The Trail Went Cold

November 1, 2001. State College, Pennsylvania. After spending Halloween night partying at a club with friends, 21-year old Penn State student Cindy Song is dropped off at her apartment complex at 4:00 AM. She is never heard from again, but some of her personal items and a piece of her Halloween costume are found inside her apartment. Years later, an informant tells police that Cindy was abducted and murdered by pair of suspects named Hugo Selenski and Michael Kerkowski. A search of Selenski’s property uncovers the remains of several murder victims, including Michael Kerkowski, but no trace of Cindy is found. Was Hugo Selenski actually responsible for Cindy Song’s disappearance, or was it another suspect who has yet to show up on the radar? We shall explore an unsolved missing persons case in this month’s first Halloween-themed episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/hyun-jong-song
https://unsolved.com/gallery/cindy-song/
https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/11/8_years_after_penn_state_stude.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.

June 14, 2000. Jonesboro, Arkansas. 20-year old Amanda Tusing leaves her fiancee’s apartment to drive home to her parents’ house, but never arrives. Her abandoned car is soon discovered by the side of the highway, but there is no sign of Amanda. Days later, her body is found in a waterlogged ditch over 12 miles away, but there are no signs of sexual assault and the exact cause of death cannot be determined. The identity of Amanda’s killer, as well as the motive for the crime, remain unknown.
July 25, 1989. Bella Vista, Arkansas. After driving away from a grocery store, 17-year old Dana Stidham fails to return to her parents’ house and her abandoned vehicle is found next to the highway the following morning. Less than two months later, Dana’s skeletal remains are discovered in a shallow grave in a remote wooded area. The investigation focuses on a high school classmate of Dana’s who was infatuated with her and displayed suspicious behaviour after her death, but there is not enough evidence to implicate him.
On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine two unsolved murders involving young women from Arkansas whose vehicles were found abandoned by the side of the highway. Could these crimes possibly be connected? Special thanks to listener Jamie Winn for providing the opening narration for this episode.
Additional Reading:
https://www.aymag.com/why-mandy-the-case-of-a-murder-without-motive-part-2/
http://www.kait8.com/story/19881165/region-8-cold-case-amanda-tusing
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/cold-case-spotlight/no-answers-29-years-after-murder-arkansas-teen-dana-stidham-n893546
https://www.tulsaworld.com/archive/hair-sample-triggers-dispute/article_05fb6d8e-3b06-5de7-98a3-f0d327d49860.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.

April 16, 1987. Union City, Tennessee. Four-year old Marlena Childress vanishes from her front yard after her mother, Pamela Bailey, claims she saw a red car driving away from their house. Two months later, Pam confesses that she accidentally killed Marlena and tossed her body into the Obion River. Pam soon recants her confession and claims it was coerced and since Marlena’s body cannot be found and there is no other evidence to implicate Pam, she is not indicted for her daughter’s death. Over the next several years, there would be a number of twists and turns, including some seemingly credible eyewitness sightings to suggest Marlena is still alive, and Pam would also face legal trouble for another violent crime involving her children. Was Pam responsible for her daughter’s disappearance, or was Marlena actually abducted? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine a very controversial and divisive missing children’s case which has yet to find a resolution.
Additional Reading:
http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Marlena_Childress
http://charleyproject.org/case/marlena-danyele-childress
https://www.nwtntoday.com/2012/04/12/cold-case-investigation-to-focus-on-disappearance/
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
We would like to thank our sponsor, Winc, for supporting this week’s episode. To receive a $20 credit and free shipping on 4 bottles of wine on your first order, go to trywinc.com/cold.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

August 16, 1983. Idaho Springs, Colorado. 14-year old Beth Miller leaves her home to go jogging, but never returns. The investigation uncovers some promising leads, including eyewitness accounts of a man in a red pick-up truck who was seen flirting with Beth in the days prior to her disappearance. Ten years later, the former girlfriend of a deceased suspect leads the authorities towards an alleged burial location for Beth’s body, but nothing is found.
February 9, 1989. Gainesville, Florida. 20-year old university student Tiffany Sessions leaves her condo to go for a power walk, but does not return. 24 years later, after a convicted murderer named Paul Rowles dies in prison, investigators uncover evidence in his possessions which seems to implicate him in Tiffany’s disappearance, but her remains cannot be found.
August 5, 1989. Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. 17-year old Tracy Kroh leaves her house to visit her sister, who turns out not to be home. When Tracy does not return, her abandoned car is eventually discovered in a nearby town square, but Tracy is nowhere to be found. Four years later, some of Tracy’s possessions are found next to a remote creek, but she continues to remain a missing person.
While these three cases do not seem to have any connection to each other, they would unexpectedly be linked together in 1994 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a bizarre anonymous tip which alleged that all three victims were still alive. For the first time, “The Trail Went Cold” is going to tackle three unsolved missing persons cases in the same episode and explore the likelihood of them being connected.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/elizabeth-ann-miller
http://blogs.denverpost.com/coldcases/2012/04/21/elizabeth-ann-miller-missing-kidnapped-buried/3767/
https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2017/02/07/unsolved-disappearance-beth-miller-idaho-springs-colorado/97585604/
http://charleyproject.org/case/tracy-marie-kroh
http://charleyproject.org/case/tiffany-louise-sessions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Tiffany_Sessions
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1994-05-07-9405070051-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 produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

October 12, 1982. Los Angeles, California. 35-year old Sol Salomon, his 39-year old wife Elaine, his 15-year old stepdaughter Michelle, and their 9-year old son Mitchell all vanish without explanation from their home. Evidence suggests they were victims of foul play and pieces of their identification are found scattered alongside a freeway. The investigation leads to Harvey Rader, a business acquaintance of Sol’s who is accused of killing the entire family and burying their bodies in the desert, and is also considered a potential suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a California couple named Peter and Joan Davis. Rader is eventually charged with murdering the Salomons, but after two mistrials, he is acquitted at his third trial in 1992. Did Harvey Rader get away with the murders of the Salomon family, or was someone else responsible? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” chronicles the harrowing unsolved disappearance of an entire family who have still never been found.
Additional Reading:
http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/salomon-unsolved-murder/
http://charleyproject.org/case/sol-salomon
http://charleyproject.org/case/elaine-salomon
http://charleyproject.org/case/michelle-houchman
http://charleyproject.org/case/mitchel-salomon
http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/salomon-family
“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 6, 1976. Rome, New York. 59-year old Stanley Gryziec and his wife, Esther, are attacked in their home by two masked intruders, who tie up Esther, ransack the place, and murder Stanley. Even though the original autopsy report states that Stanley was stabbed to death, his son finds a shell casing inside the house which was overlooked by police, and an exhumation of Stanley’s body reveals that he was actually shot through the chest. Over a decade later, a new investigation uncovers evidence that the two perpetrators were hired to break into Stanley’s house and that his death may have been connected to illegal activities at a local bar and a secret confession Stanley heard from his dying brother. This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” chronicles a baffling unsolved home invasion murder and an alleged cover-up.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/stanley-gryziec/
http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Stanley_Gryziec
“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 24, 1991. Victoria, British Columbia. Four-year old Michael Dunahee accompanies his family to a football game at a local elementary school and after they park their car, Michael asks if he can go to a nearby playground. Within minutes, Michael’s parents notice that he is not at the playground and has vanished without a trace, leading to speculation that he was abducted during a very narrow timeframe. Over the next two decades, there would be reported sightings of Michael, the surprising discovery of his missing poster in a deceased individual’s home, and a couple of young adults who were briefly suspected of being Michael himself, but he is never found.
August 5, 1989. North Delta, British Columbia. After spending the night in the same bedroom as her baby sister, three-year old Casey Bohun vanishes without explanation from her home. Casey is last seen playing on the front porch by a neighbour and police dogs are able to track her scent down the street to a nearby park, but there is no sign of the missing child. Casey’s family would suffer a number of personal tragedies in subsequent years, but there are still no answers about what actually happened to her.
This week, we will be presenting a special double feature episode of “The Trail Went Cold” about two unsolved missing children’s cases from Western Canada. Special thanks to one of our listeners, Julie, for providing the opening narration on today’s episode.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Michael_Dunahee
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/148dmbc.html
https://michaeldunahee.ca/app/en/
“Vanished: The Michael Dunahee Story” by Valerie Green
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/310dfbc.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.

August 18, 1949. Los Angeles, California. After finishing a phone call with a friend, 48-year old widowed socialite Mimi Boomhower is not heard from for days. When police eventually check Mimi’s house, they discover that her lights are still on, an uneaten salad is sitting on the table, and her car is still parked in the garage. Mimi herself has vanished without explanation and her purse is soon found inside a phone booth containing a message that it was found on a beach. It would also turn out that Mimi was suffering from financial problems at this time and had told her business manager she was planning to meet a gentleman on the evening she went missing. Did Mimi elope and run off voluntarily, or was she the victim of foul play? Could her disappearance be connected to the infamous “Black Dahlia” murder from two years earlier? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” chronicles a baffling missing persons cases which would become known as “The Disappearance of the Merry Widow”.
Thanks to Warby Parker for supporting “The Trail Went Cold”. Visit http://www.warbyparker.com/cold to order your own FREE Home Try-On Kit with free shipping!
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/mimi-boomhower
“Black Dahlia Avenger: One of the Most Notorious Murders of the Twentieth Century… Solved!” by Steve Hodel
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
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The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

November 24, 1956. LaPlace, Louisiana. 46-year old married family man Thomas Hotard and 31-year old single mother Audrey Moate meet up to continue their secret affair, which they have been carrying on for years. The following day, Thomas’ body is discovered inside his vehicle at a remote swamp area with a shotgun blast to the back of his head. Even though most of Audrey’s clothing has been left behind, she is nowhere to be found and a search of the area turns up no trace of her. Two decades later, a dying man confesses that his common-law wife was responsible for murdering the couple and that he helped dispose of Audrey’s body, but no evidence is found to support his story. This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” covers a “lovers’ lane” murder from the Louisiana bayou involving one victim who has still never been found.
Additional Reading:
http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_Hotard_and_Audrey_Moate
http://charleyproject.org/case/audrey-alta-moate
https://nbcmontana.com/archive/montana-woman-hopes-dna-will-crack-unsolved-mysteries-cold-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.
We would like to thank our sponsor, Winc, for supporting this week’s episode. To receive a $20 credit and free shipping on 4 bottles of wine on your first order, go to trywinc.com/cold.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

May 6, 1988. Burbank, California. Crystal Spencer, a 28-year old aspiring actress working as a topless dancer, phones her sister and mentions that she is feeling ill. This is the last time anyone ever hears from Crystal and one week later, her decomposing body is discovered in a corner of her apartment. She is nude from the waist down and entangled in her telephone cord, but the coroner is unable to determine her exact cause of death. However, even though the authorities are inclined to believe that Crystal died from an unknown illness, neighbours report having heard screams from her apartment shortly after her final phone call and Crystal’s boyfriend notices some strange discrepancies in her autopsy report which make him suspect foul play and a police cover-up. In this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine the bizarre unexplained death of Crystal Spencer.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/crystal-spencer/
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-02-24/news/mn-2042_1_spencer-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.