Cold Case Files - Unsolved

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

After Cindy Warner disappeared from her sister’s home with her 11-month old child still inside and no signs of struggle in 1991, investigators knew they were in for a tough case. Despite the eventual discovery of evidence and the confidence of forensic investigators, the case still remains unsolved. Progressive: Progressive.com  ZocDoc: Check out Zocdoc.com/CCF and download the Zocdoc app for free! 

Hi, Cold Case listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And before we get into this week's episode, I just wanted to remind you that episodes of Cold Case Files, as well as the A&E Classic Podcast, 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. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. On the morning of November 25th, 1991, in Placer County, California, 36-year-old Cindy Wanner works cleaning the home of her sister, Susan Rye.

She came over, typical time, around 8 o'clock in the morning. And Phil and I had an appointment with an attorney for his parents' trust. So we were gone all morning. Susan and Phil Rye returned home around 11 1130 and leave again in a little afternoon. Cindy goes into the bathroom and begins to clean. A little more than an hour later, her husband Bob arrives at the Rye home. He walks through an unlocked front door to find his 11th month old still in the high chair crying. Cindy's cleaning supplies are in the bathroom and Cindy herself is gone. I mean, it's crazy.

What do you mean she's not there? And what do you mean the baby's still there? I knew right then that something was bad. Five minutes later, Bob Wanner is on the phone with the Placer County Sheriff's Department. Bill Summers is called to the scene. At first, we thought possibly that she just could have wandered off. Then after interviewing the family and started realizing that her lifestyle was of a very low risk type of lifestyle, then we started believing possibly she could have been kidnapped. The house itself is largely undisturbed with no signs of a struggle. Bob McDonald is the detective with the

Placer County Sheriff's Department. No sign of violence, no sign of any struggle. Bob McDonald is the detective with the Placer County Sheriff's Department. No sign of violence, no sign of any struggle, nothing. The child was crying, sitting in her chair crying, and Cindy's shoes were still present. Her purse was gone and Cindy was gone. Forensic tech Faye Springer processes the scene for trace evidence and prints, but turns up nothing. The house was immaculate. There just wasn't anything that we could focus on. The only thing that even looked halfway suspicious was the cigarette butt. A single cigarette butt found on a walkway outside the home. As neither the Ries

nor the Wanners smoked, investigators speculate the butt must have been dropped by Sidney's kidnapper. In the days before DNA testing, the cigarette is dusted for prints. Like the rest of the scene, however, the stray butt comes up clean. With no obvious clues to pursue, investigators are left with nothing but conjecture. This is speculation,

but it appears as if someone presented themselves at the front door or walked in if the door was unlocked. And other than taking her by force, which is assumed, there's just no indication of anything else that happened in the house. A woman taken from a home in the middle of the day while her 11th-month-old looks on. The crime is as unusual as it is bold,

and detectives realize the clock is running out on ever finding Cindy Wanner alive. We felt that if she was not found within a day or two, that most likely we were going to find the body somewhere. Nine days after Cindy Wanner first disappeared, the good news is that no body has turned up, offering a slender hope that the missing mother of two is still alive. The bad news, investigators have no real leads in the case. At a little after 2 p.m., that all changes.

Cindy's bank informs police that Wanner's ATM card was used at a local mini-mart, just three hours after she first vanished. We're assuming the suspect was able to obtain her personal identification number and use that card one time. He only used it one time. Cindy's bank confirms that ATM transactions at the mini-mart are videotaped. Hopes rise that whoever used the card

might have been caught on camera. By the time investigators request the tapes, however, they have already been recycled. Because of a mistake made by the ATM company, the bank, we weren't notified of the use of that card until after that surveillance tape had been taped over one week later. It's very disappointing. Very disappointing insofar as it would have given us at least a time frame. It would have given us a picture. And it would have given us a lot more information than we had at that point.

Because at that point, we didn't even have a body. We didn't know if she was alive or dead. Alive or dead? The answer to that question comes 11 days later in a field 50 miles away. Cold Case Files is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Let's face it, sometimes multitasking can be overwhelming, like when your favorite podcast is playing and the person next to you is talking and your car fan is blasting, all while you're trying to find the perfect parking spot. But then again, sometimes multitasking is easy, like quoting with Progressive Insurance.

They do the hard work of comparing rates so you can find a great rate that works for you, even if it's not with them. Give their nifty comparison tool a try, and you might just find getting the rate and coverage you deserve is easy. All you need to do is visit Progressive's website to get a quote with all the coverage you want, like comprehensive and collision coverage or personal injury protection. Then you'll see Progressive's direct rate, and their tool will provide options from other companies,

all lined up and ready to compare, so it's simple to choose the rate and coverages you like. Press play on comparing auto rates. Quote at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. Comparison rates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. On December 14, 1991, just outside Auburn, California, the road begins to climb into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. At a little after 3.30 p.m., a deer

hunter breaks through the brush of trees and onto a footpath. To his left, he sees something in the light scrub. It's the body of a woman, partially naked and strangled to death. One of the detectives who handled Cindy Wanner's disappearance is called to the scene. She was nude, except for her bra. There was some leaves on her shoulders, as well as her back. Tattoos on the body confirmed what Bill Summers already suspects. The Jane Doe lying in the brush is Cindy Wanner, and his unsolved disappearance has just turned into a homicide. Faye Springer processed the home from which Cindy Wanner was abducted. Now she collects evidence

from Cindy's body. The first thing she notices, the pristine condition of the corpse. It certainly did not look like she was kept someplace for a month and not allowed to take a shower. If Cindy Wanner was killed immediately after her abduction, as Springer suspects, the forensic expert would also expect to find extensive organ decomposition. An autopsy, however, reveals very little deterioration, making it even more difficult to establish a time of death. That's part of the mystery of this case. The only thing that makes sense at this point is that she probably died shortly after she was abducted, and she was kept someplace, in a freezer, refrigerator, someplace that would prevent her from decomposing until such a time that she was deposited up there in the hills.

The only other significant piece of evidence found on the body are bits of green fiber and metal flaking, plucked from the neck and shoulder and tangled up in the corpse's hair. Just a few hundred feet from where the body was found was a garbage dump. Inside that dump, police discovered a bag containing four beer cans, pornographic magazines, and a pornographic videotape. Also inside the bag, green fibers and metal flaking. When forensics puts this trace evidence under a microscope, they're able to link these fibers to those pulled off Wanner's body. It's very significant because the contents of the bag gives us suspect behavior. We know now that there is a connection from the body to that bag. Detectives have their first toehold in the unfolding investigation. Two fingerprints are taken off the beer cans and one off the tape.

The lifts are run through APHIS, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, but no match is made. In 1991, with DNA testing still in its infancy, little more can be done with the pieces of evidence. No further leads develop, and the investigation into Cindy Wanner's kidnap and murder goes cold. When you're young, you think being a grown-up means you have all the answers. But then you get older and realize you're just figuring things out as you go all the time. How to do your taxes, how to balance work and life.

With everything we have to figure out in our lives, at least finding a doctor has been made easy, thanks to ZocDoc. ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high-quality in-network doctors, choose the right one for your needs, and click to instantly book an appointment.

We're talking about in-network appointments with more than 100,000 healthcare providers across every specialty, from mental health to dental health, eye care to skincare, and much more. Plus, ZocDoc appointments happen fast, typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking. You can even score same-day appointments.

I've been using ZocDoc to make my doctor appointments for a while now, and I love how easy it is to search for what I need and how quickly I can make appointments. When something is wrong, I just wanna take care of it right away. So stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to ZocDoc.com slash CCF to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C.com slash CCF. ZocDoc.com slash CCF.

On November 25th, Cindy Wanner disappears from her sister's home, leaving her 11th-month-old daughter in a high chair and no signs of a struggle inside the house. Twenty days later, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Cindy's body is discovered. Forensics pulls traces of green fiber and metal flaking from the corpse. Nearby, detectives find a bag containing beer cans and a videotape and pornographic magazine. Green fibers and metal flakes found inside the bag are linked to the trace evidence pulled off Cindy's body. Prints are pulled from the beer cans and videotape, but no match is made. Who killed Cindy Wanner and why? For 12 years, that question remains unanswered and the case goes cold

until a detective attends a cold case seminar and meets an expert in the art of DNA detection. In the spring of 2002, Bob McDonald has worked the Wanner case for almost 10 years with nothing to show for it. One morning, McDonald attends a cold case seminar, hoping to change his luck. I went to Monterey and presented this case

to what are other attendees, other homicide detectives, and also experts, forensic experts, legal experts, pathologists, and just review the case with them. Among those in the audience that day, Jill Spriggs, a DNA expert as well as a local who remembers Cindy Wanner. I remember the case very well. I remember the case was unusual

with a child sitting at the table by herself and the mother just basically vanished into thin air. Spriggs works for the State Crime Lab in Sacramento. As part of a new initiative, California has targeted unsolved cold cases as a priority for forensic testing. Spriggs believes strong forensic links already developed in the case make it a prime candidate for more sophisticated genetic testing. There's one thing that's very interesting in that this case is that some green fibers had been found on the body as well as in the bag that contains the evidence that we're going to test. So those are very good items that we want to go ahead and do DNA testing on because we know that they're linked

in some way based on those fibers. The California DOJ gives cold case files exclusive access as the Wanner case is reopened and the evidence re-examined. Spriggs begins by using a laser light to search for traces of semen on the pornographic magazine. She also examines the bra Cindy Wanner was wearing. We're going to take that bra and do some amylase mapping on the bra. That's to determine whether or not we can pick up any saliva, let's say from someone licking around her breasts and see if we can genetically profile that if there is saliva there.

If bodily fluids are present, they will typically fluoresce under the laser and then can be tested for DNA. In this case, however, Spriggs comes up empty. Next, she turns her attention to the best pieces of forensic evidence in the case. Beer cans found near the body and linked to it through fiber evidence and a stray cigarette butt found on the walkway outside the home from which Wanner was taken. If Cindy's killer drank

from the can or touched his lips to the cigarette filter, chances are good that even 12 years later, traces of his DNA will remain. With the cigarette butt, what you do is you cut out very small pieces. You don't need a very large piece. And the same thing they're going to do with that is extract it for DNA, get the epithelial cells out of it, get the DNA out of those cells, and then quantitate it and amplify it and type it. When Coldcase spoke with Spriggs,

she was confident in extracting a DNA profile from one or both of the items. To date, however, no such profile has been developed. If we can get a profile, then we will go back and contact a number of individuals whom we had originally investigated, had cleared, but yet they still fit somewhat of the profile of the perpetrator. And we would ask them to submit their DNA for comparison.

Who kidnapped Cindy Wanner from a home in the suburbs and why? As detectives wait for a genetic profile, they continue to work the case, hoping that if science cannot provide the answer, someone somewhere can. This someone knows something. Maybe not tying them in specifically to this crime, but if they see this program and see some of the information, it may cause someone to rethink and contact law enforcement. It's amazing sometimes, even after this number of years,

how much new information comes from the public when they view these kinds of things, and we're willing to look and listen to anybody. I don't know when, I don't know how, but I believe that there's going to be somebody. I truly believe and implore that there will be somebody that will step forward. As of the time of this recording, Cindy Wanner's murder remains unsolved. If you have any information regarding the abduction and murder of Cindy Wanner, please contact the Placer County

Sheriff's Department. Cold Case Files is hosted by Marissa Pinson, produced by Jeff DeRay, and distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at anetv.com.