The Skeleton Key Chronicles

11 hours ago

On the night of November 25th, 1991, something was clearly wrong inside a home in Granite Bay, California.

Cindy Wanner, 35, was gone and her 11-month-old baby had been left behind, crying in a highchair. Cindy's shoes were still there. Her coat hadn’t been taken and her car was still outside. There was nothing to suggest she had planned to go anywhere but it quickly became clear this wasn’t a voluntary disappearance.

What followed was an extensive search that stretched on for weeks, with investigators trying to piece together what had happened inside that home and where Cindy could have gone. Three weeks later, she was found discarded in a remote area outside Foresthill, about 40 miles away.

From there the case stalled and for the thirty five next years there were no answers, and nothing to move it forward. That all changed last month after renewed work by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit and advances in DNA testing.

Investigators were able to re-examine evidence collected back in 1991 using newer forensic methods. That work led to 64-year-old James Lawhead Jr. being taken into custody. Apparently Lawhead had been living under the alias “Vincent Reynolds” since at least 2005. Now authorities are looking into whether he could be connected to other unsolved cases along the West Coast as he awaits extradition to California.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

17 hours ago

When a tip led investigators to a sealed crypt in Philadelphia, they weren’t expecting to find more than one case tied to it. On April 3rd, 2020, authorities made their way to Mount Moriah Cemetery and located the aging stone vault. Inside, they found the remains of 33-year-old David Rossillo Jr.

At first, it looked like the had found their answer to one missing person case. But as the scene was processed, something else came to light. In that same confined space, investigators also uncovered the remains of 36-year-old Delaware County musician and tattoo artist Keith Palumbo, a discovery that added another layer to the investigation.

The crypt itself belonged to Capt. A.H. Cain, a figure from the 1800s. There was no known connection tying him to either man, but his long-sealed tomb became the place where both of these stories intersected. This case was just featured on an episode of Philly Homicide, which dropped last night. It takes a closer look at how this all unfolded and how investigators ultimately solved the case.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

22 hours ago

Nineteen years ago tonight, a three-year-old girl vanished from a holiday apartment in southern Portugal, and the case quickly became one of the most widely followed investigations in modern history. Her name was Madeleine McCann.

She went missing during a family vacation in Praia da Luz on the night of May 3, 2007. That evening, Madeleine and her two-year-old twin siblings had been put to bed inside the family’s holiday rental while their parents dined at a nearby tapas bar about 100 yards away. Over the course of the night, one parent would return periodically to check on the children.

Just after 10:00 p.m., when her mother went back to the apartment, she noticed the window in the children’s room was open and Madeleine’s bed was empty. Her younger brother and sister were still there, fast asleep, but Madeleine was nowhere to be found.

In the years since, multiple theories have circulated as investigators across different countries have worked to piece together what happened. Authorities in Germany later identified Christian Brückner as a suspect in the case, but he has denied any involvement.Despite the scale of the search and the level of attention the case has received, no one has been charged.

Madeleine would be turning 23 later this month, on May 12th. Over the years, the search effort has inspired books and even a Netflix documentary series. But despite that publicity, Madeleine remains missing.

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