November 19th, 1985, Dawson County, Montana.

After leaving on a road trip from Oregon to travel back to his home in Wisconsin,

67-year-old Dexter Staphonic disappears and his burning car is discovered

at an isolated rest area. Only a half hour earlier, a witness had seen an unidentified man

driving Dexter's car into the rest area while carrying two

containers of gasoline. Three and a half months later, Dexter's bodies discovered at a remote

dump site. He has been beaten and shot twice in the head, but the identity of his killer and the motive for his murder remain unknown.

After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, and uh,

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

uh, uh,

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Hello everyone and welcome to the latest episode of the Trail went cold.

I'm your host Robin Warder, and this week we are covering yet another highly requested case which was featured on Unsalled Mysteries, the 1985 murder of Dexter Staphonic.

Unsolved Mysteries was a show which could cause... 1985 Murder of Dexter Stefonic.

Unsolved Mysteries was a show which could cause you to develop a lifelong fear of a number of things,

and right at the top of my list of fears would be rest stops.

Some of the most frightening cases ever featured on the show

involved people being victimized at remote isolated rest stops in the

middle of nowhere. In this particular case we have the brutal unsolved murder of an elderly man who was abducted from a rest stop in rural Montana on a brutally cold day before his car was set on fire,

and as if this story couldn't be more on the nose, this location was actually named the bad route rest area.

Seriously, who actually thought that name was a good idea?

Overall, this definitely ranks as one of the more baffling cases on unsolved mysteries because the crime seemed completely senseless, and there are a number of things about the killer's actions which defy explanation. But before we get started, just a quick reminder that the Trail Went Cold is a weekly

podcast which is currently available for download on several platforms, including iTunes, Stitcher,

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