The Trail Went Cold

September 12, 1943. Los Angeles, California. David Bacon, a 29-year old actor who has just played the title character in the serial drama “The Masked Marvel”, tells his wife he is planning to go swimming and leaves their home. Later that afternoon, Bacon’s car is seen driving erratically before it jumps a curb and crashes into a bean field. After Bacon stumbles out of the car and dies, a fatal knife wound is discovered in his back. The investigation would uncover numerous clues to suggest Bacon was leading a secret double life, such as a coded diary, a rented apartment and unexplained trips to Venice Beach. However, there would be no answers about who actually murdered him. For our special one-year anniversary show of “The Trail Went Cold”, we shall be examining one of Hollywood`s most baffling unsolved mysteries.
A special thanks to one of our listeners, Esther Gamez, for providing the cover art for this episode. Be sure to check out Esther’s Facebook and Tumblr pages to see more of her artwork.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bacon_(actor)
http://www.tomchristopher.com/miscellaneous2/who-killed-the-masked-marvel/
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

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.

April 9, 1992. 59-year old Jean Moore and her 70-year old fiancee, Al Henderson, have traveled from their hometown of Apple Valley, California for a vacation in Laughlin, Nevada. On the morning they were planning to return home, Al claims he dropped Jean off at a casino before she vanished without explanation. However, Jean does not show up on the casino’s surveillance footage, which contradicts many aspects of Al’s story. Investigators wonder if Jean even arrived in Laughlin to begin with and suspect her fiancee might be withholding information. Was Al responsible for what happened to Jean? We attempt to answer that question as we examine a baffling spousal disappearance in this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”.
Additional Reading:
http://unsolved.com/archives/jean-moore
http://charleyproject.org/case/jean-marie-moore
http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20120410/NEWS/304109985
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

September 17, 1990. Davenport, Iowa. Jennifer Lewis, a nine-year old girl from nearby Rock Island, Illinois, is found murdered on a school playground and her body has been set on fire. A man named Stanley Liggins is soon convicted of the crime, but this would only be the beginning of a very controversial case in which Liggins’ conviction has overturned on two separate occasions. This story is chronicled on a brand new true crime podcast called “Suspect Convictions”, which examines the case from all angles and follows it in real time as Liggins prepares to go on trial for the third time this spring. In this episode, “The Trail Went Cold” is joined for an interview by veteran journalist Scott Reeder, who has covered this case since day one and thought it deserved to be turned into its own podcast.
Click here to visit the official “Suspect Convictions” website and download the podcast.
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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.

June 2, 2007. San Francisco, California. Hugues de la Plaza, a 36-year old sound engineer with dual French and American citizenship, returns to his apartment after spending the evening at a club. When morning hits, Hugues is found stabbed to death. Since a security camera shows no one else heading in the direction of Hugues’ apartment that night, police explore the possibility that Hugues committed suicide and his death is classified as “undetermined”. However, Hugues’ family discover disturbing discrepancies which point to murder, so they are forced to bring in the National Police from France to seek justice for his death. In this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine a very controversial case which prompted an international police force to take over an American investigation.
Additional Reading:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-mystery-a-case-for-murder/
http://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/no-exit-san-francisco-police-have-ensured-that-hugues-de-la-plaza-will-dwell-eternally-in-bureaucratic-limbo/Content?oid=2826340
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Homicide-or-suicide-Man-s-death-a-mystery-3219748.php
http://hoodline.com/2013/06/in-pursuit-of-justice-the-story-of-hugues-de-la-plaza
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.

October 23, 1987. Arlington, Texas. 43-year old Patsy Wright phones up her sister in the middle of the night to complain that she has become nauseous after taking some NyQuil, but collapses during the call and soon passes away. An autopsy eventually reveals that Patsy was poisoned after strychnine was put in her NyQuil. The investigation would uncover multiple suspects with a motive to murder Patsy, but no evidence to implicate anyone. Our first “Trail Went Cold” episode of 2017 analyzes a real-life whodunit which resembles an Agatha Christie murder mystery.
Additional Reading:
http://unsolved.com/archives/patsy-wright
http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1989/august/t-h-e-wax-museum-murder-mystery/
http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1990/february/the-name-is-dear-bill-dear/
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.

Christmas Eve 1945. Fayetteville, West Virginia. George and Jenny Sodder are preparing to celebrate the holidays with nine of their children, but shortly after they go to bed, their home burns completely to the ground. When the smoke clears, five of the Sodder children – whose ages range from five to fourteen years old – are nowhere to be found and a search of the rubble fails to turn up any trace of their remains. Due to a number of suspicious events surrounding the fire, the Sodders begin to suspect their five missing children were the victims of a bizarre kidnapping. Did the Sodder children really die in the fire that night or did they somehow survive and remain hidden from their family for the rest of their lives? And if the children did perish in the fire, who was responsible for starting it? In this week’s special holiday-themed episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we chronicle one of the most infamous Christmas mysteries of all time.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodder_children_disappearance
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/
http://charleyproject.org/case/jennie-irene-sodder
http://charleyproject.org/case/maurice-antonio-sodder
http://charleyproject.org/case/louis-erico-sodder
http://charleyproject.org/case/betty-dolly-sodder
http://charleyproject.org/case/martha-lee-sodder
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.