Man in the Shadows / The Hitchhiker

Summary

Cold Case Files (A&E / PodcastOne)

Episode: "Man in the Shadows / The Hitchhiker"

Date: March 24, 2026
Host and Narration: Marisa Pinson

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Overview

This gripping episode of Cold Case Files delves into two chilling cases: the search for the "Linden Area Rapist" who terrorized Columbus, Ohio for over a decade, and the decades-old unsolved murder of hitchhiker Jerry Sullivan in California. Through survivor accounts, detective narratives, and forensic breakthroughs, the episode highlights the perseverance of investigators, the pain and resilience of victims, and the power—and limitations—of forensic science in achieving justice, sometimes decades after the crimes.

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Case One: The Man in the Shadows (The Linden Area Rapist)

The Attacks Begin (01:47-08:24)

• Survivor Story:
  Christina Ruth recounts a terrifying night in February 1992 when an intruder attacked, choked, and raped her:

  • "He reached out and slammed the door open... he was choking me and beating my head into the floor and he kept saying he was going to kill me." (02:05–02:37)
  • During her ordeal, Christina dissociates: "You pray, you step out of your body. It's just my body. It wasn't me." (02:49)

• Investigation Stalls:
  DNA evidence is collected, but leads dry up.
  Christina is aware of the limitations:

  • "With DNA, it’s just like a fingerprint. Unless you have a person to go with that, it doesn't help." (03:14)

• Serial Assaults:
  Over the following months, at least five more women are raped in the same area, showing a clear pattern and a "man in the shadows" targeting his victims (03:42–05:11).
  Detective John Weeks observes:

  • "He committed attacks all the way up and down this segment of neighborhood here." (03:53)
  • All attacks share an MO: tall, heavyset Black male, often armed, engaging victims in conversation (04:32).

• Period of Quiet:
  The attacks suddenly stop in late 1992, baffling police. Weeks suspects incarceration or relocation might explain the gap (05:11–05:30).

A Resurgent Predator (05:38-12:24)

• Attack Resumes (1995):
  Pregnant victim Yvonne Merle is assaulted, linking her case to previous ones (05:38–06:41).
  Investigator awareness grows:

  • "His positioning of the victim, his entry into the house, his language spoken to her." – Detective Kevin Bailey (06:41)

• Patterns and Frustration:
  Despite releasing sketches and raising patrols, there are no leads. The attacks total at least 15 by spring 1995 before another sudden stop (07:28–07:44).

• Forensic Link Established (08:04–09:49):
  Detective Dave McKee revisits the cases:

  • "We took them out of the boxes and laid them out in a room... it hit home on how many cases and how many people were really involved." (08:24)
  • DNA matches link attacks from both periods, strengthening the serial offender theory.
  • "Those are consistent with prison terms in Ohio." (09:11) – detective speculates on gaps between assaults.

• No DNA Hits:
  Despite uploading DNA to CODIS, no matches are found, highlighting limitations of the system at the time (09:41–09:49).

Breakthrough and Capture (10:01-25:26)

• Predator Returns (2002 & 2004):
  A new assault in 2002 fits the MO. DNA confirms the "Linden Rapist" has returned (10:05–10:30; 13:08).

• Task Force and Modern Forensics:
  Task force formed, dozens of suspects swabbed with no success. The rapist is evolving, spreading his attacks further afield and changing his appearance (11:11–12:41):

  • "His description... went from one extreme to the other, from 5'5'' to 6'3''." – Detective Dave McKee (11:34)

• Diana Cunningham’s Experience (13:08–16:06):
  Diana survives a harrowing attack and uses her wits:

  • "I kind of felt around on his head, face, arms... found the scar on his arm. That was another identifying characteristic." (14:18)
  • She converses with her attacker:
    • "If you can get them talking... it makes it harder for them to hurt you." (14:42)
  • The assailant forces her to scrub the crime scene, erasing forensic evidence.

• DNA Breakthrough (19:02–20:17):
  Forensic scientist Rena Clarkson receives a DNA hit in June 2004. The backlog of untested samples delayed the match:

  • "That sample sat in a backlog for three years." – Narrator (20:30)
  • The rapist is identified as Robert Patton.

• Systemic Failures & Arrest:
  "The system failed, not advising law enforcement agencies that... we're not running the test from the swabs." – Detective Kevin Bailey (21:00)

• Confession and Sentencing (21:25–25:26):
  Patton candidly confesses to nearly all the attacks:

  • "If I can get to the judge or whatever... my plea won't change. Guilty." (22:10)
  • Guides detectives to 69 locations; is ultimately convicted on 58 counts of robbery and 76 counts of rape and assault.
  • "At one point, he said, 50 years isn't enough." – Christian Domus, prosecutor (25:00)

• Victim Reflections:

  • "When I found out that they had the evidence to put him away in 2001... It’s very hard not to be bitter about something like that." – Diana Cunningham (25:26)
  • Urgency is placed on reducing forensic backlogs to prevent future crimes.

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Case Two: The Hitchhiker (Jerry Sullivan Murder)

Murder in Mendocino (26:10-29:15)

• Case Reopened:
  Detective Kevin Bailey picks up the 1975 case of Jerry Sullivan, a hitchhiker found shot and left in a sleeping bag in the woods (26:10–27:19).

• Initial Investigation:
  Crime scene offers little evidence besides Sullivan's cast leg, sleeping bag, and a cigarette butt. The victim's family soon receives his wallet in the mail (27:19–29:03).
  Technician Grover Beathards lifts a fingerprint from the wallet, but it's unidentified.

• Community and Counterculture:
  Detectives trace Sullivan's movements via people who picked up hitchhikers—including Kathy Smith and Summerhill West "commune" members (29:29–32:32).

  • "We were a counterculture... to actually initiate some sort of contact [with police] was a big deal." – Heidi Bohan, Summerhill resident (32:22)
  • "Bob Holt" is introduced as a possible suspect.

Long Road to Justice (35:31-45:44)

• Cold Files, New Technology:
  In the 1990s and 2000s, detectives revisit the case as a "wall of shame"—now with APHIS and then DNA (35:31–36:03).

• Original Suspects:
  William Cordero’s fingerprint is found in the wallet, but he denies any connection and cannot be charged (36:14–37:51).

• DNA Breakthrough:
  Detective Bailey finds the original cigarette butt and has it tested in 2004 (38:15–41:15).
  DNA leads not to Cordero, but to Robert Vaughn—a convicted murderer with a history of attacking hitchhikers.

  • "I did get DNA off the cigarette butt and I do have a match... It came back to Robert Vaughn." – Detective Bailey (41:15)

• Connecting the Dots:
  Vaughn is also known as "Bob Holt," the name noted decades before; Heidi Bohan identifies him from a photo (42:04–42:41).

• Confession and Resolution:
  Bailey and Tim Kiley confront Vaughn in prison. He admits the murder (43:33–45:36):

  • "We had an argument... So when he was asleep after the argument... he's sleeping." (44:47)
  • Vaughn is sentenced to seven years-to-life under 1975 legal guidelines (45:06).
  • Cordero is exonerated, but the mystery remains how his print was found in the wallet.

• Investigator Reflection:

  • "That cigarette butt's what brought us here... I submit that, guess what hits on you." – Detective Bailey (45:36)
  • Vaughn responds with dark humor: "Isn't that something? My favorite show is Cold Case documentaries..." (45:49)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You pray, you step out of your body. It's just my body. It wasn't me.”
  — Christina Ruth [02:49]

• "If you can get them talking...it makes it harder for them to hurt you."
  — Diana Cunningham [14:42]

• "That sample sat in a backlog for three years."
  — Narrator [20:30]

• “When I found out that they had the evidence to put him away in 2001... It’s very hard not to be bitter about something like that.”
  — Diana Cunningham [25:26]

• "That cigarette butt's what brought us here... guess what hits on you."
  — Detective Kevin Bailey [45:36]

• "Isn't that something? My favorite show is Cold Case documentaries..."
  — Robert Vaughn [45:49]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:47–03:28] — Christina Ruth's survival and police response
• [04:10–05:11] — MO of Linden Area Rapist established
• [08:04–09:49] — Forensic reevaluation and DNA linking cases
• [13:08–16:06] — Diana Cunningham’s strategy to survive and evidence collection
• [19:02–20:41] — DNA hit after backlog; identification of Robert Patton
• [21:25–23:41] — Patton's confession and crime scene walkthrough
• [25:26] — Diana Cunningham's reflection on system failures
• [26:10–29:29] — Discovery and early investigation of Jerry Sullivan’s murder
• [38:15–41:15] — DNA breakthrough from cigarette butt
• [43:33–45:36] — Vaughn’s confession and sentencing

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Tone and Style

The episode is narrated in a matter-of-fact, empathetic tone, blending survivor testimony and detective insights. The mood is somber, with flashes of hope and frustration as justice is delayed but eventually served, thanks to persistence and evolving technology.

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Summary

In “Man in the Shadows / The Hitchhiker,” Cold Case Files demonstrates how justice can be a long road, requiring equal parts dogged investigation, scientific progress, and survivor courage—and how, even after decades, small pieces of evidence can finally speak the truth.

Transcript

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[Narrator]

This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories.

[Christina Ruth]

There was a dog that lived next door and the neighbors used to let him out all the time. And it was February, it was dark, it was cold.

[Narrator]

Late at night In February of 1992, 23 year old Christina Ruth hears a noise outside her Columbus, Ohio home and opens her back door.

[Christina Ruth]

I went ahead and opened the door and suddenly this person came into my doorway and I went to shut the door and he reached out and slammed the door open.

[Narrator]

The man forces his way in, turns out the lights before Christina can get a look at him and attacks.

[Christina Ruth]

We made it to the living room where he had me, had his hands around my neck and he was choking me and was beating my head into the floor and he kept saying he

[Narrator]

was going to kill me. Christina Ruth has a choice to make and chooses life. She submits to her attacker who begins to tear at her clothes. During the attack, Christina retreats into her mind.

[Christina Ruth]

You pray you step out of your body. It's just my body. It wasn't me, it was just my body.

[Narrator]

After three hours, the rapist leaves. Christina dials 911 and is taken to the hospital where semen is collected. As Columbus police work the case, Christina braces for a long investigation.

[Christina Ruth]

And there just really wasn't much for them to go on. And I knew that even with DNA, it's just like a fingerprint. Unless you have a person to go with that, it doesn't help.

[Narrator]

Within weeks, leads dry up and the case goes cold. One year later, the predator remains at large, walking the streets of Columbus, selecting the time and place for his next attack.

[Detective John Weeks]

It's upper Linden View neighborhood of Columbus, pretty much from Weber Road north. And then a lot of his attacks were on those streets that would intersect Weber Road.

[Narrator]

John Weeks is a detective with the

[Detective John Weeks]

Columbus Police Department, but he committed attacks all the way up and down this segment of neighborhood here.

[Narrator]

In the 12 months since Christina Ruth's attack, five more women have been raped. Each attack centered in the Lyndon neighborhood of Columbus.

[Detective John Weeks]

A lot of the earlier attacks were in this close, concentrated area here. The distance here between, like, attack one and attack two locations, probably a half a mile or less.

[Narrator]

All of the attacks show the same MO and although the rapist tried to hide his face, some of the victims were able to provide the police with the beginnings of a description.

[Detective John Weeks]

Male, black, usually 6 foot or taller, a little bit heavier build, usually would commit multiple sex offenses, usually armed with some type of a household knife. It was not uncommon for him to converse with the victims before, during, and after the attacks.

[Narrator]

Sketches are circulated and residents are warned to be on the lookout for a man now known as the Linden Area Rapist. Investigators believe their suspect will continue to hunt until he is caught. Investigators, however, are wrong. And in the fall of 1992, the attacks suddenly stop.

[Detective John Weeks]

We often thought that he was a resident somewhere in that neighborhood, a current resident, but we kept. You would think over time that you would stumble onto him in that respect, and we never did. So we didn't really didn't know where he was or who he was, obviously, and didn't know what to think about him.

[Narrator]

After nearly two years of terror, the streets of Columbus again grow quiet and the community begins to relax.

[Yvonne Merle]

I'm sleeping, and then the next thing I felt was someone leaning on the bed.

[Narrator]

On February 11, 1995, just after 8am Yvonne Merle wakes to a stranger in her bed.

[Yvonne Merle]

I was scared, and then he just threw me to my side real quick and told me not to look. And had a knife. And he was real close to me. His face was. And then he had a Knife by my throat.

[Narrator]

Eight and a half months pregnant, Yvonne begs for mercy.

[Yvonne Merle]

I did tell him, don't hurt, you know, I'm pregnant. Please don't hurt the baby. And then he kneeled on the bed and pulled my underwear down. So that time I knew what he was going to do. And I said, please, please, you know, I'm pregnant, you know. But he went ahead.

[Narrator]

After the assault, the rapist walks out the back door, and Yvonne calls police. Sergeant Jeff saxtetter reviews the case and immediately touches base with John weeks on the linden area rapes. Both men agree Yvonne Merle is part of a larger pattern.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

His positioning of the victim, his entry into the house, his language spoken to her.

[Detective John Weeks]

He was back in that Linden neighborhood in the city. We couldn't account for that gap of time between the 91, 92 attacks and then his sudden reoccurrence in 94. We didn't know if he'd been sent off to prison, if he'd gone military commitment, Whether a job had moved him out of town. We had no way of knowing.

[Narrator]

Detectives step up the investigation, releasing new sketches and ordering a heavier street presence for police. The lyndon area rapist, however, continues to stalk and to hunt. Seven more women are assaulted in their homes, and detectives are still without a suspect.

[Detective John Weeks]

Oh, yeah, it became real frustrating. It was. It seemed like all the effort you put in and you could never get any closer to.

[Narrator]

By the spring of 1995, the total number of attacks stands at 15. When, once again, the assaults suddenly stopped.

[Detective John Weeks]

We didn't know who he was. We didn't know anything about him, didn't know where he was. If you don't know those things, you don't know what the likelihood of him returning is.

[Narrator]

For seven years, the Linton area rapist again goes quiet, his victims making their way into the cold files. Until the summer of 2002, when the Predator returns.

[Detective Dave McKee]

It's important for each case to be recognized as a person and as an individual.

[Narrator]

Dave mckee is a detective in the Columbus sexual abuse squad. On a slow afternoon in 1999, he decides to take a look at a string of unsolved rapes from the early 90s, known in the community as the linden area rapes.

[Detective Dave McKee]

We had multiple cases here, and we took them out of. Out of the boxes and laid them out in a room. And at that time, I think it hit home on how many cases and how many people were really involved.

[Narrator]

Original detectives had linked cases from 1991 through 1992 and a second set from 1994 to 1995. Based on geographical proximity and MO, McKee believes the working theory to be sound and uses science to confirm it.

[Detective Dave McKee]

So we took the DNA from the first series and compared it to DNA on the second series, and it was determined that they were both the same, same suspect.

[Narrator]

Detective John Weeks worked the original set of crimes and believes the timeline of attacks holds a key to IDing the offender.

[Detective John Weeks]

We kind of came to that conclusion that the number of years that he kept disappearing would be consistent with someone being sent off to be incarcerated somewhere. A year and a half, six and a half, seven years. Those are consistent with prison terms in Ohio.

[Narrator]

DNA from felony offenders is uploaded into codis, a national data bank of DNA profiles. If the Lyndon rapist has in fact been in prison, his DNA should be in the system, but there are no guarantees.

[Detective John Weeks]

But we weren't getting any hits.

[Detective Dave McKee]

It was kind of the situation where everybody was geared up and we were thinking, well, we're going to get a hit out of it, and we didn't.

[Narrator]

McKee and Weeks are resigned to a strategy of wait and see. Their best chances for solving the case unless the Lyndon area rapist decides to attack again.

[Detective John Weeks]

We had had another sexual assault occurring up in that Linden neighborhood.

[Narrator]

Again, the date is June 20, 2002. Detective Weeks takes a call on a sexual assault that bears the signs of the Linden Area rapist.

[Detective John Weeks]

When you looked at the offense on paper and you compared the description of the suspects and his characteristics and his behavior and the location he had committed the attack and the method he had entered the home, you felt pretty certain that this was probably this man back again.

[Narrator]

DNA testing confirms Weeks suspicions. After seven years of inactivity, the Lyndon rapist is back.

[Detective John Weeks]

Where's he been all this time? What is it about that neighborhood up there that keeps drawing him back? We gotta stop this guy. We gotta get him identified somehow.

[Narrator]

The new attack causes Columbus to assemble a task force. This time, they will not wait for their suspect to attack again.

[Detective John Weeks]

There was fear up there, but there was this urgency, if you will. These people wanted him caught.

[Narrator]

Detectives revisit each case file and compare notes. What they realize is the rapist is getting smarter and more bold.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Change area, change mos. When I say areas, just on the other side of the freeway to the campus area, he really started hitting her at the end.

[Detective John Weeks]

He did a couple on Hudson street, gone towards High Street. We realized how far he had spread out like that number nine attack over there. We thought for a number of years that he was concentrated just in this neighborhood.

[Detective Dave McKee]

His description was so I mean it went from one extreme to the other, from five, five to six foot three.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Well, it went to the one victim said that she was 511.

[Detective John Weeks]

We had to pull everything together from over years and years of reports.

[Narrator]

Over a period of 11 years, the Lyndon rapist has assaulted at least 16 women, none of whom got more than a glimpse of their attacker.

[Detective Dave McKee]

It kind of demonstrates when you got a victim in a situation like that where they may so traumatic, may not be able to completely give you a full description or an accurate description.

[Detective John Weeks]

I mean you knew you had two. Like there were some instances where we had two attacks where we knew it was him because of the DNA match. But when you looked at the physical descriptions, Right, there was big disparities in.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Yeah, his M.O.

[Detective John Weeks]

was we didn't really didn't know who he was obviously. And each assault just added to that frustration. You would hope that at some point in time he'd make a mistake. That never seemed to be the case. So the frustration just kept compounding.

[Narrator]

The task force begins pulling in suspects, taking saliva swabs and sending them to the crime lab for genetic comparison. More than 50 suspects later, the Lyndon rapist is still unknown, still at large, and still active.

[Diana Cunningham]

I had no idea what was going on. And first, I mean, I was half asleep, pretty groggy, you know, all I knew is that I couldn't breathe.

[Narrator]

On June 6, 2004, a Sunday morning, 20 year old Diana Cunningham wakes up to find a man on top of her, his hands around her throat.

[Diana Cunningham]

You know, he's telling me to shut up or he'll kill me. He had told me that if I opened my eyes, he would slit my throat.

[Narrator]

The man demands money, then makes it clear he is not going to leave the apartment before he rapes Diana Cunningham.

[Diana Cunningham]

When I just kind of realized that this is going to happen, there's nothing I could do to stop it. Started crying at first. He, you know, kept saying, shut up, stop crying, that kind of thing. Although later on when I cried a little bit, he like wiped my tears away.

[Narrator]

The man attacks Diana for more than an hour, all the while insisting she keep her eyes shut.

[Diana Cunningham]

There were times when I knew that he could not see my face, that I did open my eyes and try to see anything that I could.

[Narrator]

Even as she's being raped, Diana Cunningham is collecting evidence, trying to form a mental picture of her attacker for police.

[Diana Cunningham]

During the assault itself, I don't know what he thought I was doing, but I kind of felt around on his head, face, arms, you know, found the Scar on his arm. That was another identifying characteristic. I got the bald spot on the back of his head.

[Narrator]

She also engages her rapist in an almost constant stream of conversation, A ploy she hopes will save her life.

[Diana Cunningham]

I had actually read a magazine article from another woman who had been raped in her own home, and that was one of the tactics that she had used. And I remembered that it makes them see you as a person, Just any attacker in general. If you can get them talking and open up a little bit about yourself and get them to open up a little bit, if it's possible, it just helps them to see you as a human being. And it makes it harder for them to attack you, really. It makes it harder for them to hurt you.

[Narrator]

Diana's strategy seems to work as the rapist makes it clear he's not going to kill her. He is, however, intent on not leaving any kind of forensic evidence behind.

[Diana Cunningham]

Basically, he said, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to take a shower. And he watched me wash myself to make sure that I did. And while I was in the shower, wiped my apartment for prints. Actually poked his head in the bathroom to let me know that he was leaving. Told me to lock the door to keep people like him out. I knew there was a house full of just college students, all guys across the street. And so I grabbed a knife from my kitchen, went across the street, knocked on the guy's door, told them what happened. They sat with me and let me use their phone to call the police. Stayed with me through the whole thing.

[Narrator]

Columbus police converge on Diane's neighborhood and immediately recognized the work of the linden area rapist, the man who has eluded authorities for 13 years. A man whose luck is about to run out. Lately, I've been all about quality over quantity, Especially when it comes to my closet. If something's not versatile and well made, it just doesn't earn a spot. That's why I love quints. The fabrics feel elevated, the fit is thoughtful, and the prices actually make sense. Quince makes high quality wardrobe staples from premium fabrics like 100% European linen, silk, organic cotton poplin, and that dreamy, lightweight cotton cashmere that's perfect for those in between seasons days. The colors and prints for spring right now are perfect. These are the kind of pieces that make getting dressed simple. What really sets quince apart is how they work. They partner directly with ethical factories and skip the middlemen. So you get luxurious quality without the sticker shock. And you can feel it, the stitching, the drape, the longevity. These aren't one season clothes. My personal favorite is their cotton cashmere sweater. It's soft, polished and I reach for it constantly. Thousands of people agree. Quint styles consistently earn 4.5 to 5 star reviews from thousands of customers. So stop waiting to build the wardrobe you actually want. With quints, you don't need a closet full of options, just the right ones. Right now. Go to quince.com cold case for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to quince.comcoldcase for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com cold case cold case 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 Auto Quote 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 [e-mail], progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.

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[Rena Clarkson]

This computer system is part of the CODIS database.

[Narrator]

Rena Clarkson is a forensic scientist working for the Columbus Police Crime Lab. The first thing she does on Monday mornings is check with a woman who runs the lab's CODIS system. Each weekend, the computer processes any new entries into the data bank and compares them against unknown rape profiles. On Monday, June 7, the administrator finds a red star beside the unknown DNA profile pulled from the Linden rapes, a series of at least 19 attacks stretching over 13 years.

[Rena Clarkson]

She said, oh my. Or something to that effect. And I looked over her shoulder And I said, that's him, isn't it? This is the 3138 in the convicted offender profile, matching the 3138 in the unknown sample.

[Narrator]

For Rena Clarkson, the forensic hunt is over, the identity of the Linden rapist seemingly established to a scientific certainty.

[Rena Clarkson]

This 2225. And it also matches the 2225 and the unknown profile. This match was a match at all 13 loci that we look at, as well as the amyligenum, which is the sex of the sample, which is the best match that you can get.

[Narrator]

The profile belongs to Robert Patton, a name Detective John Weeks is unfamiliar with.

[Detective John Weeks]

He's a convicted felon. He'd been in prison 1995. He'd entered Ohio prison systems.

[Narrator]

Upon his release in 2001, Patton was required to provide a saliva sample for DNA testing. Unfortunately, that sample sat in a backlog for three years.

[Detective John Weeks]

So he'd been stockpiled somewhere for some reasons, it beyond me to explain. And it had never been taken and processed and entered into that indexing system until 2004.

[Narrator]

In the meantime, Robert Patton continued to attack women.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I believe the system failed, not advising law enforcement agencies that, yes, we're swabbing your suspects, but we're not running the test from the swabs, and that was never given to us. And that's the failure of the system.

[Narrator]

Detectives now put their frustrations aside, and with a warrant in hand, they pull Patton off the streets and sit him down for some questions.

[Detective John Weeks]

We went in there hoping that he would at least talk to us.

[Narrator]

Around 5pm Detective Weeks comes face to face with a man he has hunted for more than a decade. A man Weeks believes to be the Lyndon rapist.

[Detective John Weeks]

I was surprised how candid he really was and how forthcoming he was with the information. Anything on that one look familiar? That house there? See this picture or any of these pictures here look familiar? Cold weather smell on the ground.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Dismissed.

[Narrator]

Patton reviews crime scene photos from 19 separate sexual assaults and claims responsibility for all but two.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I'm not only gonna try to make your guys jobs easier, right? I want to make this whole process easier.

[Detective John Weeks]

Right.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I mean, if I can get to the judge or whatever. Listen, we don't even have to go to trial or whatever. My plea won't change. Guilty.

[Detective John Weeks]

Guilty.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Guilty.

[Narrator]

Within five minutes, Robert Patton appears to put an end to all the questions police might have. Then Patton goes further and tells detectives all the things they don't know.

[Detective John Weeks]

He says, well, you obviously know about these cases, but there's more out there. There's more cases out there that I'm responsible for.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I mean, I'm not gonna dispute any of them. Put pig.

[Detective John Weeks]

Well, some of them we know. Are you? Without a doubt.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Okay, well, probably. Maybe all of them is me. I'm not even talking about the burglaries. I'm Talking about the other rapes.

[Detective John Weeks]

All right, what some of these other rapes are.

[Narrator]

That night, Patton hops in a van with detectives and leads them on a tour of a 17 year career in crime.

[Detective John Weeks]

And I didn't see him get upset, excited. I didn't see him really show a whole lot of emotion. He's pointing out things and telling us, turn down this street and stop here and we're one street too far and that sort of thing.

[Narrator]

As Weeks drives, Patton talks. And detectives discover that Robert Patton's penchant for rape is far beyond anything they have ever imagined.

[Detective John Weeks]

He took us to 69 locations, and of those, 39 were the rapes, and 30 of them were burglaries. And the list that we were looking at and working from primarily was 17 known rapes.

[Narrator]

During the drive around town, Patton has graduated from terrorizing women in Columbus, Ohio, to one of the country's most prolific serial rapists, eventually being linked to at least 37 sexual assaults. Weeks deposits him in a jail cell and prepares a long list of charges.

[Christian Domus]

I mean, it's the most prolific rape case I've ever been a part of.

[Narrator]

In June 2004, Christian Domus handles the prosecution of Robert Patton.

[Christian Domus]

When he walked into the courtroom, the first thing he said was, let's get this party started. And he's got this smile on his face and he's smirking. And the judge asks him, how do you plea? And he smiles and says, guilty as charged.

[Narrator]

In his first court appearance, Robert Patton has not changed his story a bit. Still fully cooperative and willing to plead guilty to the Lyndon rapes. The next time he appears in court, however, Patton is singing a different tune.

[Christian Domus]

And he said, well, I'm not going to plead anything. I want my trial and I want it today.

[Narrator]

Despite Patton's confessions, Domus must now prepare for a trial. Seven months later, jury selection is underway when Patton suffers another change of heart. He pleads guilty to 58 counts of robbery and 76 counts of rape and assault and demands the judge give him a long prison sentence.

[Christian Domus]

At one point, he said, 50 years isn't enough. So the judge, after hearing that he wanted more than 50 years, granted his request and gave him 68. I've never had a defendant ask for more time and actually get. Get it from the judge.

[Narrator]

Many of Patton's victims sit in the courtroom and watch as the man who terrorized them answers for his actions. For Diana Cunningham, the sentence is bittersweet, one that brings some closure to a crime that never should have been committed.

[Diana Cunningham]

When I found out that they had the evidence to put him away in 2001. That just astonished me that I'm still having a little trouble with. It's very hard not to be bitter about something like that. But aside from that, what's important now is just making sure that every state reduces their backlog and keeps up on it. Had they done what they were supposed to do in the very beginning, it never would have happened.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I was going through our cold cases at the Mendocino county sheriff's department, and lieutenant Smallcom told me about a case that he had worked in 1993.

[Narrator]

Kevin Bailey is a homicide detective with the Mendocino county sheriff's office. In April of 2004, Bailey opens up the cold file on Jerry Sullivan, a hitchhiker found shot to death in the summer of 1975.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

The first thing I do when I get assigned a case like that is I go through the case file itself. In reviewing that evidence list and reconciling that with the case file, I saw that there was a pretty particular important piece of evidence, and that was a fingerprint.

[Narrator]

The fingerprint was lifted off the inside of the Victim's wallet almost 30 years earlier. It is a lead that takes cold case detectives back to a counterculture revolution and murder inside a patch of woods in northern California.

[Detective Ralph Mays]

Well, here we're at Navarro, California. We're about approximately 15 miles from the coast.

[Narrator]

And in the fall of 1975, Detective Ralph Mays and criminal technician Grover Beathards walked through the woods and into a crime scene.

[Detective Ralph Mays]

He was lying face down and all you could see was the top of his head. And I recall the sleeping bag was zipped open slightly.

[Grover Beathards]

Slightly, yes.

[Narrator]

Inside the sleeping bag is the body of Jerry Sullivan, A cast on his left leg and a bullet in his brain.

[Grover Beathards]

He could not see anywhere where somebody had been scuffling or any fighting or anything went on.

[Detective Ralph Mays]

We'd not only searched this midi area here, we searched up, we expanded our search area at all, you know, all up into these redwood trees here and all around. I remember, you know, we walked down along the highway looking.

[Narrator]

Police collect an assortment of items, including the victim's sleeping bag, maps, and a cigarette butt discarded near the body. What investigators don't find, however, is anything that helps ID their victim.

[Grover Beathards]

No wallet, no other cards or anything with them. And so we try first. One of the things you try for, of course, is fingerprints.

[Narrator]

Beathards checks the victim's prints against the DMV database and pulls up Sullivan's license. The 20 year old is originally From New York state and was hitchhiking up

[Detective Ralph Mays]

the coast in the mid-70s. They call them the hippies. You know, everybody living free and doing pretty much what they wanted to do, Kind of living for the day.

[Narrator]

Detective Mays contacts Sullivan's family members, but they can offer no clue as to who might have wanted Jerry dead. That is, until two days later, when Sullivan's family receives a package in the mail. Inside it is Sullivan's wallet.

[Detective Ralph Mays]

The wallet, the insert, including the driver's license, had been nailed back to the address that appeared on the driver's license.

[Grover Beathards]

It was given to me by sergeant Mayes, and he wanted me to see if I was able to. To develop any fingerprints on it. And I was able to develop a nice print on the plastic case to the driver's license.

[Narrator]

The unknown print is entered into California's fingerprint database in 1975. It fails to generate a match with

[Detective Ralph Mays]

the cast on his left leg.

[District Attorney Investigator Tim Kiley]

You know, that was a pretty obvious choke.

[Grover Beathards]

That would be pretty obvious when you saw that.

[District Attorney Investigator Tim Kiley]

Yeah.

[Narrator]

Meanwhile, detectives continue to pick through the back roads of northern California Looking for anyone who might have picked up a hitchhiker wearing a cast.

[Kathy Smith]

I mean, of course, I wasn't real happy to be seeing the Mendocino county sheriff, because, you know, at the time, I smoked a lot of marijuana, and I wasn't real. You know, what are they doing there?

[Narrator]

In 1975, Kathy Smith is 24 years old and living the life of a hippie.

[Kathy Smith]

I lived in an old apple orchard, like. Like in a tent. And so it was living very close to the land, and it was really nice. It was beautiful. I loved it.

[Narrator]

I loved it. Three days after Jerry Sullivan turns up dead, Smith's commune with nature is interrupted by a visit from police. Locals in the nearby town of philo tell police Smith picked up two male hitchhikers. Smith said she had picked up the two men several days earlier, and one was wearing a leg cast.

[Kathy Smith]

I picked him up, and I told him that I wasn't going all that far, probably five or six miles down the road. So I had both of them get into my car, One in the back and one in the front.

[Narrator]

Kathy Smith is one of several locals who apparently picked up the two hitchhikers, One of whom detectives believe to be Jerry Sullivan, the other hitchhiker, potentially Sullivan's killer.

[Grover Beathards]

We interviewed several of the people that gave them rides, and I did what they called identikit of a person's features and face. So we made up a composite of this person. We had several different Composites made up.

[Detective Ralph Mays]

After we had developed the composite drawings, we were able to, in talking to enough people, learn of a free school, they call it in them days, up up the coast from here, probably about 25 miles up the coast.

[Narrator]

According to witnesses, the free school called Summerhill west was mentioned by the second hitchhiker as a place he had once attended. Mays heads north to see if anyone at Summerhill might be willing to talk.

[Heidi Bohan]

There was this huge movement actually to Mendocino county, and we were part of that movement. And even though we were a school, they called us a commune. We were Summerhill commune.

[Narrator]

In 1975, Heidi Bohan is living at Summerhill West, a destination of choice for a lot of young people. Heading north out of San Francisco in October of that year, Detective Mays arrives on campus, asking a lot of questions and carrying a composite sketch of his mysterious hitchhiker.

[Heidi Bohan]

That was a period of time that it was extremely sensitive that you didn't have relationships with the police.

[Detective Ralph Mays]

I interviewed and talked with a lot of paranoid people. You know, they were always wondering, you know, why, you know, what are you looking for me for?

[Heidi Bohan]

We were a counterculture, and so to call the police and to actually initiate some sort of contact was a big deal.

[Narrator]

Heidi Bohan might not like the police, but when she sees the composite sketch of the man believed to be Jerry Sullivan's traveling companion, she decides to come forward.

[Heidi Bohan]

I thought it was this young man that had not been there very long. I wasn't close to him, wasn't someone I knew real well. But his name was Bob Holt.

[Narrator]

The name Bob Holt is one of many to land in Detective Mays notes. Efforts to track down Holt, however, go nowhere.

[Detective Ralph Mays]

And it was disheartening. You know, like I said, Mr. Sullivan, the father, would always, you know, we were in contact, and he always wanted to hear something pop. And oftentimes there was nothing good to tell him.

[Narrator]

You know, an unknown fingerprint, a hitchhiker, and a name. Jerry Sullivan's murder is a puzzle one detectives won't piece together for another 30 years. When I first started my podcast, I thought, okay, how hard can it be? Then came the editing, the branding, the endless tech decisions. Suddenly, I wasn't just a host. I was also a produce, marketing director, and accountant all at once. It honestly felt a little lonely trying to figure it all out on my own. That's why I wish I'd had Shopify as my business partner from the beginning. Shopify is the platform behind millions of businesses. Established names like Skims and Road and Small ones just launching their first product. It's built to help you run your entire business from one place. You can design your store with hundreds of beautiful templates, let AI tools handle things like writing product descriptions or refining your photos and and even run marketing campaigns across email and social. Plus, Shopify's experts are available 24 7, so you never have to feel like you're doing this alone. No juggling. Five platforms, no chaos, just one clean space where your creativity gets to breathe. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com cold case go to shopify.com cold case that's shopify.com coldcase our listeners know healthcare professionals play a huge role in closing out the cases we look at on this show. Whether they're medical examiners, forensic pathologists, nurses, morgue technicians, or crime lab specialists. No matter their field or specialty, these experts deserve a uniform that works as hard as they do. That's where FIGS comes in. They make scrubs that are lightweight, breathable, durable and designed to help healthcare professionals take on every challenge of their day. They feature four way stretch technology, moisture wicking fabric that keeps you comfortable through long hours and thoughtful details like secure pockets exactly where you need them. If you work in healthcare or know someone who does, they definitely need to upgrade their scrubs to FIGS. And right now you can take 15% off your first order at wearfigs.com with the code FIGS RX that's Wear figs.com FIGSRX.

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

When I was referring to the wall of Shame to the hall of fame, the wall of shame was when we Mr. Sullivan's case started.

[Narrator]

Curt Smallcomb is a detective with the Mendocino County Sheriff's office. In 1993, he opens up the file on Jerry Sullivan, a hitchhiker found shot to death 18 years earlier.

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

When I started going through it, just reading the case and then coming across the looking at the latent print and the information like that, it was okay, it's workable and let's go to work.

[Narrator]

For the Sullivans, Smallcomb runs the single unknown print lifted off the inside of the Victim's wallet through APHIS, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

That led to department just coming back with a hit on Mr. Cordero.

[Narrator]

Mr. William Cordero is a resident of Oregon, a man with no hard criminal history, but someone with a lot of explaining to do.

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

My reaction was, hey, this could be our guy. We felt that, hey, you know, this Guy's going to have to have a pretty good reason why his fingerprint would be inside the victim's wallet.

[Narrator]

In the 1970s, Cordero had ties to the Mendocino area, often going there to fish. Smallcomb decides to travel north to Oregon to talk to Cordero.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

What's going on here? Well, again, the reason we're here is there was an unsolved homicide happened years ago.

[Narrator]

Inside an interview room 250 miles north of Mendocino County, Curt Smallcomb begins digging at the newest suspect in the Jerry Sullivan homicide.

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

Started going up there. It was all about getting the statement.

[Detective Ralph Mays]

Were you ever in Mendocino county in

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

1975, get a statement from Mr. Cordero? If I can put him in the location, you know, I might have been

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

there because I'm a salmon fisherman. Okay. And I knew a lot of people here and there.

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

Putting himself in that location, I'm thinking this guy's pretty good.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

You ever picked up any hitchhikers? Oh, I imagine I probably did back in those days. Now I don't. But then I did that was a hitchhiker myself.

[Narrator]

Nobody with kid.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

A cat.

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

He absolutely denied knowing anything about Mrs. Holmer ever finding anything belonging to anybody else in Mendocino County.

[Narrator]

Cordero is never told about his print found inside the victim's wallet. After their interview, he gets a lawyer and refuses to speak to police a second time. Without enough evidence to charge Cordero, detectives are once again stuck, and the case again goes cold. Until 11 years later, when a fresh set of eyes gets involved and gives an old cigarette butt a second look.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Our victim, Gerard Sullivan, was not a smoker, and I noticed that in 75, they had collected a cigarette butt from the crime scene.

[Narrator]

In April of 2004, Detective Kevin Bailey inherits the Sullivan file from Kurt Smallcomb. Bailey believes William Cordero to be his first and best suspect, but needs more evidence before he can charge him. Then Bailey notices a single cigarette butt sitting in the Sullivan file.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I felt if we did get DNA off that cigarette butt, that it would match Mr. Cordero.

[Narrator]

Bailey sends the butt out to be tested. While waiting for the results, he heads north with District Attorney Investigator Tim Kiley for another chat with Cordero.

[Bleacher Report App User]

No.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I mean, I haven't done anything like anything that hurt anybody ever in my whole life. Okay, well, then let's clear it up. Let's just sit down, go over this thing, and be done with it.

[Narrator]

Bailey and Kylie confront Cordero with a search warrant. Initially, they don't tell him about his fingerprint found inside the victim's wallet.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

He maintained there was no contact with Mr. Sullivan. He had never hitchhiked with anyone with the late cast.

[District Attorney Investigator Tim Kiley]

He had already told us that there was no. That he had never found a wallet, that he'd never seen the victim's body. And so he couldn't come back now and say, yeah, I did find a wallet or some excuse. So we felt it was safe to tell him at this point about the fingerprint.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Your fingerprint was found on his wallet. On his wallet, Inside his wallet. That insert. I can't believe that. It almost seems like enough evidence for you to take me to jail. He went through various emotional states. At one point, he was lying on the ground outside his residence, almost weeping.

[Narrator]

Emotions aside, Cordero offers no credible explanation for the print and is asked to provide a DNA sample. Detectives promise they will be back in touch next time, perhaps with a warrant for Cordero's arrest.

[Diana Cunningham]

This is the main DNA extraction laboratory. This is where we sample the evidence

[Narrator]

in the summer of 2004. DNA analyst Deanna Kaeser has a stack of cold cases to work on. One of them almost as old as she is.

[Diana Cunningham]

I was born in September of 1974 and this case happened in 1975. So, yeah, I thought it would be interesting to do a case that was almost as old as me.

[Narrator]

Kayser pulls out a cigarette butt collected from the Sullivan crime scene 29 years earlier. She suspects DNA extraction will be a long shot until she notices that the cigarette was actually hand rolled.

[Diana Cunningham]

Presumably the saliva that's in between these two creases is somewhat preserved because it's not exposed to the elements in any way. It's kind of smashed. Between the two pieces of paper, Kaeser

[Narrator]

is able to extract a partial genetic profile before she compares it to William Cordero. Kaeser runs the sample through codis, the state's DNA database. When she does, Kevin Bailey's murder investigation takes a turn.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

She goes, I did get DNA off the cigarette butt and I do have a match. Of course, we're all assuming it's going to be Mr. Cordero. Then she gave me the bad news is it was not. It came back to Robert Vaughn.

[Narrator]

Robert Vaughn is a convicted murderer now sitting in a California prison. What's more, Vaughn carries a history of attacking hitchhikers.

[District Attorney Investigator Tim Kiley]

Robert Vaughn had attacked a man with a rock while the two of them were camping together in a rural area. Very similar to this murder.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

It's definitely one of the reports that jumped out at both of us. And, you know, that was almost T for T. The motive that happened in ours.

[Narrator]

Bailey and Kylie do background on their suspect. Deep in the paperwork, they discover a second connection to the Sullivan murder.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

In reviewing Mr. Vaughn's rap sheet, I see that one of his aliases is Robert Holt. H O L T I go through the case, I find a scrap of paper that was written by Detective Ralph Mays at the time. On that scrap of paper, I find the name Bob Holt.

[Narrator]

In 1975, a 20 year old named Heidi Bohan IDed a student named Bob Holt as a possible match to a composite sketch of the killer. Bailey tracks down Bohan and emails her some recent photos of Robert Vaughn.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I just asked her, look at the photograph and tell me if this is the person you knew as Bob Holt back in 75.

[Heidi Bohan]

When I opened it, I actually immediately said, that's Bob Holt.

[District Attorney Investigator Tim Kiley]

You coupled that with the DNA evidence, his violent history, and the assault that he did with a person that survived with the rock in the head, and, you know, this looked like a sure thing.

[Narrator]

Tim Kiley might think it's a sure thing, but Assistant DA Richard Martin, however, feels otherwise.

[Detective Curt Smallcomb]

I told him, I need a confession. I need this guy to admit that he did it or an eyewitness that saw him do it. Because right now he can't say that he was not at the scene. We can prove that without any doubts at all. We have to show that he was involved in the homicide.

[Narrator]

Bailey and Kylie need more than a cigarette butt to make their case against Vaughn. In September 2004, they decide to sit down with the suspect and see if they can get him talking.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

I told him, well, we're here investigating a homicide that occurred about 30 years ago and I think that maybe you can help us.

[Narrator]

Robert Vaughn doesn't really want to talk, but remains intrigued as to how and why detectives suspect him in Sullivan's death.

[District Attorney Investigator Tim Kiley]

He seemed very curious as to why we were there. We told him it was a homicide. In our minds, of course, he knows why we're there very, very well.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

Tim told him we're going to get there. And what Tim told him is, you're going to love it, but you're going to tell us your story before we tell you ours.

[Narrator]

Vaughn is serving 15 years to life on an unrelated murder charge and is up for parole in a of months couple. Bailey lays out a few hard truths for him, what his life will be like if Vaughn refuses to talk to police.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

And what I told him is, you know, you've been before the parole board and you've been denied and you plan on going again. This Case is not going to go away, and you're the guy that did it. Now you can go before the parole board every five years for the rest of your life saying, I don't know anything about this case, and I'll be sitting in a chair behind you saying that you're good for it. I said, or you can probably, for the first time in your right life, in your life, do the right thing for the right reason. And he said, I think I can

[Narrator]

clear this up for you.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

He goes, I can tell you the caliber of the gun. And that started the dialogue for the. For the interview. We had an argument, and I forget what it was about. We had a fight or something. So when he was asleep after. After the argument. He's sleeping.

[Detective John Weeks]

Yeah.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

What happens after? Remember how close you were or how far away?

[Narrator]

Robert Vaughn provides Bailey and Kylie with a full confession and eventually pleads guilty to Sullivan's murder. He's sentenced according to 1975 laws to a term of seven years to life. William Cordero is eventually cleared of any involvement in the murder, although the existence of his print on the victim's wallet remains to this day a mystery. After his confession, Vaughn presses detectives, still curious as to how they got onto him, what clue he left behind.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

That cigarette butt's what brought us here. And I get plugged into this case and there's a cigarette butt at the scene, and I submit that guess what hits on you.

[Detective John Weeks]

So we're gonna cigarette.

[Detective Kevin Bailey]

But I kid you not, I promise.

[District Attorney Investigator Tim Kiley]

Robert Vaughn says something like, isn't that something? You know, it's my favorite show is Nicole Cold Case documentaries. I love that show. And one of us said, well, maybe someday you'll be on that show.

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[Detective Kevin Bailey]

You swear if I'm lying, I'm dying.

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[Heidi Bohan]

Huzzah.

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