October 31, 1981. Wahneta, Florida. The mother of 13-year old Tina Marie Janose wakes up to discover that she is missing from their mobile home. That same morning, Tina Marie’s body is found twelve miles away on Interstate 4 and it turns out she was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered before the killer tossed her off a highway overpass. Over the years, James Norman Ulmer and Frank Potts, a pair of sex offenders who each wind up going to prison for other crimes, pop up on the radar as potential suspects in Tina Marie’s murder. While there is compelling case to be made for Ulmer or Potts being the perpetrator, there is not enough evidence to conclusively implicate either of them and the crime is never solved. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the murder of Tina Marie Janose, a horrifying cold case which took place on Halloween 42 years ago.

If you have any information about this case, please contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at (863) 298-6200.

Additional Reading:

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1994/03/25/more-speculation-than-evidence-keeps-potts-name-in-the-news/

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2003/11/03/detective-believes-dead-inmate-was-girls-killer-in-81/28773081007/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/336011012/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/336020685/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/339767660/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/339766628/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/335967349/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/339972778/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/339771291/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/340516913/

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“The Trail Went Cold” is doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl 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.