December 2, 1993. Memphis, Tennessee. John Cheek, the 28-year old financial officer of a real estate firm, spends the evening having a dinner at a restaurant and is last seen heading towards his parked car. John’s abandoned vehicle is soon discovered near the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge and there is fear that he took his own life by jumping into the Mississippi River. Months later, a drifter matching John’s description is seen at a truck stop in Virginia, leading to speculation that he may be suffering from amn...
December 2, 1993. Memphis, Tennessee. John Cheek, the 28-year old financial officer of a real estate firm, spends the evening having a dinner at a restaurant and is last seen heading towards his parked car. John’s abandoned vehicle is soon discovered near the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge and there is fear that he took his own life by jumping into the Mississippi River. Months later, a drifter matching John’s description is seen at a truck stop in Virginia, leading to speculation that he may be suffering from amnesia and forgotten who he was, but all attempts to find him are unsuccessful.
April 19, 1991. Punta Chivato, Mexico. While on vacation from California, 34-year old Gordon Collins sets out in a fishing boat alongside his girlfriend, Anastasia Seals, and another couple, Wayne Shwatz and Arlean Burlington. A storm soon hits the area and the overturned boat, as well as Anastasia and Wayne’s bodies, are found floating in the Sea of Cortez the following day. Gordon and Arlean’s bodies cannot be found, but reports start circulating about a disoriented white male matching Gordon’s description wandering through Mexico. This leads Gordon’s family to believe that he survived the boating accident and is suffering from amnesia, but they are unable to track him down.
On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore two unsolved missing persons cases in which each victim was believed to have lost their memory before they became a transient. Special thanks to listener Marcos Sainz for narrating the opening of this episode.
If you have any information on the disappearance of John Cheek, please contact the Memphis Police Department at (901) 545-5700.
Additional Reading:
https://unsolved.com/gallery/john-cheek/
https://charleyproject.org/case/john-andrews-cheek
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/02/25/an-executive-hits-the-vanishing-point/30dddee8-d4d6-442e-b310-8c13bcf593e2/?utm_term=.ce4551e324b8
http://people.com/archive/vanished-with-a-trace-vol-41-no-11/
https://memphismagazine.com/features/unsolved-mysteries/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/774400146/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/774544772/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/774544793/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/774378109/
https://unsolved.com/gallery/gordon-collins/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Gordon_Collins
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-26-mn-756-story.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/571519189/
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The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.
