October 6, 1983. British Columbia, Canada. 27-year old Bernd Goericke and his 22-year old fiancée, Andrea Scherpf, are found shot to death next to a remote road. The couple hailed from West Germany and had been hitchhiking through Canada and an unidentified man driving a pick-up truck is seen using Andrea’s travellers’ cheques in the days following her death. Nearly six years later, a suspect named Andy Rose is charged with the crime based on testimony from a former friend who claimed she heard him confess to the murders. After two trials and two overturned convictions, the charges against Andy are dropped when DNA testing on a key piece of evidence excludes him as the perpetrator, but no one else is ever charged with killing Bernd and Andrea. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel back to our home country of Canada to explore an unsolved double murder which led to a wrongful conviction.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_murder_of_Andrea_Scherpf_and_Bernd_Göricke
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2648100646
https://archive.today/20120723055359/http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2008-2009/someone_got_away_with_murder/timeline.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/newfoundlander-s-ordeal-with-rcmp-sting-subject-of-cbc-documentary-1.834222
https://vancouversun.com/news/metro/police-seek-new-leads-in-1983-murder-of-two-german-tourists-near-chetwynd
“The Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions: A Handbook” by Gisli H. Gudjonsson
https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/files/mrbig.pdf
https://ucfiles.com/filestatus.php?number=104200082
https://www.newspapers.com/image/501465197/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/495935807/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/496051750/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/495047641/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/494831236/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/496376227/
“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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
“The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Tower Bridge, Leonardo Royal Hotel & Spa in London on June 10-11, 2023, as well as “Crimecon” at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida on September 22-24, 2023. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to either event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD23”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk or https://www.crimecon.com.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 343 – The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders (Part 2)
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 342 – The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders (Part 1)
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 341 – Carol Ann Cole
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 340 – The Lost Boys of Hannibal
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 339 – Charles Horvath
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 338 – Jay Given
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 337 – Carolyn Eaton
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 336 – Omar Laparra
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 335 – Nancy Snow
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 334 – Chad Langford
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 333 – Alonzo Brooks
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 332 – Adam Hecht
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 331 – Jean Bradley
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 330 – The Fowler Twins
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 329 – Lola Celli
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 328 – The Florence Salon Murders
The Trail Went Cold – Bonus Episode – Deadly Devotion: Motherhood & Mayhem
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 327 – Lucia Kai Roberts
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 326 – John Cheek & Gordon Collins
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 325 – Sarah Skiba, Paul Skiba, and Lorenzo Chivers
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