The Trail Went Cold - Episode 31 - Holly Staker

August 17, 1992. Waukegan, Illinois. While babysitting two children, 11-year old Holly Staker is sexually assaulted and brutally murdered inside their apartment. Two months later, a suspect named Juan Rivera is brought in for questioning and confesses to the murder after four straight days of interrogation. He is subsequently convicted and receives a life sentence, but no physical evidence links Rivera to the crime and the veracity of his confession is called into question. After Rivera serves 19 years in prison, DNA evidence eventually links Holly’s death to another murder… but could another innocent person also be serving time in prison for that particular crime? This week, we present one of our most shocking episodes of “The Trail Went Cold”, which examines a truly egregious wrongful conviction and two brutal murders committed by an unknown perpetrator who has yet to be identified.

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Rivera_(wrongful_conviction)

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3850

https://courts.illinois.gov/opinions/AppellateCourt/2011/2ndDistrict/December/2091060.pdf

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/documents/rivera_brief.pdf

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-06-10/news/chi-dna-links-murder-and-rape-of-holly-staker-11-to-second-murder-8-years-later-20140610_1_holly-staker-dna-evidence-dna-match

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.