The Trail Went Cold

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.

July 16, 1952. Salisbury, Connecticut. While spending the summer at Camp Sloane, ten-year old Connie Smith skips breakfast and leaves the campground. Numerous witnesses see Connie walking down the road and attempting to hitchhike, but before she reaches the nearest town, she vanishes without a trace. Since Connie’s grandfather is the former Governor of Wyoming, there is a massive search effort and her case receives extensive publicity. Over the years, there are a number of unusual leads, including an anonymous letter stating that Connie might be an unidentified murder victim named “Little Miss X”, whose skeletal remains were found in Arizona in 1958. Did Connie Smith become an unidentified Jane Doe? If not, what actually happened to her? And what compelled her to walk away from Camp Sloane to begin with? We explore one of America’s most baffling unsolved missing children’s cases on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
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/constance-christine-smith
https://www.registercitizen.com/news/article/Missing-girl-s-unsolved-case-draws-theories-13164163.php
https://www.courant.com/hc-cc-smith-051709-story.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1193ufaz.html
http://charleyproject.org/case/donnis-marie-redman
http://charleyproject.org/case/michael-lawrence-griffin
“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 11, 1988. Walnut Creek, California. Lester Garnier, a 30-year old vice officer with the San Francisco Police Department, is found shot to death inside his car in a shopping center parking lot. Eyewitnesses recall seeing at least two unidentified blonde women in the parking lot the previous night and speculation mounts that Lester’s murder might be connected to his involvement in the recent high-profile bust of a teenage prostitution ring. Twenty years later, authorities announce that a partial fingerprint from the crime scene has been matched to Catherine Kuntz, a Scottish woman with an extensive criminal history, but there is not enough evidence to file charges. Was Kuntz responsible for Lester Garnier’s murder? If so, what was her motive? Were other people involved in this crime? What was Lester doing in that parking lot to begin with? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” explores a baffling unsolved murder of a police officer which has a number of unanswered questions.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/lester-garnier/
https://www.sfgate.com/magazine/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-S-COLDEST-CASE-A-coverup-is-still-2669756.php
https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Fingerprint-may-solve-mystery-of-cop-s-killing-3281170.php
https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Suspect-in-S-F-cop-s-1988-slaying-is-deported-3173664.php
“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 4, 1996. Sitka, Alaska. While walking home from her sister’s place after celebrating her 17th birthday, Jessica Baggen is attacked on a bicycle path. Her body is soon found in a wooded area, where she has been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated to death. Eleven days later, a suspect named Richard Bingham turns himself in to the police and after making a videotaped confession, he is charged with Jessica’s murder. However, none of the physical evidence matches Bingham and it becomes apparent that his confession was coerced by investigators, so when he goes on trial the following year, Bingham is found “not guilty”. Did the jury make the right decision by acquitting Bingham? And if he didn’t kill Jessica Baggen, then who did? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a controversial murder case which has been without closure for two decades.
Additional Reading:
http://vots.altervista.org/AK/index.html
http://www.thenorthernlight.org/thawing-out-alaskas-cold-case-murders/
“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 12, 1994. Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 23-year old Karen Denise Wells has left on a cross-county road trip from her hometown in Oklahoma in order to visit her friend, Melissa Shepard, in New Jersey. After checking into a motel, Denise phones Melissa and asks her to come meet her there, but when Melissa arrives, Denise has vanished. Later that morning, Denise’s abandoned rental car is discovered 35 miles away on a remote road. The gas tank is empty and it turns out there are 700 miles on the vehicle’s odometer which cannot be accounted for. Investigators eventually start noticing discrepancies in Melissa’s story, leading them to believe she is withholding information about Denise’s disappearance. What actually happened to Karen Denise Wells? Why did her vehicle wind up in such a remote area? Where did those additional 700 miles on her odometer come from? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” chronicles one of the more baffling missing persons cases we’ve ever covered.
Additional Reading:
http://charleyproject.org/case/karen-denise-wells
https://www.abc27.com/news/midstate-mystery-the-disappearance-of-karen-denise-wells/
https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/04/evidence_sparse_in_15yearold_d.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.

September 14, 1965. Coral Gables, Florida. After leaving work, 22-year old Judith Hyams vanishes without a trace and her rental car is found abandoned in Atlanta. It turns out that Judith had become pregnant and was seeking an illegal abortion from a shady doctor, but after he is arrested, he jumps bail and disappears. 24 years later, the case is suddenly re-opened after a police captain receives a series of bizarre anonymous phone calls stating that Judith is still alive. Even after investigators receive an anonymous letter which reveals what happened to Judith, she is never found and there are a number of unanswered questions. For our first episode of 2019, “The Trail Went Cold” tackles a very odd cold case which was revived in the most unlikely fashion.
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/judith-hyams/
http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Judy_Hyams
http://charleyproject.org/case/judith-carole-himes
“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.

Listeners of “The Trail Went Cold” have always had a number of questions about the podcast and its host, Robin Warder. What unsolved cold case have you covered which you’d most like an answer to? What is the biggest challenge of producing a weekly podcast? Have you ever been contacted by any of the people involved in the cases you have covered? Are there are any cold cases you would not cover? What is your favourite thing about being a podcaster? These questions and many others will be answered as we close out 2018 with our very first Q&A episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
This episode of The Trail Went Cold is brought to you by Care/Of, a monthly subscription vitamin service that delivers completely personalized vitamin and supplement packs right to your door. For 25% off your first month of personalized Care/Of vitamins, visit takecareof.com and enter the promo code “cold.”
“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.