The Trail Went Cold

June 6, 1992. Rosarito, Mexico. While vacationing at a beachfront condo, 29-year old Los Angeles resident Mario Amado is arrested by the local police after an alleged altercation with his girlfriend. Shortly thereafter, Mario is found dead inside his jail cell and the police rule that his death was a suicide after he hanged himself with his own sweater. When Mario’s brother pushes for a new investigation, his death is eventually reclassified as a homicide and a police officer named Jose Antonio Verduzco Flores is charged and convicted of Mario’s murder. However, Verduzco’s conviction is soon overturned and he is released from prison and no other suspects are ever charged with the crime. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the controversial death of an American citizen in Mexico which caused diplomatic friction between the two countries.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/mario-amado/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Mario_Amado
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-06-12-me-34-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-21-me-5640-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-07-me-1350-story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/11/14/new-scrutiny-expected-of-mexican-rights/cd40f657-aa30-424b-ae79-ebf9820303a9/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-20-me-548-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-21-me-1889-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-03-mn-30634-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-11-mn-33803-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-14-mn-35195-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-01-12-me-23935-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-01-13-me-24244-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-05-14-mn-4045-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-05-23-me-7353-story.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 now 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.

June 3, 1995. Oslo, Norway. The body of a young woman is found inside Room 2805 of the Oslo Plaza hotel and since a pistol is in her hand, she appears to be the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Three days earlier, she had checked into the hotel under the name, “Jennifer Fairgate”, but the name turns out to be fake and since she has no identification in her possession, the woman remains a Jane Doe. All attempts to identify “Jennifer” are unsuccessful, but there a number of strange details to suggest she may have been a spy or an intelligence student. In fact, there is even speculation that she may have been the victim of foul play and her suicide was staged. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the mysterious story of an unidentified decent known as only “Jennifer Fairgate.”
Additional Reading:
https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/xRjoWp/mystery-at-the-oslo-plaza
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases-int/1420ufnor.html
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Jennifer_Fairgate
https://unsolved.com/gallery/death-in-oslo/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Jennifer_Fairgate
https://screenrant.com/unsolved-mysteries-oslo-woman-murder-identity-jennifer-leaves-out/
https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/unsolved-mysteries-the-vanishing-of-camilla-steinaa-d0be8f814fab
“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 now 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.

December 5, 2001. Dallas, Texas. After boarding a flight from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, 70-year old Marjorie “Margie” Dabney and her husband stop for a layover at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Before they can make their connecting flight, Margie winds up disappearing and since she suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, there is fear that she might have become confused and wandered outside the airport. Nearly seven years later, skeletal remains found in a wooded area 15 miles away are positively identified as belonging to Margie. Since her cause of death is determined to be blunt force trauma, Margie’s case is ruled to be a homicide. But did how Margie go missing to begin with and what could the motive have been for her murder? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we chronicle an incredibly sad, but bizarre cold case in which a victim somehow managed to go missing from an airport. In addition, we’ll also be discussing the unsolved disappearance of 14-year old Charlotte Loomis, who vanished from Newark International Airport in September 1972.
If you have any information about the death of Margie Dabney, please contact the Lewisville Police Department at (972) 219-3640 or the Denton County Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-800-388-TIPS (8477). If you have any information about the disappearance of Charlotte Loomis, please contact the Eatontown Police Department at (732) 389-7649.
Additional Reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/25/us/robbed-by-alzheimer-s-lost-by-an-airline.html
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Mystery-of-vanished-Alzheimer-s-patient-deepens-3258599.php
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/haunting-mystery-of-alzheimer-patients-disappearance-death/
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/missing-woman-was-murdered/287-338775216
https://www.nbcdfw.com/local/womans-disappearance-death-haunts-family/1846941/
https://www.bakersfield.com/news/police-case-cold-again-despite-recent-finding-of-womans-remains/article_f1ba4899-1813-52ec-9556-18df647610b9.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/646214007/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/644773134/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/658441409/
https://investigationsforthemissing.org/blog/f/arrival-unknown-the-disappearance-of-charlotte-loomis
“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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/
“The Trail Went Cold” is now 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.

November 25, 2012. Sackville, New Brunswick. While attending a house party, 20-year old Mount Allison University student Chris Metallic becomes intoxicated and starts walking back to his residence, but he never arrives. Nearly four hours later, an eyewitness spots Chris walking down a rural road located 15 kilometres away before he disappears into the woods. A search of the area turns up some footprints and a pair of flip-flops Chris had been wearing, but Chris himself is never found and there is no explanation for how he wound up at this location.
January 24, 1992. Edmonton, Alberta. After spending the evening drinking at a campus pub, 19-year old University of Alberta student Dean Mortensen heads back to his dorm with friends. Dean’s friends soon realize that they have forgotten something at the pub and head back to retrieve it, but when they return to the spot where they last saw Dean, he is nowhere to be found and it soon becomes apparent that he never returned to his dorm room. While a search of the area eventually turns up a hat which Dean was believed to have been wearing, there is no other evidence to indicate how or why he went missing.
On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we will be exploring two unsolved missing persons cases from Canada involving male university students who vanished after a night of drinking. Special thanks to listener Darielle Rudnicki for narrating the opening of this episode.
If you have any information on the disappearance of Chris Metallic, please the Sackville detachment of the RCMP at (506) 364-5023 or the Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). If you have any information on the disappearance of Dean Mortenson, please contact the Edmonton Police Service at (780) 423-4567.
Additional Reading:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/missing-chris-metallic-cases-sackville-active-1.4417738
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/chris-metallic-rcmp-search-1.3862409
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/chris-metallic-s-family-continues-to-search-for-the-missing-man-1.2965869
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/anti-terror-bill-bank-pres-on-inequality-growing-old-searching-for-lost-brother-dopamine-1.2945062/answer-back-brother-1.2946442
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/missing-mount-allison-student-wore-shoes-found-in-woods-1.1179412
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/missing-mount-allison-student-s-family-in-shock-1.1135136
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/chris-metallic-honoured-2-years-after-disappearance-1.2639184
https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/n-b-rcmp-using-specially-trained-dog-to-search-for-man-reported-missing-in-2012-1.3172909
https://www.macleans.ca/education/university/dean-mortensen-disappeared-leaving-only-a-blue-ball-cap-behind/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/474142691/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/476390781/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/473958027/
https://issuu.com/ualbertaalumni/docs/ntspring2007/8
https://www.canadaunsolved.com/cases/missing-dean-mortensen-1992-edmonton-ab
https://defrostingcoldcases.com/missing-dean-curtis-mortensen/
“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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/
“The Trail Went Cold” is now 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.

June 12, 1993. Santa Clara, California. 21-year old U.S. Army Private Justin Burgwinkel leaves his girlfriend’s apartment and never returns. One week earlier, Justin had gone AWOL from Fort Lewis, the post where he was stationed in Washington state, and kept hinting to his girlfriend that he was working on some sort of secret mission. Three months later, Justin’s abandoned car is found at a motel in Monterey with his military dog tags and most of his personal items inside. While the Army denies that Justin was ever involved in any secret operations, no trace of him is ever found. Did Justin Burgwinkel go missing because he became involved in something sinister? Or did he suffer some sort of mental breakdown and lose his grip on reality? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the unsolved disappearance of a soldier who has not been seen in three decades.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Clinton Police Department at (978) 365-4111.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/justin-burgwinkel/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Justin_Burgwinkel
http://charleyproject.org/case/justin-burgwinkel
https://www.newspapers.com/image/626359358/
“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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/
“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on  GetVokl 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.

October 18, 1949. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dorothy Forstein, the 40-year old wife of a local magistrate, is discovered to be missing from her home. Even though there are no signs of forced entry, Dorothy’s nine-year old stepdaughter, Marcy, claims that an unidentified man entered Dorothy’s bedroom and carried her unconscious body out of the residence. There is speculation that Dorothy’s disappearance might be connected to another incident from nearly five years earlier where she was violently attacked by an unknown individual inside her house, but no trace of her is ever found. Could the same person who attacked Dorothy have been responsible for her disappearance? Is Marcy’s story about the abduction an accurate account of what happened? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a perplexing disappearance which has managed to remain unsolved for over 70 years.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Dorothy_Forstein
https://www.strangeoutdoors.com/strange-indoors/dorothy-forstein
https://www.newspapers.com/image/108432821/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/171739310/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/174384976/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/587981210/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/178032376/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/178295376/
“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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/
“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on  GetVokl 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.

August 10, 1991. Martinsburg, West Virginia. The nude body of 44-year old freelance investigative journalist Danny Casolaro is discovered inside the bathtub of his hotel room. Each of his wrists have been slashed multiple times, but since a suicide note is found and there is no evidence of foul play, the authorities conclude that Danny took his own life. In the year prior to his death, Danny claimed he was working on a massive story about widespread government corruption which he titled “The Octopus” and had supposedly travelled to Martinsburg to meet a source who would provide him with important information. Since the investigation contains number of suspicious mistakes and discrepancies, Danny’s loved ones believe he was murdered and that a cover-up took place. Did Danny Casolaro’s death actually a suicide or did his investigation into “The Octopus” put his life at risk and cause him to become the victim of foul play? This week, “The Trail Went Cold” will be presenting one of the longest and most convoluted episodes we’ve ever done, as we explore a truly controversial unexplained death.
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Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Casolaro
“The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro” by Kenn Thomas & Jim Keith
“The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal” by Cheri Seymour
“Spy Magazine: Dec. 1992-Jan. 1993”
“Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw Inc.” (March 1993)
https://unsolved.com/gallery/dan-casolaro/
https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1991/12/the-strange-death-of-danny-casolaro
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/08/31/what-killed-danny-casolaro/ea110460-d4d0-4052-a84c-3660b6989ebe/
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/17/us/reporter-is-buried-amid-questions-over-his-pursuit-of-conspiracy-idea.html
https://www.muckrock.com/tags/danny-cosolaro/
https://archive.org/details/casolaro
“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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/
“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on  GetVokl 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.

January 29, 1976. Auckland, New Zealand. 13-year old Tracey Ann Patient leaves her friend’s house to walk home, but never arrives. The following day, Tracey’s body is discovered in some bushes located sixteen kilometres from where she was last seen. She has been strangled to death with a pair of pantyhose which were tightened around her neck with a stick. Nearly two years later, police receive an anonymous phone call from a man who claims that a missing signet ring Tracey had worn can be found in a rubbish bin and he also provides a series of numbers which he says are connected to the case. Even though investigators do recover the ring from this location, they are unable to figure out the meaning of the caller’s numbers and Tracey’s killer is never identified. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel down under to New Zealand to explore one of their most prominent unsolved murder cases. Special thanks to listener Kimberly Wyse for narrating the opening of this episode.
Additional Reading:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tracey-ann-patient-killing-the-40-year-murder-mystery-that-has-haunted-nz/VSMDAWN5KFCBONOD6FMFMCD3VM/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/80206223/tracey-ann-patient-cold-case-new-witness-comes-forward
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/hope-theyve-had-awful-life-222731350.html
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/police-flooded-calls-cold-case
https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/news/real-life/i-want-justice-for-my-sister-5628
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/man-questioned-on-34-year-old-unsolved-tracey-patient-murder/Z7H662EVGI72VBKFFDO7DUBTRU/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/cold-cases-the-murdered-and-the-missing-new-information-revealed-for-rotorua-cases/HRCOEZU4V3HDRRK25IOJAM4ZVE/
“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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/
“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on  GetVokl 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.

December 14, 1981. St. John’s, Newfoundland. 14-year old Dana Bradley leaves her friend’s residence to head back home, but she never arrives and eyewitnesses report seeing her hitchhiking and climbing into a vehicle driven by an unidentified man. Four days later, Dana’s body is found in a remote wooded area and she has been killed by multiple blows to the skull with a blunt instrument. Over the next four decades, investigators explore a number of different leads, included a confession from a suspect that is later recanted and an account from a witness who claims he was present when Dana’s murder took place, but these leads never pan out and all attempts to identify the killer are unsuccessful. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we return to our podcast’s home country of Canada to explore what is probably the most famous unsolved cold case from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Newfoundland & Labrador divisional headquarters of the RCMP at (709) 772-5400 or the Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dana_Bradley
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/dana-bradley-s-murder-investigation-active-after-25-years-police-1.583989
https://www.saltwire.com/newfoundland-labrador/news/no-justice-for-dana-126077/
https://www.thewesternstar.com/news/local/man-claims-he-witnessed-dana-bradley-murder-26053/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/new-dna-evidence-discovered-murder-dana-bradley-1.3601040
https://www.saltwire.com/newfoundland-labrador/news/no-evidence-found-by-group-looking-to-connect-cars-to-dana-bradley-murder-43741/
https://theindependent.ca/uncategorized/an-alternate-history-of-the-dana-bradley-murder-investigation/
https://www.thetelegram.com/news/local/some-dana-bradley-murder-suspects-cleared-with-new-dna-127053/
https://vocm.com/2021/12/14/dana-bradley-40-years-since-disappearance-and-murder/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/st-johns-cold-cases-missing-women-1.3608745
“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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/
“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on  GetVokl 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.

July 7, 1973. Tampa, Florida. The nude body of 34-year old Earlene Barksdale is discovered in the back office of the children’s clothing store she owns and she has been raped and shot in the head in an apparent robbery. Police soon focus on a suspect named Joseph Green Brown, who was involved in a similar robbery at another location on the exact same date. After he is implicated by an accomplice, Brown is charged, convinced and sentenced to death for Earlene’s murder. However, even though Brown comes dangerously close to being executed, the case against him is fraught with problems, so his conviction is eventually overturned and he is released from prison in 1987. Even though there seems to be evidence which implicates Earlene’s spouse as a possible alternate suspect, no one else is ever charged with her murder. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a very controversial and complex murder case which has contained a number of shocking developments over the past five decades.
Additional Reading:
https://www.cltampa.com/news/who-killed-earlene-barksdale-12238174
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2001/05/31/the-story-with-an-ending-we-ll-never-know/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-10-mn-6644-story.html
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetailpre1989.aspx?caseid=36
http://www.floridacapitalcases.state.fl.us/Documents/Case_updates/Htm/042546.html
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/yes-im-angry-yes-im-bitter-im-frustrated
https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/supreme-court/1980/46925-0.html
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/785/1457/275908/
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2012/09/30/facing-another-murder-charge/29124588007/
https://www.deseret.com/2012/9/26/20438164/man-once-on-death-row-faced-financial-problems
“Dead Wrong: A Death Row Lawyer Speaks Out Against Capital Punishment” by Michael Mello
“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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/
“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on  GetVokl 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.