The Trail Went Cold

December 16, 1979. West Paterson, New Jersey. The bodies of 51-year old Howard Green and his 33-year old girlfriend, Carol Marron, are discovered next to a road and they have been bound, mutilated and bludgeoned to death. The couple lived in a basement apartment in Brooklyn and were believed to have been murdered less than 24 hours before they were found and it’s alleged that someone used a veterinary syringe to drain most of the blood from their bodies. Investigators express their belief that the murders are connected to Satanism and the occult and at one point, the crime is unexpectedly linked to the infamous “Son of Sam” killer, David Berkowitz. While one of the couple’s former neighbours is looked at as a potential suspect, there is no evidence to implicate anyone and the crime remains unsolved. This week, “The Trail Went Cold” presents our first Halloween-themed episode of the year, as we explore the bizarre murders of Howard Green and Carol Marron. Additional Reading: https://www.newspapers.com/image/493717083/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/530637537/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/532511016/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/532515990/ https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-carol-marronnews-article-on-m/149447310/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1084054234/ https://nypost.com/2002/03/03/hellish-79-slay-case-goes-cold-after-cops-drop-ball/ https://nypost.com/2002/03/17/weird-but-true-5/ https://nypost.com/2002/04/08/cold-case-cops-lose-79-slay-file/ https://nypost.com/2002/04/15/1979-slay-case-needed-fbi-prof/ https://jonathandm.substack.com/p/who-killed-howard-green-and-carol "The Ultimate Evil: The Search for the Son of Sam" by Maury Terry "The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes" by Michael Newton “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.

October 7, 2015. La Grange, California. After he fails to return to his home in San Jose from a motorcycle trip to Oroville, 53-year old Robert Kope is found dead by the side of a remote country road. Robert has been strangled to death with a zip tie, but there are no apparent signs of struggle and his motorcycle is located down the road a quarter-mile away from his body. Seven years earlier, Robert had been engaged to be married to a woman who died after being strangled with a zip tie, but her death was ruled to be a suicide and investigators are unable to uncover a connection between the two deaths or a logical motive for Robert’s murder. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a perplexing crime known as “The Zip Tie Murder” which has gone unsolved for over a decade. Special thanks to listener Phoebe Holmes for narrating the opening of this episode. If you have any information about this case, please contact the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department at (209) 525-7080. Additional Reading: https://unsolved.com/podcasts/the-zip-tie-murder/ https://cdn.unsolved.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/71-The-Zip-Tie-Murder.pdf?x49380 https://www.modbee.com/news/local/crime/article264615151.html https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/bay-area-zip-tie-murder-17771869.php https://www.newspapers.com/image/667895551/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/706304353/ “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.

March 18, 1981. Springfield, Illinois. An unknown assailant walks into the Lauterbach Cottage Hardware Store to commit a robbery and grabs an axe from the shelf to bludgeon three victims: the 48-year old co-owner, Yvonne Lauterbach; a 37-year old sewing machine repair shop owner, Floyd Giddings; and a 64-year old customer, John Ewing. While John is pronounced dead at the scene, Yvonne and Floyd manage to survive, but are left with debilitating injuries. Numerous witnesses describe seeing a light-skinned man leaving the store right before the bodies were discovered, but even though a psychiatric patient and a convicted robber are each looked at as potential suspects, there is not enough evidence to implicate anyone and the Lauterbach Hardware Axe Attacks remain unsolved. November 10, 1993. Warminster, Pennsylvania. 20-year old Seann Campbell and his 20-year old friend, Bryan Benson, show up to work the closing shift together at a West Coast Video store, but when the owner arrives the following morning, he discovers that the front door is unlocked and Seann and Bryan have been murdered. Their bodies are found in the adult films section at the back of the store, as both victims were stabbed numerous times and have defensive wounds to indicate that they put up a violent struggle against one or more attackers. While money is stolen from the register, there is debate about whether robbery was the actual motive, but even though an earring is found on the floor at the crime scene, there is not enough evidence to determine who was responsible for the murders. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the “Lauterbach Hardware Axe Attacks” and the “West Coast Video Murders”, a pair of cold cases in which multiple victims were violently attacked inside a place of business. If you have information about the Lauterbach Hardware Axe Attacks, please contact the Springfield Police Department at (217) 788-8311. If you have information about the West Coast Video Murders, please contact the Warminster Township Police Department at (215) 443-5000 or the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office at (215) 348-6354. Additional Reading: https://sangamoncountyhistory.org/lauterbach-cottage-hardware-ax-attacks-1981/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1307541603/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1306795519/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1307544293/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1306795538/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1307559975/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1307727598/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1318645104/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1319129351/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1301177798/ https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/2011/01/16/first-in-print-30-years/44237723007/ https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/crime/2018/04/20/city-to-demolish-scene-37/12624959007/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/178466254/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/170119080/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/198104998/ https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/2011/07/12/a-decade-unanswered-questions-10/17880603007/ https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/crime/2011/08/11/bryan-benson-seann-campbell-warminster/17868157007/ https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/crime/2013/11/29/da-actionable-info-in-93/17976178007/ https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/bryan-benson-seann-campbell-cold-case-murders-1993-bucks-county-warminster-reward-fund-exclusive/ https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/cbs3-mysteries-bryan-benson-seann-campbell-warminster-west-coast-video/ “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.