Podcast
Somebody Knows Something
Hosted by EPD Cold Case · EN
In May of 2024, Elgin (IL) Police Chief Ana Lalley created the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit to take a fresh look at unsolved homicides and missing persons cases with the belief that dedicating resources and using new technology will help solve these cases. As part of this new unit, the Elgin Police Department launched a podcast dedicated to Elgin cold cases to seek information from the public.
Somebody Knows Something: The Elgin Police Cold Case Podcast was created by the Elgin Police Department and is recorded with assistance of WRMN 1410 in Elgin, Illinois. Detective Andrew Houghton, Detective Christopher Hall, and Detective Matt Vartanian of the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit host the podcast and take listeners along as they investigate missing persons and homicide cases in real time and seek justice for the victims and closure for their families. This podcast includes actual police interviews, re-creations, and information that has never been released publicly as the Elgin Police Department seeks assistance from the community.
Season 1, Where is Karen? follows Detectives Andrew Houghton and Matt Vartanian as they investigate the disappearance of 23-year-old Karen Schepers, who, along with her car, disappeared without a trace after a night out with co-workers on April 16, 1983.
Season 2, Elgin: The 1970’s follows Detective Andrew Houghton and his new partner, Detective Chris Hall, as they review five cold case homicides and one missing person case, all from the 1970s. Over the course of this season, they investigate the shootings of Guadalupe Alanis in 1971 and Maynard Chester Holley in 1975, the murder of 16-year-old Lori Bolger and the disappearance of 14-year-old Barbara Glueckert in 1976, the stabbing of Cayce Kyles in 1977, and the murder of Renee Tovar in 1979.
Season 3, Wyteria is Missing follows Detectives Andrew Houghton and Chris Hall as they re-investigate the disappearance of 45-year-old Wyteria Jones, who vanished from the Douglas Hotel in downtown Elgin in the fall of 1982. A new member, Detective Beth Sterricker, also joins the unit and Sergeant Matt Vartanian returns to assist with Wyteria's investigation.
Anyone with information on any of the cold cases discussed are encouraged to contact the Elgin Police Department via email at ColdCaseTips@elginil.gov or via phone at 1-847-289-COLD. A list of all cold case missing persons and homicide cases as well as additional information about the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit can be found at www.ElginColdCases.com.
DISCLAIMER: This podcast is based on information sourced primarily from police reports and media reports, but certain names and other identifying details may have been changed or altered for privacy and security reasons. While the events and cases discussed are based on real investigations, some aspects may be simplified for time and for narrative purposes. Voice actors may be used to read from statements or docu...
Somebody Knows Something: The Elgin Police Cold Case Podcast was created by the Elgin Police Department and is recorded with assistance of WRMN 1410 in Elgin, Illinois. Detective Andrew Houghton, Detective Christopher Hall, and Detective Matt Vartanian of the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit host the podcast and take listeners along as they investigate missing persons and homicide cases in real time and seek justice for the victims and closure for their families. This podcast includes actual police interviews, re-creations, and information that has never been released publicly as the Elgin Police Department seeks assistance from the community.
Season 1, Where is Karen? follows Detectives Andrew Houghton and Matt Vartanian as they investigate the disappearance of 23-year-old Karen Schepers, who, along with her car, disappeared without a trace after a night out with co-workers on April 16, 1983.
Season 2, Elgin: The 1970’s follows Detective Andrew Houghton and his new partner, Detective Chris Hall, as they review five cold case homicides and one missing person case, all from the 1970s. Over the course of this season, they investigate the shootings of Guadalupe Alanis in 1971 and Maynard Chester Holley in 1975, the murder of 16-year-old Lori Bolger and the disappearance of 14-year-old Barbara Glueckert in 1976, the stabbing of Cayce Kyles in 1977, and the murder of Renee Tovar in 1979.
Season 3, Wyteria is Missing follows Detectives Andrew Houghton and Chris Hall as they re-investigate the disappearance of 45-year-old Wyteria Jones, who vanished from the Douglas Hotel in downtown Elgin in the fall of 1982. A new member, Detective Beth Sterricker, also joins the unit and Sergeant Matt Vartanian returns to assist with Wyteria's investigation.
Anyone with information on any of the cold cases discussed are encouraged to contact the Elgin Police Department via email at ColdCaseTips@elginil.gov or via phone at 1-847-289-COLD. A list of all cold case missing persons and homicide cases as well as additional information about the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit can be found at www.ElginColdCases.com.
DISCLAIMER: This podcast is based on information sourced primarily from police reports and media reports, but certain names and other identifying details may have been changed or altered for privacy and security reasons. While the events and cases discussed are based on real investigations, some aspects may be simplified for time and for narrative purposes. Voice actors may be used to read from statements or docu...
28episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
S3E6: Chicago
2d ago00:31:36Summary readyIn this episode, we are travelling outside of Elgin once again to the City of Chicago to see the neighborhood where the Jones family lived in the late 1960’s before moving to Aurora…the same neighborhood that Waymon Jones lived in November of 1967 when he was arrested for murder.
SummaryS3E5: Aurora
2w ago00:22:23Summary readyThis episode takes them to Aurora, a city with deep ties to Wyteria's past and a direct bus line that could have brought her right to her old doorstep. But Aurora also means revisiting the man who reported her missing: her husband, Waymon Jones. With family members alleging years of physical abuse, a prior battery arrest, and Wyteria herself on record reporting violence in the home, the detectives can't ignore what the statistics say - that women are far more likely to be harmed by someone they know. And just when they think they've mapped the edges of Waymon's past, one more record surfaces. Somebody Knows Something returns - and the investigation is far from over.
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S3E4: Joliet
May 400:30:28Summary readyDetectives leave Elgin and head southwest to Joliet, Illinois — chasing one of their strongest theories in the search for missing woman Wyteria Jones. Could she have quietly slipped away to another city in 1982? The detectives trace every route she might have taken — Greyhound, Trailways, RTA buses, commuter trains — uncovering just how complicated that journey would have been. Then, when they go looking for the hotel a witness said Wyteria was headed to, they hit a wall. The "Joliet Motor Lodge" doesn't exist. But what they find in its place is a connection that changes everything. Along the way, they shine a light on other long-forgotten Will County disappearances, reminding us that every missing person leaves behind a family still waiting for answers.
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S3E3: Longer Than We Knew
Apr 2000:22:19Summary readyIn this episode, newly uncovered records turn the entire investigation upside down — revealing a timeline no one expected and connections to Elgin that run far deeper than anyone knew. Detective Beth Sterricker joins the team to break it all down, and what they find forces them to rethink everything. How long was Wyteria really here? Where did she go before Elgin? And does any of it point to what happened to her in 1982? The answers will surprise you.
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S3E2: Elgin
Apr 600:36:51Summary readyIn 1982, Wyteria Jones vanished from a rundown Elgin, Illinois hotel where she was living as an outpatient of the Elgin Mental Health Center. Over 40 years later, her case remains unsolved. In this episode of the Elgin Police Department's Cold Case Podcast, Detectives walk the same streets Wyteria walked — from the historic Douglas Hotel to the bus stops of downtown Elgin — piecing together her final known movements. With one witness account, a rainy October day, and a building that's been completely gutted since 1982, the trail is cold. But somebody knows something.
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S3E1: Wyteria Is Missing
Mar 2300:30:36Summary readySeason 3 of Somebody Knows Something — the Elgin Police Department's Cold Case Podcast — opens a brand new case: the 1982 disappearance of Wyteria Jones.Detectives Andrew Houghton and Chris Hall introduce listeners to Wyteria, a Black woman from rural Tennessee whose family roots stretch back to the Civil War Era. After moving north to Illinois, Wyteria found herself in Elgin in the spring of 1982, staying at the Douglas Hotel while receiving mental health treatment. When the hotel closed that October, she walked out with her luggage — and was never seen or heard from again.What makes this case especially challenging? Her disappearance wasn't reported to police until January 1983, nearly four months later. The case file is thin. And the detectives are left with more questions than answers: Where was she going? Did she make it there? And why did she stop cashing her government checks and contacting her children — forever?In this season opener, the detectives share what little is known, lay out five working theories, and make a direct appeal to the public for help. If you knew Wyteria, lived at the Douglas Hotel, or have any information about her whereabouts in the fall of 1982 — somebody knows something.Tips can be submitted at www.ElginColdCases.com or by calling the Cold Case tipline at 847-289-COLD.
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S3: Bonus Episode - Still Missing
Mar 1600:18:29Summary readyBonus Episode – Still MissingAs the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit heads into 2026 and prepares for Season 3 of Somebody Knows Something, Detectives Andrew Houghton and Chris Hall are taking stock of every open missing persons case in their files — and asking the public for help finding answers for families still waiting. The unit is also growing. Detective Beth Sterricker brings nearly two decades of Elgin Police experience to the team, and Sergeant Matt Vartanian — co-host of Season 1 — is back, this time overseeing the Cold Case Unit as part of his new role in the Major Investigations Division. Four people are still missing. Their families are still waiting. Franco Loyo was 61 years old when he walked north along N. Airlite Street in Elgin on the evening of April 19, 2023, and was never seen again. Listed as missing and endangered, his case will officially become a cold case in April 2026 — but his family isn't waiting for a label. Maynor Escalante-Martinez was just 16 — an unaccompanied minor placed with a sponsor family in Elgin — when he was reported missing on June 29, 2021, after allegedly leaving with a man claiming to be his uncle. He would be 20 years old today. Whether he left safely or not, no one has been able to confirm it. Chad P. Smith was reported missing in February 2021 after his family hadn't heard from him since December of 2020. Unconfirmed sightings have placed him on the south side of Chicago, but his whereabouts have never been verified. His mother is still in Elgin. She is still looking. Daren Wood was 24 years old when he stopped by his mother's east-side Elgin home in July 2017 and promised he'd be back in two days. He never came back. Eight years of investigation, including cross-referencing his case against unidentified remains in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, has yet to bring his family closure. There is one piece of good news. Willie Wilder, previously on the unit's caseload after disappearing in December 2021, was found alive in South Elgin in September 2025 — proof that these cases can be resolved. But behind the four open cases is a fifth that goes back even further. In the fall of 1982, Wyteria Jones was last seen near the Douglas Hotel in downtown Elgin and vanished. Hers is the oldest cold case missing persons investigation in the unit's files, and she will be the focus of the full Season 3 investigation launching in March. Someone out there knows something about each of these people. If you have information, contact the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit at ColdCaseTips@elginil.gov, call 847-289-COLD, or visit www.ElginColdCases.com.
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S2E8: The Final Murder of the Decade (1979) – Part 2
Oct 2400:43:31Summary readyIn this final episode of the season, Detectives Andrew Houghton and Chris Hall from the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit lay out the investigation into Renee’s murder in 1979, release new information about the case, and discuss potential links between Renee’s murder and the serial killer group known as the Ripper Crew. They also close out the season and remember all 27 homicide victims from 1970’s Elgin.
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S2E7: The Final Murder of the Decade (1979) – Part 1
Oct 2400:25:16Summary readyOn November 23, 1979, the day after Thanksgiving, Renee Cruz Tovar decided to stay home while her roommate went out on a date. The following morning, November 24, 1979, her roommate returned home and found Renee murdered in their apartment. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Detectives Andrew Houghton and Chris Hall from the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit meet with family members and friends of Renee to learn more about her brief life and the impact her tragic death had on the Elgin community.
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S2E6: Stabbed In The Alley (1977)
Oct 900:28:09Summary readyIt was a warm, summer evening when 68-year-old Cayce D. Kyles strolled down an alley behind the Douglas Hotel in downtown Elgin on July 21, 1977. Moments later, he was attacked and stabbed to death less than a block from the Elgin Police Department. Detectives Andrew Houghton and Chris Hall from the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Unit revisit the Cayce’s case and seek information from the public in his cold case murder.
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