May 4th, 1996, Sitka, Alaska.

While walking home from her sister's house after celebrating her 17th birthday, Jessica Bagan is attacked

on a bicycle path. Her body is soon found in a wooded area where she has been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated to death.

11 days later, a suspect named Richard Bingham turns himself into the police and after making a videotaped confession he is charged with Jessica's murder.

However, none of the physical evidence matches Bingham and it becomes apparent that his confession was coerced by investigators.

When Bingham goes on trial, the jury finds him not guilty and Jessica Baggin's real killer is never found.

After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, uh, and uh, and uh, uh,

uh, uh, uh, uh, and uh, uh,

uh, yeah.

Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, and uh, and uh, Hello everyone and welcome to the latest episode of the trail went cold.

I'm your host Robin Warder and we've got a pretty controversial case to cover today

the 1996 murder of 17-year-old Jessica Baggin. This story was

originally requested to me by one of our previous Trail went Cold listener

voiceover contest winners, Loquin Britain, and I had never heard of this case before. Once I did some quick

googling, many of the matches I got were websites and articles which referenced this case

when discussing the topic of false confessions.

Shortly after Jessica's murder,

police charged a suspect named Richard Bingham

after he turned himself in and confessed to the murder,

so at first, this seemed like a pretty cut and dried case.

However, no other evidence linked Bingham to the crime, and it soon became apparent that he only made a videotaped confession

after police used some coercive techniques during his interrogation.

...