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The Trail Went Cold

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 326 - John Cheek & Gordon Collins

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.53.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

December 2, 1993. Memphis, Tennessee. John Cheek, the 28-year old financial officer of a real estate firm, spends the evening having a dinner at a restaurant and is last seen heading towards his parked car. John’s abandoned vehicle is soon discovered near the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge and there is fear that he took his own life by jumping into the Mississippi River. Months later, a drifter matching John’s description is seen at a truck stop in Virginia, leading to speculation that he may be suffering from amnesia and forgotten who he was, but all attempts to find him are unsuccessful. April 19, 1991. Punta Chivato, Mexico. While on vacation from California, 34-year old Gordon Collins sets out in a fishing boat alongside his girlfriend, Anastasia Seals, and another couple, Wayne Shwatz and Arlean Burlington. A storm soon hits the area and the overturned boat, as well as Anastasia and Wayne’s bodies, are found floating in the Sea of Cortez the following day. Gordon and Arlean’s bodies cannot be found, but reports start circulating about a disoriented white male matching Gordon’s description wandering through Mexico. This leads Gordon’s family to believe that he survived the boating accident and is suffering from amnesia, but they are unable to track him down. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore two unsolved missing persons cases in which each victim was believed to have lost their memory before they became a transient. Special thanks to listener Marcos Sainz for narrating the opening of this episode. If you have any information on the disappearance of John Cheek, please contact the Memphis Police Department at (901) 545-5700. Additional Reading: https://unsolved.com/gallery/john-cheek/ https://charleyproject.org/case/john-andrews-cheek https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/02/25/an-executive-hits-the-vanishing-point/30dddee8-d4d6-442e-b310-8c13bcf593e2/?utm_term=.ce4551e324b8 http://people.com/archive/vanished-with-a-trace-vol-41-no-11/ https://memphismagazine.com/features/unsolved-mysteries/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/774400146/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/774544772/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/774544793/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/774378109/ https://unsolved.com/gallery/gordon-collins/ https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Gordon_Collins https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-26-mn-756-story.html https://www.newspapers.com/image/571519189/ “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 doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl 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 going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Tower Bridge, Leonardo Royal Hotel & Spa in London on June 10-11, 2023, as well as “Crimecon” at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida on September 22-24, 2023. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to either event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD23”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk or https://www.crimecon.com. “The Trail Went Cold” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Austin, Texas on August 25-27, 2023. To get a 15 % discount on the purchase of tickets, please our specialized promo code, “TRAIL”, by visiting https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

December 2nd, 1993, Memphis, Tennessee.

0:06.6

John Cheek, the 28-year-old financial officer

0:09.5

of a real estate firm, spends the evening

0:11.9

having a dinner at a restaurant, and his last

0:14.5

scene heading towards his parked car. The following day, John's abandoned

0:19.5

vehicle is discovered near the Memphis and Arkansas Bridge and there is fear that he took

0:24.4

his own life by jumping into the Mississippi River. Months later a drifter matching

0:30.2

John's description is seen at a truck stop, leading to speculation that he may have suffered a mental breakdown and forgotten who he was.

0:38.0

But all attempts to find him are unsuccessful.

0:42.0

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

0:54.0

uh, but uh, uh, yeah. Oh, uh, uh, and uh, and uh, and uh,

1:05.0

uh,

1:06.0

uh,

1:05.0

uh,

1:08.0

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

1:24.4

I'm your host Robin Warder and today we're going to be exploring two missing persons

1:29.4

cases which were featured on Unsolved Mysteries, the 1993 disappearance of John Cheek, and the

1:35.3

1991 disappearance of Gordon Collins.

1:39.1

That voice you just heard narrating our intro was Marco Saines, the latest winner of our most recent Trail

1:44.8

went called listener voiceover contest, so thank you very much, Marcos.

1:48.2

This is a recurring monthly contest which we've been holding for nearly six years now, so if you'd like to enter

1:54.3

and haven't already done so, I will be providing instructions near the end of this episode.

...

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