Cold and Missing: Christina Pipkin


In May of 1991, 9-year-old Christina Pipkin vanished while going door to door selling costume jewelry for a school fundraiser in the tiny town of Hickory Ridge, Arkansas. Described as bright, creative, and full of life, Christina was last seen around 6:30 PM—by nightfall, her family was sounding the alarm. Within hours, half the town had mobilized to search. Days later, her body was found submerged in a water ditch, fully clothed but missing her shoes and school materials. With no clear cause of death beyond drowning, police suspected foul play. Despite a later arrest based on a suspicious comment and a single strand of hair found in a suspect’s car, the case unraveled. Nearly nine years after her murder, charges were dropped, and to this day, no one has been held accountable for Christina’s death. Her case remains cold—but never forgotten.
*** If you know anything about the murder of Christina Pipkin in May of 1991 please call the Arkansas State police at 501-618-8420 ***
Sources:
The Commercial Appeal, Paragould Daily Press, Batesville Guard, Daily American Republic, The Sun, Baxter Bulletin, The Daily World, and KATV
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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and
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Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All
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parties mentioned are considered innocent until
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proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing
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also contains adult themes and languages. Listener
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discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin
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-Sulkowski. And I'm your co -host, Eli Sulkowski.
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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover
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cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone
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and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm your
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host Ali. And I'm your co -host Eli. Welcome
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back everyone. Just want to say another quick
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thank you at the top to Ginger who last week
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bought us a coffee on the buy us a coffee page.
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All of the money that's donated to us through
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that link just goes right back into this podcast.
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So thank you again to Ginger. Yeah, it means
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a lot to us that Our listeners are, you know,
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of course, willing to support in any way that
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they can. But, you know, in this way, it pushes
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the podcast in a specific way. And it's really
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nice. So thank you so much. But with that, I
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think we can just jump into this episode. We
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are on episode 127 this week. Yep. And we are
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on a cold case. Let's get into it. So just as
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a quick content warning at the top, this case
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does involve a young person, and there are some
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brief mentions of sexual assault and domestic
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violence. Today, we are talking about the cold
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case of Christina Pipkin, and this takes place
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in May of 1991 in Hickory Ridge, Arkansas. But
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first, a little bit about Christina. Christina
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is nine years old in 1991. She is a fourth grader
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at Hickory Ridge Elementary School, where she
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is a talkative young girl and a good student.
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She liked to color, read, and write poetry and
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gospel songs. Her mother, Frida, says, quote,
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She's got a lot of interests, and she's just
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as smart as she can be. She wrote a song called
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I Love You, and when she started singing it,
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it sounded like about a person. In the end, it
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was about the Lord. End quote. Christina and
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her family had just moved to the little town
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of Hickory Ridge a few months before the timeline
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starts. The town is small. It has a population
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of less than 500 people. The mayor of Hickory
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Ridge is also the fire chief, the plumbing inspector,
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and the water operator for the town, just to
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kind of paint a picture for you. Christina is
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tall for her age. She stands at 4 '9 and weighs
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about 80 pounds. She has short brown hair and
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brown eyes. And now a timeline of events. On
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Saturday, May 4th, 1991. So it's unclear exactly
00:03:02.939 --> 00:03:05.539
what Christina was getting up to on this Saturday.
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But what we do know is that between 4 .30 and
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5 p .m., she asks her parents if she can go out
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and go door -to -door to try to sell some stuff
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for her school's fundraiser. The students were
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tasked with selling costume jewelry in order
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to raise funds for the school. Christina gets
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permission but is told to be back before it gets
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dark. Christina is wearing shorts and a t -shirt
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that said Desert Storm on it, along with Hickory
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Ridge Elementary School. It had a logo of Arkansas,
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the American flag, and Kuwait on it. She's wearing
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white sandals and has red yarn bracelets on her
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ankle and wrist. She's also carrying a pencil
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and the order form with her as she walks around
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town. At the time of reporting in 1991, the last
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confirmed sighting of Christina is around 6 .30
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p .m. She was taking an order from a woman about
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two blocks away from her home, but she was near
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Arkansas 49 when she was last spotted, which
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was a busy road that had a lot of through traffic.
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However, in recent years, some more details have
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come out around the last time she was seen. Multiple
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children interviewed by police said that they
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had seen a stranger in town driving a light blue
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car and had been seen near the grocery store
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on the day that Christina went missing. Most
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kids reported the man driving the light blue
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car as white, having long, messy hair and high
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cheekbones. One of the child witnesses said that
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they saw the car slowly following Christina as
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she was walking near the grocery store. They
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said that Christina was shaking her head no at
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the car. A cashier at the grocery store told
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police that the day Christina went missing, a
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stranger came in with long dark hair and a mustache
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to buy cigarettes around 5 .45 p .m., about 45
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minutes before Christina was last seen at 6 .30.
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As it gets darker and darker outside, Christina's
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parents begin to worry when she doesn't come
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back. She had never stayed out late before. They
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start looking for her around 8 p .m. Her parents
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go door to door, asking if anyone had seen her.
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No one had seen her recently, though lots of
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folks do say that they had seen her walking around
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earlier. Finally, at around 8 .53 p .m., Christina's
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parents call police to report her missing. The
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town is so small that they don't have a police
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force themselves, but the county sheriff shows
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up and takes the search seriously. The town's
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emergency alarm is sounded, and by 9 .30, more
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than 250 volunteers had showed up to help search.
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That's over half the town. Nobody thinks this
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is a runaway situation. People search through
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the night for Christina, but they don't find
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any sign of her. The next day, Sunday, May 5th,
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another massive search is launched as the day
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breaks. People are searching on foot, horseback,
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ATV, helicopters, and airplanes looking for any
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sign of the little girl. With each passing hour,
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the search gets more and more desperate. Investigators
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say, quote, it's getting past the time when she
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may have stayed all night with a friend and didn't
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call her parents. It has the appearance of an
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abduction, end quote. By Monday, so Christina
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has been missing since Saturday night, the FBI
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joins the search for the missing girl, and searches
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continue throughout Monday and into the next
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day, Tuesday, May 7th. Christina has been missing
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for three days now when the search comes to an
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end. In the evening hours, just over the border
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into the next county, about four miles from where
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Christina was last seen, A man and his sons are
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walking down to a nearby bridge to check on the
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water levels. The bridge went over Cow Lake Ditch,
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a water ditch that runs for miles in between
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fields of crops. At this time in 1991, the water
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was about nine feet deep, but it did fluctuate.
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When the man and his sons get to the bridge,
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one of the sons notices something in the water.
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The man goes down and realizes what he's looking
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at. He brings his sons home as quickly as he
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can so he can call the police. When police arrive,
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they find the body of Christina in the water.
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Her body is fully clothed, but her white sandals
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are missing. Also missing is the pencil and order
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form that she had been carrying. Cross County
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Sheriff Ronnie Huey says, quote, we haven't a
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clue as to what happened. There's nothing that
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we can even build a theory on yet, end quote.
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There are no obvious signs of trauma to her body,
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according to police. No bruising, cuts, scrapes.
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Police say that they will need to wait for the
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autopsy before commenting on a cause of death.
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However, police immediately begin to treat the
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death as foul play. The next day, Wednesday,
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May 8th, Christina's autopsy is conducted. Her
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cause of death is labeled as drowning. and the
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autopsy confirms that she had not been sexually
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assaulted. Police do believe that she died where
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she entered the water, and she likely died on
00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:32.899
Saturday, the day that she went missing. Police
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still believe that foul play is involved. They
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point to her missing shoes, and they don't believe
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that she could have walked four miles without
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anyone else seeing her on the busy road. Police
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say, quote, We're going to keep scratching and
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digging, trying to get that one clue that will
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get us started. You just keep on keeping on.
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Someone is going to remember something or we're
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going to kick something over. End quote. Christina's
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parents support this. Christina couldn't swim.
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There would have been no reason for her to walk
00:09:03.940 --> 00:09:08.669
so far out of town to go swimming. And, when
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they did go swimming, she would only splash around
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on the shallow end because she didn't like going
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where she couldn't touch the bottom. Police spend
00:09:16.590 --> 00:09:18.929
all day searching the area where she was found
00:09:18.929 --> 00:09:22.190
for additional clues. Divers are sent into the
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water, but nothing further is recovered. Her
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shoes are never found, and neither is the pencil
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she was carrying or the order form. On Friday,
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May 10th, just shy of one week since she was
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last seen, Christina is laid to rest. Police
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still have zero leads in the case. They have
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talked to a few people, but no one has emerged
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as a real person of interest or a suspect. Both
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of Christina's parents will be questioned by
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both the police and the FBI, and both of them
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will be cleared of any suspicion. The case very
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quickly goes cold. Over the next few years, other
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children will go missing and either are never
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recovered or they're found murdered. This includes
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the murder of Michael Moore, Steve Branch, and
00:10:11.799 --> 00:10:14.100
Christopher Byers that resulted in the arrest
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of the West Memphis Three. Police don't think
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any of these cases are related, but it is happening
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a lot. In June of 1995, so it's been over four
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years since the death of Christina, and police
00:10:28.100 --> 00:10:30.679
are just as convinced today as they were the
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day they found her that foul play is involved.
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repeating that she did not get there by herself.
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Someone took her out where she was found. The
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case has been reviewed by other detectives over
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the years, retired detectives and freelance detectives,
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but nothing new has ever surfaced from this,
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and no new leads have come to police. Then, seemingly
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out of nowhere, in November of 1999, so it's
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been over eight years since the murder, and police
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make an arrest in the case. They say that they
00:11:05.500 --> 00:11:08.480
have new forensic information that results in
00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:11.299
the arrest of Robbie Tubbs for Christina's murder.
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Tubbs first came to police's attention when his
00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:18.080
late wife told police that when Christina was
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still missing, before her body was found, Tubbs
00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:24.100
was watching the news coverage and said that
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no one would find the girl because there are
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too many ditches for the girl to drown in. and
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days later, Christina was found in a ditch, drowned.
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She also told police that he had tied her up
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and beat her when she threatened to tell the
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police of what he had done. Police say that they
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found a hair in Tubbs' 1980 AMC Eagle sedan.
00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:50.039
The hair was found on the right front passenger
00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:53.960
side. Police collected the sample about seven
00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:57.259
months after the murder. Police are not able
00:11:57.259 --> 00:12:00.120
to arrest him in 1991 because they don't have
00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:03.000
testing to prove that the hair was Christina's.
00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:06.779
But with advances in DNA technology over the
00:12:06.779 --> 00:12:09.039
years, police say that they have been able to
00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:11.899
confirm that the hair found in his car belonged
00:12:11.899 --> 00:12:16.139
to Christina. Tubbs is arrested and pleads not
00:12:16.139 --> 00:12:20.259
guilty to the crime. And in April of 2000, nearly
00:12:20.259 --> 00:12:23.000
nine years after the murder, the trial starts.
00:12:23.950 --> 00:12:26.470
The state is seeking the death penalty in this
00:12:26.470 --> 00:12:30.470
case. However, almost as quickly as the trial
00:12:30.470 --> 00:12:35.610
starts, it stops. It's revealed by Tubbs' defense
00:12:35.610 --> 00:12:38.950
team that the hair in question, the one found
00:12:38.950 --> 00:12:42.649
in his car, was never actually tested by the
00:12:42.649 --> 00:12:46.110
FBI. There had been a mix -up in the samples,
00:12:46.210 --> 00:12:50.409
and the FBI had tested known samples of Christina's
00:12:50.409 --> 00:12:53.519
hair. So of course those came back as a match
00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:57.120
for her DNA. So the court delays the trial for
00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.080
two months so the FBI can test the strand found
00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:03.919
in the car, the correct sample. Within weeks
00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:06.600
though, the FBI reports that the hair sample
00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:09.720
from the car is not a good enough sample for
00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:13.299
them to be able to get a DNA profile from. Therefore,
00:13:13.500 --> 00:13:17.490
they can't prove that it's Christina's. Tubbs'
00:13:17.629 --> 00:13:22.110
late wife also can't testify and her testimony
00:13:22.110 --> 00:13:25.909
is not admitted into court. She can't testify
00:13:25.909 --> 00:13:29.450
because she was murdered two years to the day
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after Christina in a burglary that had gone wrong.
00:13:33.970 --> 00:13:37.169
Tubbs had been cleared of any involvement in
00:13:37.169 --> 00:13:40.370
his late wife's murder. So without these two
00:13:40.370 --> 00:13:43.409
pieces of critical evidence, the prosecutors
00:13:43.409 --> 00:13:47.320
are forced to drop all the charges. The prosecutor
00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:49.679
doesn't have enough evidence to prove beyond
00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:52.740
a reasonable doubt and certainly prove a death
00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:55.960
case with what evidence he has left after those
00:13:55.960 --> 00:13:58.820
two things are taken out. The evidence that is
00:13:58.820 --> 00:14:01.539
left is really just contradicting stories in
00:14:01.539 --> 00:14:04.200
how the hair could have ended up in his car.
00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:07.919
Investigators say that they don't plan to reinvestigate
00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:11.600
the case and Tubbs can't be charged again in
00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.090
this case because of double jeopardy. After this,
00:14:15.149 --> 00:14:19.929
the case really goes cold until about 2023 when
00:14:19.929 --> 00:14:23.549
another podcast, Hell Gone Cold, covers this
00:14:23.549 --> 00:14:25.970
case. And it brings up a lot of media attention.
00:14:26.129 --> 00:14:28.629
And there are some new details released. And
00:14:28.629 --> 00:14:31.070
that's when we get the details about the children
00:14:31.070 --> 00:14:36.149
seeing a suspicious figure in town the day that
00:14:36.149 --> 00:14:38.309
Christina went missing. But other than that,
00:14:38.470 --> 00:14:42.730
there are really no new developments in Christina's
00:14:42.730 --> 00:14:47.419
case. So with that, if you know anything about
00:14:47.419 --> 00:14:51.940
the murder of Christina Pipkin in 1991, please
00:14:51.940 --> 00:14:58.440
call the Arkansas State Police at 501 -618 -8420.
00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:04.200
So that is the case of Christina Pipkin. I loved
00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:08.580
hearing the detail about Christina and that she
00:15:08.580 --> 00:15:13.559
was chatty at school and just the way... people
00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:17.659
spoke about her. And we've said this before when
00:15:17.659 --> 00:15:21.779
we've covered cold cases involving children,
00:15:21.940 --> 00:15:27.200
but it's just really heartbreaking to learn about
00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:32.679
their budding personalities and the way that
00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:37.919
they're just squashed out of existence. I don't
00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:43.299
know. As always, these are... The most difficult
00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:47.059
cases for me to listen to, but I'm so grateful
00:15:47.059 --> 00:15:51.179
that we cover them. And just more about Christina,
00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:54.600
she sounded just like a little ray of sunshine.
00:15:55.379 --> 00:15:59.200
Yeah, the detail of Christina writing poetry
00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:01.840
and writing gospel songs, there's something about
00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:06.620
a child that writes worship music that is just
00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:08.840
so endearing. You know, whatever kind of worship
00:16:08.840 --> 00:16:12.039
music it is, it's just... There's something very
00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:16.879
innocent and pure about it. And yeah, I think
00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:19.539
that just kind of sums up Christina, you know.
00:16:19.940 --> 00:16:24.039
Yeah. And the things that she was doing in her
00:16:24.039 --> 00:16:27.240
young life, which kind of brings us into this
00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:31.580
into the timeline, which is, you know, doing
00:16:31.580 --> 00:16:34.480
her little sales thing in the neighborhood. I
00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:37.580
definitely remember this happening in my neighborhood
00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:41.149
with fundraising stuff. little pizza kits and
00:16:41.149 --> 00:16:45.769
stuff. I remember this being a very normal thing
00:16:45.769 --> 00:16:51.230
in the 90s. So when you introduced that that's
00:16:51.230 --> 00:16:53.590
what she was doing, I immediately understood
00:16:53.590 --> 00:16:58.789
kind of her navigating of the local neighborhood.
00:16:58.950 --> 00:17:02.370
It was a space that she knew. Definitely. And
00:17:02.370 --> 00:17:05.470
just as a side note, you know, after Christina's
00:17:05.470 --> 00:17:09.130
murder, the county, the school district banned
00:17:09.130 --> 00:17:12.130
door -to -door sales as fundraisers for children
00:17:12.130 --> 00:17:15.410
after this they didn't want kids doing it anymore
00:17:15.410 --> 00:17:19.190
and you know when I was growing up I don't think
00:17:19.190 --> 00:17:21.730
my school officially had anything like this we
00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:23.809
had other kinds of fundraisers but never anything
00:17:23.809 --> 00:17:26.210
that we were supposed to go door -to -door for
00:17:26.210 --> 00:17:30.029
but I did have that kind of fundraising for like
00:17:30.029 --> 00:17:33.910
um like my dance squad stuff so it was something
00:17:33.910 --> 00:17:36.089
that was still happening a lot in the 90s but
00:17:36.089 --> 00:17:40.720
I don't think it's happening I wanted to ask
00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:45.079
a more specific question about this part of the
00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:49.539
timeline. I didn't catch when you said that she
00:17:49.539 --> 00:17:52.339
asked her parents to go out. What was that time
00:17:52.339 --> 00:17:56.480
window? So she left her parents' house between
00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:00.519
4 .30 and 5 p .m. and was last seen at around
00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:05.380
6 .30 p .m. So this was, you know, perceivably
00:18:05.380 --> 00:18:09.630
daylight. For the most part. Yeah, it would have
00:18:09.630 --> 00:18:12.549
been the early evening hours, but the beginning
00:18:12.549 --> 00:18:15.829
of May. So the days are getting longer every
00:18:15.829 --> 00:18:19.029
day at this point in the year. When you were
00:18:19.029 --> 00:18:25.769
speaking about her route and mentioning through
00:18:25.769 --> 00:18:28.849
lanes or through traffic, is that just like concentrated
00:18:28.849 --> 00:18:32.890
areas where lots of people are crossing from
00:18:32.890 --> 00:18:35.710
like different towns or cities? Yeah, she was
00:18:35.710 --> 00:18:39.210
the last seen. I believe near Arkansas 49. And
00:18:39.210 --> 00:18:43.750
so this is like a highway country road and it
00:18:43.750 --> 00:18:46.450
kind of links some major cities and it runs right
00:18:46.450 --> 00:18:49.910
through the small town of Hickory Ridge. So there's
00:18:49.910 --> 00:18:53.130
usually a lot of just traffic on this road as
00:18:53.130 --> 00:18:55.470
people kind of go from one city to the next.
00:18:56.309 --> 00:18:59.029
Thank you. I think I had, you know, a loose understanding,
00:18:59.250 --> 00:19:02.250
but that definitely clarifies things, which,
00:19:02.309 --> 00:19:05.789
you know, brings me to what you spoke about next,
00:19:05.869 --> 00:19:12.140
which is. This man, this creepy mystery guy with
00:19:12.140 --> 00:19:16.359
the mustache, he also buys the cigarettes, right?
00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:20.140
Yeah, the grocery store clerk said that she sold
00:19:20.140 --> 00:19:24.579
cigarettes to a strange man that matched the
00:19:24.579 --> 00:19:26.940
children's description of the man that they saw
00:19:26.940 --> 00:19:30.559
around 4 .45 p .m. You know, you bringing up
00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:36.720
the grocery store clerk. I feel like I can't
00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:42.619
not mention the community here and the unwavering
00:19:42.619 --> 00:19:46.339
support that this family received in search of
00:19:46.339 --> 00:19:49.380
Christina. And, you know, I was kind of impressed
00:19:49.380 --> 00:19:53.740
at how law enforcement showed up as well. A tiny,
00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:55.859
you know, a small community, but very mighty.
00:19:56.039 --> 00:20:01.259
The love is clearly there. Yeah, the town definitely
00:20:01.259 --> 00:20:03.960
showed up for Christina and searched for them.
00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:06.380
I will say this, and I didn't mention it in the
00:20:06.380 --> 00:20:09.299
timeline, but just since you mentioned it, the
00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:14.940
small town of Hickory Ridge did fall into some
00:20:14.940 --> 00:20:19.240
small town traps of, you know, rumor mills. And
00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:23.559
the town eventually was like pretty vicious towards
00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:26.240
Christina's parents. And they ended up moving
00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:30.420
just months after they buried her because they
00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:33.069
couldn't take. the rumors or people saying they
00:20:33.069 --> 00:20:35.970
weren't acting right or a lot of townsfolk were
00:20:35.970 --> 00:20:39.950
upset that the family had used funds that were
00:20:39.950 --> 00:20:41.930
raised for a headstone, but the family had used
00:20:41.930 --> 00:20:44.750
it on other expenses at the time. So, you know,
00:20:44.769 --> 00:20:46.690
the police had to kind of come out again and
00:20:46.690 --> 00:20:48.670
again and say that her parents were not involved
00:20:48.670 --> 00:20:51.450
because people wouldn't stop speculating and
00:20:51.450 --> 00:20:56.170
spreading rumors that they were. That's so sad
00:20:56.170 --> 00:21:01.160
and so unfortunate that there was another side
00:21:01.160 --> 00:21:06.420
to the same coin. But, you know, with a tragedy
00:21:06.420 --> 00:21:10.299
like this, rocking a community, you know, I think
00:21:10.299 --> 00:21:14.920
it can change people as well. So I, you know,
00:21:14.920 --> 00:21:18.700
that's devastating to hear because her parents
00:21:18.700 --> 00:21:23.059
absolutely deserve peace. More just like about
00:21:23.059 --> 00:21:25.960
the community in general and that, you know,
00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:31.549
it is the size of 500 people. Is it common knowledge
00:21:31.549 --> 00:21:34.369
that there are small bodies of water in this
00:21:34.369 --> 00:21:38.730
area to outsiders of the community? I was just
00:21:38.730 --> 00:21:43.710
curious about that. Would someone have had to
00:21:43.710 --> 00:21:48.029
have known that that small ditch or body of water
00:21:48.029 --> 00:21:51.730
was there to bring her there? No, that's a good
00:21:51.730 --> 00:21:58.200
question. Where she was found, police theorized
00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:00.799
that she would have been dropped right from the
00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:03.980
road over. So anyone driving along the road would
00:22:03.980 --> 00:22:08.200
have seen this water underneath. But again, and
00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:09.859
we'll have pictures of this on our Instagram
00:22:09.859 --> 00:22:11.799
of where her body was found, because I just want
00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:15.119
to emphasize that this, and I get why police
00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:17.900
truly believe foul play was suspected here, because
00:22:17.900 --> 00:22:20.980
this is not like a swimming spot. It's, you know,
00:22:21.019 --> 00:22:26.500
it's off. a highway, runs underneath it. If you're
00:22:26.500 --> 00:22:29.700
from the Midwest, you drive and do a long drive,
00:22:29.779 --> 00:22:32.440
you see this type of water all over the place.
00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:34.380
And you never see people swimming, you never
00:22:34.380 --> 00:22:39.519
see people fishing. So this water just, it's
00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:42.819
not a place that a child who didn't know how
00:22:42.819 --> 00:22:45.259
to swim, I think, would be tempted to go swimming.
00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:48.359
And furthermore, on top of that, when I was looking
00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:53.160
at the maps and the Fastest way, point A to B,
00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:55.059
where she was last seen to where her body was
00:22:55.059 --> 00:22:59.259
found. If she had walked there along the road,
00:22:59.420 --> 00:23:02.839
there were other water spots. There was other
00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:06.599
places to enter the water if that's what she
00:23:06.599 --> 00:23:10.440
wanted to do. So the fact that all these other
00:23:10.440 --> 00:23:12.539
opportunities were missed and like went even
00:23:12.539 --> 00:23:15.359
farther out, I think that is very suspicious.
00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:17.960
And I definitely see how police believe that
00:23:17.960 --> 00:23:21.250
it was foul play involved. Yeah, I mean, there's
00:23:21.250 --> 00:23:23.529
not really any part of me that thinks otherwise.
00:23:24.750 --> 00:23:29.250
I have a few questions about Robbie Tubbs, just
00:23:29.250 --> 00:23:32.849
to bring him up briefly. What do you make of
00:23:32.849 --> 00:23:35.549
this connection? I mean, I know he, Double Jeopardy,
00:23:35.650 --> 00:23:39.549
because I didn't know, I don't know, I don't
00:23:39.549 --> 00:23:42.529
know who he is. I wasn't writing a lot of questions.
00:23:42.569 --> 00:23:44.829
I was just listening to you. And I just wanted
00:23:44.829 --> 00:23:47.789
to circle back on kind of what happened here
00:23:47.789 --> 00:23:54.940
with him. Yeah, it's Tubbs. He's not an upstanding
00:23:54.940 --> 00:23:59.559
member of the community outside of this. Later,
00:23:59.880 --> 00:24:02.079
you know, robbery charges will be brought against
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:05.240
him. And he'll also, I believe, admit that of
00:24:05.240 --> 00:24:08.799
like having sexual relations with a teenager.
00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:14.839
So, you know, overall, not a great guy. But I
00:24:14.839 --> 00:24:19.519
don't know really what to make of this. You know,
00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:26.000
the hair is really small evidence. Like, I, that's
00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:28.779
just having a hair kind of connect you to something.
00:24:28.980 --> 00:24:31.579
That's a lot for a death penalty case, for sure.
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:36.700
So, like, I definitely have doubts about it,
00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:38.940
but I'm also suspicious. You know what I mean?
00:24:39.019 --> 00:24:42.579
So it's like, I'm suspicious of this person.
00:24:42.619 --> 00:24:45.019
And, you know, he did have some contradicting
00:24:45.019 --> 00:24:50.559
stories. That Christina went missing. He was
00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:54.000
out of town staying at a hotel, but the hotel
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:57.059
had no records of him that weekend. So he is
00:24:57.059 --> 00:25:00.339
caught in some lies there, but not enough to
00:25:00.339 --> 00:25:04.599
prove a capital murder case. Well, even though
00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:08.079
there's, you know, limited information in Christina's
00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:11.079
case, I was glad to hear that, you know, another
00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:14.819
podcast had covered this and there was a moment
00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:17.279
like a blip where there was energy around her
00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:22.369
case again. And I hope that that happens here
00:25:22.369 --> 00:25:25.630
with you sharing her timeline with us and kind
00:25:25.630 --> 00:25:28.069
of connecting some dots and providing updates.
00:25:29.769 --> 00:25:34.150
I feel it's kind of painful to say this or admit
00:25:34.150 --> 00:25:37.390
this. I feel lost thinking about this case because,
00:25:37.450 --> 00:25:41.670
yeah, there's a lot of speculation, but I think
00:25:41.670 --> 00:25:44.910
because it happened in her town and so close
00:25:44.910 --> 00:25:49.269
to home. My mind has a very difficult time trying
00:25:49.269 --> 00:25:54.329
to pin anyone down for this. I'm so glad that
00:25:54.329 --> 00:25:57.630
you brought it to Cold and Missing. Yeah, it's
00:25:57.630 --> 00:26:01.410
hard to kind of point any way. You know, the
00:26:01.410 --> 00:26:04.009
only people truly cleared are her parents, and
00:26:04.009 --> 00:26:06.690
she has a brother. You know, her family has all
00:26:06.690 --> 00:26:09.309
been cleared in the case. But outside of that,
00:26:09.369 --> 00:26:12.230
it's really hard to figure out what happened
00:26:12.230 --> 00:26:16.339
here. She just... Really vanished, it seems like.
00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:19.900
And then she was found a few days later with
00:26:19.900 --> 00:26:23.380
no other marks. You know, I had wondered if,
00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:26.299
you know, if there was anything else on her body
00:26:26.299 --> 00:26:28.680
that gave police an indication of foul play.
00:26:28.819 --> 00:26:32.500
But it does just seem like her cause of death
00:26:32.500 --> 00:26:36.700
was drowning. And police had theorized, you know,
00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:39.039
around the time of the trial that perhaps she
00:26:39.039 --> 00:26:42.579
had been suffocated before. being put in the
00:26:42.579 --> 00:26:46.180
water. But that was never proved. You know, nobody
00:26:46.180 --> 00:26:47.960
testified that that's what happened. It's just
00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:52.599
kind of what police theorized in the media. You
00:26:52.599 --> 00:26:55.940
know, I do hope that there is continued momentum
00:26:55.940 --> 00:27:00.359
around Christina's case. And, you know, I, I
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:01.980
realized that, you know, there's this double
00:27:01.980 --> 00:27:04.380
jeopardy. That's what the papers I'm not a legal
00:27:04.380 --> 00:27:06.200
expert. I'm not a lawyer. So I don't know if
00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:08.900
there's a legal loophole that would ever be able
00:27:08.900 --> 00:27:12.240
to bring charges against him again. But You know,
00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:15.380
even just getting concrete answers for her family
00:27:15.380 --> 00:27:21.059
and just knowing beyond a reasonable doubt what
00:27:21.059 --> 00:27:23.400
happened to Christina, I think would go a long
00:27:23.400 --> 00:27:26.920
way for the community to provide answers and
00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:30.460
to give some healing to everybody that knew her,
00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:33.319
just exactly what happened to her. And so I hope
00:27:33.319 --> 00:27:36.420
police continue to work the case and put resources
00:27:36.420 --> 00:27:39.490
towards the case. But again, if you know anything
00:27:39.490 --> 00:27:43.490
about the murder of Christina Pipkin in May of
00:27:43.490 --> 00:27:47.690
1991, please call the Arkansas State Police at
00:27:47.690 --> 00:27:53.750
501 -618 -8420. And like I mentioned earlier,
00:27:53.890 --> 00:27:57.849
we will have pictures of Christina on our Instagram,
00:27:57.910 --> 00:28:01.809
but we'll also have a picture of the area where
00:28:01.809 --> 00:28:04.309
her body was found just to kind of give you an
00:28:04.309 --> 00:28:06.390
idea. There's nothing graphic in the photo. It's
00:28:06.390 --> 00:28:09.690
just kind of an image of the bridge just to give
00:28:09.690 --> 00:28:14.410
an image to the site and why it does seem very,
00:28:14.509 --> 00:28:18.630
very strange that a child would wander there
00:28:18.630 --> 00:28:21.190
to go swimming and why foul play is suspected
00:28:21.190 --> 00:28:25.769
here. So those will be on our Instagram at coldandmissing.
00:28:26.150 --> 00:28:28.549
Thank you again to everyone who's rated and reviewed
00:28:28.549 --> 00:28:31.150
us. I did see some new wonderful reviews come
00:28:31.150 --> 00:28:33.990
in this week. So thank you so much. You know,
00:28:33.990 --> 00:28:36.849
again, it just kind of feeds the algorithm machine
00:28:36.849 --> 00:28:40.390
and kind reviews feed it even more. So if you
00:28:40.390 --> 00:28:43.089
have the time to leave us a written review, it
00:28:43.089 --> 00:28:45.390
goes such a long way in getting this podcast
00:28:45.390 --> 00:28:47.690
in front of other people. And it gets these cases
00:28:47.690 --> 00:28:49.630
in front of other people, which is really the
00:28:49.630 --> 00:28:52.509
goal here at Cold and Missing. This isn't for
00:28:52.509 --> 00:28:56.170
fame or money or anything like that. It's really
00:28:56.170 --> 00:28:59.049
just to get these cases out in front of people
00:28:59.049 --> 00:29:00.730
and to get people talking about these cases.
00:29:01.500 --> 00:29:03.660
And if you want to see other cases that we have
00:29:03.660 --> 00:29:06.119
covered, or if you need a transcript to follow
00:29:06.119 --> 00:29:07.960
along because you or someone you love is hard
00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:10.220
of hearing, you can find those at our website,
00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:13.619
www .coldandmissing .com, where you can also
00:29:13.619 --> 00:29:16.119
leave us a review. Or if you want to donate like
00:29:16.119 --> 00:29:18.880
our friend Ginger did, you can find the link
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:22.940
to the Buy Me a Coffee on our website. But that
00:29:22.940 --> 00:29:25.319
is all I have for you this week. Thank you so
00:29:25.319 --> 00:29:27.660
much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your
00:29:27.660 --> 00:29:30.599
host, Ali. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Have
00:29:30.599 --> 00:29:33.039
a good week and stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe,
00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:33.279
y 'all.