The Trail Went Cold - Episode 437 - Jessica Sadler

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

October 19, 2001. Leverett’s Chapel, Texas. After leaving her house to go for a walk on a nearby trail, 15-year old Jessica Sadler never returns home and her body is discovered underneath a trash pile at a dumpsite in a wooded area four days later. Jessica’s cause of death is determined to be blunt force trauma and suspicion is directed towards her 18-year old friend, Curtis DeWayne Howard, who confesses to having had sex with Jessica on the day she disappeared. Since Jessica was underage, Curtis is charged with sexual assault, but winds up being acquitted at trial and there is not enough evidence to link him or anyone else to Jessica’s death. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the tragic unsolved murder of Jessica Sadler, which has remained unsolved for over two decades. Additional Reading: https://www.newspapers.com/image/590725885/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590726079/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590726108/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/211114868/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590726314/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/612144132/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/612144146/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590730807/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590730820/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590726893/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590726926/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590733068/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590733086/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590756837/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590756864/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590757231/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590757254/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590758209/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/590758280/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/612157810/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/612157845/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/215598940/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/215599148/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/215600984/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/215601117/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/215437032/ https://www.kltv.com/story/1251895/suspect-found-not-guilty-in-murder-sexual-assault-case/ https://www.kltv.com/story/1511109/anniversary-of-teenagers-mysterious-murder/ For our podcast recommendation of the week, be sure to check out "Evil Lies - The Boy in the Mat: Kendrick 'KJ' Johnson". "The Trail Went Cold" will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Boston North Shore in Boston, Massachusetts on July 18-20, 2025. To get a 20 % discount on tickets, please use our specialized promo code, “ROBIN20”, by visiting https://www.truecrimepodcastfestival.com/. “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	October 19th, 2001. Leverett's Chapel, Texas. After leaving our house to go for a walk on a nearby
0:08.4	trail, 15-year-old Jessica Sadler never returns home, and her body is discovered underneath a
0:14.2	trash pile at a dump site in a wooded area four days later. Jessica's cause of death is determined
0:20.1	to be blunt force trauma,
0:21.8	and suspicion is directed towards her 18-year-old friend Curtis Duane Howard,
0:26.2	who confesses to having had sex with Jessica on the day she disappeared. Since Jessica was
0:31.3	underage, Curtis is charged with sexual assault, but winds up being acquitted at trial,
0:36.1	and since there is not enough evidence
0:38.0	to link him to Jessica's murder, the crime remains unsolved. After that, the trail went cold. I'm not the Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of The Trail Went Cold.
1:24.6	I'm your host Robin Warder, and this week we're going to be covering a cold case
1:28.8	involving a 15-year-old girl, the 2001 murder of Jessica Sadler. I received a request to do an
1:35.7	episode about this story from a listener named Molly Bird, who personally knew Jessica. In fact,
1:41.2	Molly's mother was involved in a relationship with Jessica's father at the time of her murder,
1:45.8	and even though she was still a child at the time, Molly is seeking justice for what happened.
1:51.2	Jessica went missing after she left her home in Leverett's Chapel, Texas, to go for a walk on a trail in a nearby wooded area,
1:58.0	but even though she planned to return in time for dinner, she never did,
2:01.5	and her body would be discovered under a trash pile at an illegal dump site four days later.
2:07.1	Jessica's clothing was removed and found neatly folded next to her body, which suggested that
2:12.0	she may have been murdered by someone she knew, and she was strangled and received a fatal blow to the
2:16.8	head.
2:22.8	Since an 18-year-old friend of Jessica's named Curtis Dwayne Howard was seen with her shortly after she left her house, he immediately became the prime suspect, but what's particularly
2:27.9	unique about this case is that even though Curtis was arrested, he was not actually charged
	...

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