2019-06

August 4, 1992. Houston, Texas. While working her shift as a waitress at a strip club, 23-year old Tara Breckenridge volunteers to go home early. Tara leaves at around 12:30 AM, but when she fails to return to her apartment by morning, Tara’s boyfriend, Wayne Hecker, goes searching for her. Wayne soon discovers Tara’s abandoned car next to a freeway and the vehicle’s alternator belt is missing. Wayne becomes a potential suspect, as his relationship with Tara was troubled and he has a shaky alibi during the approximate time period Tara went missing, but there is no evidence implicate anyone. Was Wayne actually responsible for Tara’s disappearance? Or could she have been victimized by one of her patrons at the strip club? We shall explore all the different theories, as we cover a baffling missing persons case on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/tara-breckenridge/
http://charleyproject.org/case/tara-suzette-breckenridge
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/She-left-work-25-years-ago-then-disappeared-10925781.php
“The Trail Went Cold” will be appearing at True Crime Podcast Festival 2019 on July 13th at the Marriott Downtown in Chicago. Please visit their website for more details.
The Trail Went Cold will be appearing at the event, “True Crime Podcasts: Live in Toronto”, being held at the Royal Cinema in Toronto on Sunday, August 18. For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, please visit this website.
“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.

February 19, 1971. Sumter County, Florida. The body of a young woman is found floating beneath a bridge in Lake Panasoffkee. She has been strangled to death with a belt, but in spite of some intriguing clues, the victim cannot be identified and is named “Little Miss Panasoffkee”. Four decades later, investigators explore the possibly that she may have originally hailed from Greece and was murdered after travelling to the United States, but Little Miss Panasoffkee’s true identity cannot be conclusively established.
August 9, 1976. Sumter County, South Carolina. A young man and woman are found shot to death by the side of a secluded dirt road, but they carry no identification. Investigators are able to uncover some promising leads, including a witness who claims he befriended the two victims and heard they were from Canada, and the discovery of the actual murder weapon in a suspect’s possession. However, the authorities lack that one crucial piece of evidence to solve the murder and conclusively identify the two victims, so they become known as “The Sumter County Does”.
On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore two of the most heavily discussed cases involving murdered decedents who have somehow managed to remain unidentified for over four decades.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Miss_Lake_Panasoffkee
https://unsolved.com/gallery/little-miss-aeoepae%C2%9D/
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/470uffl.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumter_County_Does
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/198umsc.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/189ufsc.html
http://www.sumtermysterycouple.com
“The Trail Went Cold” will also be appearing at True Crime Podcast Festival 2019 on July 13th at the Marriott Downtown in Chicago. Please visit their website for more details.
The Trail Went Cold will be appearing at the event, “True Crime Podcasts: Live in Toronto”, being held at the Royal Cinema in Toronto on Sunday, August 18. For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, please visit this website.
“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 21, 1985. Littleton, Colorado. A masked gunman enters the home of 51-year old businessman Roger Dean and forces him to tie up and blindfold his wife, D.J.. After an apparent dispute over money, the gunman fatally shoots Roger and flees the scene, but investigators find evidence to suggest that Roger may have hired the intruder himself in a failed attempt at a kidnapping-robbery scheme. Nearly five years later, D.J. receives an anonymous letter from a man claiming to be Roger’s killer, who threatens to murder her daughter unless she pays him $100,000. Even after he instructs D.J. to drop off the money at a specified location, he does not show up and breaks off all contact. Were the extortionist and Roger Dean’s killer actually the same person? If so, what was his motive for the crime? Did Roger have some dark secrets in his background which led to his death? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine a very bizarre and complex case of murder and extortion.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/roger-dean/
https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/stories/cold-case-files-who-killed-roger-dean,75259
http://blogs.denverpost.com/coldcases/2010/12/05/family-of-murdered-businessman-extorted-years-later/1830/
“The Trail Went Cold” will also be appearing at True Crime Podcast Festival 2019 on July 13th at the Marriott Downtown in Chicago. Please visit their website for more details.
The Trail Went Cold will be appearing at the event, “True Crime Podcasts: Live in Toronto”, being held at the Royal Cinema in Toronto on Sunday, August 18. For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, please visit this website.
“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 2, 1995. New Orleans, Louisiana. After leaving a restaurant with his date in the French Quarter, 25-year old Michael Gerardi is fatally gunned down by a trio of robbers. Weeks later, 16-year old Shareef Cousin is implicated in the crime and charged with first-degree murder. Even though Shareef seems to have an airtight alibi, Michael’s date identifies him as the shooter at trial. Shareef is found guilty and becomes one of the youngest people to ever be sentenced to death, but the verdict is surrounded with controversy. It turns out the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office committed egregious acts of prosecutorial misconduct, which included withholding exculpatory evidence, doctoring a tape-recorded interview, and illegally detaining defence witnesses. After nearly three years on death row, Shareef’s conviction is overturned, but Michael Gerardi’s real killers are never found. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we chronicle a senseless murder which led to one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice you’ll ever find.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareef_Cousin
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3126
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,138469,00.html
This episode of “The Trail Went Cold” has been sponsored by GreenChef. To enjoy your own wholesome and high-quality meals from GreenChef, please visit GreenChef.us/cold75 in order to receive a total of $75 off.
“The Trail Went Cold” will be appearing on podcast row at CrimeCon 2019 from June 7th-9th at the Hilton Riverside hotel in New Orleans. Listeners can receive a 10% discount on the purchase of a standard badge by using the promo code “COLD19”.
“The Trail Went Cold” will also be appearing at True Crime Podcast Festival 2019 on July 13th at the Marriott Downtown in Chicago. Please visit their website for more details.
The Trail Went Cold will be appearing at the event, “True Crime Podcasts: Live in Toronto”, being held at the Royal Cinema in Toronto on Sunday, August 18. For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, please visit this website.
“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.