323/
https://unsolved.com/gallery/norman-ladner/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Norman_Ladner
https://www.newspapers.com/image/743992118/
“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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 351 - Martha Moxley (Part 2)

October 31, 1975. Greenwich, Connecticut. After she fails to return home the previous night, the body of 15-year old Martha Moxley is discovered in her backyard. She has been stabbed in the neck and bludgeoned with a golf club and pieces of the shattered club are traced to the residence of the Skakels, a prominent family from the neighborhood. Decades later, one of the family’s children, Michael Skakel, who was 15 at the time of the crime, is charged and convicted of Martha’s murder. However, Michael’s conviction winds up being vacated on two separate occasions due to ineffective counsel at his trial, so he is released from prison. In 2020, the state announces that they have no plans to retry Michael, meaning there are no conclusive answers about what happened. Did Michael Skakel actually kill Martha Moxley or was someone else was responsible? Last week, in Part One of our series about this controversial murder, we shared the basic facts of the case. This week, we will attempt to analyze and break down the crime by exploring all the different theories about what happened.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Martha_Moxley
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-killed-martha-moxley/
https://unsolved.com/gallery/martha-moxley/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Martha_Moxley
http://thesuttonreport.com/The%20Sutton%20Report/campysuttontoc.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20130315150324/http://www.marthamoxley.com/news/050502gt.htm
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-skakel0522.artmay22-story.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/01/kennedy.htm
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ct-supreme-court/1455643.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/nyregion/skakel-gets-new-trial-in-75-killing-of-teenager-in-connecticut.html?ref=nyregion
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/30/nyregion/michael-skakel-martha-moxley-timeline.html
http://nypost.com/2017/09/17/i-tutored-a-kennedy-relative-and-wound-up-accused-of-murder/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/nyregion/michael-skakel-conviction-reversed.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/30/us/skakel-no-retrial-moxley-murder/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/article/skakel-moxley-murder-case.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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Bonus Episode - Maze of Secrets

1 eerie corn maze…9 haunting figures…9 spine-tingling tales…
Will YOU find your way out This Halloween, step into a labyrinth of shadows and suspense with Shane Waters as your guide. In this chilling collaboration, you’ll encounter the hosts of nine acclaimed true crime podcasts (including Robin Warder of “The Trail Went Cold”), each offering a dark tale and a life lesson to send shivers down your spine. This is not just a special episode; it’s an immersive journey through a maze of twisted paths and unsolved mysteries. So, lift your lantern high and venture into ‘Maze of Secrets’…but be warned…not everyone makes it to the end…
Prepare to get lost in the stories, but find yourself in their lessons. It’s an odyssey of crime, mystery, and eerie life lessons that you won’t soon forget. This is Shane’s ffth holiday collaboration. If you dare to walk this twisted path with us, you’re in for a night you’ll never forget. Are you ready?
Podcasts are listed here in order of appearance:
Frightful (https://www.itsfrightful.org/)
Marooned (https://visitmarooned.com/)
Rotten to the Core (https://www.itsrottentothecore.com/)mur
Murder, She Told (https://www.murdershetold.com/)
Obscura (https://www.itsobscura.com/)
Crimelines (https://linktr.ee/crimelines)
Once Upon a Crime (https://www.truecrimepodcast.com/)
The Trail Went Cold (https://www.trailwentcold.com/)
Foul Play: Crime Series (https://www.itsfoulplay.com/)
Listen to the other holiday collaborations here: https://www.itsfoulplay.com/p/collaborations/

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 350 - Martha Moxley (Part 1)

October 31, 1975. Greenwich, Connecticut. After she fails to return home the previous night, the body of 15-year old Martha Moxley is discovered in her backyard. She has been stabbed in the neck and bludgeoned with a golf club and pieces of the shattered club are traced to the residence of the Skakels, a prominent family from the neighborhood. Decades later, one of the family’s children, Michael Skakel, who was 15 at the time of the crime, is charged and convicted of Martha’s murder. However, Michael’s conviction winds up being vacated on two separate occasions due to ineffective counsel at his trial, so he is released from prison. In 2020, the state announces that they have no plans to retry Michael, meaning there are no conclusive answers about what happened. Did Michael Skakel actually kill Martha Moxley or was someone else was responsible? This week, “The Trail Went Cold” will be releasing the first part of a special two-part episode about one of the most controversial murder cases of the past half-century. Special thanks to listener Jeremy Indick-Connelly for narrating the opening of this episode.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Martha_Moxley
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-killed-martha-moxley/
https://unsolved.com/gallery/martha-moxley/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Martha_Moxley
http://thesuttonreport.com/The%20Sutton%20Report/campysuttontoc.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20130315150324/http://www.marthamoxley.com/news/050502gt.htm
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-skakel0522.artmay22-story.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/01/kennedy.htm
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ct-supreme-court/1455643.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/nyregion/skakel-gets-new-trial-in-75-killing-of-teenager-in-connecticut.html?ref=nyregion
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/30/nyregion/michael-skakel-martha-moxley-timeline.html
http://nypost.com/2017/09/17/i-tutored-a-kennedy-relative-and-wound-up-accused-of-murder/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/nyregion/michael-skakel-conviction-reversed.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/30/us/skakel-no-retrial-moxley-murder/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/article/skakel-moxley-murder-case.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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 349 - Ronald Sisman and Elizabeth Platzman

October 31, 1981. New York City. The bodies of 39-year old Ronald Sisman and 20-year old Elizabeth Platzman are discovered inside Ron’s apartment in the Chelsea neighbourhood of Manhattan. Both victims have been shot to death, execution-style, and since the apartment was ransacked, there is speculation that the crime might be drug-delated. However, notorious serial killer David Berkowitz, who is serving time in prison for the “Son of Sam” murders, eventually shares information that Ron and Liz were killed by associates of his that were members of a Satanic cult and looking to retrieve a snuff film. Was there any truth to Berkowitz’s claims or were the two victims murdered for entirely different reasons? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we profile an unsolved double murder which took place on Halloween and has often been surrounded by wild conspiracy theories.
Additional Reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/02/nyregion/police-seek-motive-in-deaths-of-student-and-a-photographer.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/713488638/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/486177887/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/437021867/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/833884606/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/713490892/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/720692506/
https://thecinemaholic.com/how-and-why-was-ron-sisman-killed/
“The Ultimate Evil: The Search for the Sons of Sam” by Maury Terry
“The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes” by Michael Newton
“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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 348 - Tina Marie Janose

October 31, 1981. Wahneta, Florida. The mother of 13-year old Tina Marie Janose wakes up to discover that she is missing from their mobile home. That same morning, Tina Marie’s body is found twelve miles away on Interstate 4 and it turns out she was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered before the killer tossed her off a highway overpass. Over the years, James Norman Ulmer and Frank Potts, a pair of sex offenders who each wind up going to prison for other crimes, pop up on the radar as potential suspects in Tina Marie’s murder. While there is compelling case to be made for Ulmer or Potts being the perpetrator, there is not enough evidence to conclusively implicate either of them and the crime is never solved. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the murder of Tina Marie Janose, a horrifying cold case which took place on Halloween 42 years ago.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at (863) 298-6200.
Additional Reading:
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1994/03/25/more-speculation-than-evidence-keeps-potts-name-in-the-news/
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2003/11/03/detective-believes-dead-inmate-was-girls-killer-in-81/28773081007/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/336011012/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/336020685/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/339767660/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/339766628/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/335967349/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/339972778/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/339771291/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/340516913/
“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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 347 - Michael Negrete

December 10, 1999. Los Angeles, California. After attending a party at the Dykstra Hall dormitory at UCLA, 18-year old freshman Michael Negrete returns to his room and spends a few hours playing an online video game on his computer with a friend. Mike is last seen at around 4:00 AM and when his roommate wakes up later that morning, he discovers that Mike has vanished and left behind his wallet and keys. There are some intriguing leads, such as a bloodhound tracking Mike’s scent to a bus stop and an eyewitness sighting of an unidentified man in the dorm around the time Mike went missing, but they fail to turn up any trace of Mike or any answers about what happened to him. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore one of the most baffling unsolved missing persons cases of the modern era.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the UCLA Police Department at (310) 825-1491 or the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office at (323) 890-5500.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Michael_Negrete
http://charleyproject.org/case/michael-william-negrete
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/apr/16/local/me-51723
http://dailybruin.com/2000/12/06/anniversary-of-negretes-disapp/
https://dailybruin.com/2003/04/03/mary-negrete-continues-search
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577693909/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577203084/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577240694/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577474887/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577478121/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577504866/
https://archive.today/20150601010448/http://stevethesoundguy.tumblr.com/post/52852449360/hey-steve-apologies-if-this-is-a-tad-personal
“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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Bonus Episode - Unsolved Mysteries Guilty Pleasures

Since we are currently on vacation, “The Trail Went Cold” will not be releasing a new episode this week. Instead, please enjoy one of our exclusive bonus Patreon episodes from our archives. Thanks for your patience.
During its 15-year run on television, “Unsolved Mysteries” profiled a lot of memorable murders and missing persons cases, but the show was just as well-known for its paranormal-themed stories involving ghosts, UFOs and other supernatural occurrences. Consequently, they wound up producing their fair share of segments which turned out to be silly and ridiculous, but sometimes, the sillier they were, the more entertainment value they had. On this bonus Patreon episode, I shall discuss some of these goofy-but-entertaining segments, as I count down my top 10 “Unsolved Mysteries” guilty pleasures.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 346 - Linda Kerr

February 18, 1976. Orlando, Florida. 15-year old Linda Kerr leaves her home in order to walk to her boyfriend’s residence, but she never arrives and is subsequently reported missing. Investigators look into the possibility that Linda may have left the area with a biker gang and become an exotic dancer in another city, but this is never officially confirmed. Seven years later, one of Linda’s brothers, Keith Kerr, is charged with murdering his sister-in-law, Carol Kerr, but while there is suspicion that Keith could have also harmed Linda, no evidence is found to implicate him. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we cover a puzzling missing persons case which has gone unsolved for over 47 years. In addition, we will be profiling three other cold cases involving teenage girls which took place in Orlando in 1976: the disappearance of 14-year old Mabel Andrews, the death of 14-year old Nancy Grace Daniel, and the death of an unidentified decedent known only as the “Orlando Jane Doe”.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Linda Kerr, please contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Office at (407) 254-7200. If you have any information about the disappearances of Nancy Grace Daniel or the death of the Orlando Jane Doe, please contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Office at (407) 254-7200. If you have any information about the disappearance of Mabel Andrews, please contact the Orlando Police Department at (407) 246-3950.
Additional Reading:
https://charleyproject.org/case/linda-louise-kerr
https://www.newspapers.com/image/300879561/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/227599830/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/227599096/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/227734640/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/227734727/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/225223739/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/222761852/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/230250486/
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/727uffl.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/269283530/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/269283508/
https://charleyproject.org/case/mabel-louise-andrews
https://robbydelaware1979.medium.com/getting-things-wrong-the-zodiac-and-dna-obsessions-10154a8a1291
“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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
“The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon” at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida on September 22-24, 2023. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to the event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD23”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.com.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.