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 289 – Justin Burgwinkel
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 288 – Dorothy Forstein
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 287 – Danny Casolaro
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 286 – Tracey Ann Patient
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 285 – Dana Bradley
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 284 – Earlene Barksdale
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 283 – Gordon Page Jr. & Kristi Krebs
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 282 – Mark Himebaugh
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 281 – Byron Carr
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 280 – Peter Watts
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 279 – Colonel Philip Shue
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 278 – Alexis Patterson
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 277 – Wil Hendrick
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 276 – Paul Armstrong, Steven Lombard & Karen Wright
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 275 – Leonard Dirickson
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 274 – Cary Sayegh
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 273 – Laurie Murninghan
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 272 – Kimberly McAndrew
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 271 – The Feeney Family Murders
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 270 – Andre Jones
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