Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 59 | The IMPOSSIBLE Cold Case That Was Solved By Redditors

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Genealogy student Christina Skates never expected her school project to crack a 40-year-old murder case. In this episode, we follow how her passion for family history and DNA sleuthing led to a breakthrough that stunned investigators and brought long-overdue justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christina Skates thought she was killing time. The 23-year-old biology student was scrolling through cemetery records on a quiet afternoon in 2014, when the line 82483 stopped her cold. And on that line was a date of death, February 5, 1975. And beside the date was a name. But it wasn't a name. It just said, unknown white female bones. So Christina just stared, puzzled.

Someone had been murdered, buried without identity, and completely forgotten. As she later put it, quote, it was in the back of my mind for a couple months every day, thinking this isn't right. This isn't how things should be. What Christina couldn't know was that her inability to let go would set off a chain reaction spanning years and continents. A single college student's curiosity would mobilize internet strangers,

expose massive system failures, and ultimately solve a decades-old cold case that stumped police for generations. So this is that story, how one haunting line in a cemetery ledger became a digital crusade to give a nameless murder victim or identity back. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually minded. And today, we are doing just that.

into a case that is extremely interesting because my good friends over at Reddit solved a dang cold case. And it is an extremely interesting case. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield into this solved cold case together. So Christina Skates had always been drawn to mysteries, hiding in plain sight. And as a biology major at Cleveland State University, she spent her free time. tracing family histories and connecting dots across generations. But this wasn't casual hobby work. Christina had developed serious genealogy skills

using advanced database searches, DNA analysis, and cross-referencing techniques that would make professional researchers envious. So genealogy just satisfied something in her methodical mind, the puzzle-solving the detective work of uncovering forgotten stories. And she'd become known in genealogy communities for her thoroughness, her ability to track down records, others missed,

and her persistence in cases where the trails had gone cold. But line 82483 was different, because the entry appeared clinical, routine even, because beside the name was unknown white female bones. And most people would have just scrolled past it. But Christina couldn't. And the geography of this particular case made it personal to Christina

because she had grown up in Strongsville, which was just 20 minutes from where the remains were discovered. So this wasn't some distant tragedy. This was her backyard. Someone murdered, buried, nameless, and forgotten just miles from her childhood home. So to understand how a murder became a footnote, we need to rewind back to February 15, 1975, when three teenage boys were exploring along Rocky River

in Millstream Run Reservation, when they made a grim discovery. Scattered among the winter debris were partial skeletal remains, clearly human and clearly old. Or that's what they thought. And the boys would call the police eventually. It took them a minute, but, you know, whether they were scared of admitting it to their parents

or they were just scared, general, we won't know. But they did end up calling the police. And the excavation that followed yielded more questions than answers. But the skull told the story, because there was a 24 caliber bullet lodged in the left temple. And on February 12, 1975, the death was ruled a homicide. But the skeleton was incomplete, weathered by months of exposure. An animal scavenging had scattered bones throughout the woods,

so crucial pieces were entirely missing. And the jawbone was completely gone. Along with most of the teeth, there was only five left. Plus, one interrupted Wisdom Tooth. And the age estimate was about, 20. But without the completed remains, that was even educated guesswork. So investigators knew they had a young white woman murdered and dumped along Rocky River. And someone had executed her with a single shot to the head, then abandoned her body in the woods. But without identification, without

family coming forward, the case grew cold fast. So the investigation tried everything 1975 had to offer. They even compare the skull to photos of Patty Hurst. She was actually making headlines at the time. So the police just thought, you know, the most famous person in the United States right now that's not even near this location. Maybe it's Patty Hurst, you know, they're kind of crossing their fingers that they could solve one of the biggest cases in the United States at the time. But alas, the dental records did not match and it was just far reaching anyway. So they couldn't find a match and no missing persons reports fit with this case and no families claimed her. So on May 15, 1975, three months after discovery, the identified remains were buried in Potter's Fields at Memorial

Garden Cemetery. A Memorial Garden Cemetery was basically where bodies that were unclaimed went, and her headstone was unmarked and unremarkable. And there was no grieving family, no friends, just another unclaimed body in an anonymous section reserved for those with nowhere else to go. And that cemetery entry would be what caught Christina's attention, all those years later, unknown white female bones. So someone was looking for her once again. But since 1975, years had passed and the case files just gathered dust and detectives retired. And evidence was just boxed away. So the young woman murdered along Rocky River became truly forgotten, existing only in that ledger. But in 2014, Christina decided to do something about it. Because

Christina's biology training had taught her to question to dig deeper when something didn't add up. And her genealogy hobby had shown her how to research, how to connect seemingly unrelated information. And her naturally inquisitive personality, what friends called her amateur detective streak, wouldn't abandon someone so completely forgot by the system meant to protect them. So staring at the cemetery entry, Christina had no idea she was about to trigger a chain of events that would captivate online communities, engage professional forensic artists, expose system-wide failures, and give a name back to someone erased from history

for 44 years. So Christina made the decision that would consume the next several years of her life. An unknown white female bones would get her name back because of it. So she started where any good researcher would, the newspaper. So hours at local libraries hunched over micro-feesh machines,

scrolling through decades-old archives, she searched for any mention of February 1975 discovery along the Rocky River. Just hoping contemporary coverage might reveal details missing from official reports. But what she found was worse than silence. There was virtually nothing. A young woman murdered remains discovered by children

and it barely rated as a news brief. So in 1975, this case was treated as just another Jane Doe, another unidentified body worth little public interest. So without media coverage, there'd be no public awareness at all. No tips, no pressure on investigators, and the young woman had been forgotten by the press as thoroughly as by the system. And next came the police departments, and Christina called everyone, the Cleveland police, the Akron police, the Cahuahoga County Sheriff's Office, and she hit wall after wall. And some departments had no records at all, and others had incomplete files.

But most simply told her cold case information wasn't public, or she'd need formal requests, which would take weeks or even months. So the digital age had just spoiled Christina, and here was a decades-old murder with no apparent ongoing investigation, yet accessing basic information required navigating bureaucracies that seemed designed to discourage inquiry. She was actually starting to learn why so many cold cases stayed cold, and institutional barriers can be as formidable as investigative challenges. But then she caught her first break. Lieutenant Don Silvis of Cleveland Metro Park's police was different. And when Christina explained her interest in Strongsville, Jane Doe,

Silvus, surprisingly, didn't dismiss her like the other ones. He would actually recognize something in her persistence and her genuine concern for forgotten victim and her demonstrated genealogy expertise from their phone conversation. So Silvus would do something extraordinary and he gave Christina copies of the original case files. Crime scene photos, forensic reports, investigative notes that hadn't seen daylight in decades. And this was not standard procedure.

You know, just ask the police, hey, can I have some fucking crime scene photos and they give it to you? Because sharing active case files with civilian researchers broke protocol. But Silvas saw an opportunity. If Christina's genealogy skills and online networks could generate new leads on a stone cold case, why not take a chance? And those files would change everything. And the photos were haunting. images of the muddy skull discovered by three teenagers, and forensic shots of the bullet in the temple,

and documentation of scattered remains. So this wasn't just a cemetery ledger entry anymore. This was a real person who'd suffered real violence, and Christina was staring at the evidence now. You tell yourself, no one wants your college-era band teas, but on Deep Hop, people are searching for exactly what you've got. You once paid a small fortune for them at merch stands. Now, a teenager, who calls them vintage, will offer that same small fortune back. Sell them easily on Deepop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. Who knew your questionable music taste would be a money-making machine?

Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Deepop, where Taste recognizes Taste. So she would work on it for a while by herself, but she would start to hit a wall, and she had taken her solo investigation as far as possible. So she needed help, and she needed to get other eyes on this case. the kind of collective intelligence only a community could provide. And that's when Christina turned to Reddit.

Shout out to Reddit. And she would choose R-slashed Unsolved Mysteries, a community of over 400,000 members dedicated to cold cases and missing persons. I have spent many an hour on this subreddit, and the people in it are awesome. And she would actually use the username, Call Me Ice. Her name's Christina, my name's Christina. I say call me Chris.

She said call me ice. I don't know. I feel like we need to be friends. Anyway, so Christina would share everything, the cemetery record that started at all, details from Silvis's case files, crime scene photos, her theory that this case had fallen through the cracks, and more. And the response was immediate and overwhelming. Christina would say, I posted on Reddit because I figured other people could do more than I could at that point. And she was right. So the community was fascinated, but not for the typical true crime reasons. As Christina noted, people were actually interested in the case because they were amazed that there wouldn't be something in a database.

And these weren't just armchair detectives seeking entertainment. They were genuinely outraged that a murder victim could be so completely erased from official records. And the case represented everything wrong with cold case handling, jurisdictional confusion, poor record keeping, communication failures, and casual dismissal of searching families. So users immediately began deploying sophisticated research techniques, and some would cross-reference the Strongsville's discovery with missing persons databases from the 1970s,

and others used advanced Google searches to hunt for newspaper mentions that Christina might have missed. And digital archives, genealogy databases, military records, social security death indexes, the community just cast a research net wider than any individual could manage. And the case would spread beyond Reddit even. With Christina's permission, a web sleuth.com username, Migmu cross-posted her research. And web sleuth was purpose-built for public involvement in missing persons cases, and it had 115,000 members, 12 million posts, and proven track record of matching over 20 unidentified bodies with missing people, which is crazy. My kind of people.

But the platform had specific forms for different types of cases. Unidentified persons, missing persons, cold cases. and members included retired law enforcement, genealogy experts, former military investigators, and amateur sleuths with specialized knowledge. And when this case appeared, it just triggered systemic investigation by people who knew how to research exactly such mysteries. So Christina had accidentally created a perfect storm, a storm of crowdsourced investigation. So the collaboration between Reddit and the web sleuths became seamless, and users on both platforms shared their theories. and divided research tasks and cross-posted significant findings.

And some focused on newspaper archives from the 1970s and others specialized in genealogy research, building family trees from potential matches. And others reached out through professional networks, sharing information with colleagues in law enforcement or forensic sciences. So this collective effort kind of wielded a power traditional law enforcement just couldn't match. Because while individual detectives juggled dozens of cases, these online communities could focus entirely on one single mystery. And while official investigations faced jurisdictional boundaries and bureaucratic constraints,

internet slews could follow leads anywhere, regardless of geographic or institutional limits. Thank God for the internet. So Christina just watched an amazement as her solitary obsession became a collaborative investigation involving dozens of people across the country. Because one college student's inability to forget a cemetery entry had become a community effort to restore identity to someone systemically erased from memory. So hundreds of miles away from Christina's Ohio investigation was a 54-year-old former CPA in California, and he was just browsing the same forums that had become captivated by the Strongsville's Jane Doe case.

And this man was Carl Copelman. And he was not your typical forum user, no, no, nay, nay. This was a man who discovered an unusual calling. And that calling was creating facial reconciled. of unidentified remains. Very niche, but very cool. And Copelman's path to forensic artistry was unconventional. Because after retiring from accounting,

he developed an interest in unidentified remains cases. And initially just following them online, but his analytical mind and natural artistic ability led him to try something ambitious, which was learning to create facial reconstructions using computer software and anatomical knowledge acquired through intensive self-study, which is so impressive. Like, I like to, I can paint, you know, but this guy's like, hmm, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to be a fucking hero,

basically. So it started as a hobby, had become something much bigger. And Copelman had already helped solve high-profile cases, including the identification of Tammy Joe Alexander, known for decades as Caledonia Jane Doe. And his reconstructions combined artistic skill with forensic science using skull measurements, tissue depth markers, and anatomical knowledge to build faces that could spark recognitions from families and friends. So when he encountered Christina's research, he was immediately intrigued. But intrigue and action are different things, obviously. So Coppulman's initial reaction to the Strongsville case was professional skepticism, because the photos Christina had obtained were challenging, because the skull was caked with mud, after months of exposure,

and damaged by decomposition and animals. So crucial facial features were missing entirely. And he would say, I looked at that for a couple of months. And I thought, no, the angles are wrong. There's no mandible. No hair color. The front teeth are missing. There's no way I can do anything with this.

So for a forensic artist, these weren't inconveniences. They were fundamental obstacles. Because the mandible determines facial structure and jawline. And hair color affects perception and memory and teeth influence lip positioning and facial symmetry. So without these elements, Copelman was being asked to create a face from fragments and to restore humanity to someone whose most distinctive features had been lost. So the technical challenges were immense and Copelman would need to estimate mandible size and position based on what remained of the skull's

attachment points. So for months, the photos sat in his files, a constant reminder of an impossible challenge. but something about the case wouldn't let him go. And maybe it was Christina's persistence documented in forum posts. Maybe it was institutional failure that had left the murder victim nameless for 40 years. And maybe it was just recognition that if he didn't try, no one else would. So finally, Copelman made his decision with characteristic directness. And he would say, eventually, I came along and said, What the hell? I'll give it a shot.

And thank God he did. So using sophisticated 3D modeling software, typically employed by professional forensic anthropologists, Copleman began to painstakingly process a digital reconstruction. And he studied the skull photographs from every available angle, taking precise measurements and noting anatomical landmarks. And using tissue depth data from the FBI's forensic database, he calculated how flesh would have sat on the bone structure, which again, just like crazy that people can do this.

But anyway, so the missing mandible was the one that required educated guesswork based on skull proportions and attachment points. And Copelman studied similar cases and consulted anthropological references and made careful estimates about jaw size and position. And for the missing teeth, he estimated lip positioning based on remaining dental structure. Because remember, she had five teeth left, so not a lot to work with. And the hair presented another challenge. With no DNA to indicate color or texture, Culpeman chose a neutral brown that wouldn't bias recognition one way or another. So the goal was creating a face people could see as they're missing loved one, regardless of specific details that might have changed.

So using digital reconstruction techniques and years of studying facial anatomy, Copelman began rebuilding a face from the damaged skull in those muddy crime scene photos. And the result was remarkable because despite limitations, Copelman had created a facial reconstruction that looked like a real person rather than a medical illustration. And the digital artwork showed a young woman with soft features, kind eyes, and an approachable face, someone who could have been anyone's daughter or sister. So for the first time in over 40 years, the Strongsville's Jane Doe had a face people could

connect with emotionally. But creating the reconstruction was only half the battle. The real challenge was getting it before the right people. And those people were investigators and family members who, might recognize those carefully reconstructed features. And this is where Christina's internet community proved invaluable. Because the facial reconstruction spread across Reddit, web sleuths, and other platforms, reaching thousands who might have information. Yet even with this breakthrough, the case might have stayed in internet forums indefinitely, if not for a completely unrelated phone call

Copelman made in 2016. So he'd been working on another case and needed to contact Cowahoga County medical examiner's office about different remains entirely. And during that conversation, he mentioned the Strongsville's Bones case describing his facial reconstruction and his frustration with a lack of progress. And the response was shocking because on the other line, the person said, what bones? Because the officials had no record of the Strongsville Jane Doe case in their system at all. So this wasn't an oversight or misfiled report. The case had never been entered into Nam US. The National Missing and Unidentified Person System, which was the primary database for cross-referencing unidentified remains with missing persons reports nationwide.

So the revelation was stunning because for over a decade, Nam US had been solving cold cases by allowing investigators to search for matches between missing persons and unidentified remains. But the system was specifically designed to prevent cases like Strongsville Jane Doe from falling through bureaucratic cracks. But as we know, it did. And none of that mattered if the case was never entered to begin with. So it all ended up being a simple clerical error, likely a spelling mistake or a jurisdictional confusion from the 1970s. And it had prevented this murder victim from being included in modern

tools designed to identify her. So the discovery exposed systemic failure beyond one tragedy. And how many other cases were lost to similar errors? And how many families were still searching for missing loved ones whose cases had never made it into databases that could provide answers. But once discovered, correcting the error was pretty straightforward. And the Strongsville Jane Doe case was finally entered into Nam US, complete with Coppelman's facial reconstruction and all the forensic details gathered over decades. So for the first time since 1975, this person, this victim, was officially part of the system designed to help identify her. And the impact was almost immediately.

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So in December of 2016, Sergeant Jeff Smith of Akron Police was conducting routine non-US database searches when he came across the newly entered Strongsville case. And something caught his attention. The age estimate, the time frame, and the location. So Smith began cross-referencing with missing persons reports from the same period, looking for potential matches. And that's when he found her. A missing person report from September 1974,

a 17-year-old girl who had disappeared from Akron just months before the Strongsville remains discovery. And the age was right, and the timing was right, and the geographic proximity made sense. But what really convinced Smith he might have found a match was Copelman's facial reconstruction. Because when Smith pulled up the missing person photo and compared it to the digital artwork, the resemblance was unmistakable, which is wild, especially based off of how little evidence he had to work off of. And Copelman's reaction when he saw the photograph for the first time was immediate and definitive,

and he would say, she looked like my drawing. So after months of painstaking work, reconstructing a face from fragmentary remains, and after years of the case languishing in digital obscurity, the breakthrough had finally come. And the forgotten murder victim finally had a name. And that name was Linda Marie Pagano.

So at this point, having a potential match was one thing, proving it scientifically was another thing entirely. So what followed Sergeant Jeff Smith's discovery would require months of legal consultations, forensic planning and scientific precision to finally answer questions that had haunted a family for over four decades. And this was nothing less than the resurrection of Linda Marie Pagano, both literally and figuratively. So the first step was dental records, because Linda's 1974 missing persons file included dental record charts from regular checkups and detailed records

documenting her teeth's unique characteristics. So when investigators compared these to the Strongville's day and Doe's remaining dental structure, they feel. found promising similarities. But as we know, the skeletal remains were incomplete, and only five teeth plus one interrupted wisdom tooth was available for comparison. So while encouraging, the dental evidence wasn't conclusive enough for definitive identification.

So for that, they needed DNA. So obtaining DNA samples meant exhuming remains buried in an unmarked grave for over 40 years. So in October of 2017, the investigators returned to Memorial Garden Cemetery, with court orders and ground penetrating radar from the University of Akron. And the technology would let them conduct

magnetic surveying of Potter's Field, searching for the exact 1975 burial location among dozens of unmarked graves. Very difficult. And the exhumation proved more challenging than anticipated because Potter's Field is notoriously difficult. Because with the minimal record keeping, graves were poorly marked or just not marked at all.

So the first attempt yielded wrong, remains entirely. And it was just another stark reminder of how easily the dead were forgotten, especially when the proper documentation was lacking. But with multiple attempts and careful surveying, they were finally able to find the correct location. And they were able to successfully exhumed the remains buried as unknown white female bones in 1975. So once recovered, samples were extracted and sent to the University of North Texas DNA Laboratory for Forensic Identification. The lab would conduct mitochondrial DNA testing, comparing genetic materials from the remains with cheek swabs from Linda's surviving siblings. And this type of DNA is ideal for degraded remains,

because it's more stable than regular DNA and passed through the maternal line. So perfect for sibling comparisons. So while science was working, investigators pieced together who Linda Pagano had been in life. So born April 11th, 1957, Linda was the youngest of three children. And friends and family called her Mitch, short for Nidget, a playful reference to her petite stature, which is not okay to say now, but it's, that's what they called her. It's not me saying it, it's what they called her. And it was a different time, and it's terrible. But anyway, it was based on her petite stature of about 410 and about 100 pounds.

But Linda's small size belied a big personality. And those who knew her described her as honest, hardworking, and surprisingly independent for someone so young. And she had blonde hair and blue eyes that seemed to sparkle with mischief. And despite being naturally shy, Linda was well liked among her classmates at Springfield High School in Akron. And she worked part-time at the ANW restaurant in Talmadge, earning her own money and just saving it for the future. So Linda was the kind of teenager who followed the rules. And she stayed out of any serious trouble, but had dreamed. beyond her small town circumstances.

So what investigators discovered about Linda's final night alive was magical and heartbreaking. So on August 31st, 1974, Linda had tickets to Crosby Stills, Nash and Young at Cleveland Stadium. I absolutely love them. So good. Wish I could have seen them in concert. But it was one of the biggest concerts of the year. It was three hours of music, 26 songs, and two encores. And the crowd of 80,000.

was electric, and Linda was having the time of her life. And the final song of the evening was Ohio, Neil Young's haunting tribute to the Kent State shootings just a few hours away from Cleveland Stadium. And the irony in that would become heartbreaking. As Linda Marie Pagano's final night alive, ended about a song about young people dying in Ohio, and within 12 hours, she would become another Ohio tragedy.

So Linda was particularly close to her mother, and her relationship with her stepfather Byron Claflin had always been tense. Because Claflin was a strict disciplinarian with a volatile temper, especially when he'd been drinking. And as Linda approached 18, the household tensions were escalating. And she was starting to assert independence that Claflin saw as defiance. So the last weekend of August 1974 started Ordinary for Linda. She had tickets to her favorite band, and she drove there with her prized gold, Mustang she saved up to buy and she would pick up her boyfriend Steve Wilson along the way and her

friends so they would all go to the concert and enjoy it and as one friend later recalled linda seemed on top of the world but the evening would run late and the concert didn't end until after 11 p.m. and then there was traffic dropping off friends and the drive back to acron so linda didn't return home until about 4 a.m. on september 1st and her father byron claplin was waiting for her. The Claflin was a bartender with a reputation for heavy drinking and a temper, as we know, that made him unpredictable when angry, and he'd been drinking that night stewing over Linda's absence, working himself into a rage about her independence and perceived disrespect. And the argument that followed was heated and final. And in his fury, Claflin threw Linda out of the apartment,

telling her to never come back. And those were the last words anyone would officially hear Linda to Pagano speak. And after that night, Linda was reported missing September 2nd of 1974, just one day after the confrontation. And she had nowhere to go, no money beyond what was in her purse, and few options for someone her age in 1974. And unlike today, no cell phones to track, no social media to monitor, no digital footprint providing clues. So Linda Pagano had simply vanished. And despite her family's efforts, she remained missing for 44 years, as we know. And Byron Claflin, the last person to see Linda alive, remained a person of interest until his death in 1990, though never charged with any crime. So he took whatever knowledge he had

about Linda's fate to his grave. And the investigation always suspected Linda's disappearance connected to that final argument. But without a body, evidence, or witnesses, nothing could be proven in court. So flash forward to 2017 again, with the DNA matches going on. So if the Strongsville remains, were Linda's, the mitochondrial DNA would match exactly. But the test had limitations because mitochondrial DNA is less discriminating than nuclear DNA, because thousands of people might share the same mitochondrial profile. So the test could rule Linda out definitively if it didn't match. But a positive match would only indicate family relationship, not absolute identification.

But fortunately, in Linda's case, other evidence supported the DNA match. The age, height, timing, and geographical proximity, all aligned. So when combined with that positive mitochondrial DNA results, investigators had scientific confirmation of what Carl Coleman's facial reconstruction had suggested months earlier. So on June 29th, 2018 now, those questions finally received their scientific answer. And the DNA results from the University of North Texas came back with a definitive confirmation. And the remains discovered by three teenage boys along Rocky River in 1975 were indeed Linda Marie Pagano's. So after 44 years, the girl thrown out of her home after a late night had finally been found.

And Christina Skates learned the news while gaming at home, receiving a phone call that validated years of obsessive research and sleepless nights wondering about a forgotten murder victim. And as she later described her reaction, quote unquote, I got choked up when I got the news. I can't even imagine, like, just, doing a hobby, like to look for somebody's name that just got forgotten by bureaucratic bullshit and then being able to solve the case with the help of so many people. Like, it's just amazing. It's amazing to me.

So the cemetery led your entry that had haunted her for months finally had resolution. An unknown white female bones now had a name, a family, and people who never stopped loving her. And the official announcement came July 12, 2018. at a press conference marking the end of one of Ohio's longest-running Jane Doe cases. And Linda Marie Pagano was no longer a mystery. She was a murder victim who deserved justice, and her case immediately transferred to the Cleveland Metro Park Police as an active homicide investigation.

So for Michael Pagano, Linda's brother, who had called the police in 1975 only to be dismissed, the confirmation was overwhelming. Because back in 1975, Michael heard about the remains that were found, and he thought they were his sisters. But the police just said, nah, it doesn't sound right.

And the case was, as we know, filed away and forgotten. So I can't even imagine the relief her brother has felt. And also, just the betrayal at the same time. But what he said about the case was, I thought I was in a dream. I thought I would never see this. I thought this day would never come.

I thought I would die wondering. I am amazed how this came to light like it did. So the man who had spent over four decades wondering what happened to his little sister finally had his answer. And Michael made sure to meet Christina Skates in person, to thank the young woman whose curiosity and persistence had accomplished what the official system failed to do for nearly half a century. And it was a meeting between strangers whose lives had been connected by tragedy and determination and recognition that sometimes the most important justice work happens outside official channels. designed to provide it. So in January 2019, Linda Marie Pagano was finally laid to rest properly, and her remains were cremated and buried next to her mother in Holly Cross Cemetery, ending a journey from an unmarked Pottersfield grave to a final resting place surrounded by family

who would never stop searching for her. But finding Linda Pagano's identity was only half the battle. Because now, investigators face the daunting challenge of proving who killed her. So when the case transferred to Cleveland Metro Parks Police as an act of homicide investigation in July 2018, detectives inherited a murder nearly 44 years old, degraded evidence with deceased suspects and witnesses scattered to the winds over four decades. So the primary suspect had always been clear, Byron Claflin, Linda's stepfather, who'd thrown her out after the final argument in the early morning hours of September 1st, 1974. So these circumstances just painted a disturbing picture. A young woman with nowhere to go kicked out by her angry stepfather in the middle of the night. But as we know, Byron Claflin had died in 1990. So whatever knowledge he had about that night had died with him.

So even if investigators could have built a strong case against him, there would be no trial, no conviction, no formal acknowledgement of guilt. A most likely suspect had escaped earthly justice by nearly three decades. But the other key figure was Linda's boyfriend, Steve Wilson, because he had also vanished from the official record. Wilson had been with Linda at the concert, drove her home that night, and would have been crucial to understanding the final hours. But decades of dead ends had failed to locate Wilson. So by 2018, investigators weren't even certain if he was still alive. So without testimony, crucial details about Linda's final hours remained forever lost.

And for Michael Bagano, who'd waited 44 years for answers, the investigation's limitations were deeply frustrating, and the family finally knew what happened to Linda, but legal accountability remained painfully unresolved. And as Michael put it, with weary resignation, we'll know in our hearts who did it, but we'll never be able to prove it, which is so heartbreaking.

The challenges facing Linda's case were symptomatic of broader problems plaguing cold casework nationwide, because evidence degrades, witnesses die or disappear, and suspects escape accountability through death or times passage. But Linda's case also exposed systemic failures beyond normal cold case difficulties. And the clerical error that kept Linda's case out of the national database for over a decade raised troubling questions about the entire missing person system, because how many families were waiting for answers prevented by similar bureaucratic failures. And Nam US had been operational since 2009.

designed specifically to prevent cases like Linda's from falling through the cracks. Yet, as of 2016, thousands of older cases have never been entered into the system. So if a spelling mistake or jurisdictional confusion could erase a murder victim from identification systems, how many other Linda Pagano's were buried in unmarked graves, lost to administrative incompetence rather than investigative limitations. The revelation sparked audits of missing person databases across Ohio and beyond. And investigators found hundreds of cases that have never been properly entered into modern systems. And Jane and John Doe's from 1970s and 1980s who'd been forgotten, not because they were unsolvable,

but because they'd never been dignitized or cross-reference with missing person reports. So the interagency communication breakdown that dismissed Michael Buchano's 1975 inquiry just revealed how easily crucial information falls through the cracks when police departments fail to coordinate effectively. An Akron police who took Linda's missing persons report apparently never received proper notification about Strongsville's remains discovery. Or if they did, the information was never processed or cross-reference. And in the pre-computer era, a 20-mile jurisdictional gap might have well been 2,000 miles. So it took a volunteer forensic artist working from his home computer to finally give Linda a recognizable face. Technology that cost thousands of dollars in the 1970s was now accepted. to dedicated amateurs with modern software and internet tutorials.

But Linda's case also demonstrated the transformative potential of modern technology and community collaboration. And Christina Skates accomplished what decades of official investigation had failed to achieve. Not because she had special training or resources, but because she had persistence, curiosity, and access to digital tools that let her connect with like-minded investigators worldwide. And more importantly, Linda's case revealed how internet community communities could serve as force multipliers for justice. The collective intelligence of Reddit and web sleuth users provided research capacity that no individual detective could match.

Because when hundreds of people could simultaneously research different aspects of the case, cold cases that have been dead for decades suddenly became solvable. So Christina's approach became a model for a responsible amateur investigation. Because she'd been meticulous and research, respectful, and careful to verify information before sharing publicly. And her success inspired other amateur investigators to tackle similar cases, always understanding that responsible sleuthing

required the same attention to evidence and accuracy that professional investigators demanded. And law enforcement agencies began recognizing the value of work of amateur investigators rather than dismissing them as interfering busy bodies. And Linda's case showed that citizen involvement, when properly channeled, could provide additional investigative capacity

that cash strapped police departments desperately needed. Because cold case units overwhelmed by decades of unsolved mysteries suddenly had access to volunteer researchers. And for Christina herself, Linda's case resolution was both ending and the beginning. And when asked about her role in solving the 44-year-old mystery,

Christina remained characteristically modest and said, I was perfectly fine just bringing the case interest back to the case. And she'd never sought fame or recognition, only knowledge that a forgotten murder victim had finally received deserved attention. And what began as a haunting line, unknown white female bones had become Linda Marie Pagano. Not just a name, but a life restored to memory.

A 17-year-old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes who loved music and worked at A&W, who saved money for a gold Mustang whose friends called her Midge, which was questionable, and who spent her final night singing along to Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, feeling on top of the world. So the faceless victim had become someone's daughter, someone's sister, someone who mattered. And Christina and Carl Copelman and all the other researchers accomplished something remarkable. And somewhere today or tonight, other families are still searching. And other victims wait in unmarked graves for someone who won't give up. And someone who believes every person deserves to be remembered by name.

And every person deserves to come home. And that is it for today's. case. I think it is incredible what Christina and Carl were able to accomplish, along with everyone else involved. I think it's so wonderful that Linda was able to be put to rest and her family was able to breathe a sigh of relief, even though they weren't able to get the justice they deserved. But I just think it's pretty amazing. And obviously, you know, there's a responsible way to go about it. I'm not saying, go solve cold cases, do it. But I think it's important to talk about cold cases and the the potential to solve them. Yeah, let me know what other cold cases you want me to go over,

ones that haven't been solved yet. I think that's really important, and until next time, I will see you a beautiful face. All right? Bye.