The Trail Went Cold - Episode 263 - Cassandra Rundle, Detrick Sturm & Melanie Sturm

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

February 14, 1985. Colorado Springs, Colorado. The bodies of 37-year old Cassandra Rundle and her two children, 12-year old Detrick Sturm and 10-year old Melanie Sturm, are discovered inside their respective bedrooms at their residence. The two females were sexually assaulted and beaten and all three victims have been strangled to death. Since Cassandra had placed some personal ads in a local newspaper and received responses from a number of men, there is speculation that this might be connected to the crime. Years later, Philip Wilkinson, an inmate serving time on death row for the similar murders of another family, is looked at as a possible suspect, but there is no conclusive evidence to implicate him or anyone else. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore an unsolved Valentine’s Day cold case involving a mother and her children which is sometimes referred to as the “Lonely Hearts Murders”. If you have any information about this case, please contact the Colorado Springs Police Department at (719) 444-7000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Download Best Fiends FREE today on the Apple App Store or Google Play. That’s “friends” without the “r” – Best Fiends. Additional Reading: https://gazette.com/colorado-cold-case/lonely-hearts/colorado-cold-case-friends-investigators-share-hope-for-justice-in-triple-homicide/article_09b105f2-6c63-11ea-bbe4-ff7d230cbb94.html https://gazette.com/colorado-cold-case/colorado-cold-case-episode-2-looks-at-early-days-of-investigation-into-1985-triple-homicide/article_de18ef04-54c5-11ea-ba2b-4335768f1928.html https://gazette.com/colorado-cold-case/lonely-hearts/colorado-cold-case-confession-in-north-carolina-triple-homicide-raises-questions-about-unsolved-1985-valentine/article_bd18f512-64a9-11ea-97a7-b3f5ea72b74b.html https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/mother-children-murder-colorado-springs-cold-case/73-6678d864-81f4-45a1-841e-32a5bc564023 https://apnews.com/2b7879bf5bc9db6be84fd8344123dd91 https://web.archive.org/web/20160322164426/https://gazette.com/few-left-to-remember-horrific-valentines-day-killings/article/133323/ https://web.archive.org/web/20100307083729/http://blogs.denverpost.com/coldcases/2010/02/21/family-of-3-beaten-with-hockey-stick-strangled/ “The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content. “The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon 2022: Vegas” at Paris & Bally’s in Las Vegas from April 29-May 1, 2022. To get a 10 % discount off a standard badge, please use our specialized promo code, “TRAIL”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.com/. “The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Leonardo Royal Hotel & Spa in London on June 11-12, 2022. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to the event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD22”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk. “The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on GetVokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We would like to send out a special thanks to the fun, binge-worthy puzzle game Best Fiennes for supporting our podcast.
0:06.0	Ready to give your brain some TLC, download Best Fiennes free today on the App Store or Google Play.
0:12.0	That's Friends Without The R, Best Fiens. Enjoy the show.
0:17.0	February 14th, 1985. Colorado Springs, Colorado. Colorado.
0:23.0	The bodies have 37-year-old Cassandra Rundle and her two children, 12-year-old Dietrich Sturm, and 10-year-old
0:29.5	Melanie Sturm, are discovered inside the respective bedrooms at the residence.
0:34.0	The two females were sexually assaulted and beaten and all three victims have been strangled to death.
0:39.0	Since Cassandra had placed some personal ads in a local newspaper and received responses from a number of men, there is speculation that this might be connected to the crime.
0:49.0	Years later, a man serving time on death row for killing another family is looked at as a possible suspect,
0:55.2	but there is no evidence to implicate him and the murders of Cassandra, Dietrich, and Melanie remain unsolved.
1:01.2	After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
1:14.0	uh, and uh, uh, uh, and uh, and uh, and uh,
1:25.0	uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
1:28.0	uh, uh, Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of the Trail Went Cold.
1:43.2	I'm your host Robin Warder, and on this episode, we're going to be exploring an horrific
1:47.6	crime involving the deaths of a mother and her two children.
1:51.2	The 1985 murders of Cassandra Rundle, Dietrich Sturm and Melanie Sturm.
1:57.0	This is a case which was requested to me last year by a listener named J.B.
2:01.4	And since this crime took place on February the 14th and Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to cover it.
2:09.0	At the time she was murdered, Cassandra Rundle was a single mother raising her two pre-teen children,
2:15.3	Dietrich and Melanie, before they were all murdered inside their residence in Colorado Springs.
2:20.1	At the outset, investigators had a large pool of potential suspects to work with, as Cassandra
	...

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