16th, 1982. An abandoned SUV is found in the middle of a desolate Y Oming Prairie, and numerous

possessions are scattered all over the highway. The vehicle belongs to a former New York ad

executive named Don Kemp, who has vanished without a trace. Four years later, Don's skeletal

remains are discovered in the same area, and it's ruled that he likely died of exposure

after walking away from his SUV. However, five months after Don's disappearance, one of

his friends allegedly receives a series of bizarre phone calls from him, causing his family

to suspect foul play. After that, the trail went cold.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode number nine of the trail went cold. I am your host

Robin Warder, and today I will be covering a case which was featured on this podcast's

all-time favorite TV show, Unsolved Mysteries. In fact, it's a piece of television history,

as this was the very first case ever featured on the very first episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

I've actually had numerous requests to cover this story from the folks on the Unsolved

Mysteries message board at the sitcoms online forums, so your wish is my command. Even though

this is the one that got Unsolved Mysteries started, I didn't actually see this particular

segment until decades after it aired. I came across it on YouTube a while back, you know,

back in the good old days when Unsolved Mysteries segments were actually allowed to be posted

on YouTube, and instead of tearing the iconic voice of Robert Stack, I was quite surprised

to see Raymond Burr hosting and narrating the segment. Well, that's because Unsolved

Mysteries did not actually start off as a full-time television series. It originally started

out as a one-time only special which aired on NBC on January 20, 1987, and Raymond Burr,

he initially got the hosting gig. Over the course of the next year and a half, six more

of these Unsolved Mysteries special aired on NBC, Carl Maldon actually got hosting duties

...