The Trail Went Cold – Episode 282 – Mark Himebaugh

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

Tv & Film, True Crime

4.5 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2022

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

November 25, 1991. Middle Township, New Jersey. 11-year old Mark Himebaugh leaves his residence in order to watch firefighters extinguishing a brush fire, but he never returns home. A search turns up Mark’s left shoe on a nearby beach and while eyewitnesses place Mark in the company of multiple unidentified individuals on the afternoon he went missing, he cannot be found. Over one year later, a witness tells police that a sex offender named Thomas Butcavage screened a video of himself sexually assaulting Mark before confessing to his murder, but the alleged videotape is never found and no evidence links him to Mark’s disappearance. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore one of the more disturbing missing children’s cases we’ve covered. Special thanks to listener Juile Heiland for narrating the opening of this episode. If you have any information about this case, please contact the Middle Township Police Department at (609) 465-8700. Additional Reading: “Where is Mark? The Abduction of Mark Himebaugh” by Richard McHale https://www.whereismark.com https://wpgtalkradio.com/thanksgiving-marks-30-years-since-mark-himebaugh-disappeared-in-middle-twp-nj/ https://charleyproject.org/case/mark-joseph-himebaugh https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/30-years-later-search-continues-for-middle-townships-mark-himebaugh/article_0a56e10c-4d3f-11ec-8f3d-eb5001524269.html https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2021/05/21/cbs3-mysteries-where-is-mark-himebaugh/ https://truecrimedaily.com/2021/11/19/where-is-mark-himebaugh-new-jersey-boy-vanishes-anniversary-looms-tcdpod/ https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/convicted-sex-offender-person-of-interest-mark-himebaugh-thomas-butcavage-video-sex-abuse/60570/ https://people.com/crime/mark-himebaugh-cops-hope-tip-call-could-help-find-missing-boy/ “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” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/ “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	November 25, 1991. Middle Township, New Jersey.
0:04.6	11-year-old Mark Heimball leaves his residence in order to watch firefighters extinguishing
0:10.3	a brush fire, but he never returns home, and a search turns up Mark's left shoe on the
0:15.4	nearby beach. Over one year later, a witness tells police that a man named Thomas Buttcavige
0:20.8	screamed a video of himself sexually assaulting Mark before he confessed to his murder. While
0:26.2	Buttcavige eventually goes to prison for other sex crimes, the incriminating videotape is
0:30.7	never found, and no evidence links him to Mark's disappearance. After that, the trail went cold.
1:00.6	Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of The Trail Went Cold. I'm your host
1:17.2	Robin Warrter, and today we're going to be covering a troubling missing children's
1:21.0	case, the 1991 disappearance of 11-year-old Mark Heimball. That voice you just heard narrating
1:27.2	our intro was Julie Highland, the latest winner of our most recent trail went cold listener
1:32.2	voiceover contest, so thank you very much Julie. This is a recurring monthly contest which
1:37.1	we've been holding for nearly five years now, and if you'd like to enter and have an
1:40.7	already done so, I will be providing instructions near the end of this episode.
1:45.1	Anyway, the disappearance of Mark Heimball was the case that Julie requested I cover when
1:49.6	she originally entered this contest, and this is definitely an ideal time to put together
1:54.2	an episode. Late last year, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Mark's disappearance,
2:00.2	Richard McHale, a retired detective who was once the former lead investigator on this
2:04.7	case, released a book titled Where Is Mark, the Abduction of Mark Heimball.
2:10.2	McHale revealed a lot of new information which had never been made public before, and as
2:14.6	a result, this story has been pushed back into the spotlight. But I'm going to warn you
2:19.2	right up front. Where is Mark is one of the most disturbing true crime books I've ever
	...

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