Hi, Cold Case listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And before we get into this week's episode, I just wanted to remind you that episodes of Cold Case Files, as well as the A&E Classic Podcasts, I Survived, American Justice, and City Confidential, are all available ad-free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation Channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $3999 a year. And now on to the show.

This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America, only 1% are ever solved.

This is one of those rare stories.

At 10 a.m. on February 3, 1988, a call comes into the Saginaw, Texas Police Department.

The report is for a possible homicide. It is small-town Saginaw's first murder.

Nancy Wright is the rookie detective assigned to follow up.

We were called to the scene of an apartment complex where a man lived alone.

His sister had been trying to reach him for a number of days by phone,

and she had not been able to do so.

She called the apartment management.

They went in using their pass key and located the body of the victim.

This is February the 3rd, 1988.

I have traced down the cord, which runs from the telephone.

It goes into the bedroom, is wrapped around the subject's neck.

The victim is 73-year-old John Dobbs. He is found nude in his bedroom, beaten and

strangled with a telephone cord and a belt. His body hangs limp from a doorknob. Detective Wright

works the apartment room by room. In the bathroom near the back, she finds a message, apparently from the killer.

There was a writing found on the bathroom mirror that read,

"'Fi-S die. It appeared to have been written with a type of ointment or cream,

and there was a tube of hydrochorosone cream on the bathroom vanity.

Within minutes, crime scene investigator Tom Ekes arrives and begins to gather evidence.

...