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/

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The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.