The Trail Went Cold - Episode237 - Sister Roberta Elam

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

June 13, 1977. Ohio County, West Virginia. Roberta Elam, a 26-year old postulant known as “Sister Robin” who is planning to become a nun, is seen living the motherhouse of the Mount St. Joseph convent. Hours later, Sister Robin’s body is found on top of a nearby hill in a secluded mediation area and she has been raped and strangled to death. There is immediate speculation that the crime might be connected to the murders of four other young women, which took place in neighbouring Washington County during the preceding months. However, in recent years, investigators have started looking at a potential suspect who supposedly confessed to Sister Robin’s murder. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we cover the unsolved death of Sister Roberta Elam and explore its potential connection to a number of other homicides which took place during that time period. If you have any information about the murder of Sister Roberta Elam, please contact the Ohio County Sheriff’s Office at (304) 234-3680. If you have information about any of the other cold cases mentioned on this episode, please contact the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at (740) 373-2833.Additional Reading: https://www.oxygen.com/the-dna-of-murder-with-paul-holes/crime-news/paul-holes-roberta-elam-nun-murder https://www.post-gazette.com/uncategorized/2005/10/16/Case-reopened-in-1977-killing-of-postulant-nun/stories/200510160251 “Who Killed…? Pittsburgh, Pa.” by Jack Swint “Mysterious WV” Youtube Episode (Apr. 28, 2017) http://old.post-gazette.com/neigh_washington/20030928wacover0928p1.asp http://old.post-gazette.com/neigh_washington/20031005wacover1005p2.asp https://archive.triblive.com/local/local-news/two-charged-in-1977-murder-of-charlerois-mary-irene-gency/ https://www.post-gazette.com/local/washington/2011/10/26/Decades-later-pregnant-teen-s-killer-convicted/stories/201110260241 “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 going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Leonardo Royal Hotel & Spa in London on September 25-26, 2021. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to the event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD21”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk. “The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on GetVokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website. 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	We would like to send out a special thanks to the fun and challenging best fiends,
0:04.5	the infamously impossible to put down puzzle game. Download best fiends free today on the Apple
0:10.2	App Store or Google Play. That's Friends Without The R, Best Theeans. Thank you and enjoy the show.
0:17.0	June 13th, 1977 Ohio County, West Virginia.
0:24.4	Roberta Elem, a 26-year-old postulate known as Sister Robin, who was planning to become a nun,
0:30.0	leaves the mother house of the Mount St. Joseph Convent. Hours later,
0:34.3	sister Robin's body is found on top of a hill in a meditation area
0:37.9	and she has been raped and strangled to death. There is speculation that her death might be
0:42.4	connected to the murders of other young women which took place in neighboring Washington County during the preceding months.
0:48.0	In recent years, investigators have looked into a potential suspect who supposedly confessed to sister Robbins murder,
0:55.3	but have yet to uncover any conclusive evidence to link him to the crime.
0:59.2	After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of the Trail went cold.
1:40.0	I'm your host Robin Warder and today we're going to be exploring an horrific crime
1:44.2	about a victim who was preparing to become a nun, the 1977 murder of Sister
1:49.6	Roberta Elam. This case was originally suggested to me nearly three years ago by a listener named Cairo and in late 2019
1:57.7	It was also explored by noted cold case investigator Paul Holz in an episode of his true crime TV series, The DNA of
2:05.2	murder.
2:06.6	Roberta Eelham was a postulate who had just joined the Sisters of St Joseph and was known
2:11.3	as Sister Robin at the time of her death.
2:14.0	On the day she was killed, Sister Robin was staying at the Mount St Joseph Convent in Ohio County,
2:20.0	and had just begun an eight-day silent retreat in which she would contemplate and prepare for her
2:25.2	final vows to become a nun.
	...

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