The Trail Went Cold - Episode 482 - The Park Bench Murders

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

Tv & Film, True Crime

4.5 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

June 4, 2019. Fairview Park, Ohio. 40-year old Carnell Sledge and his 33-year old friend, Kate Brown, agree to meet up at the Rocky River Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks and they each drive there in their respective vehicles. Within 15 minutes of their arrival, Carnell and Kate are both fatally shot in the head near a park bench and the perpetrator manages to flee the scene without anyone seeing or hearing anything. Investigators look into the backgrounds of both victims to see if anyone had a motive to harm them, but are unable to turn up any evidence to implicate anyone and the crime remains unsolved. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a baffling double homicide known as the “Park Bench Murders”. If you have information about this case, please contact Cleveland Metroparks Police Department at (440) 331-5219, the FBI’s Cleveland Field Office at (216) 622-6842, or the Crime Stoppers of Cuyahoga County at (216) 252-7463. Additional Reading: https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Kate_Brown_and_Nell_Sledge https://unsolved.com/gallery/park-bench-murders/ https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/06/parents-of-homicide-victim-carnell-sledge-did-not-know-woman-killed-with-him.html https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/06/parents-of-homicide-victim-carnell-sledge-did-not-know-woman-killed-with-him.html https://www.clevescene.com/news/four-years-later-officials-report-no-progress-in-metroparks-double-homicide-cold-case-but-fresh-hope-comes-with-national-coverage-42872823/ https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/they-didnt-deserve-to-die-this-way-sister-hopes-unsolved-mysteries-episode-can-help-find-sisters-killer https://www.cleveland19.com/2024/10/03/murder-metroparks-new-dark-side-podcast-goes-inside-unsolved-fairview-park-killings/ https://www.cleveland19.com/2025/06/04/trace-dna-found-metroparks-double-murder-scene-could-lead-suspect/ https://www.cleveland19.com/2025/05/30/possible-connection-between-5-year-old-double-murder-west-park-murder-suicide-metroparks/ https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/crime/cold-cases/families-kate-brown-carnell-sledge-statement-cleveland-metroparks-police-update-double-homicide-investigation/95-16545e66-98a0-4e17-9220-4c69d5b7b12e https://www.reddit.com/r/UnsolvedMysteries/comments/1fweqc9/ama_im_jeff_a_friend_of_carnell_sledge_here_to/ “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 4th,
0:01.0	2019
0:02.0	Fairview Park, Ohio
0:05.0	40-year-old Carnel Sledge
0:08.0	and his 33-year-old friend Kate Brown
0:10.0	agreed to meet up at the Rocky River Reservation in the Cleveland Metro
0:14.0	Parks and they each drive there in the respective vehicles.
0:18.0	Within 15 minutes of their arrival,
0:20.0	Carnell and Kate are both fatally shot in the head
0:22.7	near a park bench, and the perpetrator manages to flee the scene without anyone seeing or hearing
0:28.1	anything. Investigators look into the backgrounds of both victims to see if anyone had a motive
0:33.4	to harm them, but there is no evidence to implicate anyone, and the park bench murders remain unsolved.
0:39.3	After that, the trail went cold.
0:42.3	The trail went cold. I'm not going to be. I'm not. 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.
1:24.2	I'm your host Robin Warder, and this week we're going to be exploring a double homicide
1:28.8	which was featured on the Netflix reboot of Unsolved Mysteries, the 2019 murders of Carnell Sledge
1:35.3	and Kate Brown, aka the Park Bench Murders. Unsaw Mysteries dropped an episode about this case a
1:42.2	year and a half ago, and as you can imagine,
1:44.6	I've received numerous requests to cover it. This is the bizarre and baffling story of two close
1:50.6	friends who seemingly made a last-minute decision to meet up at the Rocky River Reservation
1:55.3	in the Cleveland Metro Parks, an extensive series of nature preserves which encircled the city.
2:03.1	To this day, no one knows why Carnell and Kate decided to meet at this particular location at that particular time, but after
	...

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