The Trail Went Cold - Episode 455 - The Lead Masks Case

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

August 20, 1966. Niteroi, Brazil. The bodies of a pair of electronics technicians, 34-year old Miguel Jose Viana and 32-year old Manuel Pereira da Cruz, are discovered on the top of Vintem Hill and they are carrying a pair of lead masks and some cryptic notes about ingesting capsules. Three days earlier, the two men had travelled to Niteroi from their homes in Campos dos Goytacazes over 260 kilometres away, but there is no direct evidence of foul play and the authorities are unable to determine their cause of death. There are a number of theories about what happened, including speculation that the two men’s deaths might be connected to UFO sightings from the area, but the whole situation is never satisfactorily explained and remains shrouded in mystery. For this year’s Halloween-themed episode, “The Trail Went Cold” is finally tackling one of the most bizarre unsolved mysteries of all time: the Lead Masks Case. Additional Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_masks_case https://pmig96.wordpress.com/2021/05/10/the-lead-masks-case/ "Flying Saucer Review" (March-April 1967) https://skeptoid.com/episodes/398 https://www.truecriminelle.com/the-lead-masks-case-bizarre-deaths-what-happened-on-vintem-hill/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoPHYQuAlnw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjqCQEjgzk4 “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	August 20th, 1966.
0:03.6	Niederoy, Brazil.
0:05.7	The bodies of a pair of electronics technicians, 34-year-old Miguel Jose Viana,
0:11.1	and 32-year-old Manuel Pereira de Cruz, are discovered on top of Vintame Hill,
0:16.6	and they are carrying some lead masks and cryptic notes about ingesting capsules.
0:21.6	Three days earlier, the two men had traveled to Nidroy from their homes in Campos dos coitosis
0:26.9	over 260 kilometers away, but there is no direct evidence of foul play, and the authorities
0:32.7	are unable to determine their cause of debt.
0:35.9	There are a number of theories about what happened,
0:38.4	including speculation that the deaths are connected to UFO sightings from the area,
0:42.7	but the lead masks case remains shrouded in mystery.
0:46.4	After that, the trail went cold. I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm and I'm and I'm and I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm and I'm and I'm and I'm and I'm and I'm I'm Hello everyone and welcome to this year's final Halloween themed episode of The Trail Went Cold.
1:32.2	I'm your host Robin Warder and for the first time ever, our podcast is going to be traveling to the
1:37.7	country of Brazil to explore an infamous story that is considered to be one of the strangest mysteries of all
1:43.7	time, the lead
1:45.1	masks case. As you probably know, it is tradition for the trail went cold to count down to
1:50.7	October the 31st by covering unsolved mysteries which either took place on Halloween or have some
1:56.7	sort of creepy Halloween slant to them. So for our last episode of the month, I thought it
2:02.3	only appropriate that I finally tackle one of our most heavily requested mysteries. The lead
2:08.0	mask case involves a pair of electronics technicians named Miguel Jose Viana and Manuel Pereira
2:13.8	de Cruz, who ran a TV repair business in Campos dos coitases and seemed like ordinary family
2:19.9	men until they made the inexplicable decision to make a 260-kilometer trip to Niederoi and venture to the
	...

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