Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

On January 10th, 2002, back home in Williamson County on winter break from college in San Diego, 19-year-old Rachel Cooke slept in a little. When she woke up, her parents and sister had all gone about their day. Rachel spoke with her boyfriend back in California for a few minutes, put on her workout clothes, and went for her usual 4 to 6 mile run. Then, as Rachel walked toward the Cooke home, her cooling off period after the run, she seemingly vanished into thin air. The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office told Robert and Janet Cooke that they were overreacting – that Rachel just ran off to party and would be back in no time. When it was finally clear to them that was not the case, plenty of time had already been lost, and there wasn’t a trace of Rachel Cooke to be found.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Rachel Louise Cooke, please contact the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office at (512) 948-2911 or their cold case tip line at (512) 943-5204.

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group at fwpdcoldcasesupport.org

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

#WhereIsRachelCooke #JusticeForRachelCooke #Georgetown #GeorgetownTX #WilliamsonCountyTX #Texas #TX #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #UnsolvedMysteries #MissingPerson #Missing #Vanished #Disappeared

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

When 7-year-old Danydia Betty-Jacqueline Thompson didn’t show up after school to meet her brother and sister for the walk home, both of them knew something was terribly wrong. After telling relatives, the campus of Marlboro Elementary was poured through again in an attempt to find the missing first-grader, but attempts were fruitless. For 8 days, family, neighbors, professionals, law enforcement, Fort Hood soldiers, and countless Killeen residents searched for Danydia. On that 8th day, two military volunteers searching overgrown roadsides miles south of town found the body of Danydia Thompson. Her murder remains unsolved to this day.

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of DaNydia Betty-Jacqueline Thompson, please contact Bell County Crime Stoppers at 254-526-8477.

Check out The True Crime Files podcast wherever you listen and read the blog at thetruecrimefiles.com

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com. If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group at fwpdcoldcasesupport.org

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The Austin American-Statesman, The Killeen Daily Herald, The Marshall News Messenger, The Fort Worth Star Telegram, and KCEN-TV archival footage were used as sources for this episode.

#JusticeForDanydiaThompson #ChildAbduction #AmberAlert #Killeen #KilleenTX #Texas #TX #TexasTrueCrime #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #Homicide #UnsolvedMysteries #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast

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

On this episode of gone cold, we cover two unrelated stories from the city of El Paso; both likely impacted, or were impacted by, the 1987 desert killings thought by law enforcement to be perpetrated solely by David Leonard Wood. Before listening, we highly suggest you check out our episodes “Lost in the Desert” Parts 1 & 2.

First, the disappearance and murder of 16-year-old Angie Irsay in 1988, followed by the murder of Jacqueline Romero in 1986. Jacqueline’s murder was, perhaps, solved. A jury, however, disagreed, leaving her probable murderer free from accountability. Angie Irsay’s case in contrast, never came close to resolution.

Cover photo is Angie Irsay. We could not find a photo of Jacqueline Romero.

If you have any information about the murder of Angela Margarite Irsay or Jaqueline Belinda Romero, please call Crime stoppers of El Paso at (915) 566 – 8477.

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The El Paso Times, The Tyler Morning Telegraph, and the article Memories of Angie on New Mexico State University’s website were used as sources for these stories.

#JusticeForAngieIrsay #JusticeForJacquelineRomero #ElPaso #ElPasoTX #Texas #TX #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #UnsolvedMysteries #Missing #MissingPersons #TheDesertKiller

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

During the Summer of 1987, the disappearances of girls and young women were stacking up in El Paso. Though the police seemed to think most were simply runaways, they changed their tune when the bodies of two missing females were found in the city’s Northeast desert on September 4th. When two more bodies were found a month and a half later, El Paso police acted fast and arrested their suspect – but he wasn’t charged with the murders, rather, he was charged with the rape of a woman who he had to let go. Eventually, David Leonard Wood was convicted of a total of six Northeast El Paso murders that occurred in the summer of 87 but three area females are still missing to this day. This episode of gone cold is the further story of the Desert Killer’s known victims and the third that is potentially his victim: Cheryl Lynn Vasquez-Dismukes.

If you have any information about the disappearances of Melissa Alaniz or Cheryl Vasquez Dismukes, please contact the El Paso Police at 915-832-4445.

If you have any information about the disappearances of Marjorie Alice Knox, please contact the Dona Ana County, New Mexico Sheriff’s Office at 575-526-0795.

Be sure to check out our pals over at the podcast Fort Worth Roots.

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group, a non-profit set up in hopes to fund the testing needed to give the families of Fort Worth murder victims justice. You can make an incredible impact on these folks’ lives by donating. Please go to: https://haynow.appcapable.com/customerForm?paymentFormId=6169c6306671d56b5e215507&fbclid=IwAR2pnENlLwT7msIXDCF3Bot6fu0T4dLthEoMZOe4QFhDb8JClEv9KORAkv0

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The El Paso Times, The Austin Statesman, the article Memories of Angie on New Mexico State University’s website, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode.

#JusticeForCherylVasquezDismukes #JusticeForMarjorieKnox #JusticeForMelissaAlaniz #ElPaso #ElPasoTX #Texas #TX #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #UnsolvedMysteries #Missing #MissingPersons #TheDesertKiller

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

Almost immediately after rapist and pedophile David Leonard Wood left prison in Huntsville, Texas and paroled to his mother’s house in El Paso, teenaged girls and young women began disappearing. Though the bodies of six of the females were eventually found, and Wood convicted of killing them, three remain missing to this day. This episode of gone cold is the story of the Desert Killer’s known victims and two that are potentially are as well: Marjorie Knox and Melissa Alaniz.

If you have any information about the disappearances of Marjorie Alice Knox, please contact the Dona Ana County, New Mexico Sheriff’s Office at 575-526-0795.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Melissa Alaniz, please contact the El Paso Police at 915-832-4445.

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group, a non-profit set up in hopes to fund the testing needed to give the families of Fort Worth murder victims justice. You can make an incredible impact on these folks’ lives by donating. Please go to: https://haynow.appcapable.com/customerForm?paymentFormId=6169c6306671d56b5e215507&fbclid=IwAR2pnENlLwT7msIXDCF3Bot6fu0T4dLthEoMZOe4QFhDb8JClEv9KORAkv0

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The El Paso Times, The Austin Statesman, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode.

#JusticeForMarjorieKnox #JusticeForMelissaAlaniz #ElPaso #ElPasoTX #Texas #TX #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #UnsolvedMysteries #Missing #MissingPersons #TheDesertKiller

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

Part 3 of 3. The initial investigation into the slayings of 22-year-old Cheryl Henry and 21-year-old Andy Atkinson was meticulous, with no stones left unturned, but it resulted in virtually no breaks. Though DNA obtained as the result of the attacker raping Cheryl produced a strong profile, no one Detective Billy Belk and company could find was a match. Then, almost 20 years later, the biggest break in the case occurred when the DNA got a hit in CODIS. But there was a problem – the matched DNA also belonged to an unknown assailant. Underlying this story is another one: the story of advancements in DNA technology. Will new technology, i.e. forensic genealogy, finally give this story an ending?

If you have any information about the Lover’s Lane murders of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson, please contact Houston area crime stoppers at 713-222-8477.

Please visit EndTheBackLog.org and consider helping in their mission to hold accountable the perpetrators of sexual violence.

Check out Southern Fried True Crime wherever you listen to podcasts or at southernfriedtruecrime.com

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group, a non-profit set up in hopes to fund the testing needed to give the families of Fort Worth murder victims justice. You can make an incredible impact on these folks’ lives by donating. Please go to: https://haynow.appcapable.com/customerForm?paymentFormId=6169c6306671d56b5e215507&fbclid=IwAR2pnENlLwT7msIXDCF3Bot6fu0T4dLthEoMZOe4QFhDb8JClEv9KORAkv0

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The Wilmington Morning Star, The Fayetteville Observer, The Houston Chronicle, KHOU 11, The Insight Network, The Transparency Project, The New York Times, The Charlotte News, EndTheBackLog.org, The October 2010 Citizens Against Homicide newsletter, and the book Survivors: The Forgotten Victims of Murder and Suspicious Deaths by Dennis Griffin were used as sources for this series.

#JusticeForCherylandAndy #LoversLane #LoversLaneMurders #Houston #HoustonTX #Texas #TX #TexasTrueCrime #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #Homicide #UnsolvedMysteries #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast

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

After the bodies of 22-year-old Cheryl Henry and 21-year-old Andy Atkinson were found, on August 23rd and 24th 1990 respectively, Houston Homicide Detective Billy Belk was called to the scene to begin the investigation into their murders. Alongside other homicide detectives, Belk scoured the city for leads – first questioning and taking blood samples from all Andy and Cheryl’s known friends and patrons of the bars they frequented. Nothing turned up, even after examining robberies and sexual assaults that, like these Lover’s Lane Murders, took place in West Houston. Though the initial investigation was painstaking and thorough, it brought with it nothing but dead ends.

If you have any information about the Lover’s Lane murders of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson, please contact Houston area crime stoppers at 713-222-8477.

Be sure to look for the podcast Mind Over Murder from Kristin Dilley and Bill Thomas, which you can also find on your preferred podcatcher or at mindovermurderpodcast.com

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group, a non-profit set up in hopes to fund the testing needed to give the families of Fort Worth murder victims justice. You can make an incredible impact on these folks’ lives by donating. Please go to: https://haynow.appcapable.com/customerForm?paymentFormId=6169c6306671d56b5e215507&fbclid=IwAR2pnENlLwT7msIXDCF3Bot6fu0T4dLthEoMZOe4QFhDb8JClEv9KORAkv0

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The Wilmington Morning Star, The Fayetteville Observer, The Houston Chronicle, KHOU 11, The Insight Network, The Transparency Project, The New York Times, The Charlotte News, EndTheBackLog.org, The October 2010 Citizens Against Homicide newsletter, and the book Survivors: The Forgotten Victims of Murder and Suspicious Deaths by Dennis Griffin were used as sources for this series.

#JusticeForCherylandAndy #LoversLane #LoversLaneMurders #Houston #HoustonTX #Texas #TX #TexasTrueCrime #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #Homicide #UnsolvedMysteries #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast

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

When 22-year-old Cheryl Henry and 21-year-old Andy Atkinson met in August of 1990, it was almost as if fate made it so. Both of them had just moved back to Houston, Texas earlier that summer. And both seemingly fell hard for the other the moment they were introduced. But fate turned cruel when only weeks later something terrible, something beyond reason and comprehension happened to the couple cutting not only their romance short, but also their lives. The senseless and brutal act against Cheryl and Andy remains one of Texas’s most infamous and mysterious murder cases and is among many other unsolved Lover’s Lane slayings.

If you have any information about the Lover’s Lane murders of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson, please contact Houston area crime stoppers at 713-222-8477.

Special thanks to Erica from Southern Fried True Crime for lending us her inimitable voice this episode. Check out Southern Fried True Crime wherever you listen to podcasts or at southernfriedtruecrime.com

Also be sure to look for the podcast Mind Over Murder from Kristin Dilley and Bill Thomas, which you can also find on your preferred podcatcher or at mindovermurderpodcast.com

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group, a non-profit set up in hopes to fund the testing needed to give the families of Fort Worth murder victims justice. You can make an incredible impact on these folks’ lives by donating. Please go to: https://haynow.appcapable.com/customerForm?paymentFormId=6169c6306671d56b5e215507&fbclid=IwAR2pnENlLwT7msIXDCF3Bot6fu0T4dLthEoMZOe4QFhDb8JClEv9KORAkv0

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The Wilmington Morning Star, The Fayetteville Observer, The Houston Chronicle, KHOU 11, The Insight Network, The Transparency Project, The New York Times, The Charlotte News, EndTheBackLog.org, The October 2010 Citizens Against Homicide newsletter, and the book Survivors: The Forgotten Victims of Murder and Suspicious Deaths by Dennis Griffin were used as sources for this series.

#JusticeForCherylandAndy #LoversLane #LoversLaneMurders #Houston #HoustonTX #Texas #TX #TexasTrueCrime #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #Homicide #UnsolvedMysteries #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast

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

On November 1st, 1980, the body of a young female was found on the side of Interstate 45 near Huntsville in Walker County, Texas. For 41 years, this girl was unidentified and known as Walker County Jane Doe. It wasn’t for the lack of investigative effort – the case had been revisited periodically over the years. Rather, the Jane Doe’s identity remained unknown because the technology didn’t exist until recently. When Walker County Sheriff’s Detective Thomas Bean took up the case in 2015, even he had to wait for the right technology to come along. Finally, in July 2020, he connected with Othram Incorporated and on November 9th, 2021, Walker County Jane Doe was given back her rightful name, 14-year-old Sherri Ann Jarvis, and her family finally knew what happened to her. Though identifying Sherri is certainly an amazing feat and a step in the right direction, her killer remains at large, leaving her story still unresolved.

If you have any information about who killed Sherri Ann Jarvis, please contact the Walker County Sheriff’s Office at 936-435-2400...
...or Walker County Crime Stoppers at (936) 294-9494.

Special thanks to Detective Thomas Bean of the Walker County Sheriff's Office and Othram’s David Mittelman and Michael Vogen for helping us tell the story of Sherri’s identification.

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group, a non-profit set up in hopes to fund the testing needed to give the families of Fort Worth murder victims justice. You can make an incredible impact on these folks’ lives by donating. Please go to: https://haynow.appcapable.com/customerForm?paymentFormId=6169c6306671d56b5e215507&fbclid=IwAR2pnENlLwT7msIXDCF3Bot6fu0T4dLthEoMZOe4QFhDb8JClEv9KORAkv0

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The Houston Chronicle, The Mercury Press, Texas Monthly, the Huntsville Item, and the Twin Cities Pioneer Press were used as additional sources for this episode.

#JusticeForSherriAnnJarvis #WalkerCountyJaneDoe #WalkerCountyTX #Texas #TX #TexasTrueCrime #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #JaneDoe #UnsolvedMurder #Homicide #UnsolvedMysteries #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast

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

Part 3 of 3. The October 1981 slaying of 27-year-old Clarence Ray Hudgins at his home near Kilgore, Texas is still unsolved, but it’s not for the lack of effort on his mother’s part. For 40 years now, Kathryn Hudgins has collected documents and evidence concerning her son’s case. This evidence makes one thing strikingly clear: that Ray’s business partner, who he cut ties with not long before his assassination, had plenty to gain by Ray’s demise, in the form of dollar signs. Even though the Kilgore, Texas Police and the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office were stumped, Kathryn Hudgins seems to have put the pieces together just fine on her own. Only, she can’t get folks to listen.

If you have any information about the assassination of Clarence Ray Hudgins, please contact Gregg County Crime Stoppers at 903-236-7867.

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group, a non-profit set up in hopes to fund the testing needed to give the families of Fort Worth murder victims justice. You can make an incredible impact on these folks’ lives by donating. Please go to: https://haynow.appcapable.com/customerForm?paymentFormId=6169c6306671d56b5e215507&fbclid=IwAR2pnENlLwT7msIXDCF3Bot6fu0T4dLthEoMZOe4QFhDb8JClEv9KORAkv0

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast
Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

Sources for this episode, largely, were the documents supplied to us by Ray Hudgins’s Mother Kathryn. Additional sources include The Kilgore News-Herald, The Tyler Morning-Telegraph, and the Longview News-Journal.

#JusticeForRayHudgins #Kilgore #KilgoreTX #GreggCountyTX #Texas #TX #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #UnsolvedMysteries #UnsolvedMurder #Assassination #Hitman

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