The Trail Went Cold

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 356 - Cathy Jo Bohlken

December 26, 1993. Monticello, Iowa. After she fails to show up for work, 22-year old Cathy Jo Bohlken is found dead inside the bedroom of her apartment. She has been bound with duct tape and has a plastic bag over her head and was sexually assaulted and stabbed at least 54 times. Two years later, Travis Jamieson, a friend of Cathy’s younger brother who was only 16 years old at the time of the crime, is charged with the murder. Even though DNA testing links Travis to a semen sample found in Cathy’s body, there is no other physical evidence against him. Since Travis’ defence attorneys bring up issues with the validity of the DNA testing at his trial, he winds up being acquitted and set free. Did Travis Jamieson get away with the murder of Cathy Jo Bohlken or was someone else actually responsible? We will attempt to answer that question, as we present this month’s first “Trail Went Cold” episode about cases which took place around Christmastime.
Additional Reading:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/130357265/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/132557294/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/128251280/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/548723441/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/548723448/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/549575322/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/549576162/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/550152813/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/549584314/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/130612305/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/550152837/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/130612316/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/549700889/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/550802115/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/550802223/
https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/monticello-man-arrested-in-stabbing-indicated-bar-patron-would-not-hurt-my-family-again/
“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 355 - Amy Wroe Bechtel

July 24, 1997. Fremont County, Wyoming. After spending the day running errands, 24-year old Amy Wroe Bechtel never returns home and her abandoned car is discovered on a remote road in Shoshone National Forest. Even though he claims to have an alibi, Amy’s husband, Steve Bechtel, is looked at as a potential suspect by law enforcement, due to his unwillingness to take a polygraph test. However, the investigation eventually focuses on convicted murderer Dale Wayne Eaton, who was supposedly in the area when Amy went missing, but there is no evidence to implicate him and no trace of Amy is ever found. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the puzzling disappearance of Amy Wroe Bechtel, who has continued to remain a missing person for the past 26 years. Special thanks to listener Kinza Carpenter for narrating the opening of this episode.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office at (307) 332-5611.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Amy_Wroe_Bechtel
http://charleyproject.org/case/amy-joy-wroe-bechtel
https://www.outsideonline.com/1829016/long-gone
http://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/long-gone-girl
http://people.com/archive/into-thin-air-vol-49-no-11/
https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/sheriff-believes-amy-wroe-bechtel-was-victim-of-killer/article_5c2b29d9-de5f-54b9-b0cb-a93aff383668.html
https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/amy-wroe-bechtel-case-timeline/article_f289eca2-a639-5a75-a565-814f41b5249c.html
https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/officials-killer-said-to-camp-where-wroe-bechtel-vanished-in-wyoming/article_5048323d-d60c-5e4f-ba60-e3536f0701b1.html
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Amy_Wroe_Bechtel
“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 354 - Danielle LaRue

December 31, 2002. Vancouver, British Columbia. The Vancouver Police Department receive an anonymous letter containing a remorseful confession from someone who claims to have been responsible for the death of a sex worker. While the victim’s name is not mentioned, investigators eventually suspect that she might be 24-year old Danielle LaRue, a sex worker from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood who seemed to vanish without explanation one month before the letter arrived. Even though the police ask the letter writer to come forward, this individual is not heard from again and no trace of Danielle is ever found. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we share the story of Danielle LaRue, an Indigenous woman who lived an incredibly tragic life before she went missing. We will also explore the stories of Ashley Machiskinic and Verna Simard, two other Indigenous women from the Downtown Eastside, who both died suspicious deaths after falling from a window at the Regent Hotel.
If you have information about any of the featured cases, please contact the Vancouver Police Department’s Cold Case Unit at (604) 717-2500.
Additional Reading:
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/danielle-larue
https://www.vpdcoldcases.ca/danielle-larue/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/496693347/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/497036908/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/497458017/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/497458058/
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2018/12/09/danielle-larue-vancouver-police-appeal-killer-16-year-old-cold-case/
https://globalnews.ca/news/1535797/bc-crimestoppers-the-case-of-murder-victim-danielle-larue/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/ashley-machiskinic-vancouver-death-1.3653676
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/angela-sterritt-ashley-machiskinic-mmiw-1.3896560
https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/this-was-a-murder-2/
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/verna-shabaquay
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/dead-woman-fell-six-storeys-from-hotel-vpd-1.698845
“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 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.