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The Trail Went Cold

The Trail Went Cold - Episode 51 - The Hatbox Baby

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.53.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2017

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Christmas Eve 1931. Superior, Arizona. While driving through the desert, a couple named Ed and Julia Stewart experience a flat tire and pull over to a remote spot. They soon discover an abandoned newborn baby girl inside a hatbox and turn her over to the authorities. While the story of the “Hatbox Baby” becomes a media sensation, the child’s family cannot be located, so she is adopted out to a couple, whose identities are kept secret from the public. Over 50 years later, a woman named Sharon Elliott is shocked to learn that she was the mysterious Hatbox Baby. Even though Sharon attempts to uncover the truth about her past and finds some promising leads, she does not receive any conclusive answers about the identity of her family or how she wound up in the desert. Was the discovery of the Hatbox Baby a genuine Christmas miracle, or an elaborate set-up orchestrated to protect someone? For our final Christmas-themed of “The Trail Went Cold”, we will be shying away from violent crime and chronicling a much more unique mystery than usual. Special thanks to listener Jonathan Burroughs for providing the opening narration for today’s episode. Also, a big thanks to Esther Gamez for providing us with another terrific piece of cover art for this episode. Be sure to check out Esther’s Facebook and Tumblr pages to see more of her artwork. We would like to thank Sock Club for sponsoring the Trail Went Cold. To earn 15 % off your next order of socks, visit sockclub.com/cold and use the discount code “cold”. Additional Reading: https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hatbox_Baby http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2011/12/19/20111219hatbox-baby-mystery-still-lingers.html Spokane Chronicle (Dec. 26, 1988) 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

We would like to send out a special thanks to Sock Club for supporting the trail went cold.

0:05.0

And we would like to thank you the listeners by offering you the chance to earn 15% off your next

0:09.7

order of socks when you visit Sock Club.com slash cold and use the discount code cold.

0:16.0

That's sock club dot com slash cold and the discount code is cold.

0:21.0

Enjoy the show.

0:22.0

Christmas Eve quote is called, enjoy the show.

0:29.3

Christmas Eve, 1931, Superior Arizona. While driving through the desert, a couple named Ed and Julius Stewart, experience a flat tire and pull over to a remote

0:36.6

spot. They soon discover an abandoned newborn baby girl inside a hat box and turn her over to the authorities.

0:46.7

When the child's family cannot be located, she is adopted out to a couple whose identities

0:52.0

are kept a secret from the public.

0:55.0

Over 50 years later, a woman named Sharon Elliot is shocked to learn that she was the

1:01.0

mysterious hatbox baby.

1:03.0

But in spite of her best attempts to uncover her past,

1:07.0

the identity of Sharon's real family,

1:09.0

and the story of how she wound up in the desert,

1:12.0

remain unknown. After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, yeah.

1:23.0

Oh, uh, and uh, and uh, and uh, I'm not. Oh, uh,

1:34.0

uh, there's uh,

1:35.0

there's uh, uh, uh, uh,

1:38.0

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, and uh, care. Ah, uh, uh, Hello everyone and welcome to our newest episode of The Trail went cold.

1:59.0

I'm your host Robin Warder and that voice you just heard narrate our opening was our latest contest winner, Jonathan Burrows.

2:07.0

As you probably know, we now have a recurring monthly contest where our listeners can earn a chance to recite the opening narration for one of our podcast episodes.

...

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