On the night of January 28, 2006, 28-year-old Amber Lyn Smith was last seen at her home in the 1300 block of Aldama Street in Seguin, Texas. She was gone, but her purse, identification, and vehicle were still there. Her two young sons, just four years old and one month old, were asleep inside.

Amber’s disappearance launched one of the largest searches in Guadalupe County history. Local police, Texas Rangers, DPS Crime Lab personnel, K-9 units, volunteers, and later Texas EquuSearch combed fields and vacant properties in and around Seguin. Helicopters, drones, mounted teams, and sonar-equipped boats were used. No sign of Amber was found.

On February 16, 2006, a Texas Department of Transportation worker discovered a badly decomposed body beneath a bridge at FM 725 and Grove Lane, roughly ten miles from Amber’s home. Distinctive tattoos helped confirm the remains were hers. The autopsy listed the cause of death as undetermined due to decomposition, but investigators stated she had not arrived there on her own. In March 2006, a justice of the peace ruled her death a homicide.

No one has ever been charged. Nearly two decades later, the case remains open.

If you have any information about the murder of Amber Lyn Smith in Seguin, please contact Texas Crime Stoppers at (800) 252-8477.

Get your GIRL SCOUT COOKIES here: https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/alice241168

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast

#JusticeForAmberLynSmith #Seguin #GuadalupeCounty #TX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #ColdCase #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #MissingPerson #Missing #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #UnsolvedMysteries #Homicide #CrimeStories #PodcastRecommendations #CrimeJunkie #MysteryPodcast

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

On Christmas Eve 2015, 71-year-old Schertz businessman Henry Manuel Gutierrez, Jr. was found shot multiple times inside his home along FM 3009, near the yard of his company, Bexar Waste. His son discovered him seated in a recliner, partially covered by a blanket, in what investigators described as an execution-style killing.

Henry was in the midst of negotiating the multimillion-dollar sale of Bexar Waste to Republic Services at the time of his death. His estate was valued at approximately $14.6 million. An active civil lawsuit alleging a handshake agreement over future sale proceeds added financial tension to an already complex landscape.

The home appeared rummaged through. Missing items included cash, his wallet, several Christmas gift cards, a distinctive sterling silver ring, and his white Ford Expedition, later recovered in San Marcos without usable forensic evidence. Some of the stolen gift cards surfaced in Houston days later.

Investigators collected shell casings, an unknown fingerprint, and DNA, but no public forensic link has tied any suspect to the crime. Questions arose about the early handling of the scene and the delayed involvement of the Texas Rangers.

Over the years, police interviewed roughly 100 individuals connected to Henry’s business and personal life. Persons of interest have been identified but not publicly named.

In 2022, the case was officially designated a cold case. In 2024, authorities announced a new person of interest developed through renewed investigation efforts. As of the tenth anniversary in 2025, no arrests have been made, and a reward remains active.

If you have any information about the murder of Henry Manuel Gutierrez Jr., please call the Guadalupe County Crime Stoppers at (877) 403-8477.

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast

#JusticeForHenryGutierrezJr #Schertz #GuadalupeCounty #TX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #ColdCase #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #MissingPerson #Missing #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #UnsolvedMysteries #Homicide #CrimeStories #PodcastRecommendations #CrimeJunkie #MysteryPodcast

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

On a narrow stretch of School Road in Austin County, Texas, a small turquoise-and-white trailer sat in the middle of the Raccoon Bend oil field, just miles from the Brazos River. It belonged to 86-year-old Will Stetenpohl — a quiet widower known to everyone simply as “Mr. Will.” He lived simply, kept cash in his pockets instead of banks, left his doors unlocked, and trusted the people around him.

Almost every day, Mr. Will’s daughter Bernice Schiller and her husband Aldon brought him lunch, washed his dishes, and made sure he ate something better than the canned food he preferred. Often, their neighbor Ray Treat Paine — a fellow cattleman and close friend of more than 40 years — would stop by too. On Thursday morning, November 14, 1996, all four of them were inside that small trailer, doing what they always did. By early afternoon, they would all be dead.

When Bernice and Aldon failed to arrive for a doctor’s appointment in Conroe that afternoon, their daughter Sandra grew worried. Calls were made. Family members drove past the trailer and saw the Schillers’ pickup still parked outside. Something wasn’t right. Wendy Lamp, Bernice’s other daughter, called the sheriff’s office for a welfare check — but deputies couldn’t even find the trailer on the winding oil-field back roads. As daylight faded, Wendy sent her husband and brother to look for them themselves.

What they found inside the darkened trailer was beyond anything Austin County had ever seen. In the tiny back bedroom, the bodies of Will Stetenpohl, Bernice Schiller, Aldon Schiller, and Ray Paine were piled on top of each other, soaked in blood, shot at close range with a shotgun.

Why did someone slaughter an old man, his daughter, his son-in-law, and his best friend in the middle of the day… in a place where nothing like that had ever happened before?

If you have any information about the murders of Will Stetenpohl, Bernice and Aldon Schiller, and Ray Paine, contact the Austin County Sheriff’s Office at (979) 865-3111.

Get your GIRL SCOUT COOKIES here: https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/alice241168

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast

#Justice #RaccoonBend #Bellville #Houston #AustinCounty #TX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #ColdCase #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #MissingPerson #Missing #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #UnsolvedMysteries #Homicide #CrimeStories #PodcastRecommendations #CrimeJunkie #MysteryPodcast

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

In August 2004, 21-year-old Katara Deboise Johnson finished her shift as an assistant manager at Taco Bell in Taylor, Texas, and drove home to her mobile home on North Dolan Street. By the following evening, her grandmother would discover her shot to death inside her bedroom.

Her car was missing. Her cell phone was gone. Hours after her death, someone answered her phone and claimed to be Katara before laughter echoed in the background and the call disconnected.

Her maroon Mitsubishi Lancer was later found abandoned at the Thorndale Community Pool in neighboring Milam County, miles from her home. No weapon was recovered. No signs of forced entry were reported. More than 50 people were interviewed. Polygraphs were administered. The Texas Rangers and Department of Public Safety assisted. Still, no arrests have been made.

In the months that followed, frustration grew. Family members publicly questioned whether enough resources were being devoted to the case. The NAACP launched its own inquiry. Katara’s sister Kenyatta revealed she had been questioned as a possible suspect, something she strongly denied. Police have never publicly named a suspect.

Years passed. Her mother died in 2012 without answers. In 2019, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office took over the investigation. Authorities now believe more than one person may know what happened that night, particularly how Katara’s car ended up in Thorndale.

If you have any information about the murder of Katara Debois Johnson, please contact Texas Crime Stoppers at (800) 346-3243.

You can support Gone Cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast 

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com

Follow Gone Cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast

#JusticeForKataraJohnson #Taylor #WilliamsonCounty #WilCo #TX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #ColdCase #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #MissingPerson #Missing #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #UnsolvedMysteries #Homicide #CrimeStories #PodcastRecommendations #CrimeJunkie #MysteryPodcast

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

In the final installment of the Amber Hagerman series: the Amber Hagerman Taskforce disbands. Detective Jim Ford and Sgt. Mark Simpson follow leads out of state, one that has a connection to Berlin, Germany. Amber’s mother Donna Whitson, Brother Ricky. And Father Richard Hagerman struggle to come to terms with the 9-year-old’s senseless and violent death. The legacy left after the tragic death of another little girl, 7-year-old Athen Strand, adds strength to the Amber Alert system in Texas. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD (no spaces) first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477 

If your child is struggling with the loss of a loved one and you’re in North Texas, The WARM Place provides a safe, compassionate space for grieving children and their families. Go to thewarmplace.org for more information. 

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast  
Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com  

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast 
 
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode.
 
#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

In 1999, another abduction rocked North Texas when 6-year-old Opal Jo Jennings was snatched in broad daylight as she played with other children in a field next to her house. The similarities were striking, and police in Arlington thought they had their man. In 2007, in Tacoma Washington, a twisted child rapist was exposed when he murdered one of his victims, and his ties to Fort Worth, Texas put him on the persons of interest list in the Amber Hagerman case. The following year, police in Dickinson, Texas renew an investigation from 1990 in which the victim, left for dead, survived. In 2009, her would-be killer was identified and arrested. It’s unclear if this suspect was ever investigated for the 1996 murder of 9-year-old Amber Rene Hagerman, or if the survivor’s case was even compared at all. Part 6 of 7. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD (no spaces) first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477 

Get your GIRL SCOUT COOKIES here: https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/alice241168

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast  

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com  

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode. 

#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

The Amber Hagerman Taskforce searched far and wide for suspects. Whether a perpetrator was known, like a Fort Lauderdale, Florida child rapist and killer, or was yet to be apprehended, such as the monster responsible for raping and killing a 12-year-old girl in a Houston suburb, there was certainly no shortage of suspects to scrutinize. Even an obsessive tipster came on the Taskforce’s radar. But police investigating the January 13th abduction and subsequent murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman couldn’t catch a break that led to an arrest, or enough proof that actually made them believe they’d identified their guy. At least in the three cases discussed in this episode. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD (no spaces) first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477

Get your GIRL SCOUT COOKIES here: https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/alice241168

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast 
 
Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com  

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode. 

#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

As the Amber Hagerman Taskforce investigated, they were attempting to leave no stone unturned. Privy to resources not usually readily available to local police jurisdictions, Detectives were utilizing science, mathematics, and old-fashioned police work in order to cover every base. It was, perhaps, the toughest investigation many of the very experienced policemen had ever worked. And it was personal. Nothing, however, seemed to pan out. Even with the identification of countless suspects, finding the evidence that nailed one of them was proving frustrating. What were they missing?
  
If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772 or to remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477 

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast  

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com  

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and the docuseries Amber: the Girl Behind the Alert were used as sources for this episode.
  
#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

On the evening of Wednesday, January 17th, 1996, a cold front in North Texas brought in a major thunderstorm system. Arlington, Texas got drenched. At about 11:30 PM, when the rain stopped, a Forest Ridge Apartments resident took his small terrier out for a walk. When the dog became agitated at the creek near the complex, the man walked down to check it out. To his horror, a small, female body was in the water facedown. He knew who it was. The next couple days, the Arlington Police and the Amber Hagerman Taskforce scrambled to find out how the body got there and who might be responsible.  
 
If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD (no spaces) first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477 

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast  

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com  

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and the docuseries Amber: the Girl Behind the Alert were used as sources for this episode.
  
#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

At about 3:18 PM on January 13th, 1996, in east Arlington, Texas, 78-year-old retired machinist and WW2 Veteran Jimmie Kevil dialed 911. He’d just witnessed a man in a pickup truck kidnap a little girl, he told the operator. The girl was 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. Police responded and a search began. Folks in the neighborhood, too, came out to look for her and the black truck her abductor drove. But there was a problem: this was Texas and black pickups were everywhere. Everyone in Arlington was hanging on to the hope that Amber would be returned unharmed, unlike the victim in the last kidnapping case in the city, the 1994 abduction of 16-year-old Lisa Rene. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD, no spaces, first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477
  
You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast  

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com  

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and the docuseries Amber: the Girl Behind the Alert were used as sources for this episode.
  
#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.