The Trail Went Cold - Episode 481 - Mary Cooper & Susanna Stodden

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

Tv & Film, True Crime

4.5 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

July 11, 2006. Snohomish County, Washington. 56-year old Mary Cooper and her 27-year old daughter, Susanna Stodden, leave their homes in Seattle in order to go hiking on the Pinnacle Lake Trail over 60 miles away. Later that day, Mary and Susanna’s bodies are found alongside the trail after they have both been shot in the head and even though some of their clothing was removed, neither of them were sexually assaulted. For years, Mary’s husband is looked at as a potential suspect before he is officially ruled out, but even though a partial male DNA profile is eventually found under Susanna’s fingernails, it has not been matched to anyone. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a double homicide known as the “Pinnacle Lake Murders” which has gone unsolved for nearly 20 years. In addition, we’ll also discuss the unsolved murders of 25-year old Patricia Dixon and her five-year old daughter, Amanda Dixon, who also lived in the Seattle area and were both shot to death inside their motel room in Anaheim, California during a vacation to Disneyland in March 1984. If you have have any information about the murders of Mary Cooper and Susanna Stodden, please contact the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office at (425) 388-3845. If you have any information about the murders of Patricia and Amanda Dixon, please contact the Anaheim Police Department at (714) 765-1900. Additional Reading: https://www.newspapers.com/image/1031381492/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1031411442/ https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Slain-hikers-were-avid-about-outdoors-1208909.php https://www.heraldnet.com/2016/07/10/murder-case-is-cold-but-memory-still-burns/ https://www.heraldnet.com/2007/07/10/a-year-later-no-suspects-in-slaying-of-2-hikers/ https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/one-mans-relentless-search-for-killer-in-its-18th-year/281-5d26dcb4-a3e5-4bcf-b8e4-dba203f30a2e https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/man-cleared-as-suspect-more-than-10-years-after-wife-daughter-murdered-on-hiking-trail https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20061013/hikerdeath13m/trail-killings-hundreds-of-tips-leading-nowhere https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/unsolved/19-years-snohomish-county-trail-murders-unsolved-northwest-mary-cooper-susanna-stodden/281-358cebaf-b8d9-48b1-ae7c-7b1893eaa107 https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/mary-cooper-susanna-stodden-unsolved-snohomish-county-murder/281-cf04d027-bb9e-4332-8572-f528fdff87b3 https://podcasts.happyscribe.com/the-deck/mary-cooper-susanna-stodden-ace-of-hearts-washington https://www.wta.org/news/magazine/magazine/1207.pdf https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/03/29/Suspect-sought-in-mother-and-daughter-murders-near-Disneyland/5791449384400/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/401262837/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/808583079/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/1076995204/ “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 11th, 2006, Snowhomish County, Washington. Fifty-six-year-old Mary Cooper and her 27-year-old
0:09.8	daughter, Susanna Stoughton, leave their homes in Seattle in order to go hiking on the Pinnacle
0:14.8	Lake Trail. Later that day, Mary and Susanna's bodies are found alongside the trail after they have both been
0:21.3	shot in the head, and even though some of their clothing was removed, they were not sexually assaulted.
0:27.2	For years, Mary's husband is looked at as a potential suspect before he's officially ruled out,
0:32.7	but even though a partial male DNA profile is found under Susanna's fingernails, it has not been matched to anyone,
0:39.3	and the Pinnacle Lake murders remain unsolved. After that, the trail went cold. I'm not I'm not I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm and I'm and I'm and The Trail Went Cold. I'm your host Robin
1:28.1	Warder, and this week we're going to be covering a double homicide involving a mother and daughter,
1:34.1	the 2006 murders of Mary Cooper and Susanna Stodden, aka the Pinnacle Lake Murders. Over the years,
1:41.7	I've received a number of requests to cover this case, and I can understand why, as it's a major head scratcher and a crime which literally took place on a trail.
1:51.5	Marion's Husana both lived in Seattle and decided to make a 60-mile trip to Snowhomish County in order to hike the Pinnacle Lake Trail,
1:59.2	but after nearly reaching the end of the trail,
2:01.7	they crossed past with someone who fatally shot them both in the head.
2:06.0	There were no signs of robbery, and even though neither victim was sexually assaulted,
2:10.1	some of their clothing was removed, suggesting that someone did make an attempt to attack them
2:14.7	before things escalated into murder.
2:20.0	But while there were other hikers on the trail that day,
2:24.5	no one reported seeing or hearing anything unusual until the bodies were discovered.
2:30.3	For years, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office put a lot of focus on Mary's husband and Susanna's father, David Stodden, even though he seemed to have a rock-sallad alibi that day
2:35.2	and no apparent motive to do this. Since it took over a decade to formally clear him as a suspect,
2:41.8	investigators have received criticisms about tunnel vision, but new forensic testing has recently
2:47.3	turned up a partial male DNA profile underneath Susanna's fingernails,
	...

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