October 31, 1963. Newcastle, England. 70-year old Katherine Lillian Armstrong fails to show up for choir practice at her church. The following morning, Lillian’s body is discovered near the bottom of the staircase in her house and she has been stabbed 28 times and strangled with one of her nylon stockings. Since there are no signs of forced entry, police suspect that Lillian willingly let her killer inside, but even though a massive investigation is launched, no compelling suspects are found and the motive for the crime remains unknown. 

October 31, 1980. Bristol, England. 39-year old Derek Grain leaves his hotel and spends the night drinking at a pair of local nightclubs. After leaving one of the clubs during the early morning hours, Derek is later found dead in a pool of blood a quarter-mile away and it turns out he was kicked in the head and bludgeoned with a sand-filled traffic cone. Since money was stolen from Derek, it is theorized that he was the victim of a robbery gone wrong, but even though there are reported eyewitness sightings of someone being attacked by multiple people who fled the scene in a maroon Jaguar, the crime is never solved.

On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel to the United Kingdom to explore a pair of unsolved murders which happened to take place on Halloween.

Additional Reading:

https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/articles/mystery-newcastles-unsolved-halloween-murder

https://www.newspapers.com/image/876967689/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/876893608/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/804216277/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/804277720/

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/derek-grains-unsolved-murder-true-4340

https://www.newspapers.com/image/908265262/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/876333334/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/877244013/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/876431763/

https://thetruecrimeenthusiast.co.uk/who-was-the-brandon-hill-park-murderer

“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon. Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.