minisodes

September 12, 1987. Bradford, Pennsylvania. 50-year old Dale Kerstetter shows up to work the overnight shift as a security guard at the Corning Glassworks plant. The following morning, Dale is discovered to be missing and he is never heard from again. A check of the security tape uncovers footage of Dale walking through the plant alongside an unidentified masked intruder and it turns out that $250,000 worth of platinum was stolen that night. The ambiguous nature of the footage causes some debate: was Dale an innocent victim of this masked stranger, or was he actually a willing participant in the theft before he decided to skip town? We shall explore both possibilities, as our latest minisode of “The Trail Went Cold” chronicles a very unique missing persons case.
Additional Reading:
http://unsolved.com/archives/dale-kerstetter
http://charleyproject.org/case/dale-kerstetter
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

December 20, 1984. Greeley, Colorado. After singing in a choir at a Christmas performance, 12-year old Jonelle Matthews is dropped off at her family’s house by a friend. When Jonelle’s father returns home later that evening, he is horrified to discover that Jonelle is missing and the evidence suggests she was abducted by an intruder. In spite of an extensive search, Jonelle is never found and investigators fail to uncover any potential suspects in her disappearance. Our newest minisode of “The Trail Went Cold” examines a baffling missing children’s case, as well as its possible connection to an unidentified Jane Doe who was killed in Huntington Beach, California in 1990.
Click here to see Jonelle Matthews’ profile page at the Charley Project, and here to see the profile page for the Huntington Beach Jane Doe at the Doe Network.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/coldcases/2012/11/02/greeley-kidnapped-vanished-declared-dead/5758/
http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/local/three-decades-after-she-disappeared-from-her-greeley-home-memories-of-jonelle-matthews-remain/
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

February 12, 2009. Washington, D.C.. 47-year old Pamela Butler phones her mother to say that she is planning to take her out on Valentine’s Day. Pam never shows up and after not hearing from her for several days, her family checks her house and discovers that she has vanished without explanation. Curiously, even though her home was covered with surveillance cameras, none of the footage shows Pam leaving during the time period she went missing, but her boyfriend can be seen entering and exiting the house on multiple occasions. In spite of this, there is no evidence of foul play or any trace of Pamela Butler. This week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold” chronicles a bizarre mystery about a woman who somehow managed to disappear from a locked home which had 24-hour surveillance.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/pamela-j-butler
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/24/AR2009112404264.html
https://crimewatchdaily.com/2016/04/15/cold-case-d-c-government-computer-specialist-still-missing/
Be sure to take part in our Facebook poll to help decide which case we will cover on our one-year anniversary show!
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

June 4, 1989. Spokane, Washington. 13-year old Russell Evans heads home after spending the evening with friends, but is soon found seriously injured in the middle of the road. Russell eventually succumbs to his injuries and the official ruling by police is that he was the victim of a random hit-and-run accident. However, the nature of Russell’s injuries and evidence from the scene do not support a hit-and-run scenario. Russell’s parents come to believe he was attacked and murdered by multiple individuals and that one of his friends is withholding the truth about what happened. “The Trail Went Cold” concludes 2016 with a very important minisode which was personally requested by one of the victim’s relatives.
Additional Reading:
http://unsolved.com/archives/russell-evans
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/mar/01/new-witnesses-come-forward-in-teens-death-parents/
The Idaho Spokesman-Review (April 20, 1990)
The Idaho Spokesman-Review (Feb. 27, 1996)
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

June 28, 1981. Tilden Township, Michigan. After a night of drinking at a local club, 48-year old Helen Dymond and her husband Roy get into an argument in the parking lot. Roy drives home without his wife and Helen decides to walk from the club to her son’s house in order to spend the night. However, Helen never arrives and vanishes without a trace. Unfortunately, potential resolution for this case would be hampered by a faulty police investigation, contradictory stories from eyewitnesses, and the spread of misinformation. Join us for this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold” as we examine the perplexing disappearance of Helen Dymond.
Special thanks to Helen`s granddaughters, Holly Letson and April Lawer, whose Facebook page, “The Disappearance of Helen Dymond” is the source of most of the information you’ll hear on this podcast.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/helen-leone-dymond
http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/cold-case-spotlight/granddaughters-missing-woman-helen-dymond-push-answers-decades-later-n609536
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

February 4, 1990. Orlando, Florida. 26-year old Deborah Poe shows up to work the graveyard shift at a Circle K convenience store. At around 4:00 AM, the store is discovered to be empty and Deborah is reported missing. Less than an hour beforehand, a customer had frequented the store, but for unknown reasons, an unidentified man was standing behind the counter and sold her some cigarettes. Did this mysterious man play a role in Deborah Poe’s unsolved disappearance or was someone else responsible? We attempt to answer this perplexing question in this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Deborah_Poe
http://charleyproject.org/case/deborah-deann-poe
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1990-02-06/news/9002063308_1_poe-boyfriend-aunt
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2002-03-28/news/0203280229_1_grassy-field-human-remains-county-sheriff-detectives
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-deborah-poe-missing-anniversary-20150203-story.html
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

May 1, 2008. Lawrenceville, Georgia. Millionaire real estate developer Hal Wenal returns home to discover that his 60-year old wife, Eva Kay Wenal, has been murdered. The only lead is an eyewitness sighting of a suspicious man in the neighbourhood around the time of Kay’s death. A newspaper soon receives an angry anonymous letter from someone who confesses to killing Kay because she wouldn’t leave her husband. When Hal passes away two years later, his family goes through his belongings and finds photographs of a man who bears a striking resemblance to the murder suspect. However, no one associated with the Wenals has any idea who this guy is. This week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold” explores the unsolved murder of Eva Kay Wenal, who may have unknowingly had her killer’s photo stashed away in her home.
If you think you recognize the man in this composite sketch or any of these photographs, please contact the Gwinnett County Police tip line at (770) 513-5480.
Additional Reading:
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/crime/2015/04/24/millionaire-model-murder-mystery/26298715/
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/archive/years-later-clues-emerge-questions-remain-in-slaying-of-millionaire/article_bf4b49b5-bbd1-5297-9351-2c79da0740aa.html
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

February 14, 2000. Shelby, North Carolina. The parents of nine-year old Asha Degree wake up to discover that she has vanished from her bedroom. After she is reported missing, witnesses come forward to report having seen Asha walk down the highway earlier that morning. This seems to indicate that she voluntarily left her home in the middle of the night for unknown reasons. Eighteen months later, Asha’s book bag is found buried 26 miles away, but she is still nowhere to be found. In this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”, I examine one of the most baffling and unusual missing children’s cases of recent memory.
Please check out the Charley Project profile page for Asha Degree, which contains her vital statistics, age-progressed photographs, and contact info for the proper authorities should you happen to have any information: http://charleyproject.org/case/asha-jaquilla-degree
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Asha_Degree
About Finding Shelby’s Sweetheart: Asha Jaquilla Degree
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/new-clues-in-asha-degrees-disappearance/214961800
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

September 6, 1970. South Lake Tahoe, California. 25-year old nurse Donna Lass is nearing the end of her shift at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel-Casino when she vanishes without explanation. Her landlord and boss soon receive phone calls from an unidentified man, who claims that Donna will be absent for awhile because of a family emergency. However, this claim turns out to be false and Donna is never seen again. Months later, the San Francisco Chronicle receives a cryptic postcard which is allegedly sent by the infamous Zodiac killer, who implies that Donna Lass was one of his victims. Was the Zodiac responsible for Donna’s disappearance or was the postcard nothing more than a giant red herring? We attempt to answer that question in this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/donna-ann-lass
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2000/nov/15/was-tahoe-disappearance-linked-to-zodiac-killer/
http://www.zodiacciphers.com/lake-tahoe-disappearance.html
http://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/category/donna-lass
“Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America’s Most Elusive Serial Killer Revealed” by Robert Graysmith
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

May 5, 1968. After not hearing from him for three days, the fiancee of 62-year old character actor Albert Dekker (star of such films as “Dr. Cyclops”, “Kiss Me Deadly” and “The Wild Bunch”) enters his Hollywood apartment. She is horrified to discover him hanging dead inside the bathroom. The bizarre manner in which Dekker is found suggests that he was involved in some sort of sadomasochistic sexual activity when he died. The initial ruling is suicide before it is changed to accidental death via autoerotic asphyxiation, but since a large amount of money and valuables seem to be missing from the apartment, suspicion mounts that Dekker was a victim of foul play. On this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine one of the strangest unexplained deaths in Hollywood history.
Additional Reading:
“Tales of Hollywood: The Bizarre” by John Austin
“The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals” by Michelle Morgan
http://www.lauriejacobson.com/hollywood_heartbreak_ex.php
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.