The Trail Went Cold - Episode 448 - Grace and Gracie Reapp

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

June 6, 1978. Jericho, Vermont. Michael Reapp, the husband of 32-year old Grace Reapp, claims he returned home from work and discovered that Grace and their five-year old daughter, Gracie Reapp, had disappeared, though he alleges Grace left behind a note stating that they ran off voluntarily. Eighteen years later, Michael himself goes missing after police announce that Grace and Gracie’s disappearances have been reclassified as a homicide investigation and a search is being performed of their former property. While Michael is eventually indicted on two counts of murders, he winds up dead before he can be arrested or stand trial, so no trace of Grace or Gracie is ever found. Was Michael Reapp actually responsible for killing his wife and daughter? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a convoluted missing persons case containing a number of surprising twists and turns. If you happen to have any information about this case, please contact the Vermont State Police at (802) 524-5993 Additional Reading: https://charleyproject.org/case/grace-marie-canto-reapp https://charleyproject.org/case/grace-noel-reapp https://www.newspapers.com/image/203304327/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/203304377/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/202452571/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/202452843/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/203304915/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/203304981/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/863479135/ https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2001/06/07/clues-to-missing-woman-sought/51004169007/ https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/vt-police-say-man-wanted-in-1978-murders-is-dead/article_20bee1b7-8322-507f-a632-20ffaf6ebd3c.html https://www.hngn.com/articles/46885/20141023/hngn-true-crime-feature-where-are-brian-reapps-mother-and-sister-crime-contributor-jon-leiberman-reports-on-the-36-year-old-jericho-vt-double-murder-mystery.htm “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	June 6th, 1978. Jericho, Vermont. Michael Reap, the husband of 32-year-old Grace Reep,
0:09.1	claims that he returned home from work and discovered that Grace and their five-year-old daughter,
0:13.0	Gracie Reep, had disappeared, though he believes they ran off voluntarily. 18 years later, Michael
0:19.4	himself goes missing after police announced that Grace and Gracie's
0:22.9	disappearances have become a homicide investigation and a search is being performed at their former
0:27.7	property. While Michael is eventually indicted for their murders, he is killed before he can be
0:32.9	arrested, so no trace of Grace or Gracie is ever found. After that, the trail went cold. I'm not going to be. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm and I The Trail Went Cold. I'm your host Robin Werder,
1:22.0	and today we're going to be exploring a missing person's case involving a mother and daughter,
1:26.9	1978 disappearances of
1:28.7	Grace and Gracie Reep. This one was suggested to me several years ago by a listener named Emily,
1:34.3	and the story has a number of surprising twists and turns. At the time she went missing,
1:39.5	Grace Reap was living in Vermont with her husband, Michael Reap, and their three children,
1:43.7	but even though the
1:44.3	couple's two sons were left behind, Grace and her five-year-old daughter Gracie disappeared simultaneously.
1:50.4	For the longest time, Michael pushed forward the narrative that Grace and Gracie ran away together,
1:55.7	so it would be years before a proper police investigation was performed, and their disappearances
2:00.0	didn't receive any media
2:01.2	coverage at all until 1996. However, things really went off the rails when Michael himself
2:07.2	disappeared, and while he was not initially charged with any crime, there was speculation that he
2:12.0	was motivated to run off because law enforcement was taking a fresh look at the case and digging
2:16.6	around his former property.
2:19.0	While Grace and Gracie's remains were never found, investigators eventually reached the point
	...

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