Before text messages, there was voicemail.

And before that, there were answering machines.

Little devices that plugged into a landline to answer your phone when you couldn't.

No matter how you get your messages now, would they provide an accurate picture of your life?

Cheryl Petrie had an answering machine,

and on October 16, 1988, it recorded several calls.

She never heard those messages, though,

because on that same day, Cheryl was murdered.

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files.

I'm Brooke, and here's the unrivaled Bill Curtis with a classic case, The Deadly X. Cheryl, this is Marcella. It's 836. Are you supposed to open the store today? Bye.

Cheryl, this is Betsy. It's 9 o'clock and I'm at the store. Could you get up here as soon as possible?

Thanks.

On a Sunday morning, an answering machine belonging to Cheryl Petrie is lighting up.

Hi, Cheryl.

This is Betsy again.

I need to know where you are, and if you're all right.

Thanks. At first, Cheryl's coworkers don't think anything is seriously wrong. And if you're all right, thanks.

At first, Cheryl's co-workers don't think anything is seriously wrong.

By sundown, however, the mood has changed,

and Cheryl's ex-husband Roland puts a call into police.

It's a dispatch of a ex-husband that was in route to an address to check it out because his ex-wife had not shown up to pick up the children

that he had had for visitation on the weekend.

...