October 21, 1954.

Verdun, go back.

Nine-year-old Clifford Sherwood leaves for school, but never arrives in returns home,

and it turns out that he met up with a 12-year-old friend named George Gumbly, who was also

gone missing.

Clifford's mother, Francis Sherwood, believes that her abusive ex-husband, Nephi-Tex Sherwood,

abducted Clifford and took him to British Columbia, but there is no evidence to implicate

him.

When text passes away three decades later, it turns out that he had been living under

a false identity and led a secret double life.

While this creates speculation that he may have raised Clifford under a new identity,

no trace of Clifford or George is ever found.

After that, the trail went cold.

Hello, everyone and welcome to the latest episode of The Trail Went Cold.

I'm your host Robin Warder, and today I'm going to be exploring the oldest registered

missing children's case from my home country of Canada.

The 1954 disappearances of Clifford Sherwood and George Gumbly.

I've received numerous requests to cover this story by multiple listeners over the years,

and since I'm going to be participating in a pair of live shows in Toronto and Ottawa

these next two weeks, I thought now would be an ideal time to do an episode about a Canadian

cold case which is pretty close to home for me.

Since Clifford's mother, Francis Sherwood, was a major advocate for Canada's missing

...