Criminology - Introducing Gone Cold – Texas True Crime

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

This is a preview of Gone Cold's coverage of the 2007 case of 19-year-old Brittany Danielle McGlone, who was viciously attacked and savagely slain in her boyfriend's bed while the rest of the home's inhabitants were away. As you're listening, join gone cold's mission to bring these forgotten cases back into the public's awareness by subscribing to gone cold podcast – Texas true crime wherever you listen to podcasts. https://www.GoneCold.com

Texas is well known for being tough on crime and those who committed, or at least the ones who get caught. There are tens of thousands of unsolved homicides in Texas and nearly as many open missing persons cases. In 2017, gone cold, Texas true crime began with the story of Carla Walker, and a community came together and demanded justice. Almost 47 years after her murder, Carla's case was solved. Since then, Gone Cold has told the stories of hundreds of other cold cases. Gone Cold's concentration is on the state's lesser-known crimes. The cases the media have long left behind, like the assassination of Red River County Commissioner Alton Peak in 1996 and the case of 12-year-old Kimberly Norwood, who disappeared from Holesville in 1989. You also

occasionally hear higher profile cases on Gone Cold, such as a comprehensive series on the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, the little girl behind the alert, and a detailed look at the 1974 disappearances of Rachel Trilica, Renee Wilson, and Julie Mosley, collectively known as the Fort Worth missing trio. You're about to hear a clip from Gone Cold's episode about the 1980 murder of 26-year-old Laura Pippendanka in Corpus Christi. While you listen, join Gone Cold's mission to bring forgotten cases back into the public's awareness by subscribing to Gone Cold Texas True Crime wherever you listen to podcasts. Gone Cold isn't just a murder podcast.

It's a pursuit for justice. When Laura Pippendanka didn't show up at her ex-husband, William Danka's house at 6 p.m. on Easter Sunday, 1980, to pick up their children. He knew right away something was off. The loving and doting mother was about as punctual and reliable a person as they come. She was rarely late for anything, let alone picking up the kids. Something important must have come up, William told himself. But when the minutes turned to hours, he could no longer placate himself with situations that made no sense. If something had come up, William knew, Laura would have called immediately. He phoned the Corpus Christi

police and reported her missing at 9.45 p.m. Then William called her parents back in North Carolina to let them know what was happening. While they were beside themselves with worry, the cops didn't seem too bothered. After all, Laura Danka was a 26-year-old woman. She was allowed to disappear. The following morning, Laura's supervisor from Equifax was immediately alarmed when she didn't show up for her shift. Both he and William Danka called the police first thing to emphasize how unlike her the situation was, how unusual it was. Something was terribly wrong, both men told them. About an hour later, police received another call from Laura's boss. He'd driven past Albertson's supermarket and seen the missing woman's car parked in the lot there.

Now the cops were listening. Officers arrived at the store not long after and located the 1978 Zephyr. The car was locked up tight. When they finally got in, they found a grocery sack on the passenger side floorboard. Inside was a bottle of hair-setting lotion, some candy, a melted half-gallon of ice cream and a toy for her kids, a plastic water pistol. They observed the vehicle's right front wheel, a spare that hadn't yet been driven on. Police officers deduced that the gold mercury hadn't been moved since the flat tire was replaced with the spare. It was also secured using only

two lug nuts instead of four, and its wheel cover was nowhere to be found. The scene didn't look Good. Later, it got worse. When police took the flat tire to a local auto garage, mechanics there found something disturbing, a slice near the tire's rim that appeared to have been made using a knife. In their next move, the cops drove to Laura's home on the 600 block of John Lee Street. They found the damp load of clothes in the washing machine Laura had put on earlier on the day she vanished, and the packages of chicken she left thawing in the fridge. Then there was the unfinished letter to her mother back in Fremont, North Carolina. The house appeared as if the victim just stepped out to run some errands,

planning to return at any time, but she hadn't. Laura's family was struck with panic, and her coworkers and friends feared the worst. The rest of the day passed with no leads, and then the next. At about 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9th, 1980, two young men, one a Delmar College student and the other a bartender, stopped atop the bridge at Weber Road and Cedar Pass, also known as County Road 26. Back then, this was the far south end of Corpus Christi, the New Aces County line. It was a beautiful day for a ride, in the low 70s and sunny, with only the bright, fluffy, scatter. clouds that usually float above the bays and beaches.

The motorcyclists, men named Tom Tyler and Philip Daly, got off their bikes and lit cigarettes. Likely on any other day, the men would talk about the ride, perhaps where they were off to next. But this wasn't any other day, far from it. Almost as soon as they rested their elbows against the railing of the bridge, their heads straight down into the drainage ditch, below, as they drew from their smokes. They noticed what they thought was a mannequin, partially floating in about two feet of water. The figure wore an Easter Sunday dress, colorful and brightly printed. Philip went down first to check it out. When he made it clear, this was no mannequin. Tom hurried down. The deceased woman's pantyhose were pulled down

around her ankles. For reasons never explained, perhaps a sheer loss of the ability to to rationalize, or perhaps just to be certain they were seeing what they were seeing. Tom and Philip flipped the body over. They ran back up the goalie, jumped on their motorcycles, and raced to call police. You just heard a clip of Goncould's coverage of the 1980 Unsolved Murder of Laura Pippendanka. If you'd like to know the whole story and binge 300 plus more episodes, subscribe to Goncolt, Texas True Crime, wherever you get your podcasts.