The Trail Went Cold - Episode 466 - Molly Bish

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

Tv & Film, True Crime

4.5 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

June 27, 2000. Warren, Massachusetts. After showing up at Comins Pond to work her shift as a lifeguard, 16-year old Molly Bish vanishes without a trace and leaves all of her personal belongings behind on the beach. The previous day, Molly’s mother had dropped her off and noticed a suspicious-looking man inside a white car in the beach’s parking lot and numerous witnesses report seeing a white car in the area on the morning of Molly’s disappearance. Nearly three years later, Molly’s remains are discovered in a wooded area five miles from Comins Pond and it is believed that she was the victim of an abduction and a homicide. Over the years, a number of different individuals are looked at as persons of interest, but there is not enough conclusive evidence to implicate any of them, so the crime remains unsolved. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the disappearance and murder of Molly Bish, as well as its potential connections to the case featured on last week’s episode: the 1993 murder of ten-year old Holly Piirainen. Special thanks to listener Meghan Cotter for narrating the opening of this episode. If you have any information about this case, please contact the official Massachusetts State Police tip line at (508) 453-7575. Additional Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Molly_Bish https://unsolved.com/gallery/molly-bish/ https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Molly_Bish https://www.masslive.com/news/2011/11/gerald_battistoni_man_eyed_in.html https://www.boston25news.com/news/molly-bish-rodney-stanger-may-have-crossed-paths-1/141310989/ https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/north/2014/11/13/rapist-s-death-may-shed/35943050007/ https://www.wcvb.com/article/person-of-interest-in-bish-case-denies-involvement/10030222 https://www.wcvb.com/article/molly-bish-murder-person-of-interest-named-warren-massachusetts/36622524 https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/frank-sumner-molly-bish-criminal-history-murder/ https://www.masslive.com/worcester/2021/07/molly-bish-murder-case-francis-sumner-sr-new-person-of-interest-remembered-as-hot-headed-as-dozens-of-new-calls-come-in-to-tip-line.html https://www.telegram.com/story/news/2021/12/02/molly-bish-case-investigators-go-ohio-collect-dna-son-person-interest/8843156002/ https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/dna-in-molly-bish-case-isnt-a-match-sister-says-its-disappointing/2775879/ https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/molly-bish-case-remains-unsolved-25-years-later/3753477/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/molly-bish-massachusetts-unsolved-murder-48-hours/ “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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	June 27, 2000, Warren, Massachusetts. After showing up at Cummonds Pond to work her shift as a lifeguard,
0:08.6	16-year-old Molly Bish vanishes without a trace and leaves all of her personal belongings behind
0:13.6	on the beach. The previous day, Molly's mother had dropped her off and noticed a suspicious-looking
0:19.2	man in a white car in the beach's parking lot.
0:22.3	In numerous witnesses report seeing a white car in the area on the morning of Molly's disappearance.
0:28.1	Nearly three years later, Molly's remains are discovered on a hillside in a wooded area five
0:32.9	miles from Cummins' Pond. But even though a number of different men are named as persons of interest, Molly's murder
0:38.9	is never solved.
0:40.4	After that, the trail went cold.
1:23.9	Okay. I'm not going to be. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not Hello, everyone, and welcome to our latest episode of The Trail Went Cold.
1:28.9	I'm your host, Robin Warder, and today we're going to be exploring another highly requested case, the 2000 disappearance and murder of Molly Bish. That voice you just heard narrating
1:36.2	our intro was Megan Cotter, the latest winner of our most recent Trail Went Cold listener
1:41.3	voiceover contest, so thank you very much, Megan. This is a recurring
1:45.5	monthly contest which we've been carrying on for eight and a half years now, so if you'd like to
1:50.0	enter and haven't already done so, I will be providing instructions near the end of this episode.
1:55.7	Anyway, the murder of Molly Bish is the case that Megan requested I cover when she originally
2:00.1	entered this contest,
2:01.6	and since she is far from the only listener who has asked me to do an episode, I thought it would
2:06.1	be an appropriate time to tackle it. In fact, you probably know that last week, I released an episode
2:12.1	about the Unsolved 1993 murder of 10-year-old Holly Peranian, which also took place in Worcester County, Massachusetts,
2:19.3	just over 10 miles from where Molly went missing. Since there were a number of similarities
2:24.1	between the two crimes, people have always wondered if the same perpetrator may have been
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Robin Warder, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Robin Warder and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.