The Trail Went Cold - Episode 414 - Barbara Jean Horn, Part 1

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

July 12, 1988. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Four-year old Barbara Jean Horn disappears from the front yard of her home before her nude body is discovered inside a cardboard box resting on a curb in the same neighbourhood. Nearly four years later, a suspect named Walter Ogrod, who had lived across the street from Barbara Jean’s residence, is arrested after he confeses to her murder and after two trials. he is convicted and sentenced to death. However, Walter claims his confession was coerced by corrupt police detectives and there are numerous allegations of misconduct and serious issues with his conviction. In 2020, after a new review is performed of the case, Walter’s conviction is overturned. While he is finally released from death row and fully exonerated, no one else is charged with killing Barbara Jean Horn. This week, “The Trail Went Cold” will be releasing the first part of a special two-part episode about a very controversial child murder case which has yet to reach a conclusive resolution after more than 36 years. If you have any information about this case, please contact the Philadelphia Police Department’s tip line at (215) 686-TIPS (8477). Additional Reading: "The Trails of Walter Ogrod: The Shocking Murder, So-Called Confessions and Notorious Snitch That Sent a Man to Death Row" by Thomas Lowenstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Ogrod_case https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Barbara_Jean_Horn https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=5752 https://dpic-cdn.org/production/documents/PhilaDA-CIU-Walter-Ogrod-Expert-Reports-2020-02-28.pdf https://dpic-cdn.org/production/documents/PhilaDA-Answer-to-Walter-Ogrod-Amended-PCRA-Petition-2020-02-28.pdf https://www.inquirer.com/news/walter-ogrod-exonerated-innocent-death-row-larry-krasner-philadelphia-20200605.html https://www.inquirer.com/news/walter-ogrod-exonerated-murder-conviction-overturned-philadelphia-larry-krasner-20200610.html https://www.inquirer.com/philly/columnists/will_bunch/walter-ogrod-death-row-stories-hln-larry-krasner-dna-testing-philadelphia-20180405.html https://www.newsweek.com/pennsylvania-court-orders-death-row-inmate-tested-coronavirus-1493628 https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/after-2-decades-on-death-row-wrongfully-convicted-man-will-be-set-free/2421261/ https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/barbara-jean-horn-murder-philadelphia-walter-ogrod/ “The Trail Went Cold” will be appearing at the AdvocacyCon, taking place at the Indianapolis Marriott East in Indianapolis on March 28-30, 2025. To get a 10 % discount on tickets, please use our specialized promo code, “TRAIL10”, by visiting https://www.advocacycon.com/. “The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at Crimecon UK” in London on June 7-8, 2024. To get a 10 % discount on tickets, please use our specialized promo code, “TRAIL10”, by visiting Crimecon.co.uk. “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 produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

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0:00.0	July 12th, 1988, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn disappears from the
0:08.3	front yard of her home before her nude body is discovered inside a cardboard box resting on a curb
0:13.5	in the same neighborhood. Nearly four years later, a suspect named Walter Ogrod, who had lived across
0:19.5	the street from Barbageen, is arrested after confessing to her murder, and he is later convicted and sentenced to death.
0:25.6	However, Walter claims his confession was coerced, and while he is exonerated and released from prison in 2020,
0:32.6	no one else is ever charged with the crime.
0:35.6	After that, the trail went cold. Hello, and I'm not going episode of The Trail Went Cold.
1:18.9	I'm your host Robin Warder, and this week we're going to be exploring an horrific crime
1:23.4	which wound up leading to a wrongful conviction, the 1988 murder of Barbara Jean Horn.
1:30.2	This is a case which was featured on Unsolved Mysteries only four months after the crime originally
1:34.8	took place, but even though their segment was only two minutes long, I never imagined that it would
1:40.1	evolve into one of the wildest and most complicated stories we've ever covered.
1:44.9	In fact, there have been so many twists and turns over the past 26 years that I've decided
1:49.4	this will need to be a two-part episode with part two dropping next Wednesday, January the 22nd.
1:55.6	Our victim, Barbara Jean Horn, was a four-year-old girl who disappeared from her front yard
2:00.6	before she was
2:01.4	murdered and stuffed inside a cardboard box, which was left on a curb less than 1,000 feet from her home.
2:08.3	Multiple witnesses reported having seen a man carrying this box, but it would not be until 1992
2:13.6	when a former neighbor of Barbergenes named Walter Ogrod, who lived directly across the street
2:18.8	from her, was charged with the crime after making a confession. However, Walter had developmental
2:24.5	disabilities and immediately recanted his confession, which was pretty much the only evidence
2:29.8	linking him to the crime. After true trials, Walter was finally convicted of Barbergen's murder and
	...

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