The Trail Went Cold

September 17, 1954. Salt Lake City, Utah. Five-year old Gregory MaComb is abducted from his apartment and found dead in a creek bed after he has been sexually assaulted, strangled and bludgeoned to death. A witness reports having seen a man carrying Gregory out of the apartment house and placing him inside his car and he seems to match the description of Norman Ash Fackrell, a friend of Gregory’s mother. Nearly three years later, Fackrell is charged with Gregory’s murder, but winds up being acquitted at trial, so the truth about who was responsible for the crime remains shrouded in mystery. Was Norman Ash Fackrell the right perpetrator all along or did someone else kill Gregory? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we look at both sides of this controversial case. Special thanks to listener Fran Krause for narrating the opening of the episode.
Additional Reading:
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/599195293/
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/599233507/
“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.

August 26, 2006. Hinton, Alberta. After failing to reach her on the radio or the telephone, the supervisor of 70-year old Stephanie Stewart travels to the Athabasca Lookout Tower in the province’s foothills, where Stephanie is posted as a seasonal fire spotter. When he arrives, the supervisor finds a smear of blood on the front steps of Stephanie’s cabin and a pot of water on the stove, but there is no sign of her anywhere. Since bed sheets and other items are also missing from the cabin, there is speculation that Stephanie was murdered by someone who transported her body from the scene and disposed of it, but she cannot be found and there are no solid suspects or a known motive for her disappearance. 
May 3, 1983. Hinton, Alberta. After spending the evening with her boyfriend at the Sunset Trailer Court, 16-year old Shelley-Anne Bacsu phones her mother to let her know that an unnamed friend will be picking her up and driving her home. Shelley-Anne never arrives, but a number of witnesses report having seen her walking down Alberta Highway 16 before she disappeared. Some of Shelley-Anne’s clothing and personal items are found scattered on a road next to the Athabasca River, but while her family suspects that she was harmed by someone who gave her a ride, no trace of Shelley-Anne is ever found.
On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel to the same region of Alberta to cover a pair of unsolved Canadian missing persons cases.
If you have any information about either fo these cases, please contact the Hinton branch of the RCMP at (780) 865-2455 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Additional Reading:
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/a-pot-of-boiling-water-and-a-smear-of-blood-12-years-later-fresh-clues-sought-in-stephanie-stewarts-disappearance
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ten-years-later-disappearance-of-senior-at-alberta-fire-lookout-still-a-mystery-1.3735252
https://globalnews.ca/news/63106/fourth-anniversary-of-stephanie-stewarts-disappearance/
https://globalnews.ca/news/2902724/10-years-since-wildfire-spotter-stephanie-stewart-vanished-near-hinton-alta/
https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/police-renew-calls-for-information-to-help-locate-wildfire-tower-worker-missing-for-15-years/
https://www.strangeoutdoors.com/mysterious-stories-blog/stephanie-stewart
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/rcmp-historical-homicide-unit-races-against-time-to-solve-alberta-cold-cases
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/28dfab.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/30-years-since-hinton-teen-disappearance-1.1412716
https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/mother-still-desperate-answers-37-years-after-teen-daughter-shelley-n1199006
https://www.newspapers.com/image/740158386/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/494480089/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/472635703/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/475905572/
https://poig57.wordpress.com/
“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.

September 5, 1978. Sterling, Alaska. 13-year old Scott Fandel and his 8-year old half-sister, Amy Fandel, are dropped off at their cabin by their mother, Margaret Fandel, who then goes out to some bars with her own sister. When Margaret and her sister return home during the early morning hours of September 6, they discover a pot of warm water on the stove next to some macaroni and tomato sauce. This suggests that Scott had been in the midst of preparing a late-night snack before he was interrupted, but both he and Amy are missing. There is speculation that the two children were abducted and while investigators explore a number of different leads - including the possibility that some carnival workers or Margaret’s estranged husband could have been responsible for the disappearances - no trace of Scott and Amy is ever found. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel to Alaska to explore a baffling missing children’s case which has gone unsolved for 47 years. 
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Alaska State Troopers at (907) 262-4453.
Additional Reading:
https://charleyproject.org/case/scott-curtis-fandel
https://charleyproject.org/case/amy-lee-fandel
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1138216282/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1054276130/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1138206372/
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/1057007991/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1057008009/
“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.

November 10, 1984. Lynbrook, New York, After getting fired from her job at a roller rink, 16-year old Theresa Fusco starts heading home, but she never arrives. Her nude body is eventually found in a wooded area and she has been raped and strangled to death with a ligature. Over four months later, a 21-year old suspect named John Kogut confesses to the crime and implicates two accomplices – 26-year old John Restivo and 31-year old Dennis Halstead – and they are all charged and convicted of Theresa’s murder. In 2003, all three men have their convictions overturned after DNA testing on the evidence excludes them. Kogut winds up being acquitted at his retrial while the charges against Restivo and Halstead are dropped, but there are still questions about who was actually responsible for killing Theresa.
For the first time ever, the “Trail Went Cold” is covering a cold case in which an arrest was made while we were in the midst of putting together our episode about it, so we’re going to cover the full story and all the recent developments. Special thanks to listener Reemi Hautamaki for narrating the opening of this episode.
If you happen to have any information about the cases mentioned in this episode, please contact the Nassau County Police Department at (516) 573-8800.
Additional Reading:
https://innocenceproject.org/cases/john-kogut/
https://centurion.org/cases/kogut-john/
https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/10591
https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/10504
https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/10795
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125077&page=1
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/mom-of-1984-long-island-murder-victim-decries-award-verdict/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/721897625/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/728546280/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/710299952/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/15/us/theresa-fusco-suspect-indicted-cold-case
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/theresa-fusco-murder-indictment/
https://charleyproject.org/case/kelly-eileen-morrissey
https://archive.longislandpress.com/2010/11/18/kelly-morrissey-the-search-for-kelly-morrissey-continues-26-years-later/
“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.

August 20, 1966. Niteroi, Brazil. The bodies of a pair of electronics technicians, 34-year old Miguel Jose Viana and 32-year old Manuel Pereira da Cruz, are discovered on the top of Vintem Hill and they are carrying a pair of lead masks and some cryptic notes about ingesting capsules. Three days earlier, the two men had travelled to Niteroi from their homes in Campos dos Goytacazes over 260 kilometres away, but there is no direct evidence of foul play and the authorities are unable to determine their cause of death. There are a number of theories about what happened, including speculation that the two men’s deaths might be connected to UFO sightings from the area, but the whole situation is never satisfactorily explained and remains shrouded in mystery. For this year’s Halloween-themed episode, “The Trail Went Cold” is finally tackling one of the most bizarre unsolved mysteries of all time: the Lead Masks Case.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_masks_case
https://pmig96.wordpress.com/2021/05/10/the-lead-masks-case/
"Flying Saucer Review" (March-April 1967)
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/398
https://www.truecriminelle.com/the-lead-masks-case-bizarre-deaths-what-happened-on-vintem-hill/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoPHYQuAlnw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjqCQEjgzk4
“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.

March 6, 1939. Fingringhoe, England. After purchasing some cigarettes at a local pub, 67-year old Ada Constance Kent seems to disappear and over the course of the next decade, numerous searches are performed of her empty cottage and they fail to turn up any trace of her. Ten years later, a human skeleton is discovered beneath some rubble in the cottage’s bedroom alongside an empty bottle of poison, and after a forensic examination is performed, there is some uncertainty about who the remains actually belong to. When an inquest is held, a coroner’s jury does eventually conclude that the skeleton is likely Ada Constance Kent, but since they are unable to determine her exact cause of death, they return an open verdict. Did Ada Constance Kent die inside her cottage and remain undiscovered for an entire decade? If not, then what actually happened to her? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel back to the United Kingdom to explore a truly bizarre mystery.
Join us on Saturday, October 25 at 8:00pm ET for a Halloween-themed online streaming marathon where we will be watching classic segments from “Unsolved Mysteries”. You can enter our screening room by clicking on this link.
Additional Reading:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mvbtw
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Ada_Constance_Kent
https://essexandsuffolksurnames.co.uk/the-fingringhoe-skeleton/
"Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Colchester" by Patrick Denney
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1182993941/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/397806138/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/791699254/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/789295887
“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.

October 31, 1963. Newcastle, England. 70-year old Katherine Lillian Armstrong fails to show up for choir practice at her church. The following morning, Lillian’s body is discovered near the bottom of the staircase in her house and she has been stabbed 28 times and strangled with one of her nylon stockings. Since there are no signs of forced entry, police suspect that Lillian willingly let her killer inside, but even though a massive investigation is launched, no compelling suspects are found and the motive for the crime remains unknown. 
October 31, 1980. Bristol, England. 39-year old Derek Grain leaves his hotel and spends the night drinking at a pair of local nightclubs. After leaving one of the clubs during the early morning hours, Derek is later found dead in a pool of blood a quarter-mile away and it turns out he was kicked in the head and bludgeoned with a sand-filled traffic cone. Since money was stolen from Derek, it is theorized that he was the victim of a robbery gone wrong, but even though there are reported eyewitness sightings of someone being attacked by multiple people who fled the scene in a maroon Jaguar, the crime is never solved.
On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel to the United Kingdom to explore a pair of unsolved murders which happened to take place on Halloween.
Additional Reading:
https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/articles/mystery-newcastles-unsolved-halloween-murder
https://www.newspapers.com/image/876967689/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/876893608/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/804216277/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/804277720/
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/derek-grains-unsolved-murder-true-4340
https://www.newspapers.com/image/908265262/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/876333334/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/877244013/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/876431763/
https://thetruecrimeenthusiast.co.uk/who-was-the-brandon-hill-park-murderer
“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.

December 19, 2006. Clayton, Missouri. 57-year old attorney Ernie Brasier is found shot to death inside a third-floor office of his law firm: Boggs, Boggs & Bates. Since Ernie was killed in an office belonging to another attorney, there is speculation that he may have been the victim of mistaken identity, but no evidence is found to support this theory. Over the next few years, there are a number of strange incidents involving other employees at the firm, including a bombing at the home of two of its partners, but they fail to shed any light on Ernie’s death and the crime remains unsolved. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the bizarre murder of Ernie Brasier, which took place at a law firm which was described as being like something out of a John Grisham novel.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Clayton Police Department at (314) 645-3000 or the St. Louis Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-866-371-TIPS (8477)
Additional Reading:
https://www.komu.com/news/police-need-help-in-murder-case/article_8d7c83aa-2c7b-5c5e-b395-ce7a2a1f416d.html
https://www.komu.com/news/lawyer-found-dead-in-office/article_43b3b252-760c-5008-84c2-c803ea292554.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/151872790/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/151995160/
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/the-unsolved-murder-of-ernie-brasier-a-clayton-attorneys-death-nearly-two-years-ago-continues-to-mystify-police-and-colleagues/
https://issuu.com/chsglobe/docs/april_globe_2022_1_/s/15434096
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/law_firm_mystery_second_lawyer_dies_at_young_age_slaying_of_third_unsolved
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/bombs_explode_at_home_of_2_partners_in_law_firm_that_was_site_of_unsolved_m
https://www.courthousenews.com/big-problem-at-the-law-office/
https://www.businessinsider.com/lawyer-fire-bombing-lawsuit-2012-9
https://patch.com/missouri/kirkwood/accused-of-bombing-ex-partners-home-kirkwood-lawyer-fights-back
https://molawyersmedia.com/2013/06/19/st-louis-lawyers-settle-with-ex-partner-in-bombing-case/
“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.

June 3, 2017. Dallas, Texas. After suffering a violent assault at the hands of a female acquaintance and her male companion, 27-year old Armani Morgan goes missing. Seven weeks later, Armani’s skull and five of his other bones are found in a vacant residential lot located near his residence and since the police are inclined to believe that he succumbed to a drug overdose, his cause of death is listed as “undetermined”. However, in the days prior to his disappearance, Armani had been repeatedly assaulted and harassed by this female acquaintance, who also allegedly fired a bullet through his living room window. While Armani’s loved ones suspect he was the victim of foul play and that three individuals were involved in the crime, his death is never reclassified as a “homicide”. At the direct request of his family, this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” will be exploring the controversial case of Armani Morgan. A petition has also been started to demand that the Dallas Police Department test evidence from Armani’s case and can be found at Change.org:https://www.change.org/p/demand-dallas-pd-test-armani-morgan-s-evidence-after-8-years
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Dallas Police Department Special Investigations Unit at (214) 671-3677.
Additional Reading:
https://www.fox4news.com/news/nonprofit-billboard-draws-attention-dallas-cold-case-murder
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/armani-morgan-cold-case-billboard/3846479/
“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.
 

September 11, 1987. Cowlitz County, Washington. The dismembered headless torso of a woman is discovered in the Lewis River and the same victim’s legs are soon found 30 miles away in the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. Thirteen days later, the body of an infant girl who is believed to be the woman’s daughter is discovered in the Cowlitz River, but since the identity of both victims cannot be determined, they remain Jane Does. In 2006, the decedents are finally identified as 24-year old Raj Narain, who originally hailed from Fiji, and her 14-month old American-born daughter, Kamnee. It turns out that Raj’s 30-year old husband, Ashok Narain, went missing around the same time the murders took place, but since he cannot be found, the crime is never solved. Did Ashok murder his wife and daughter, or were all they victims of an unknown third party? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the bizarre saga of the Narain family.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the the Kelso Police Department at (360) 423-1270., the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office at (360) 577-3092 or the Eugene Police Department at (541) 682-5111.
Additional Reading:
https://charleyproject.org/case/ashok-kumar-narain
https://www.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/09/after_20_years_dna_identifies.html
https://www.seattlepi.com/news/slideshow/Without-a-Trace-5058.php
https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Part-7-Records-often-are-as-hard-to-find-as-a-1107646.php
https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/unmarked-graves-may-hold-his-sister-niece-1213531.php
https://www.smh.com.au/national/o-sister-where-art-thou-20071116-gdrm21.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20110822070624/http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=178389
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577345367/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577345422/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577330965/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577345899/
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/577394202/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577107875/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/577107787/
https://old.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1mrfr6q/in_1987_a_whole_family_would_vanish_from_eugene/
“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.