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The Trail Went Cold

The Trail Went Cold -Episode 76 - Michael Johnston, Rochelle Robinson, and Kurt McFall

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.53.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2018

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

June 27, 1994. Tacoma, Washington. 25-year old Michael Johnston and 19-year old Rochelle Robinson leave a get-together at a friend’s house. Later that morning, Michael is found shot to death outside Rochelle’s vehicle with his throat slashed. Rochelle is soon found stabbed to death on a remote road with her own throat slashed. Even though Michael was married, it turned out the two victims had been carrying on a secret affair. While police are inclined to think the killer was an unidentified stalker who was targeting Rochelle, a psychic expresses her belief that the murders are connected to Michael’s alleged involvement with black magic and the occult. September 8, 1984. San Francisco, California. 17-year old Kurt McFall leaves his home to spend the night with Gabriel “Caradoc” Carrillo, a friend who runs a group which teaches Paganism. Kurt never returns home and two days later, his body is discovered on a remote beach beneath a cliff. According to Caradoc, Kurt had left his apartment in the middle of the night to go swimming and the police believe that Kurt’s death was the result of an accidental fall off the cliff. However, when Kurt’s father hears allegations that Caradoc’s group functioned like a Satanic cult and Kurt was trying to escape from them, he starts to believe his son was the victim of foul play. This week, we will be presenting a special double feature episode of “The Trail Went Cold” about two “Unsolved Mysteries” cases which contained moral panics about Satanism and the occult. Special thanks to listener Austina Cronk for providing the opening narration on today’s episode. Additional Reading: https://unsolved.com/gallery/michael-johnston-rochelle-robinson/ http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940628&slug=1917909 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951208&slug=2156699 https://unsolved.com/gallery/kurt-mcfall/ https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Kurt_McFall “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” will be appearing alongside other true crime podcasts at a “A Canadian Crime Podcast Event” on July 22 at The Hideout in Toronto. For more information on the event and to purchase tickets for only $10, please visit here. “The Trail Went Cold” will be in attendance at PodernLove, a podcasting convention being held at the Intercontinental Hotel in New Orleans from August 10-12. In order to receive a 10 % discount on tickets to the event, please visit their website and use our personalized promo code, “Robert Stack”. 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 27th, 1994, Tacoma, Washington.

0:05.0

25 year old Michael Johnston and 19 year old Rochelle Robinson leave a get-together at a friend's house.

0:11.0

Later that morning, Michael is found shot to death

0:14.2

outside Rochelle's vehicle with his throat slashed. Rochelle is soon

0:18.0

found stabbed to death on a remote road with her own throat slashed and even though

0:21.6

Michael was married it turned out the two victims had been carrying on a secret affair.

0:26.1

Investigators would explore numerous leads including an unidentified stalker who allegedly targeted Rochelle

0:31.8

and the possibility that the murders were linked to the

0:33.9

occult. But the crime continues to remain unsolved. After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, yeah. I'm going to So you're are. Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of The Trail Went Cold.

1:20.0

I'm your host Robin Worger and today we'll be presenting one of our two for one

1:24.4

episodes in covering two different cases which were featured on Unsolved

1:28.0

mysteries. The 1994 murders of Michael Johnston and Rochelle Robinson and the unexplained 1984 death of Kurt

1:35.4

McVall. That voice you just heard narrating our opening was the winner of our most

1:39.8

recent Trail went cold listener voiceover contest, Austina Kronk, who did a tremendous job, so thank you very much, Ostina. As you probably know, I have made it a recurring monthly contest to hold a random draw in which I pick the name of a winner who has earned a a If you would like to learn how to enter this contest, I will be providing instructions about how to do so near the end of this episode.

2:07.0

Anyway, there are two particular reasons I have decided to cover the murders of Michael Johnston and Rochelle Robinson today.

2:14.0

Number one, that was the case Austina requested when she originally entered our contest,

2:19.2

and number two, it takes place in Washington State. You may have heard that a lot of cold cases have been getting solved lately and one of them was another double murder from Washington which was featured on Unsolved Mysteries.

2:31.0

It involved a young British Columbia couple named Jay Cook and Tanya von

2:35.2

Kylenborg who were both murdered after traveling to Seattle in 1987, but DNA evidence has recently

2:42.1

led to the arrest of a suspect.

2:44.0

Since the murders of Michael Johnston and Rochelle Robinson happened to take place near Tacoma,

2:49.0

perhaps lightning will strike twice.

...

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