Daily Cold Case

The heartbeat of the city of New Orleans is its raucous French Quarter, where great music, street celebrations, and Cajun cooking sometimes overshadow a more unsavory side of the city. On August 4, 1991, in Algiers, across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, a lone recycler gleaned what he could along Nevada Street, a narrow, deserted city road that was often used illegally as a dump site. He had no idea he was about to launch one of the city’s most complex murder investigations. When he picked up a piece of garbage, he discovered the body of a young woman.

The body was identified as seventeen-year-old Danielle Britton, who lived nearby in Gretna with her mother. She had been strangled and possibly raped approximately twelve hours earlier. At first glance, her murder seemed to be an isolated incident. But the reality was far more sinister. She may have been the victim of a serial killer who preys on women he believes are prostitutes. By some chilling estimate, more than a hundred serial killers roam the streets of America at any given moment. Police are usually left to gather clues only from the silent testimony of gruesome crime scenes. But the New Orleans case would be different.

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Nineteen-year-old David Josiah Lawson was studying Criminology at HSU (Humboldt State University, located in Northern California in the small town of Arcata). Lawson was the president of the Brothers United, an on-campus group that formed as a result of the unsolved murder of a Black HSU student, Cory Clark in 2001 (there is, unfortunately, a lack of information on his case). The group’s goal was to provide support for Black men in the predominately white institution — and predominantly white area — in which they felt there was more support needed.

On April 15th, 2017 Josiah and members of the Brothers United were attending an off-campus party when they were approached by a group of white locals and accused of stealing one of their phones. One of the locals demanded that they empty their pockets. An altercation began that left Josiah Lawson pepper-sprayed and stabbed multiple times.

This story takes place in Greensboro, North Carolina. On June 9, 1993, a woman was returning to her motel room at around midnight. As she was entering the door, two men appeared behind her and forced their way into the room. Both men were armed and used the threat of deadly weapons to force everyone in the room onto the floor. Each of the five people in the room was robbed of all of their cash and jewelry. Just minutes later, the horrifying ordeal was over and the men were gone. The occupants of the room went to the police when the coast was clear. One of the guests got a good look at the robbers and was able to identify them. This lead to the police arresting two men — one of them named Frederick Young. The case would go to trial soon after and Young found himself being convicted of the motel robbery.

However, Frederick Young was adamant that he wasn’t the one to commit those robberies. He asserts that his conviction is a case of mistaken identity and that his twin brother — Cedric Young — was actually the one who should be behind bars.

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Although he was safely away from his attacker, Holden decided not to drive straight home. Instead, he drove in the opposite direction so that he could give himself some time to decompress. It was during this downtime that one of the biggest coincidences in history would take place. As Holden found his way back to his trailer, he saw the same man who had attacked him walking around his property. To avoid — once again — winding up in a confrontation with this unhinged individual, Holden drove to a nearby payphone and alerted the police. An officer soon arrived on the scene and walked with Holden to his trailer while keeping an eye out for the strange man. A look through his trailer showed that the man was not there (nothing was out of place or missing). Holden was still concerned, however, about his mother who lived in the house behind his trailer. Things already looked bad when they found that the back window was broken. As the two made their way to the upstairs bedroom, they found Dorothy Donovan dead from several stab wounds to the arms, chest, and face.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a very well-loved and respected historical figure. He is widely seen as the leader of America’s Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. Unfortunately, his work surrounding that movement put a target on his back. On April 3rd, 1968, King arrived in Memphis and checked in at the Lorraine Hotel. He was there to show his support for the city’s sanitation workers who were on strike. Across the street from his hotel were a bunch of shoddy, run-down buildings. One of those buildings was actually a living space run by a woman named Bessie Brewer. On the night of April 4th, one of the building’s tenants went to use the communal bathroom and found it locked. We would later learn that the man inside the bathroom at the time was career criminal James Earl Ray.

Ray went into the bathroom with a high-powered rifle and took aim at Dr. King as he stepped out of his hotel room.

Ray immediately went to make his escape after pulling the trigger. As he was leaving the area, he dumped the rifle and his bag at the Canipe Amusement Company’s door. Witnesses reported seeing a white car fleeing the scene at the time. Just two months later, Ray was apprehended. He was in the process of boarding a flight to Brussels from London when the authorities took him in. On March 10th, 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. The judge in his sentencing trial handed him a 99-year consequence. However, Ray had a confession just three days after his conviction:

He was set up.

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On that night, the two of them were being tailgated by a pickup truck which they didn’t find to be much of a concern. Continuing on their patrol route, they came across a fire on the side of the road. The pair quickly discerned that it was just a trash fire, and nothing malicious, so they made a U-turn and headed back south. On their drive, they passed the same pickup truck from earlier, which began to follow them again. In a terrifying move, the pickup truck pulled up alongside Moore and Rogers and the occupants opened fire on the new sheriff’s deputies.

A passerby came onto the scene to help the men but, unfortunately, it was too late for one of the men. O’Neal Moore was dead. Fortunately, Rogers survived, though he was very badly injured. He was rendered blind in the left eye but luckily was still able to give a description of the pickup truck and the shooters. The police embarked on an immediate search for the killers and their truck which saw them breaking ground less than an hour later. The driver of a truck very similar to the one the shooters were riding in was picked up only twenty miles away in Tollertown, Mississippi. Ernest Ray McElveen was arrested and bonded out on $25,000 bail. However, the charges against him were dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Two "solved" murder cases with VERY questionable outcomes. 

Still to this day, the official accounts of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is called into question. This episode gives a brief overview of the reasons for that doubt.

Follow me on instagram for more updates @coldcasepodcast!

"A few minutes later, a neighbor noticed a body in a field next to the trailer. It was Julie; she was barely alive, bleeding profusely from a gaping wound in her abdomen. Donny informed Hans about Julie, claiming that he had pulled her out of the home. Meanwhile, Betty ran to firefighters, begging to find Jill. Julie was rushed to the hospital; paramedics believed that she had suffered from a fire-related explosion. However, doctors were shocked to discover that she had actually been shot with a 12-gauge shotgun."

"Judy Hyams is a live, and she's living in Omaha"....

"Ozzie did not believe Cindy would have been able to stage the scene, but others believed it was possible. In Vancouver, the coroner ruled that her death was not suicide, an accident, or a murder. They determined that she died of an "unknown event". Otto and Tillie never doubted that she was murdered. Otto believed the police did not investigate the possibility of homicide or of somebody murdering her, instead zeroing in on trying to prove that she committed suicide. They believe someone in Vancouver is getting away with murder."

When Unsolved Mysteries had returned to our tv screens in July of 2020, one of their first cases was a doozy. The Netflix reboot of the show featured the case of a mid-twenties partygoer who may have been the victim of a series of hate crimes that ultimately lead to his death. If it wasn’t for the reboot, however, his case would still be closed.


Twenty-three-year-old Alonzo Brooks grew up in Topeka, Kansas. He was the youngest of 5 children, growing up with one older brother and three sisters. The 5 kids were raised by single mother Maria Ramirez. Maria had a special bond with Alonzo according to everyone who knew them. When Alonzo’s older brother Billy turned eighteen and moved out, Alonzo and his mother move to the suburbs of Gardner. In what is perhaps a premonition, Billy felt that he needed to toughen his younger brother up — much to their mother’s chagrin. She felt that he was trying to make Alonzo grow up to fast, but Billy felt that he needed to protect him from getting taken advantage of by his new peers.

That premonition would bear out in a series of mystifying events.

For the first half of this episode, I wanted to do something a little different. Having someone close to me who has been the victim of stalking, I decided to devote part of the episode to the issue itself and what is has caused for some survivors. I hope you enjoy!