Cold Case Files - The Campfire Mint Murderer

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

When nine-year-old Candy Rogers, turns up dead after selling mints door-to-door, Spokane detectives launch a dogged campaign to find her killer. What follows is one of the longest Cold Case investigations in the State history.goPure: head to gopurebeauty.com and use code coldcase at checkout for 25% off!Hydrow: Head over to Hydrow.com and use code COLDCASE to save up to $475 off your Hydrow Pro RowerProgressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at Shopify.com/coldcase and take your retail business to the next level today!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. But MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hi, Cold Case listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of Cold Case files, as well as the A&E Classic Podcasts, I Survived, American Justice, and City Confidential, are all available ad-free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation Channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now on to the show. The following episode contains disturbing accounts of physical and sexual violence. Listener discretion is advised. Candy Rogers was my cousin.

Sixty years is an awful long time. He had done some terrible things to her. She wouldn't have gone willingly. She would have fought. People turned out in droves to come look for candy. But the helicopter flunged into the water. We're dealing with a monster here. I took a hammer and started smashing the tooth.

I can't imagine having to cover up for somebody, no matter how much I love them. Who could have done it? Where is he? Who else is he hurt? Candy has never been out of my mind. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only about 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's March 6, 1956 in Spokane, Washington. It's an exciting day in the Evergreen State for nine-year-old Candy Rogers and all the kids who take part in Campfire Girls. Joanne Posse is Candy's cousin.

We had a campfire mint sale. Every year, it was a big thing. That's what kept campfire going. Zach Stormant is a sergeant with the Spokane Police Department. March 6, 1955 for Candy Rogers started with school. as usual, but she also had the excitement of selling campfire mints that afternoon. At the end of the day, she picked up seven boxes of mints, quite an armload with her school books and the mints. She was a little thing. Candy weighed only 60 pounds, was 4 foot 4.

She lived with her mother, Elaine. Candy was the cutest little bug. Candy had a face that always smiled. It just, she had a smile, always. She was very shy and an only child. I was 13 years old. In the eighth grade, Candy was in the fourth grade. Candy loved dolls. My sister and I also, we were doll kids. And we would play dolls, a lot of mate believe, a dress up, lots of dress up. It was very girly. Brian Hammond is a former detective from the Spokane Police Department. mother was a school teacher. Candy's dad lived in Oregon. She lived right next door to her grandparents. At 4 p.m., Candy set out in her own neighborhood to sell Ments. She visited anywhere from

10 to 15 different homes. Candy stayed within one or two blocks of her own home. She was very energetic. She was a go-getter. The goal was for every Camp Fire Girl to sell 20 boxes, and Candy wanted to exceed that number. Darkness set in at about 5.45 in Spokane on March 6. When she did not return in it, it got dark, her grandparents started looking for her. Family members, neighbors, and police quickly got involved. A family member called my Uncle Carl, who was Candy's father. Uncle Carl got in the car and immediately came up, and he never left.

That night, volunteers find boxes of campfire mince scattered along the road by the Spokane River, which police believe belonged to Candy. They were not altogether. Would tell me that they're getting thrown out of a vehicle while it's moving. She wouldn't have gone willingly. She would have fought. I think in Candy's mind, she was giving the police a trail to follow. One of the boxes of mints, they found on the night of the initial search.

produced a latent fingerprint. It was sent to the FBI, and it was never identified. The following morning, the community comes together to search for candy. When daylight came, people turned out in droves. Postal workers, Marine Corps, airmen, utility workers, police, sheriff,

airmen from Fairchild Air Force Base. Every walk of life came and volunteered their time to come look for candy. Fearchild is to the west of Spokane. It's a pretty sizable Air Force Base and has been there for a long time. We also had a National Guard unit just outside the town. That morning, a helicopter with five airmen from the Air Force Base takes off to help in the search for candy along the Spokane River. Michael Holloway was a crew member on the helicopter.

We were flying downriver at a slow speed, and I noticed a shake in the aircraft. and I looked up then we had just flown into the high tension wire spanning the river. I hit my head. I must have been stunned because I don't remember the impact of the water or the river. I guess the cold water woke me up. I slipped from the shoulder harness and slam up and then to shore. Unfortunately, three crew members did not survive, but two were pulled out and did survive the crash. The search for candy went on. There was a great deal of hope that she would be found alive. We were all praying and hoping that they would find candy.

In my mind, she was going to be fine. Absolutely fine. The search for candy continues around the clock. Finally, two weeks after she vanished, two airmen who had gone hunting find a pair of girls' shoes in the woods. The police met up with those airmen, and they traveled to that site that night and the shoes were found.

Darkness had set in, but preparations were made to begin a search of that area for candy that morning. Police searched the woods looking for anything that will lead them to Candy Rogers. Richard Oldberding is a former captain with the Spokane Police Department. About 50, 60 yards in from the road,

my partner and I came to a pilot of clippings from trees and dead boughs. As we moved around it, my partner, all of a sudden said, there she is. All we saw was a little kneecap of a child's sticking out of the brush pile. The police officers stand guard over what could be Candy's remains until detectives arrive. It affects you when you have something like that. I had a daughter, one year old, and a son five years old. you have to kind of put it in the back of your mind or you wouldn't retain your sanity, I don't think. When Candy Rogers' body was discovered, everything changes.

The chief is quoted as saying, we're dealing with a maniac. We know we're looking for a maniac. The condition she was found in, it would have affected the investigators. They shifted into high gear, trying to find her to kill her. The killer was out there. When they found Candy, I just remember being devastated. You don't lose a cousin this way.

And my Uncle Carl, Candy's father, had to identify her. After he identified her, he came to my mom's house. I really didn't think I'd be this emotional. I'm sorry. I could hear him crying. And my mother crying. The killer had done some terrible things to Candy. And my uncle, he couldn't forget it.

As Candy's family grieves, the coroner conducts an autopsy. The cause of death was determined to be strangulation. There were obvious signs of sexual assault. Her feet were bound with a strip of her own clothing. During the autopsy, one of the detectives noticed a material. on her little jacket, and he felt it was gum, grape gum. Investigators actually went to stores to identify anyone that tended to like grape gum, but no luck.

I think any family member was a suspect. My uncle Carl, Candy's father, was a suspect. He said it was bad. He said having to go in, but he said they know I didn't do it. Once the family is ruled out, detectives must widen the pool of possible suspects. A person who was tipped, I want to say my friend, about a man by the name of Albert Graves, who wanted to kill himself after Candy went missing. And on the day that Candy was found, he actually did kill himself.

It was reported that he had a history of what was called inappropriate. touching with females. At his home, apparently there were newspaper clippings of Candy's search, and in the trunk of his car, they found bobby pins and a length of rope. It piqued their interest. And for someone to take their own life, that's a big red flag that somebody is experiencing a great deal of guilt, perhaps, over Candy. So they looked into him with some considerable hope, but he's dead.

They didn't have any other kind of evidence or any witness to the crime, so they could only take that suspect so far. So when they move on, they have to keep following up the other leads. My parents, I don't think they wanted us to know really what all was going on. Elaine and Candy were very close. It was a beautiful relationship. She never remarried. She never had any more children. It had to have been very hard on her. Another tip comes in, providing detectives with a strong lead. A career predator whose hunting

ground is the same spokane streets where Candy lived. He was a serial rapist, and they all involved young females, and they all involved taking them in his vehicle. During the time she was missing. This career criminal was a part of the search for her. It's not unusual for a suspect to insert themselves into an investigation. This man, on the very night that she went missing around midnight, contacted one of the motorcycle officers. Then the next day, he started searching on his own for candy. He also asked a friend for an hour. very specifically to cover for him knowing the police would eventually contact him because of his other crimes. This career criminal said that he spent the evening with his friend on the east side of Spokane

and left approximately 11 o'clock at night. Detectives contacted that friend and he confirmed his alibi. So short of finding direct evidence with the person or at his home, they only had just so much that they could go on, and that's one of the frustrations that they obviously faced. Then the tips just started trailing off. There just wasn't a whole lot coming in. It's now October 13, 1961, two and a half years after Candy's murder. Detectives are coming up empty, when, in 1961, a suspect surfaces in the Midwest who once lived in Spokane. A subject by the name of Hugh Morris emerged and with Goodreys.

He is deemed a serial killer and murdered women across the United States. This included molestation of children. We're dealing with a monster here. This time of year, I feel like I'm already racking up miles just living life. Travel, plans, nonstop, every day. So the last thing I want is to tack on more running around just to squeeze in a workout. That's why I love having hydro at home. No commute, no class times, no trying to wedge in logistics.

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same time that Candy was abducted. He had committed rape homicides and molestations across the nation. The FBI put out a nationwide warrant for him and swooped in and arrested him. Police discover something chilling about Hugh Morse's M.O. in 1961. It was reported that Morris had a pension for grape gum, like that substance on Candy's jacket noticed during her autopsy. Whether we want to call it a calling card or not, he left grape gum on some victims. This became a source of hope for the detectives. Morse confessed two of the murders, rapes murders of the two women here in Spokane, but he adamantly denied any involvement with Candy Rogers.

He would not confess to Candy, and he did volunteer for a polygraph. They gave him two polygraph tests, and he passed both. The detectives still felt strongly that they had their guy, but they just couldn't quite make the leap to probable cause. He was imprisoned in Minnesota for life. for other crimes. But for Candy Rogers' murder, Morris just didn't pan out. In 1963, four years after Candy's murder, tragedy strikes her family again.

Candy's father, my uncle Carl, he was a great guy, but he started to drink. And then he wouldn't talk. He'd wake up in the middle of the night crying. And he bought a gun and he killed himself. So that was the third tragedy that happened. First Candy and then these airmen and then my uncle kills himself. In the mid-60s, investigators did have to stop because they were at a dead end. With no new leads, the case goes cold.

Candy's murder haunts her cousin, Joanne. For me, remembering Candy was every year at the candy sale. I would think, why, why did this have to happen? When I became a campfire leader, we instigated the buddy system and we said, no campfire girl is to go out selling campfire mints by herself. She has to have somebody with her. In 2001, four decades after the case goes cold, a clue suddenly materializes when police in Oregon match a fingerprint from a stolen car to a print-fellant.

found on a box of Candy's campfire mints. Police searched the car, and what they found were girls' underwear, so they fingerprinted that car. They found a fingerprint on the Rueview Mirror. We got a phone call, hey, we have a possible print hit on Candy Rogers' investigation. This caused a great deal of excitement. After so many years, this might be the answer.

2001, there was a potential fingerprint hit What we call an aphas hit, the automated fingerprint identification system, from a vehicle found in Oregon that apparently matched the fingerprint that was taken off the mint box back in 1959. That fingerprint has to be compared one-to-one by a fingerprint technician to determine if it's a true match. the technician ultimately determined that it was a miss. It wasn't a good hit to the case. The organ lead fizzles, but Candie's case gets new life and a new investigator who takes a fresh look at all the old evidence. She is the first to apply modern DNA to the investigation,

determining does DNA even exist on any of our evidence? The detective found that we, had candy's underwear in a mason jar, which kept it airtight, which is amazing. Brittany Wright is a forensic scientist. Being in a glass mason jar, this really preserved that DNA evidence. The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab found seaman on her underwear and were able to get a strong DNA profile, and that was huge as well. The DNA profile was then uploaded to the CODIS database.

The combined DNA index system, and there were never any hits obtained. The DNA profile allows detectives to finally compare the DNA of earlier suspects in Candy's murder. But there's no match. She's our number one victim. She's this little girl who was so viciously assaulted and murdered and thrown away like trash. but the case is cold in every regard. It is genuinely cold. You try to bury things,

but there were times that I know I would sit and think about candy and especially how she was killed, and I didn't think it would ever be solved. Almost 20 more years pass before another ray of hope appears for detectives when a new technology called genetic genealogy emerges. Genetic genealogy is the, use of ancestry databases to build a family tree around the DNA obtained from the crime scene,

from the perpetrator who left behind their DNA. When genetic genealogy does its thing, they come up with this amazing result that puts you right back into a current homicide investigation. When I was assigned the case, I was pregnant with my first child, and so there was a lot of emotions going on about working a child homicide case, handling an item that was on that individual's body when they were experiencing the most horrible act of violence. You are immediately put in their shoes. That's really what drove me.

Since the crime lab does not do genetic genealogy, Brittany Wright needs to provide a whole new DNA sample to a private genealogy lab to do advanced testing. I was able to find a preserved DNA extract from seminal fluid, from Candy Rogers, underwear, just enough DNA to be able to do testing with. DNA evidence is a very finite material. There is only so much of it. I contacted the Spokane Police Department that we had a sample that we could send off.

We chose a lab called Parabon because we'd had a success with them the year before. The lab had asked for about what's called four nanograms of DNA. If you were to cut a paper clip into a billion pieces, I would only need one of those billion pieces to get a nanogram. I put the DNA into a separate sterile tube. I packaged that into a cooler with ice packs and put that inside a box. I then shipped that through the mail to the lab. I was tracking that sample, and I noticed that the package wasn't moving. Something happened, and it was crushed beyond belief.

The DNA evidence had leaked out. I was completely and utterly devastated. We sent a sample to a genealogy lab, and unfortunately, the sample was destroyed in shipping. There was only six nanograms left, but I decided at that point to double down, and I felt like this could still absolutely get solved. The second DNA sample arrived safely to the lab, but the sample was too far degraded for them to be able to get any usable information. At that moment, I felt like the technology hadn't advanced enough to be able to work a DNA sample as challenging as this. Despite the endless string of setbacks, Brittany Wright refuses to give up. In 2021, 62 years after Candy's murder, she learns about one last way to find Candy's killer.

A lab called Othrum was offering a type of technology that could handle degraded DNA samples called whole genome sequencing. It could better handle those tiny fragments of DNA that had broken down over time. I asked Sergeant Stormant if he was willing to send this little bit of DNA that we had left in the case to try one more time with Othrum Labs. I said, we can do this. Let's get it done. The sample was sent off to Othrum in March of 2021. If this didn't work, this case was going to be done. Candy's cousin, Joanna, doesn't know that investigators are still trying to find the killer after all these years.

I didn't realize that I could have picked up the phone and said, hey, I want to talk to somebody in major crimes and say, what's going on with the Candy Rogers case? We just never did it. I didn't know people could do that. 60 years is an awful long time. September, 2021, neither Sergeant Stormant or I had heard anything from Othrum. It's Labor Day weekend, and my phone starts coming to life.

I know this is Othrum calling about Candy Rogers. They have somebody in mind, or at least a family. We at least have a name. I don't think I'm a very excitable person. But that was incredible. I've never had a phone call like that in my life. It came out of nowhere. Both Sergeant Storm and I were in complete disbelief.

They gave me three names over the phone. They were John Hoff, Terry Hoff, and James Hoff, all brothers who lived in Spokane and were now deceased. Genealogy can't differentiate between brothers. They all appear the same in a family tree. I left for work that night and started digging into them. I very strongly suspected one of them of having raped and killed Candy Rogers. My next steps are to narrow it down to the one, and I want to do that through DNA.

They're all three dead. John Ray Hoff appears to be the only one with any children. I called the youngest daughter first. I said I was a cold case investigator and looking for her help. Kathy Baird is John Ray Hoff's daughter. So we went down to the detective building and met him. He just said it was a murder, and it occurred in 1959. And it is either one of your uncles or it's your dad, but it is one of them.

I'm like, so what, you're going to want my DNA? He goes, well, if you would be willing to give it, I can't imagine not giving DNA to cover up for somebody. no matter how much I love them. You know what I mean? Whoever ever thinks their dad is going to be someone that would do that. I compared Kathy's DNA profile to the perpetrator's DNA profile. Whoever left behind their DNA sample on Candy Rogers' underwear was also the father of Kathy.

John Ray Hoff had a petty juvenile record. He enlisted early in the U.S. Army at the age of 17. He was stationed in Spokane at the time of Candy Rogers' homicide. John Ray Hoff was discharged from the Army, dishonorably, and bounced from odd job to odd job. He committed suicide in 1970. All signs point to John Ray Hoff, but there's a huge question hanging over the case,

and the question is, who is Kathy's biological father? Kathy's mother had an affair while her husband was in Korea. The affair added uncertainty to the question of whether or not John Hoff was truly her biological father. So the only way to resolve this is to exhume John Ray Hoff. You know, when I first thought about starting my podcast, I had all the usual doubts. Do I know what I'm doing? what if no one listens? Honestly, those same worries pop up for anyone starting a business. And that's why I love talking about Shopify, because it's built to take those what ifs and turn them into,

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and start selling today at Shopify.com slash coldcase. Go to shopify.com slash coldcase. Shopify.com slash coldcase. Coldcase files is brought to you by progressive insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called AutoQuote Explorer that allows you to compare your progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies. So you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this episode at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, not available in all states or situations. Price is very based on how you buy. The reason to exhumed John Hoff was to be able to do a direct comparison of John Hoff's DNA to the crime scene evidence and not have any room for doubt. But what's our prospects of actually getting DNA from human remains that have been in the ground for 51 years? We really worried that his grave was going to be submerged in water, which is going to guarantee that the DNA

is going to be all but gone. On September 23rd, 2021, investigators begin exhuming John Ray Hoff's grave. They got to work digging the grave and opening the cement vault. There were skeletal remains. But there was absolutely no usable DNA. I decided to give one more shot

and try and get DNA from his teeth. I took a hammer and then I just started smashing until the tooth was fragmented enough to where I could access the roots of the teeth. I actually had DNA in one of those teeth. I was very, very excited. I ran that sample overnight. When I got to work, I ran to my computer

and I opened up the software that analyzes the DNA profiles. It's October 1st of 2021. Brittany calls and says, that's it. It's him. The match between John Hoff's tooth and the DNA evidence was a complete match. It was 25 quintillion times more likely that the profile originated from John Hoff than anybody else. And finally, the clock stops.

62 years, eight months, and I forget, 13 days, that clock finally stopped. When the news breaks in Spokane, no one is more surprised than Candy's cousin. It was shock, total shock. And then, why weren't we notified? So my daughter made a couple phone calls. Within a half an hour, Sergeant Zach Stormett was sitting in our living room. And he said, we didn't know you existed. And he told us everything that night, everything.

I wanted people to know what my dad did. There's no making him pay for it. There's no punishment. but I'm going to expose him. It's not like I feel guilty like I did it, but I feel responsible like I wish I could fix it. I imagine Candy as a bright, bubbly, carefree kid who was living in a world without fear

and only hope were simple things made you happy and there really was nothing to worry about. I don't feel there's ever justice in a case like this. I don't. I don't. Enclosure will never happen because what would she have been? What could she have done? She might have been a doctor. She could have been a great scientist.

We'll never know that. She's with God. She's in a safe place. Nobody's going to hurt her. This is so fresh for you. Please know. It will get easier. Oh, and it will.

It'll get easier and it won't hurt as bad. Since the discovery of Candy's killer after 62 years, Joanne Poss and Kathy Baird have met and made a real connection. I haven't had anybody act like they know me. Like we'll never be able to get away from it. But me and Joanne are able to build a relationship out of this. And there's going to be moments that seem like just want to sit and cry.

It's like it's been a whole circle. I mean, her father took my cousin's life, but now I'm friends with the daughter and think very highly of her. We need to take care of each other. Good overcomes evil. This September, CBS hits are streaming free on Pluto TV. For this month only,

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