meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

Lost in the Desert Part 2: Cheryl Lynn Vasquez-Dismukes

Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

Vincent Strange

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.61.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

During the Summer of 1987, the disappearances of girls and young women were stacking up in El Paso. Though the police seemed to think most were simply runaways, they changed their tune when the bodies of two missing females were found in the city’s Northeast desert on September 4th. When two more bodies were found a month and a half later, El Paso police acted fast and arrested their suspect – but he wasn’t charged with the murders, rather, he was charged with the rape of a woman who he had to let go. Eventually, David Leonard Wood was convicted of a total of six Northeast El Paso murders that occurred in the summer of 87 but three area females are still missing to this day. This episode of gone cold is the further story of the Desert Killer’s known victims and the third that is potentially his victim: Cheryl Lynn Vasquez-Dismukes.

If you have any information about the disappearances of Melissa Alaniz or Cheryl Vasquez Dismukes, please contact the El Paso Police at 915-832-4445.

If you have any information about the disappearances of Marjorie Alice Knox, please contact the Dona Ana County, New Mexico Sheriff’s Office at 575-526-0795.

Be sure to check out our pals over at the podcast Fort Worth Roots.

Please consider donating to the Fort Worth Cold Case Support Group, a non-profit set up in hopes to fund the testing needed to give the families of Fort Worth murder victims justice. You can make an incredible impact on these folks’ lives by donating. Please go to: https://haynow.appcapable.com/customerForm?paymentFormId=6169c6306671d56b5e215507&fbclid=IwAR2pnENlLwT7msIXDCF3Bot6fu0T4dLthEoMZOe4QFhDb8JClEv9KORAkv0

You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.com

If you don’t have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.com

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast...
...and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The El Paso Times, The Austin Statesman, the article Memories of Angie on New Mexico State University’s website, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode.

#JusticeForCherylVasquezDismukes #JusticeForMarjorieKnox #JusticeForMelissaAlaniz #ElPaso #ElPasoTX #Texas #TX #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #UnsolvedMysteries #Missing #MissingPersons #TheDesertKiller

This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/3203003/advertisement

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello friends, my name is Andrew and I'm the host of a show called Fort Worth Roots.

0:07.9

It's a podcast where we take in people from all walks of life.

0:11.0

We've had authors, musicians, we've even had a politician.

0:15.4

Basically if it's somebody that's making our community a better place, we want to put

0:18.9

them in front of the microphone and let you hear their story.

0:21.5

It's recorded right here out of Fort Worth, Texas and you can find us on all of your favorite

0:25.2

podcast platforms or on Fort Worth Roots.com.

0:28.1

Thank you so much.

0:29.1

You all have a wonderful day and I'll see you soon.

0:32.4

Peace.

0:36.6

The Gone Cold Podcast may contain violent or graphic subject matter, listener discretion

0:41.5

is advised.

0:44.5

You wouldn't know it by searching newspaper archives and television reports from the

0:48.9

time, but residents of northeast El Paso were in a panic in the summer of 1987.

0:56.4

Though it was the disappearance of 15-year-old Desiree Wheatley that prompted parents to

1:01.2

reel in the leash of their latch-key kids, it was the fact that to other young girls,

1:07.2

14-year-old Marjorie Knox and 12-year-old Melissa Allenese had also gone missing that

1:13.6

had folks fearful a deadly pattern was emerging.

1:18.2

Parents all over the area were prohibiting their teenaged daughters from leaving the

1:22.7

house at night and those who did allow it demanded that they be accompanied by more than

1:28.0

one teenage boy or young man or a large group in general.

1:33.8

Desiree's disappearance didn't get much attention in the press until her mother Marsha

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vincent Strange, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vincent Strange and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.