Synopsis
Trace Evidence is a weekly true crime podcast that focuses on unsolved cases, from chilling murders to missing persons. Join host Steven Pacheco as he examines each case, diving deep into the evidence and exploring the theories which revolve around them. For each unsolved case, there are the victims and their families, who want answers and the abductors and murders who hide the truth.Visit www.trace-evidence.com for more information.
Episodes
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157 - The Murder of Donnie Farrell
29/04/2021 Duration: 01h08min***Sponsored by Candid! Visit CandidCO.com/Trace and use code TRACE for $75 off your starter kit***One homecoming weekend at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, everyone was looking to party and have a good time, including nineteen year old Donnie Farrell. However, while most students weekends went off without a hitch, Donnie would find himself the target of a sudden, violent and unprovoked assault and within hours he would pass away.Investigators managed to find surveillance footage of the suspect and noted he was wearing a unique hoodie, limited in supply. They had descriptions from witnesses and a nickname the suspect used, but finding his true identity proved to be a difficult task in an investigation that spanned thousands of miles across multiple states.Who killed Donnie Farrell and how has he managed to evade authorities for nearly fourteen years?Surveillance Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HmAO6WfdmE&t=19sThe Donnie Project: https://thedonnieproject.wordpress.com/FB: https://www.facebo
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156 - The Disappearance of Audrey Groat
22/04/2021 Duration: 01h37min***Sponsored by: BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace to save 10% off your first month!***On a sunny, summer afternoon, forty-one year old mother of six Audrey Groat left home with a family friend and never returned. For nearly three decades now, the mystery of her disappearance and the search for Audrey has haunted both the children she left behind and the investigators who tried to find the answers.What initially appeared to be the case of a stranger abduction took on a very different complexion when police discovered that the last person to see Audrey alive had been harboring a dark secret. Had Audrey truly been the victim of a random crime or are some secrets worth killing to keep?FB: https://www.facebook.com/TraceEvidencePod/IG: https://www.instagram.com/traceevidencepod/TW: https://twitter.com/TraceEvPodVisit https://www.trace-evidence.com for more information, case photos, contact information and more.Merch: https://traceevidence.threadless.com/ Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incom
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155 - The Disappearance of Traci Kegley
16/04/2021 Duration: 01h09min***Sponsored by SimpliSafe. Visit Simplisafe.com/Trace for a free camera and 60 day risk free trial!Best Fiends - Download Best Fiends in the App Store or Google Play today!***Thirty-year old Traci Kegley was about to begin a new life. The recently divorced mother of a two year old daughter had faced some setbacks, but she was moving forward. She had just gotten a new job and was excited for her first day... but she'd never make it.On the afternoon of Sunday, April 26th, 1998, Traci set off with her two year old to run errands. She stopped to fill up her gas tank and then drove off, never to be seen again. More than twelve hours later, a passerby found her car sitting on an isolate stretch of highway. Sitting in the back, still buckled in, was her daughter but Traci was gone.Police launched searches, got the word out to the media and pushed hard to track her down but they had to contend with miles of thick woods, difficult terrain and a slew of flooded pits and quarries. The horror of the truth was dif
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Special Update - Carbon County Beth Doe IDENTIFIED & 7 Case Updates
07/04/2021 Duration: 01h09minSponsored by: BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace to save 10% off your first month.GoFundMe for Evelyn Colon: https://gofund.me/7862f1a4For forty-five years the mystery of the Carbon County Beth Doe haunted Pennsylvania. Who was she, how did she end up in Carbon County and who murdered the pregnant woman before dismembering her remains and throwing her off an overpass bridge. Now, thanks to genetic genealogy, she has been positively identified as fifteen year old Evelyn Colon of Jersey City, NJ. Even more surprisingly, her former boyfriend, Luis Sierra, has been arrested and charged with murder.In addition to discussing this amazing update, we will look at seven other cases which have had less major updates in the past years. Those include the Abduction of Angela Hammond, the Disappearance of LaShaya Stine, the Murder of Nick Kunselman and Stephanie Hart-Grizzell, the Abduction and Murder of Isabel Celis, the Vanishing of Asha Degree, the Disappearance of Dail Dinwiddie and the Littleton Colorado Bo
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154 - The Murder of Alexandra Anaya
03/04/2021 Duration: 01h32min***Sponsored by: BetterHelp! Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace for 10% off your first month!***Thirteen year old Alexandra Anaya vanished without a trace from her home in Hammond, Indiana. Her mother, Sandra was baffled. No signs of forced entry, no signs of a struggle. It was almost as if she had disappeared from the face of the earth.While Sandra, her family and police were trying to track down the missing teen, the Chicago Police were responding to a call about a body discovered in the Little Calumet River. Wrapped in chains and strapped to a cinder block was the dismembered torso of a young woman. Three weeks later, a DNA match confirmed that Alexandra Anaya had been brutally murdered before her killer severed her arms, legs and head. To this day, all of her remains have never been found.While locals believed the crime had to have been random and was likely committed by a serial killer, Alexandra's mother felt she knew exactly who was responsible and he was definitely no stranger.FB: https://www.facebook.
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153 - The Murder of Jennifer Persia
25/03/2021 Duration: 01h14min***Sponsored by: Canva visit Canva.me/Trace for a free 45 day extended trial!Ana Luisa: Visit AnaLuisa.com/Trace and use promo code TRACE for 10% off!SimpliSafe: Visit SimpliSafe.com/Trace for a 60 risk free trial and free security camera!***Sixteen year old Jennifer Persia had everything going for her. She played saxophone in the school band, was on the color guard and was becoming a breakout athlete. As a freshman, she was on the varsity track team and medaled in a competition against mostly seniors. Then one quiet, Monday night, someone stole away everything she hoped to be, shattered a family and rocked a small town. On April 4th, 1994, an unknown killer, or killers, entered Jennifer's home and brutally murdered the sixteen year old over a matter of just $200For twenty-seven years the identity of Jennifer's killers has remained unknown, but while the small town believed a monster was stalking the streets, investigators began to learn that Jennifer's murder was likely not random, and in fact, may have
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152 - The Disappearance of Bryan Hayes and Mark Degner
18/03/2021 Duration: 01h08min***Sponsored by: BetterHelp! Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace for 10% off your first month!Best Fiends! Download Best Fiends FREE on the Apple App Store or Google Play***Twelve year old Mark Degner and his best friend, thirteen year old Bryan Hayes had told several friends they planned to run away. On a cool, Thursday afternoon, they wandered out of their Special Education classrooms and walked off campus, seemingly vanishing.From the first moment there should have been tremendous concern, the boys suffered from several different issues, both psychological and physical, and required support, attention and their necessary medications. Yet, almost nothing was done. It would take nearly six hours before the first missing person's report was filed, because neither family had been told they'd left school.A desperate search was launched with family, friends and investigators trying to find the boys but there were few leads. Several sightings were reported, though none could be confirmed. As time began passing, yea
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151 - The Disappearance of Denise Porch
12/03/2021 Duration: 01h31min***Sponsored by Headspace! Visit Headspace.com/Trace for a free one month trial!***Twenty-one year old Denise Porch was enjoying life. She'd just celebrated her first wedding anniversary, got a promotion at work and picked up tickets to see a concert. Then one hot, summer day, she mysteriously vanished from right outside her own apartment.There were witnesses, though they didn't see what happened, just Denise speaking with an unidentified man. Police searched, but never found a shred of physical evidence and with clues in short supply they never made much headway.Then, after a long ten years, the arrest and conviction of a notorious killer lead investigators to wonder if Denise had been one of his victims, or if perhaps, her case was connected to several others that had occurred in the area.FB: https://www.facebook.com/TraceEvidencePod/IG: https://www.instagram.com/traceevidencepod/TW: https://twitter.com/TraceEvPodVisit https://www.trace-evidence.com for more information, case photos, contact informatio
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150 - The Murder of Deputy Jeffrey Mitchell
02/03/2021 Duration: 01h38min***Sponsored by: BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace for 10% off your first month!During the pre-dawn hours of Friday, October 27th, 2006, Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Jeffrey Mitchell initiated a traffic stop on a white van with no plates. Over the course of the next seven minutes a violent struggle would begin. Deputy Mitchell was shot and killed, he was just thirty-eight years old.Investigators scoured the area in search of the white van but when they discovered it, it did not hold the answers they'd hoped but instead a larger, more confusing mystery. The van, found parked in a river, had two bodies inside. Soon investigators began to wonder, had Deputy Mitchell been killed because he'd stopped a killer in the process of dumping bodies or, was it possible, someone known to the two victims had killed the Deputy and then them.FB: https://www.facebook.com/TraceEvidencePod/IG: https://www.instagram.com/traceevidencepod/TW: https://twitter.com/TraceEvPodVisit https://www.trace-evidence.com for mo
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149 - The Vanishing of Kathryn Adam
18/02/2021 Duration: 01h10s***Sponsored by: BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace for 10% off your first month!BestFiends! Download Best Fiends FREE today on the Apple App Store or Google Play***Thirty-five year old Kathryn Adam had made a decision: she was taking her sixteen year old daughter, leaving her husband and starting a new life. It wouldn't be easy, but she was determined to make it work. Then, just when things seemed to be falling into place the unimaginable happened.On April 29th, 1993, Kathryn left for work in the early morning hours. She never returned, vanishing along with her van. When her daughter reported her missing, police traced her steps to a storage unit where she kept supplies for her job. There they found a pool of blood and signs of a struggle. Not long after, her van was found abandoned a few miles away. It was caked with mud and there was blood inside.Was Kathryn Adam the victim of a random crime or did someone who knew her, and her schedule, lie in wait that early morning with a gun and murderous
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148 - The Murder of Paul Featherman and Nancy Baugh
11/02/2021 Duration: 01h02min***Sponsored by: Ana Luisa! Visit AnaLuisa.com/Trace and save 10% off your entire purchase with code TRACE***Twenty-seven year old Paul Featherman and twenty year old Nancy Baugh were living their dream on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Just before summer, on June 2nd, unknown perpetrators entered their rented home near Hanalei Bay. Paul was killed instantly, but Nancy's fate was unknown. Police would ultimately determine after witnessing her boyfriend's murder, she had been abducted by the killers.For thirty-four years the mystery of Nancy's abduction haunted two families. Then, in the winter of 2012 after massive flooding hammered the island, Nancy's remains were discovered. It was ultimately found that she had likely been killed the same night as Paul and her remains had been concealed just miles from the crime scene.Over the years, there have been many rumors about who may have been responsible. For some, it must have had to do with the influx of drug traffickers in the late 1970's, for others it wa
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UPDATE - Sumter County Does Identified - Episode 118
08/02/2021 Duration: 23minIn this short update episode we will discuss the news that the Sumter County Does have finally been identified. James Paul Freund, thirty years old, was known as "Jock Doe" for forty-five years. Pamela Mae Buckley, twenty-five, was known as "Jane Doe."James and Pamela were found, brutally murdered, on Locklair Road in Sumter County, South Carolina, on August 9th, 1976. Now that their identities have been discovered, perhaps soon, their killer will also be identified.FB: https://www.facebook.com/TraceEvidencePod/IG: https://www.instagram.com/traceevidencepod/TW: https://twitter.com/TraceEvPodVisit https://www.trace-evidence.com for more information, case photos, contact information and more.Merch: https://traceevidence.threadless.com/ Music Courtesy of: "Wounded" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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147 - The Disappearance of Nita Mayo
03/02/2021 Duration: 01h03min***Sponsored by: BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace to save 10% today!Ana Luisa! Save 15% on all available jewelry today at AnaLuisa.com***Sixty-four year old Nita Mayo loved going on long drives, exploring the countryside and finding new sites to see. Throughout her life she had an adventurous spirit and a zest for life but during one trip in August of 2005 she would mysteriously vanish.Two days passed before investigators discovered Nita's vehicle, left behind at Donnell's vista, a beautiful but dangerous overlook situated on California's highway 108 which cut through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. While police believed the location of the vehicle would lead to Nita and that she may be lost in the wilderness, her family believed something far more sinister had occurred.Despite multiple searches spanning several years, not a single trace of Nita was ever located. Eventually investigators were forced to admit that Nita was likely not anywhere near Donnell's vista. There was no evidence of foul play, b
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146 - The Murder of Julie Bell Davis
28/01/2021 Duration: 01h01min**Sponsored by Headspace! Visit Headspace.com/Trace for a FREE one month trial!Simplisafe! Visit Simplisafe.com/Trace for a free security camera and 60 day risk free trial!***Thirty-three year old Julie Bell Davis was making strides. Married to the love of her life, mother of two beautiful children and now breaking her own sales records at work. Everything was looking up until it was all destroyed in a moment of madness.On the evening of August 28th, 1997, Julie was working out of her Des Moines office. She'd recently gotten approval to move locations to a high rise building downtown. That night, she was packing up when an unknown killer entered the office and struck.From the very beginning the investigation was almost cold with police acknowledging they had few clues. What they did know, however, was that whoever had committed the crime was no beginner and knew how to cover their tracks. Over the course of the next six months, three more murders occurred and some bore striking similarities to Julie's
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145 - The Disappearance of Robin Trivisonno
20/01/2021 Duration: 01h02min***Sponsored by: BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace to save 10% today!BestFiends! Download today on the Apple App Store or Google Play!***In the early morning hours of Monday, January 20th, 1997, twenty-eight year old Robin Trivisonno was looking for a ride. Asking around to friends in the bar she previously worked at, no one was able to help. Then a mysterious man approached and the two walked out together. Neither has ever been seen again.Investigators faced a tough case; few clues, no major leads and their main person of interest was unidentified. While witnesses were able to give extremely detailed descriptions, no one knew his name, where he was from or what he was driving. The case went cold almost immediately.After four long months, several pieces of evidence were found in an unexpected place leading investigators to wonder if they had been there all along or if Robin's abductor might have planted them. Twenty-four years later, family and investigators are still hoping to find the truth and
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144 - The Disappearance of Jennifer Pentilla
13/01/2021 Duration: 54min***Sponsored by: AcornTV! Visit Acorn.TV/Trace to get your first 30 days free!Simplisafe! Visit Simplisafe.com/Trace for a free security camera and 60 day risk free trial!***Eighteen year old Jennifer Pentilla was driven to help others. Fresh out of high school she traveled to Mexico on a mission trip to paint churches and assist the local community. When an opportunity arose to go back, she leapt at it.What was supposed to be a group bike trip from San Diego, down into Mexico, fell through but Jennifer was undeterred and even if she had to go alone, she was set on making the trip. In October of 1991, she set off on her own and for a time the trip was going well.However, on October 17th she made her last call home and mysteriously disappeared from Deming, New Mexico. Over a year later, most of her belongings were found in the desert not far from the town of Hatch. Thirty years later, the question remains, what became of Jennifer Pentilla?FB: https://www.facebook.com/TraceEvidencePod/IG: https://www.ins
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143 - The Abduction of Heather Kullorn
06/01/2021 Duration: 01h05min***Sponsored by: BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace to save 10% today!***Twelve year old Heather Kullorn was looking forward to spending a week with family friends but what she imagined to be a fun week would instead become a nightmare. During the early morning hours of July 15th, 1999, Heather mysteriously vanished.What police had imagined to be a straight forward search for a child quickly became a chaotic situation filled with inconsistencies, lies and evidence that showed Heather was in dire trouble. The discovery of a drug lab aroused their suspicions and soon Heather's case was deemed a violent abduction.While investigators initially considered the crime random, the further they dug, the more the sinister reality came into view. It seemed apparent that the child had likely been taken not by a stranger, but by someone she knew and trusted. Did she see something she shouldn't have and someone moved to silence her or was there something else going on beneath the surface?FB: https://www.facebook.co
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142 - The Murder of Jenna and Ethen Nielsen
23/12/2020 Duration: 01h10min***Sponsored by: BetterHelp! Visit BetterHelp.com/Trace to save 10% off your first month!Warby Parker! Try 5 pairs of glasses at home for free by visiting WarbyParker.com/TraceFirst Leaf! Visit TryFirstLeaf.com/Trace to get six bottles for just $29.95 plus free shipping!***Twenty-two year old Jenna Nielsen had picked up a job delivering newspapers in the early morning hours. The mother of two wanted to help support the family she'd started with her husband, Tim. Eight months pregnant with their third child, a boy to be named Ethen, Jenna would soon be taking time off to be with her new baby.Tragically, what should have been a time of celebration would become a period of mourning and grief which has never ended. In the early morning hours of June 14th, 2007, Jenna and her unborn son were brutally murdered.For the past thirteen years investigators, and her family, have struggled to discover her killer's identity and see justice served. Still, to this day, the question lingers: was Jenna the victim of a
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141 - The Disappearance of Sandra Sollie
16/12/2020 Duration: 01h02min***Sponsored by: Simplisafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/Trace for a sixty day free trial and a FREE home security camera.Headspace! Visit Headspace.com/Trace for a FREE One Month Trial!***Thirty-eight year old Sandra Sollie was finally going to become a mother. In the Spring of 1994 she was seven months pregnant and eagerly anticipating the arrival of her son, whom she'd named Brandon Michael.While her family was planning for the excitement of a baby shower they instead would face the pain of loss and unknowing. On May 23rd, Sandra mysteriously vanished leaving behind few clues. Sandra wasn't reported missing until June 5th so investigators were already two weeks behind.At the same time, a massive search was underway for a missing four year old, Kali Poulton, who had vanished on the same day. The difference between the investigations was startling and Sandra's family felt she did not receive the attention she deserved.What happened to Sandra Sollie? Was this a random crime or, perhaps, one perpetrated by so
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140 - NYC Hotel Axe Murders
09/12/2020 Duration: 46min***Sponsored by: StoryWorth! Visit Storyworth.com/Trace for $10 off your first purchase!Headspace! Visit Headspace.com/Trace for a FREE One Month Trial!***Over the course of one week in New York City in 1985, a violent and brutal killer wielding an axe took the lives of two women: 85 year old Janet Scott and 58 year old Ruth Potdevin. Both women were killed in hotels within days of each other, less than a half mile apart.While the crimes themselves were grisly enough, the killer went further by leaving a gruesome puzzle behind at each scene. While the NYPD believed they would capture the assailant, his wrath disappeared just as mysteriously as it had originally materialized.Did he finish what he aimed to do or did he simply move on to kill again, evading police once more?FB: https://www.facebook.com/TraceEvidencePod/IG: https://www.instagram.com/traceevidencepod/TW: https://twitter.com/TraceEvPodVisit https://www.trace-evidence.com for more information, case photos, contact information and more.Merch: ht