The Gone Cold Podcasts May Contain Violent or Graphic Subject Matter Listener Discretion is advised.

On a warm Friday evening in Texarkana, Texas.

June 4, 1948, Hazel Carpenter sat in her living room,

chatting with Lucille Bailey, who rented the spare bedroom in her home.

Maybe she's sick, Hazel said, referring to her daughter, Virginia.

Earlier that week, Hazel had taken Virginia to Union Depot, where she boarded a train heading for Texas State College for Women, or T.S.C.W. in Denton.

Hazel was a little concerned that her daughter hadn't written since her arrival

like she was supposed to.

Surely if Virginia was sick, the worried mother's border offered, she'd have called to let you know or had someone at the college call for her.

Just as Hazel got out a couple words in reply, the ringing of her telephone interrupted.

As she made her way to answer, Hazel thought that must be Virginia calling.

Good timing.

Hazel picked up the phone, and on the other line was an operator who said she had a call from Dallas for Virginia Carpenter.

Virginia wasn't there, she told the operator, but could be reached in Denton at the Texas State College

for Women's Dormitory, Bracken Ridge Hall.

She hung up the phone, but immediately realized that the only person who'd be calling for her daughter

from Dallas was Kenny Branham, a boy who'd been desperately trying to win Virginia's heart

as of late.

Kenny, it dawned on Hazel, knew Virginia had already left for Denton,

and could have easily reached her there himself.

The foreboding feeling Hazel had at the train station days earlier, which she'd

been telling herself was silly, returned, and was intensified.

...