REOPENED: The Hitchhiker

Summary

Cold Case Files: REOPENED - The Hitchhiker

Podcast Information:

• Title: Cold Case Files
• Host/Author: A&E / PodcastOne
• Description: This episode delves into one of the most perplexing cold cases—The Hitchhiker—a murder that remained unsolved for nearly three decades until breakthroughs in forensic technology and relentless investigative work led to its resolution.
• Episode: REOPENED: The Hitchhiker
• Release Date: April 24, 2025
• Host: Paula Barros

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1. Introduction to the Case

[13:12] Heidi Bohan: "A man was found murdered at a makeshift campsite in the woods near Navarro, California. Though the police located several of his belongings, there was no identification found near the crime scene."

In April 1975, Jerry Sullivan, a 20-year-old hitchhiker from New York, was discovered brutally murdered in the serene woods of Northern California. The absence of identification made it challenging for investigators to trace his identity, leaving his family clueless about potential motives or suspects.

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2. Initial Investigation and Evidence Collection

[14:09] Bill Curtis: "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, you know, let's go to work."

Detectives Ralph Mays and Grover Beathards first arrived at the crime scene in Navarro. They found Sullivan lying face down in his sleeping bag, a cast on his left leg, and a fatal bullet wound to the brain. Among the collected evidence was a single fingerprint from Sullivan's wallet and a discarded cigarette butt. Despite extensive searches, no immediate leads emerged to identify Sullivan or his assailant.

---

3. The Mysterious Wallet and Fingerprint

[06:07] Brooke Giddings: "The unknown print is entered into California's fingerprint database in 1975, it fails to generate a match with the cast on his left leg."

Two days after Sullivan's death, his family received his wallet in the mail, puzzling the investigators. The fingerprint retrieved from the wallet did not match any existing records in the database, compelling detectives to search for individuals who might have interacted with Sullivan during his final days.

---

4. Identifying Potential Witnesses

[07:35] Bill Curtis: "I picked him up and I told them 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."

Kathy Smith, a 24-year-old member of the local commune, came forward as a key witness. She admitted to having given rides to two male hitchhikers, one of whom was wearing a leg cast—potentially Sullivan. Despite this lead, identifying the second hitchhiker proved difficult, especially when initial attempts to match composite sketches to suspects were unsuccessful.

---

5. The Elusive Bob Holt

[08:15] Bill Curtis: "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 those days, up the coast from here, probably about 25 miles up the coast."

Detectives pursued leads that pointed to a man named Bob Holt, a name that surfaced from witness descriptions and composite sketches. However, tracking down Holt yielded no results, and initial interviews did not connect him definitively to Sullivan's murder, causing the case to go cold once more.

---

6. Reopening the Case in 1993

[14:35] Bill Curtis: "When I started going through it, just reading the case and then coming across the... Let's, you know, let's go to work."

In 1993, Detective Curt Smallcomb revisited the lingering cold case. Utilizing advances in forensic technology, Smallcomb focused on the lone fingerprint from Sullivan's wallet. His efforts led to a potential match with William Cordero, an Oregon resident with ties to Mendocino County. Despite this breakthrough, Cordero denied any involvement and refused further cooperation, leading detectives to dismantle this lead without resolution.

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7. The Breakthrough: DNA Analysis

[17:17] Bill Curtis: "Our victim, Jerry Sullivan, was not a smoker. And I noticed that in '75, they had collected a cigarette butt from the crime scene."

In 2004, Detective Kevin Bailey took over the case and decided to re-examine the evidence, particularly the cigarette butt found at the scene. With the advent of DNA technology, Bailey sent the butt for analysis, hoping to uncover genetic material that could identify Sullivan's killer.

[20:38] Bill Curtis: "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—it was not. It came back to Robert Vaughn."

The DNA results did not match William Cordero but instead pointed to Robert Vaughn, an individual with a violent history, including a prior assault on a hitchhiker. This revelation shifted the investigation towards Vaughn as the prime suspect.

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8. Connecting the Dots: Robert Vaughn

[21:30] Bill Curtis: "In reviewing Mr. Vaughn's rap sheet, I see that one of his aliases is Robert Holt."

Further investigation revealed that Robert Vaughn had previously used the alias Bob Holt—the very name that had circled the investigation decades earlier. This alias linked Vaughn directly to the witness accounts, strengthening the case against him.

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9. Confronting the Suspect and the Confession

[22:29] Brooke Giddings: "Tim Kiley might think it's a sure thing. Assistant DA Richard Martin, however, feels otherwise. I told him, I need a confession. I need this guy to admit that."

Detectives Bailey and Kylie worked in conjunction with Assistant DA Richard Martin to confront Vaughn with the newfound evidence. Their persistence paid off when Vaughn, under the pressure of undeniable DNA evidence and mounting confrontational tactics, confessed to Sullivan's murder.

[27:12] Brooke Giddings: "Robert Vaughn provides Bailey and Kylie with a full confession and eventually pleads guilty to Sullivan's murder."

Vaughn's confession brought closure to a case that had haunted investigators and Sullivan's family for nearly 30 years. He was sentenced to seven years to life, under the laws applicable at the time of the crime.

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10. Lingering Mysteries and Aftermath

[27:44] Bill Curtis: "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."

While Vaughn was held accountable for Sullivan's murder, the presence of William Cordero's fingerprint on the victim's wallet remains unexplained, leaving a lingering question in the annals of this cold case.

[28:14] Heidi Bohan: "Robert Vaughn... is currently located in a correctional facility in California. He was denied parole in November of 2008. He's currently 63 years old."

Vaughn remains incarcerated, serving time for his crimes, while the mystery of the unidentified fingerprint continues to intrigue and puzzle cold case enthusiasts and law enforcement alike.

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Key Takeaways and Insights

• Persistence Pays Off: The case of Jerry Sullivan underscores the importance of reviving cold cases and leveraging new technologies like DNA analysis to uncover long-buried truths.

• Forensic Advancements: The evolution of forensic science plays a crucial role in solving crimes that once seemed impenetrable. The re-examination of evidence such as DNA from a cigarette butt was pivotal in cracking this case.

• Witness Testimony: Despite initial hurdles in identifying witnesses and suspects, consistent follow-up and revisiting testimonies decades later can yield breakthroughs.

• Unsolved Mysteries: Even when a perpetrator is found, as in Sullivan's case, unresolved elements like the mysterious fingerprint of William Cordero add layers of complexity and intrigue to the case.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Heidi Bohan [13:12]: "A man was found murdered at a makeshift campsite in the woods near Navarro, California."

• Bill Curtis [14:09]: "When I started going through it, just reading the case and then coming across the... Let's, you know, let's go to work."

• Bill Curtis [17:17]: "Our victim, Jerry Sullivan, was not a smoker. And I noticed that in '75, they had collected a cigarette butt from the crime scene."

• Bill Curtis [20:38]: "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—it was not. It came back to Robert Vaughn."

• Bill Curtis [27:44]: "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."

---

Conclusion

"The Hitchhiker" episode of Cold Case Files masterfully narrates the intricate journey of solving a decades-old murder through relentless investigation and the evolution of forensic science. It highlights the enduring quest for justice and the complexities that law enforcement faces when dealing with cold cases. For listeners unfamiliar with the episode, this detailed summary encapsulates the essence of the investigation, the challenges encountered, and the eventual resolution that brought closure to an enduring mystery.

Transcript

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On your path to better health. Get started with Mochi Health today. Take the free [e-mail] and use code AUDIO40 at checkout for $40 off your first month of membership. That's join mochi.com with promo code AUDIO40. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Use your best judgment. This episode contains descriptions of violence. Use your best judgment. People don't really hitchhike anymore, especially if they're traveling a far distance. In the 70s, though, it was something people did all the time. The hitchhiking craze might have died down because public transportation improved or because Lyft and Uber became popular, but I think it's more likely people just realized that it could be dangerous. Getting into a car with a total stranger is really risky. Hitchhiking was even made illegal in several states, and if the case you're about to hear is any example, it was outlawed for good reason. This case of hitchhiking gone Wrong began in 1975 and took nearly 30 years to be solved. From AE this is cold Case Files. I'm Brooke, and here's the original Bill Curtis with a classic case, the Hitchhiker.

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

Kevin Bailey is a homicide detective with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. In April of 2004, Bailey opens up the Cold Murder book on Jerry Sullivan, a hitchhiker found shot to death in the summer of 1975.

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Bill Curtis]

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

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

He was lying face down. All he could see was the top of his head. And I recall the sleeping bag was zipped open slightly. Slightly, yes.

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

He could not see anywhere where somebody had been scuffling or any fighting or anything went on. We'd not only searched this midi area here, we searched up, we expanded our.

[Brooke Giddings]

Search area all, you know, all up.

[Bill Curtis]

Into these redwood trees here and all around. I remember, you know, we walked down along the highway looking like we went across the road.

[Brooke Giddings]

Police bag up 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.

[Bill Curtis]

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

[Brooke Giddings]

Of course, is fingerprints methods. 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 hitchhiking up the.

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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, the victim's wallet.

[Bill Curtis]

The wallet, the insert, including the driver's license, had been mailed back to the address that appeared on the driver's license. It was given to me by Sergeant Mays and he wanted me to see.

[Brooke Giddings]

If I was able to develop any fingerprints on it.

[Bill Curtis]

And I was able to develop a nice print on the plastic case to the driver's license.

[Brooke Giddings]

The unknown print is entered into California's fingerprint database in 1975, it fails to generate a match with the cast on his left leg.

[Bill Curtis]

You know, that was a pretty obvious. That would be pretty obvious when you saw that.

[Brooke Giddings]

Yeah, it was clean, you know, I mean, it wasn't really when people drove.

[Bill Curtis]

By or looked at them and stuff.

[Brooke Giddings]

Meantime, detectives continue to pick through the back roads of Northern California looking for anyone who might have picked up a hitchhiker wearing a cast.

[Bill Curtis]

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?

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

I lived in an old apple orchard, 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. I loved it.

[Brooke Giddings]

Three days after Jerry Sullivan turns up dead, Smiths 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 says she had picked up the two men several days earlier and one was wearing a leg cast.

[Bill Curtis]

I picked him up and I told them 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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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 quite possibly Sullivan's killer. We've interviewed several of the possible people.

[Bill Curtis]

That gave him rides and I did what they called identikit of a person's features and face. So we made up a composite of this person.

[Brooke Giddings]

We had several different composites made up.

[Bill Curtis]

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 the coast from here, probably about 25 miles up the coast.

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Bill Curtis]

That was a period of time that it was extremely sensitive that you didn't have relationships with the police. I interviewed and talked with a lot of police, paranoid people, you know, they were always wondering, you know, you know, why, you know, what are you looking for me for? We were a counterculture, and so to call the police and to actually initiate some sort of contact was a big deal.

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

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 positive. And oftentimes that was nothing good to tell him.

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Curt Smallcomb]

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[Heidi Bohan]

A man was found murdered at a makeshift campsite in the woods near Navarro, California. Though the police located several of his belongings, there was no identification found near the crime scene. The police determined that the victim had been a man named Jerry Sullivan. His family couldn't think of anyone who might have wanted to harm Jerry. A few days after Jerry's body had been discovered, his wallet with his ID inside was received by Jerry's family in the mail. The investigators pulled a fingerprint off of the license, but they weren't able to find a match in the database. In 1975, a decade later, that fingerprint was once again analyzed and and led the investigators to a woman named Kathy Smith. She'd mailed Jerry's wallet to his family after she had given him and another hitchhiker a ride. The police focused in on identifying that second man, possibly Jerry's killer.

[Bill Curtis]

When I was referring to the wall of Shame to the hall of Fame, the wall of shame is when we Mr. Sullivan's case started. His case file, he got him. Wasn't even actually here.

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Bill Curtis]

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, you know, let's go to work.

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Bill Curtis]

That led to. Department just come back with a hit on Mr. Cordero.

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

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

[Brooke Giddings]

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 and perhaps do a little fishing himself.

[Bill Curtis]

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

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

Started going up there. It was all about getting the statement. Were you ever in Mendocino county in 1975, get the statement from Mr. Cordero? If I can put him in the location, you know, I might have been there because I'm a salmon fisherman, okay. And I knew a lot of people here and there. Putting himself in that location, I'm thinking, this guy's pretty good. You ever picked up any hitchhikers? Oh, I imagine I probably did back in those days. Now I don't. But then I did. I was a hitchhiker myself. Nobody with a cast. He absolutely denied knowing anything about Mrs. Holmer ever finding anything belonging to anybody else in Mendocino County.

[Brooke Giddings]

Cordero is never told about his print found inside the victim's wallet. After their interview, the suspect lawyers up and refuses to speak to police a second time. Without enough evidence to charge Cordero, detectives are once again stymied, 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.

[Bill Curtis]

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

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

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

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

He maintained there was no contact with Mr. Sullivan. He had never hitchhiked with anyone with a leg cast. He'd 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. Your fingerprint was found on his wallet. On his wallet. Inside his wallet, that ain't. Sir, I can't believe that 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. But again, he maintained that he had no contact with the subject.

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Bill Curtis]

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

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

Almost as old as me. Kacer 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.

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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.

[Bill Curtis]

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.

[Brooke Giddings]

Robert Vaughn is a convicted murderer now sitting in a California prison. Even better, Vaughn carries a history of attacking hitchhikers.

[Bill Curtis]

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

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

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 bomb Holt.

[Brooke Giddings]

In 1975, a 20 year old named Heidi Bohan ID'd 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.

[Bill Curtis]

I just asked her, look at the photograph and tell me if this is the person you knew as Bob Holt back in 75. When I opened it, I actually immediately said, that's Bob Holt. You coupled that with 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.

[Brooke Giddings]

Tim Kiley might think it's a sure thing. Assistant DA Richard Martin, however, feels otherwise. I told him, I need a confession. I need this guy to admit that.

[Bill Curtis]

He did it or an eyewitness that.

[Brooke Giddings]

Saw him do it. Because right now he can't say that.

[Bill Curtis]

He was not at the scene. We can prove that without any doubts at all.

[Brooke Giddings]

We have to show that he was involved in the homicide. Bailey and Kylie need more than a cigarette butt to make their case against Vaughn. They decide to sit down with the suspect and see if they can get him talking.

[Curt Smallcomb]

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[Bill Curtis]

This is a story that begins with a dying wish.

[Brooke Giddings]

One thing I would like you to.

[Bill Curtis]

Do My mother's last request that my sister and I finish writing the memoir she'd started about her German childhood when her father designed a secret superweapon for Adolf Hitler. My grandfather, Robert Lesser, headed the Nazi project to build the world's first cruise missile, which terrorized millions and left a legacy that dogged my mother like a curse. She had some secrets.

[Brooke Giddings]

Mom had some secrets.

[Bill Curtis]

I'm Suzanne Rico. Join my sister and me as we search for the truth behind our grandfather's work and for the first time, face the ghosts of our past. Jeez, who is he? Listen to the man who Calculated Death, Available now wherever you get your podcasts. 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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

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. 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.

[Brooke Giddings]

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

[Bill Curtis]

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 and 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 clear this up for you. 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. Yeah. What happens after? Remember how close you were or how far away?

[Brooke Giddings]

Robert Vaughn provides Bailey and Kylie with a full confession and eventually pleads guilty to Sullivan's murder. He is 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.

[Bill Curtis]

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. So we're about a cigarette butt. I kid you not. I promise. Robert Vaughn says something like, isn't that something? You know, that's my favorite show is the Cold Case documentaries. I love that show. And one of us said, well, maybe someday you'll be on that show.

[Heidi Bohan]

Robert Vaughn, who was already serving time for a murder he was convicted of in 1991, is currently located in a correctional facility in California. He was denied parole in November of 2008. He's currently 63 years old. Cold Case Files, the podcast is hosted by Brooke giddings, produced by McKamey, Lynn and Steve Delamater. Our associate producer is Julie McGruder. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. Our music was created by Blake Maples. This podcast is distributed by Podcast one. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and is hosted by Bill Curtis. You can find me at Brooke Giddings on Twitter and Brooke the Podcaster on Instagram. I'm also active in the Facebook group Paul Podcast for Justice. Check out more Cold case [e-mail] or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the a n e realcrime [e-mail] realcrime see what's screaming free all.

[Brooke Giddings]

Month long during Pluto TV's April ghouls get your heart pounding with nightmare, fueling classics like Insidious and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Or Tell Test your nerves with haunting hits like Urban Legend and Don't Be.

[Bill Curtis]

Afraid of the Dark.

[Brooke Giddings]

Pluto TV has hundreds of channels and thousands of terrifying movies, live and on demand. Download Pluto TV on all your favorite devices and start streaming now.