February 24, 1978. Chico, California. After embarking on a road trip to attend a basketball game, five mentally disabled young men – 24-year old Jackie Huett, 29-year old Bill Sterling, 30-year old Jack Madruga, 32-year old Ted Weiher, and 25-year old Gary Mathias – begin the 50-mile drive back to their homes in Yuba County, but never arrive. Four days later, their abandoned car is found in some snow on an isolated mountain road, but the five men, a.k.a. “The Yuba County Five”, have gone missing. After the spring thaw hits, the remains of four of the victims are discovered at different locations throughout the area, but Gary Mathias is never found. While the cause of death is determined to be exposure, there are many unanswered questions. Why did they drive over 35 miles off the highway to such an isolated location? What prompted them to abandon their vehicle? Did an eyewitness see other people with the five men on the road that night? This week’s episode about the Yuba County Five is one of the most bizarre mysteries we’ve ever covered, and is considered by some to be an American version of the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident. Special thanks to the Unresolved Mysteries subrebbit for bringing this story out into the open.

We would like to thank Sock Club for sponsoring the Trail Went Cold. To earn 15 % off your next order of socks, visit sockclub.com/cold and use the discount code “cold”.

Additional Reading:

http://charleyproject.org/case/gary-dale-mathias

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1978/07/06/5-boys-who-never-come-back/f8b30b11-baeb-4351-89f3-26456a76a4fb

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

November 30, 1963. West Hollywood, California. After not being heard from for over two days, the nude body of 22-year actress Karyn Kupcinet is discovered on the couch inside her apartment. Her death is initially suspected of being a drug overdose, but when the coroner discovers a broken hyoid bone in Karyn’s throat, he rules that she was a victim of strangulation. Years later, Karyn’s death is unexpectedly linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with allegations that she was murdered because she attempted to make an anonymous phone call and prevent the assassination minutes before it happened. Was Karyn Kupcinet a victim of foul play or was her death simply the result of a tragic accident? In this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a case which is one of Hollywood’s most baffling unsolved mysteries and the source of an unlikely conspiracy theory surrounding the Kennedy assassination.

Additional Reading:

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

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/kupcinet.htm

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-per-flash-karyn-kupcinet-1124-20131124-story.html

“Crime Wave: Reportage and Fiction from the Underside of L.A.” by James Ellroy

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

May 19, 2004. New York City. After leaving her apartment, 21-year old Julliard student Sarah Fox does not return and is found strangled to death in a wooded area at Inwood Hill Park six days later. Her nude body is posed in a ritualistic fashion and surrounded by two dozen tulip petals. A suspect named Dimitry Sheinman eventually pops up on the radar and claims that he had visions of the murder. As the years pass by, Sheinman starts claiming that Sarah is communicating with him from beyond the grave, but no evidence connects him to the crime. Did Dimitry Sheinman actually murder Sarah Fox, or is he nothing more than an attention-seeking glory hound? We attempt to answer that question on what will be our last official minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”.

Additional Reading:

http://nypost.com/2014/05/11/juilliard-murder-suspect-claims-victim-talks-to-him/

http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2014/05/10_years_after_sarah_foxs_murder_gifted_south_jersey_actress_still_inspires.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sarah-fox-case-dna-match-linking-2004-julliard-student-murder-scene-to-occupy-wall-street-protest-a-lab-error-official-says/

Thanks to Winc for supporting our podcast. Get $22 and free shipping on your first order of wine at http://trywinc.com/cold.

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

December 1, 1991. Herndon, Virginia. The parents of 21-year old Tommy Burkett return home to find him dead in his bedroom, the apparent victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. When the authorities arrive, Tommy’s parents are immediately taken aback by their suspicious behaviour and notice strange discrepancies to make them believe their son did not commit suicide. Upon further investigation, they find evidence to suggest Tommy might have been murdered for doing undercover work with the Drug Enforcement Administration on his university campus and that a massive cover-up surrounds his death. Did Tommy Burkett actually take his own life, or did many people conspire to have him killed? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we tackle one of the most suspicious suicide cases you’ll ever come across. Special thanks to listener Eve Davis for providing the opening narration for today’s episode.

Additional Reading:

https://unsolved.com/gallery/tommy-burkett/

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_Burkett

http://www.dcdave.com/article4/020704.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20051105020746/http://thepacc.org:80/

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

June 15, 1998. Bloomington, Illinois. Three-year old Christina McNeil is discovered dead inside her bedroom and small cuts can be found in her window screen. The investigation soon focuses on Christina’s father, Barton McNeil, who is eventually convicted of his daughter’s murder and receives a life sentence. However, Barton continually maintains his innocence and points the finger at another suspect, who winds up going to prison for another brutal murder years later. This controversial case is the subject of the second season of the true crime podcast, “Suspect Convictions”. The podcast is produced by veteran investigative journalist Scott Reeder, who appeared on “The Trail Went Cold” earlier this year to discuss the first season, and has joined us again to talk to us about this new season of “Suspect Convictions”.

Click here to visit the “Suspect Convictions” website and download the podcast.

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

September 7, 2015. Fridley, Minnesota. After spending the evening at a nightclub, 32-year old Henry McCabe is dropped off at a gas station by an acquaintance sometime after 2:00 AM. Shortly thereafter, Henry’s wife receives a phone call in which he sounds like he’s moaning in pain and claiming he’s been shot, and she winds up recording an odd voicemail containing unexplained growling noises. Henry’s body is found in Rush Lake nearly two months later and since there are no noticeable signs of foul play, the cause of death is determined to be drowning. But how did Henry wind up in the lake, and what was going on during his bizarre phone call? In this week’s minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we cover a truly baffling unexplained death based around one of the strangest voicemails you’ll ever hear.

Thanks to HelloFresh for supporting our podcast. Go to www.HelloFresh.com and use the code cold30 to get $30 off your first week of deliveries.

Additional Reading:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/disturbing-voicemail-woman-missing-husbands-phone-hold-clues/story?id=34177863

http://www.startribune.com/body-found-in-lake-is-missing-mounds-view-man-henry-mccabe/339975911/

http://spokesman-recorder.com/2016/03/30/vanished-without-trace-really-happened-henry-t-mccabe/

http://www.twincities.com/2015/10/06/in-case-of-missing-mounds-view-man-friends-story-questioned/

http://www.fox9.com/news/surveillance-video-uncovers-new-details-in-search-for-henry-mccabe

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Happy Halloween, everyone! As a special piece of bonus content this month, “The Trail Went Cold” has participated in a joint collaboration with over a dozen podcasters in which each of us share our own scary Halloween-themed story. Hosted by Tyler from The Minds of Madness, the end result is the spookiest Halloween podcast episode you’ve ever heard.

Contributing Podcasts:

Creepy

Music Credits:

Kevin McLeod – Nightmare Machine

All music is used under an Attribution License – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

October 21, 1978. Cape Otway, Australia. After leaving on a seemingly routine training flight in a Cessna 182 aircraft, 20-year old pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes without explanation over Bass Strait. During a radio transmission, Valentich describes seeing an unidentified flying object and his final words are: “It’s hovering and it’s not an aircraft”. When eyewitnesses report seeing strange things in the sky that night, speculation mounts that Valentich’s disappearance might have been the result of an alien encounter. For our final Halloween-themed episode of “The Trail Went Cold” this month, we will be covering our very first story involving potential UFO involvement and explore whether this caused a pilot to vanish forever. Special thanks to Cambo, host of the True Crime Island podcast for providing the voice of Frederick Valentich in this episode.

Additional Reading:

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

https://unsolved.com/gallery/ufo-disappearance/

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/truth-was-out-there-after-all/news-story/2973bd131c27da0a31f4a7b8eba643fe

http://www.mufon.com/valentich-disappearance—1978.html

Thanks to Winc for supporting our podcast. Get $22 and free shipping on your first order of wine at http://trywinc.com/cold.

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

May 14, 2008. Marshall, Minnesota. The parents of 19-year old Brandon Swanson receive a late-night phone call from their son, who claims that his car has become stuck in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. The Swansons leave to go pick Brandon up, but have trouble finding him. At one point, Brandon’s father hears him shout a swear word over the phone before the call abruptly cuts off, and there is no answer to repeated attempts to phone him back. Even though his abandoned car is eventually found on a rural road, Brandon himself is never heard from again. What happened to Brandon Swanson, and what could have prompted his final reaction during his final phone call? In our latest Halloween-themed extended minisode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we tackle one of the scariest, most baffling missing persons cases of the past decade. Special thanks to Joe from Thinking Sideways Podcast for popping in to share a theory. Be sure to check out their episode about this case.

Additional Reading:

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

http://charleyproject.org/case/brandon-victor-swanson

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Jeff_Hasse/Missing_Person_Case_Study_–_Brandon_Swanson

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/18/grace.coldcase.swanson/index.html

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

October 27, 2007. Grand Forks, North Dakota. 38-year old Joel Lovelien and his fiancée attend a Halloween party at a local bar. When Joel takes a moment to step outside, he is beaten to death in the parking lot. The investigation leads to a suspect named Travis Stay, who was so intoxicated that night that he cannot even remember what happened. Travis goes on trial for Joel’s murder, but his defence team manages to generate reasonable doubt by diverting attention towards a group of costumed suspects from a party bus. Did Travis Stay commit this crime or have others managed to get away with it? We look at both sides of this case in another Halloween-themed episode of “The Trail Went Cold”. Special thanks to listener Scott Owings for providing the opening narration for today’s episode.

Additional Reading:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/halloween-murder-mystery-who-killed-man-hockey-costume-f8C11470596

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/2086041-taxi-driver-tells-jurors-ride-travis-stay

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/2086010-party-bus-riders-testify-lovelien-murder-trial

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

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.