May 31, 1975. Hamilton, New Zealand. 18-year old Mona Blades leaves to hitchhike hundreds of kilometres in order to attend her nephew’s birthday in Hastings, but never arrives. After Mona is reported missing, witnesses would recall seeing her inside an orange Datsun station wagon with an unidentified man. Over the years, investigators examine a number of different suspects, including a man who committed suicide only weeks after Mona went missing, a former traffic officer, and a biker gang. Who was actually responsible for Mona Blades’ disappearance? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” covers our first unsolved mystery from New Zealand, which happens to be one of the country’s most famous missing persons cases. Special thanks to listener Loquin Britton for providing the opening narration for this episode.

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Blades_case

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12099766

http://www.police.govt.nz/stolenwanted/coldcase/2018/mona-elizabeth-blades-1975

http://www.tonybaloney.co.nz/index.html

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.