October 24, 1992. Marietta, Georgia. 22-year old Heather Uffelman and her 22-year old fiancée, Jeremy Rolfs, make a lengthy drive from Tennessee in order to sell expensive computer equipment to a man calling himself “Tom Johnson”. After meeting Johnson in a motel room, he bludgeons the couple with a hammer before stealing the equipment. While Jeremy survives the ordeal, Heather succumbs to her injuries. Eighteen months later, a Nashville man named Thomas Steeples is arrested for the brutal murders of another couple in a motel room and becomes a promising suspect in this crime, but soon dies in jail of a drug overdose. Was Thomas Steeples the mysterious “Tom Johnson”? If not, then who was the actual perpetrator?

April 23, 1992. Athens, Georgia. 22-year old University of Georgia student Jennifer Lynn Stone is found raped and strangled to death inside the bedroom of her off-campus home. Two of Jennifer’s cameras have been stolen, but they are eventually recovered and linked to an unidentified man who traded them for drugs on the morning of the crime. Even though investigators have a lot of physical evidence to work with, including DNA, they are unable to match it to the perpetrator.

On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore two unsolved murders which took place in Georgia in 1992. Special thanks to listener Kelly Tucker for narrating the opening of this episode.

Additional Reading:

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Tom_Johnson

https://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/bitstream/handle/mtsu/620/15756.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

https://www.newspapers.com/image/422354231/?terms=%22Heather%2BUffelman%22%2BSteeples

https://www.newspapers.com/image/422355961/?terms=%22Heather%2BUffelman%22%2BSteeples

https://www.newspapers.com/image/113137202/?terms=%22Thomas%2BSteeples%22%2Bvenereal

http://patch.com/georgia/athens/who-killed-jenny-stone

http://www.redandblack.com/news/after-years-university-student-murder-still-unsolved/article_08155807-e68b-5c9f-8df9-e40df9aa2e88.html

https://www.onlineathens.com/article/20120421/NEWS/304219925

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“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on GetVokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.