June 9, 1959. Clinton, Ontario. After failing to return home, 12-year old Lynne Harper is reported missing and her body is discovered in a woodlot two days later. She has been sexually assaulted and strangled to death with her own blouse and suspicion turns towards her 14-year old classmate, Steven Truscott, who claims that he gave Lynne a ride to the highway on his bicycle and saw her climb into a passing car. Steven is soon charged, convicted and sentenced to death for Lynne’s murder, but his sentence is commuted to life imprisonment and he is paroled in 1969. Decades later, Steven files a successful appeal to have his conviction overturned, but there is still a lot of debate about who was actually responsible for Lynne Harper’s murder. To commemorate the eight-year anniversary of “The Trail Went Cold”, we will be releasing the first part of a special two-part episode about one of the most controversial murder cases in the history of Canada. Special thanks to listener Sarah Browning for narrating the opening of this episode.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Truscott
“Until You Are Dead: The Wrongful Conviction of Steven Truscott”
“Steven Truscott: Decades of Injustice” by Nate Hendley
https://www.cbc.ca/news2/background/truscott/index.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news2/background/truscott/timeline.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/2007/01/29/can_science_clear_truscott.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/court-acquits-truscott-calling-conviction-miscarriage-of-justice-1.668524
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/victim-s-family-stunned-by-truscott-compensation-1.747261
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/who-killed-lynne-harper-retired-opp-sergeant-says-travelling-salesman-a-suspect-in-string-of-murders
https://web.archive.org/web/20070401115048/http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/ccr/kaufman/exec.html
If you would like to make a donation to “Season of Justice”, please visit our donation page at https://givebutter.com/SOJ_thetrail or text “TRAIL24” to # 53555.
“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 going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon” in Nashville on May 31-June 2, 2024 and “Crimecon UK” in London on September 21-22, 2024. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to either event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD24”, by visiting Crimecon.com or Crimecon.co.uk.
“The Trail Went Cold” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Denver Marriott Westminster in Colorado on July 12-14, 2024. To get a 15 % discount on tickets, please use our specialized promo code, “TRAIL”, by visiting https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 155 – Update!
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 154 – The Walker Family Murders
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 153 – Katrina Ploy
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 152 – Melvin Horst
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 151 – The Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 150 – Amy Billig
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 149 – Robert Hoagland
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 148 – Joan Gay Croft
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 147 – The Lewis Clark Valley Murders
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 146 – Janett Christman
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 145 – David Stone & Devin Williams
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 144 – Sydney Land & Neo Kaufmann
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 143 – Charlie Anderson and Carol Montecalvo
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 142 – Ireland’s Vanishing Triangle
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 141 – David Bocks
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 140 – Michele Harris
The Trail Went Cold – Bonus Episode – Kent Heitholt
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 139 – The Short Family Murders
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 138 – Doyle Wheeler
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 137 – Clifford Sherwood & George Gumbly
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