The Trail Went Cold

June 26, 2009. McCleary, Washington. After stopping by a friend’s house, 10-year old Lindsey Baum leaves walk home. Even though her trip should have only taken ten minutes, Lindsey never arrives and is soon reported missing, but a massive search effort fails to turn up any trace of her. Eight years later, skeletal remains are discovered in a remote area 150 miles away and DNA testing eventually matches them to Lindsey. While the investigation turns up a couple of persons of interest, including two local residents who provided false information about their alibis on the night Lindsey went missing, no one has ever been charged with her murder. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we chronicle one of the most heavily discussed unsolved missing children’s cases of the past decade.
Additional Reading:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/05/13/weve-brought-lindsey-home-search-ends-for-10-year-old-girl-who-vanished-in-2009/
https://truecrimedaily.com/2017/04/24/lindsey-baum-10-goes-missing-persons-of-interest-lie-to-investigators/
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/cold-case-spotlight/sunday-marks-7-years-washington-girl-lindsey-baum-s-mysterious-n599316
https://komonews.com/news/local/person-of-interest-identified-in-lindsey-baum-disappearance
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/brothers-accused-abuse-probed-lindsey-baum-cold-case-hopes-article-1.3440214
“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” 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 13, 1991. Burbank, California. 37-year old Tom Roche makes plans to meet his spouse, Barbara Rondeau, for lunch, but never shows up. When Barbara returns to their apartment, she discovers that the front door is unlocked and Tom is missing. Six days later, Barbara receives an envelope containing some of Tom’s personal items, along with an anonymous confession letter to his murder. While there is some speculation that Tom could have staged his own disappearance, some of his skeletal remains and personal possessions are eventually discovered in a remote area 500 miles away. Tom’s cause of death is determined to be a gunshot wound, but the circumstances of how he wound up dead remain unclear. Was Tom Roche abducted and murdered? Was the anonymous confession letter actually written by his killer? We will explore a number of these unanswered questions as we cover a very baffling case on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/tom-roche/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-19-me-4840-story.html
“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” 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.

January 10, 1999. Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. While walking home from a friend’s house during the early morning hours, 17-year old Ricky Hochstetler is fatally struck by a vehicle on the shoulder of a county highway in a hit-and-run. The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department soon announce that parts from a Chevrolet truck or van were found at the scene, but an extensive investigation fails to turn up the vehicle which hit Ricky. As the years go on, the sheriff’s department start facing allegations that they mishandled crucial evidence and orchestrated a cover-up, and rumours spread that an off-duty police officer may have been responsible for Ricky’s death. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore another controversial cold case which took place in Manitowoc County six years before Steven Avery was arrested for the murder of Teresa Halbach and involves many of the same law enforcement figures featured in “Making a Murderer”. Special thanks to listener Stephanie Rouleau for providing the opening narration on today’s episode.
Additional Reading:
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2016/09/12/manitowoc-sheriff-under-fire-1999-homicide/80862938/
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2016/09/13/missteps-hamper-1999-hit-and-run-death-probe/87390800/
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2016/09/08/mother-wants-forgive-hersons-killer/87542208/
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2016/09/12/whos-who-ricky-hochstetler-homicide/82207652/
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2016/09/07/timeline-ricky-hochstetler-hit-and-run-homicide/82112394/
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2017/01/09/ricky-hochstetler-case-unsolved-18-years-later/96339982/
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2017/01/09/ricky-hochstetler-case-unsolved-18-years-later/96339982/
http://www.stevenaverycase.org/ricky-hochstetler-case/
https://www.wiscnews.com/hit-and-run-death-unsolved-after-years/article_8a71d26d-ba10-5608-b7a7-9ddabd243dc8.html
“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” 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 11, 1979. Hana, Hawaii. Five men – 27-year old Scott Moorman, 31-year old Peter Hanchett, 38-year old Benjamin Kalama, 26-year old Patrick Woesner and 27-year old Ralph Malaiakini – leave the island of Maui on a fishing trip in a boat named the “Sarah Joe”. When a violent storm hits the area, the Sarah Joe and its crew do not return and an extensive search effort fails to find them. Nine-and-a-half years later, the Sarah Joe is discovered over 2,300 miles away on a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands, along with a marked grave containing the skeletal remains of Scott Moorman. However, no trace of the other four missing men is ever found. How did the Sarah Joe wind up so far away? Were any of the crew members still alive when it arrived? If not, who was responsible for burying Scott Moorman? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine one of the most bizarre and unique mysteries involving the disappearance of a boat.
This episode of “The Trail Went Cold” is brought to you by “Murder Book”, a new true crime podcast hosted by bestselling author Michael Connelly, available on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/lost-hawaiian-fishermen/
http://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2019/02/40-years-later-mystery-still-surrounds-the-sarah-joe-and-its-five-hana-fishermen-who-didnt-return/
http://articles.latimes.com/1988-11-06/local/me-455_1_jack-moorman
“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” 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.

July 12, 2007. Sykesville, Pennsylvania. The fire department shows up at the burning home of 33-year old Joey Lynn Offutt. The body of her six-week old infant son, Alexis Alfred Borden III, is found in the bathtub, but Joey herself is nowhere to be found. Three days later, Joey’s abandoned car is discovered over 60 miles away at an apartment complex in State College where she had previously lived. It turns out that no one can actually confirm having seen Joey or her son in the week prior to the fire. Could Joey have been responsible for her child’s death before she went on the run? Or were they both murdered by an unknown perpetrator who disposed of Joey’s body? We shall explore all the different angles of a truly perplexing missing persons case on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/joey-lynn-offutt
https://wjactv.com/news/local/search-for-missing-sykesville-woman-continues-9-years-after-disppearance
http://www.thecourierexpress.com/jeffersonian_democrat/news/local/missing-sykesville-woman-declared-dead/article_d043e190-17db-5982-8c87-45059dade0ca.html
http://www.findjoey.org/
“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” 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.

May 30, 1973. East Lansing, Michigan. The sister of 21-year old university student Henry Baltimore Jr. goes to meet him at his apartment, but discovers he is not there and eventually reports him missing. Nearly three months earlier, a pair of attackers had broken into Henry’s apartment to assault and rob him and police arrested a suspect named Roy Davis. After Henry testified against Davis at his preliminary hearing, Davis allegedly threatened him and Henry would go missing two days before Davis’ arraignment.
February 13, 1984. Catonsville, Maryland. 39-year old teacher Oliver Munson leaves his home to drive to school, but never arrives. Oliver’s abandoned car is soon discovered a few blocks away and two weeks later, a stolen vehicle is found containing evidence which suggests that Oliver was murdered. One year earlier, Oliver had unknowingly purchased a stolen car from a career criminal Dennis Watson. After Watson was arrested, Oliver was called upon to testify as a witness against him and his disappearance took place only three days before Watson’s trial.
This week, we will be presenting a special double feature episode of “The Trail Went Cold” about two unsolved missing persons cases where the victim vanished shortly before they were scheduled to testify in a criminal case. Special thanks to listener Ryan Eichenfeldt for providing the opening narration on today’s episode.
This episode of “The Trail Went Cold” is brought to you by “Murder Book”, a new true crime podcast hosted by bestselling author Michael Connelly, available on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/henry-louis-baltimore-jr
https://www.mlive.com/living/jackson/2010/05/peek_through_time_more_than_30.html
https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2014/11/family_pleads_for_answers_in_1.html
https://unsolved.com/gallery/oliver-munson/
http://charleyproject.org/case/oliver-wendell-munson
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-10-07/news/1993280074_1_munson-ellicott-city-middle
“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 1, 1974. Jackson County, Oregon. 28-year old Richard Cowden, his 22-year old wife Belinda Cowden, and their two children, five-year old David and five-month old Melissa, are in the midst of a camping trip when they inexplicably vanish from their campsite near Carberry Creek, leaving all their possessions behind. Seven months later, the entire family’s remains are found at a remote location seven miles away and it turns out they were the victims of foul play. Investigators discover that a recently paroled murderer named Dwain Lee Little was living in the area at that time and even though there is not enough evidence to implicate him, he eventually goes back to prison for another violent crime. Was Dwain Lee Little responsible for the Cowden family murders? We explore that question on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, which features one of the most disturbing unsolved crimes we have ever covered.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowden_family_murders
“But I Trusted You: Ann Rule’s Crime Files #14” by Ann Rule
The Bulletin (September 3, 1990)
“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 7, 1992. Springfield, Missouri. After an evening of partying following their high school graduation, 19-year old Suzie Streeter and her 18-year old friend, Stacy McCall, decide to spend the night at Suzie’s house alongside Suzie’s 47-year old mother, Sherrill Levitt. They are last seen shortly after 2:00 AM, but later that day, Suzie, Stacy, and Sherrill, a.k.a. “The Springfield Three”, are all discovered to be missing from the house. The scene contains some bizarre clues, including a broken globe from the porch light and an odd answering machine message which is inadvertently erased, but no evidence of forced entry or a struggle. Over the years, there would be a number of leads, such as a convicted criminal who claimed to know what happened to the victims and a tip that their bodies were buried underneath the parking garage of a local hospital, but no trace of the Springfield Three is ever found. For our special three-year anniversary show of “The Trail Went Cold”, we will be chronicling one of the famous and puzzling missing persons cases of all time, which was voted on by our listeners. Special thanks to listener Anna Long for narrating the opening of this episode.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Springfield_Three
http://charleyproject.org/case/stacy-kathleen-mccall
http://charleyproject.org/case/suzanne-elizabeth-streeter
http://charleyproject.org/case/sherrill-elizabeth-levitt
https://web.archive.org/web/20141031034010/http://archive.news-leader.com/article/20020603/NEWS01/60608049/Three-Missing-Women-Ten-Years-Later-Part-1-5
http://streeterfamilyblogg.blogspot.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.

March 15, 1989. Frederick, Maryland. 17-year old Tracey Kirkpatrick spends the evening working alone at a shopping center clothing store. Nearly two hours after the store was supposed to have been closed, a security guard discovers Tracey’s body in the rear storage room and she has been stabbed seven times. Three months later, a man calling himself “Don” phones a national confession hotline and claims that he is responsible for Tracey’s murder. Police manage to track down a promising suspect, but find no evidence that he was involved in the crime. However, as the years go on, rumours start to circulate about another suspect being the perpetrator. Was the confession to Tracey Kirkpatrick’s murder genuine or nothing more than a hoax? Was a cover-up orchestrated to protect the real killer? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” we cover a controversial 30-year old cold case which some people believe should have been solved a long time ago.
We would like to thank Postmates for sponsoring this episode of The Trail Went Cold. For a limited time, Postmates is giving you $100 of free delivery credit for your first 7 days. To start your free deliveries, download the Postmates app, and use the promo code “COLD”.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/tracey-kirkpatrick/
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2009-03-16-0903150097-story.html
https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/cops_and_crime/who-killed-tracey-kirkpatrick/article_53efa27e-793f-5871-8719-435bd265f58f.html
https://www.fredericknewspost.com/archive/he-lived-it-he-breathed-it/article_3f5be63f-159a-5fc5-a861-77542b082ea1.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 produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

October 12, 2000. Houston, Texas. After leaving her home, 48-year old Mary Henderson Morris does not show up for work and her body is discovered inside her burned-out car on a remote road later that afternoon. Four days later, another Houston woman, 39-year old Mary McGinnis Morris, is discovered shot to death inside her car under eerily similar circumstances, but other than their name, there doesn’t appear to be any link between the two victims. However, the investigation uncovers potential suspects in Mary McGinnis Morris’ murder, including her husband and a hostile co-worker, which leads to speculation that Mary Henderson Morris’ murder may have been a botched contract hit in which the wrong person was killed. Was Mary McGinnis Morris the intended target all along? If not, then how are these two crimes connected? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we chronicle “The Mary Morris Murders”, the bizarre story of two women with the same name from the same city who happened to be murdered within days of each other.
This episode of “The Trail Went Cold” is brought to you by “Murder Book”, a new true crime podcast hosted by bestselling author Michael Connelly, available on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/mary-lou-mary-mcginnis-morris/
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125738
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/689789/posts
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Two-Mary-Morris-slayings-remain-unsolved-1637059.phpgoog
“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.