Welcome back to When Trails Go Cold - a Cold Case podcast. Episode 4: The Girl in the Pine Tree. September 4th, 1990. Portbou, Spain. A young woman is found in a pine tree above a small Spanish border town. Her pockets are empty. Nobody in the town recognises her. Nobody anywhere reports her missing. She had, it seemed, arrived from nowhere. In this episode, we explore one of Europe's most haunting cold cases - and the thousand kilometres of unanswered questions that surround it.

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Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/apr/15/mystery-girl-found-hanged-spanish-border-town-portbou

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/vh9t44/young_woman_found_hanging_from_a_tree_in_portbou/

Evi Rauter | Unidentified Wiki - FandomUnidentified Wikihttps://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com › wiki › Evi...

The mystery of the nameless girl found dead in a ...The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com › news › audio › may › t...

The woman with no name | Tura Soler | Portbou / FigueresCatalonia Todayhttps://www.cataloniatoday.cat › article › 106-news-today

The mystery of the nameless girl found dead in a Spanish ...PressReaderhttps://www.pressreader.com › usa › the-guardian-usa

Credits:

camera click.wav by FALCONS_SHADOW -- https://freesound.org/s/408488/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

Neon Light buzz - cleaned by marb7e -- https://freesound.org/s/624085/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

240414_065630_IT_Calm_Sunday_morning_and_church_bells_in_Florence by kevp888 -- https://freesound.org/s/734204/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

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Welcome to When Trails Go Cold - a Cold Case podcast.

Episode 1: Last seen on Chapel Hill. April 30th, 1991.

A couple leave their home in Fermoy, Ireland, for a short walk to their local church. A neighbor sees them enter St. Patrick's for a funeral service. They were never seen again. What happened in the days after that sighting? How does a well-known, well-liked couple disappear without a trace? In this episode, we explore the baffling case of the Dwyers, one of Ireland’s most enduring cold cases.

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Sources:

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/we-do-have-a-few-leads-says-detective-leading-unsolved-case-of-cork-couple-conor-and-sheila-dwyer-who-vanished-32-years-ago/a466890339.html

https://www.independent.ie/news/three-people-two-cars-and-a-mystery-that-wont-go-away/26087358.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1cuwgbw/the_unsolved_disappearance_of_conor_and_sheila/

https://www.thejournal.ie/fermoy-conor-and-shelia-dwyer-missing-2452743-Nov2015/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Conor_and_Sheila_Dwyer#cite_note-irish_independent-2001-22

Music Credits:

Early morning countryside atmos by George_Papargyris -- https://freesound.org/s/835315/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

through air conditioning.mp3 by miastodzwiekow -- https://freesound.org/s/96380/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

https://pixabay.com/users/ovrsoull-46437150/

https://pixabay.com/users/kuzu420-42489797/

https://pixabay.com/users/nxtlvl_snds-53869543/

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Episode 2: The House Where He Stayed

Tokyo. December 30th, 2000. On a cold winter night in Tokyo, someone slips into a house - and leaves behind a trail unlike anything detectives have ever seen. DNA. Fingerprints. Clothing. He eats. He rests. He uses the computer. He moves through the space as if he belongs there. And then, before morning, he’s gone. And his DNA becomes the forensic profile of a ghost. For more than two decades, investigators have known exactly what he left behind. They just don’t know who he is. This is the story of one of the most complete pictures ever built of a suspect, and how he somehow still managed to vanish.

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Sources:

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Suspect+stayed+at+Setagaya+home+half+day+after+murders.-a076444278

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimeDiscussion/comments/1l0htbn/one_of_japans_creepiest_unsolved_case_the/

https://www.tokyoweekender.com/japan-life/5-of-japans-most-famous-unsolved-crimes/

https://mainichi.jp/articles/20220418/osg/00m/040/001000d

https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/multilingual/english/safe_society/wanted/seijo.files/eng.pdf

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2004/10/16/national/symbolic-statue-found-near-scene-of-murders-cops-probe-connection/

"Setagaya family murders remain unsolved 17 years later"

Music & Sound Credits:

• Large City Park Distant Summer Ambience by _MC5_ -- https://freesound.org/s/702751/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
• Ambience in the kitchen by 140178sound -- https://freesound.org/s/325626/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0
• AMBHome-Tascam X6_Experience the warmth and gentle rhythm of_TheFieldRecordist - RNajmeddine_Ramadan Kitchen_20250306 by TheFieldRecordist -- https://freesound.org/s/792228/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
• A quiet day after a winter storm by sniffin_fer_sounds -- https://freesound.org/s/843336/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

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Episode 3: A Treat Before Sunrise

Somosierra Pass, Spain. June 25th, 1986. On a mountain road north of Madrid, a truck carrying twenty thousand litres of sulphuric acid comes off the road at speed. One passenger is never accounted for. A ten-year-old boy, last seen eating breakfast before sunrise, vanishes without a trace — leaving behind a case that has baffled investigators for nearly four decades. This is the story of the Boy of Somosierra.

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Sources:

• https://www.rd.com/list/mysterious-disappearances-no-one-can-explain/
• https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1563/cold-cases.htm
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_disappeared_mysteriously:_1990%E2%80%93present
• https://www.quora.com/Missing-People-What-are-some-of-the-most-mysterious-cases-of-unsolved-disappearances
• https://www.ranker.com/list/people-who-disappeared-mysteriously/alby-thompson
• https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3pjs22/missing_boy_of_somosierra_the_strangest_vanishing/

*****

Music & Sound Credits:

• truck brakes.flac by tim.kahn -- https://freesound.org/s/22885/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
• Large Crash.wav by CGEffex -- https://freesound.org/s/99960/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
• Renault Master F3500 dCi135 Exterior Sudden Stop And Acceleration Mono Follow.wav by Soundholder -- https://freesound.org/s/425849/ -- License: Attribution 3.0
• A Short Piece Of Machinery by freekit -- https://freesound.org/s/719912/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
• BUSY STREET CROWD AMBIENCE EXT BARCELONA 11 SEPT 2015 RADIO IN BACKGROUND.wav by marsal.oido -- https://freesound.org/s/415836/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

P.S. Sorry my voiceovers are so all over the place in this. I had a cold during recording and apparently it gave me 8 different speech patterns over a week.

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