Traces of Truth

On a cold February night in 2004, 21-year-old nursing student Maura Murray disappeared after her car crashed on a quiet road in New Hampshire.

A witness saw her at the scene. Minutes later, when police arrived, she was gone.

What happened during those missing moments? Why did Maura leave her university, and where was she planning to go?

In this episode, we examine the timeline, the eyewitness accounts, the investigation, and the unanswered questions surrounding one of America's most puzzling missing-person cases.

More than two decades later, Maura's fate remains unknown.

This is the story of a disappearance that continues to haunt her family and captivate investigators.

One woman. One abandoned car. A mystery that has never been solved.

In November 1971, a man hijacked a plane, demanded $200,000, and parachuted into the night. Then he vanished. In this episode, we trace the D. B. Cooper case—from the tense hours aboard the aircraft to the discovery of some of the ransom money years later. Through documented evidence and unanswered questions, we explore a mystery that has endured for decades: did Cooper survive the jump, or did his escape end in tragedy?

In March 1998, 23-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley disappeared from the Rhapsody of the Seas while the cruise ship was approaching Curaçao. She was seen on the balcony of her family’s cabin in the early morning hours and then she was gone. No body was found, and no confirmed explanation has ever emerged. Over the years, reported sightings and disturbing theories have kept the mystery alive. In this episode of Traces of Truth, we revisit the known facts, the investigation, the unverified sightings, and the unanswered question that still remains: what happened to Amy Lynn Bradley?

In 1986, 29-year-old nurse Sherri Rasmussen was found murdered inside her Los Angeles home.

Investigators initially believed she had been killed during a burglary gone wrong. The case slowly went cold, and for more than two decades, no one was held responsible.

But one piece of evidence remained.

A bite mark.

Years later, advances in DNA testing revealed something investigators had overlooked: the biological material belonged to a woman.

That discovery led detectives back to a name that had been mentioned long before — Stephanie Lazarus, a former girlfriend of Sherri’s husband and, remarkably, a veteran detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.

In this episode, we follow the case from the 1986 crime scene to the dramatic 2009 interrogation, the DNA breakthrough, and the trial that finally brought answers after 23 years.

A story about a cold case, investigative mistakes, forensic science, and a truth that remained hidden inside the police department for decades.

On the night of December 30, 2000, the Miyazawa family was murdered inside their home in Setagaya, Tokyo.

The killer left behind an extraordinary trail of evidence blood, fingerprints, clothing, personal belongings and countless clues. Yet, more than two decades later, no one has been identified as the murderer.

Who entered the Miyazawa home that night? Why did the killer remain inside after the murders? And how could someone leave so much evidence behind and still disappear without a trace?

In this episode of Traces of Truth, we revisit one of Japan’s most haunting unsolved crimes and the mystery that continues to challenge investigators to this day.

So many clues. So many questions. And still, no name.

On December 1, 1948, the body of an unidentified man was discovered on Somerton Beach in South Australia.

He carried no identification. Labels had been removed from his clothing. Hidden in a tiny pocket was a mysterious piece of paper bearing two words: “Tamám Shud” “finished.”

Then came a copy of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, strange handwritten letters that looked like a code, an unexplained telephone number, suspicions of poisoning, and theories of Cold War espionage.

For more than seventy years, the world knew him only as the Somerton Man.

Then modern genetic genealogy offered an extraordinary possibility: the mysterious stranger may finally have a name — Carl “Charles” Webb.

But solving his identity did not solve his death.

Why was Webb in Adelaide? What did the mysterious writings mean? Was the Rubáiyát a crucial clue or an extraordinary coincidence? And how did he die?

In this episode of Traces of Truth, we separate evidence from speculation and revisit one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries.

We may finally know his name. But do we really know what happened to him?

In 1922, six people were brutally murdered on an isolated farm in Bavaria, Germany. Strange signs had appeared before the crime, the bodies were not discovered for days, and investigators even suspected that someone may have remained on the property after the killings.

In this episode of Traces of Truth, we explore the disturbing mystery of Hinterkaifeck, the unanswered questions surrounding that final night, the suspects, the theories and the clues that still haunt the case more than a century later.

Who killed the people of Hinterkaifeck and how did the murderer disappear without ever being identified?

In 1922, six people were murdered at an isolated farmhouse in Bavaria, Germany. Days before the crime, the family discovered mysterious footprints leading from the forest to their home but none leading away. They also heard footsteps in the attic, found an unfamiliar newspaper and noticed that a key had disappeared.

Even more disturbing, evidence suggested that someone remained at the farm after the murders, eating food, feeding the animals and keeping the fireplace burning.

In this episode of Traces of Truth, we investigate the strange warnings, the mistakes made at the crime scene, the principal suspects and the theories surrounding one of Germany’s most unsettling unsolved mysteries.

Was the killer secretly hiding inside the farmhouse or was it someone the family already knew and trusted?

In May 2010, twenty-eight-year-old Brazilian lawyer Mércia Nakashima disappeared after leaving a family lunch in Guarulhos. Eighteen days later, her car was discovered beneath the waters of a reservoir, revealing a carefully concealed and devastating crime.

The investigation focused on Mércia’s former partner, who allegedly refused to accept the end of their relationship. Phone records, conflicting statements, a witness near the reservoir and microscopic algae found on a shoe would become crucial pieces of evidence.

In this episode of Traces of Truth, we examine Mércia’s disappearance, the forensic investigation, the historic televised trial and the convictions that followed. This is a story about control disguised as love, a family’s relentless search for justice and the tiny traces that brought the truth back to the surface.

On June 7th, 1992, Sherrill Levitt, her daughter Suzanne “Suzie” Streeter, and Suzie’s friend Stacy McCall vanished from a home in Springfield, Missouri.

Their cars, keys, money, clothing, and other personal belongings were left behind. The family dog remained inside, and investigators found no apparent signs of a struggle.

In this episode of Traces of Truth, we reconstruct the women’s final known hours, examine the searches and disturbing claims connected to the investigation, and separate verified evidence from the theories that have surrounded the case for decades.

How did three women disappear from one house without leaving a clear trace? More than thirty-four years later, the investigation remains active and the truth is still missing.