Cold and Missing: Sister Roberta ‘Robin’ Elam

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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.

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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.

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Listener discretion is advised.

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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.

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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.

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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.

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Hello everyone and welcome back.

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Welcome back everyone.

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I am Eli.

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And I'm Ali.

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And in case you didn't hear it in the intro, this is Cold and Missing.

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Yeah, we are on episode 50 today, my love.

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50?

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That's shocking.

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I can't believe it's already at 50.

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Episode 50?

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It is a... it's a cold case.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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Like last week.

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Alrighty.

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Um, well, should we just usher right into it?

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Yeah, let's get into it.

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Let's do it.

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So just as a content warning at the top, this case does involve sexual assault.

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And just in case you're new here or maybe haven't listened to all our past episodes,

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the reason why I don't leave out any details that I find is because you never know what

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a suspect has said over the years.

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What will jog someone's memory?

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Maybe what someone has said while they're drunk or maybe what somebody has said while

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they're asleep.

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So I try to give all the details because it's all information.

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So today we are covering the cold case of Roberta Elam or Sister Robin.

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And this takes place in June of 1977 in Wheeling, West Virginia.

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But first a little bit about Roberta.

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Roberta was a postulate nun who also went by Sister Robin.

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From everything I could find, it does appear that her family called her Robin as well.

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So that's what I'll call her throughout the podcast today.

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In 1977, Robin is 26 years old.

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She was born August 23rd, 1950, and she would be 72 years old today and turning 73 later

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this month.

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Sister Robin was someone who was extremely interested in social justice.

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She had gotten a master's in religious studies at Fordham University in New York City, where

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she met one of her best friends, Sister Kathleen.

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The two of them teamed up and worked on adult education in rural West Virginia.

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Sister Robin, as I already mentioned, was in the process of becoming a nun.

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She had joined the year prior and she was on track to take her temporary vows in one

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year.

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Robin did not live with the Sisters of St. Joseph at the convent.

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She drove an orange convertible Fiat.

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She loved to go jogging and hiking as forms of exercise and wrote poetry.

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One person said, quote, I knew her as a beautiful human being, giving unselfishly of herself

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in the service of God, end quote.

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And now the timeline of events.

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On Sunday, June 12th, 1977, Sister Robin arrives at the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph

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to participate in an eight-day silent retreat.

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Before entering her silent period of reflection, she told her good friend Sister Kathleen that

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she needed to talk to her about something important, but was worried that Kathleen would

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think she's crazy.

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The two never got a chance to talk before Robin entered her silent retreat that evening.

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The next day, Monday, June 13th, 1977, Sister Robin was seen early in the morning grabbing

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an apple from the kitchen.

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She was not wearing a habit, but was dressed in jeans and a blouse.

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She was headed outside for a day of prayer and reflection.

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The convent is located inside Oglebay Park.

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Inside the park, there's a golf course that sits just east of the convent.

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You could see the golfers from the grounds.

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The grounds were peaceful and it was not uncommon for the Sisters of St. Joseph to walk the

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grounds and to sit in prayer.

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Sister Robin was wrestling with her decision to continue in her choice to become a nun,

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and those who knew her believed she was spending this time in prayer and meditation to reflect

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on this.

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At 1.30 in the afternoon, a caretaker was driving around the property when he noticed

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an overturned bench on the top of a hill near the mother house.

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He drove to it and finds a white knapsack on the ground with a prayer book inside.

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As he continues to look around, he finds Sister Robin's partially nude body about 50 feet

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from the bench and 75 feet from the mother house.

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She was found in the bushes near a fence line.

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Police are immediately called and the investigation begins.

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Bloodhounds are brought out to search that day the surrounding area where Sister Robin's

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body had been found.

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It was on top of a grassy knoll.

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To the east is the golf course and to the west was an open pasture behind a strip of

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trees.

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Police search the golf course and nearby farms but don't find anything pertaining to the

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case.

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All of Sister Robin's clothes were found at the scene.

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Nothing was missing and she was still wearing several articles of clothing.

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She had bruising on her neck, throat, and legs which led investigators to believe that

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she was sexually assaulted, which is later confirmed in the autopsy.

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Nobody at the convent heard anything and nobody at the golf course reported hearing anything

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either.

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Tuesday, June 14th, 1977, the day after the murder, Sister Robin's autopsy is done where

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it confirms, like I mentioned before, that she was sexually assaulted and the cause of

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death was strangulation.

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Police believe the assailant used his bare hands because thumbprints were left around

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her throat.

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Police believe the attack happened around 10.30 in the morning, about three hours before

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she was found.

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They believe that Sister Robin was sitting in prayer or meditation when she was caught

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by surprise.

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She did not have any defensive wounds, which led investigators to believe that she had

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been taken by surprise.

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They believed she was dragged from the bench to the spot where her body was found.

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Investigators send blood, hair, and fingerprints from the scene to a lab in hopes of being

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able to get an identification of the suspect.

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Nobody really knows how the nuns are feeling at this time.

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All statements are coming through Frank Sweeney of the Catholic Diocese and he said this of

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the nuns, quote,

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They're just plain too upset.

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It's only been 48 hours.

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I've denied that request again and again from reporters.

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End quote.

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Wednesday, June 15th, 1977, so just two days after the murder.

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Police have two leads that they're chasing down.

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Wheeling, West Virginia sits right between Ohio and Pennsylvania.

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Both states are extremely close.

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In Pennsylvania, four other women and girls between the ages of 16 and 21 had been sexually

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assaulted and murdered.

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Three had been strangled and one had been beaten.

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Police compare notes and ultimately walk away feeling that these cases are not connected.

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Detective Norman Sayers with the Ohio County Sheriff, which is the county that Wheeling,

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West Virginia is in where Sister Robin was found.

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Detective Norman says, quote,

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I feel they have their murderer and we have ours.

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End quote.

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Police are also interested in talking with construction crews that had recently been

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in the area salvaging telephone poles.

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The nuns had heard the men using obscene language and making rude jokes.

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One man had made comments to Sister Robin and she had words with him.

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She was still upset about it in the evening, the Friday before her murder, when she was

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telling the nuns about the man with the quote filthy mouth at dinner.

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Investigators also make a small mention that they're looking for a car that was parked

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about a mile from the convent at the time of the murder.

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No details around the make or model.

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The news at this time is really dominated about the potential serial killer link with

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the cases in Pennsylvania.

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Gun permits in the area skyrocket around this time.

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Police will talk to everyone that was at the golf course that day and take blood samples

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from everyone that they talked to, from golfers to priests.

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That evening, Sister Robin's funeral is held at the convent.

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Father Keenan Ryan presided over the surface where he said, we stand numb and drained.

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Our faith is battered by endless whys.

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During the service, a letter that Sister Robin had written to a friend was read.

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Sister Robin said quote, I have a sincere desire to be drawn closer to the Lord.

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This has been a grace-filled year for me, a call to reconciliation for me with God,

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myself and others.

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End quote.

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Sister Robin is laid to rest in Mount Calvary Cemetery in a section that's reserved just

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for nuns.

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On Thursday, June 16th, the same week of the murder, police continue to interview the men

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that had been at the convent working on salvaging telephone poles.

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Police tracked down four of the men and questioned them, but they're all released.

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By that Friday, June 17th, the convent hires private security to patrol the grounds.

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Police say that this is a tough case because no one heard or saw anything.

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They're not ruling out that Sister Robin may have known her attacker, but they have

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no leads or suspects at this time.

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On July 13th, 1977, so this would be one month after the murder, police plead with the public

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for more information.

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Police say quote, we feel that possibly someone in the area may have seen an automobile or

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a person that they didn't think at the time was significant, but at this time may be to

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us.

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Police still don't have any suspects in the case.

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On August 17th, so this is just over two months since the murder, police say that they have

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a person of interest that they're trying to locate.

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The man was seen near Oglebay Park the day Sister Robin was murdered driving a blue or

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gray mid-60s Chevy Impala with religious and coal mining bumper stickers.

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The man is described as a white male between 30 and 40 years old, dark hair, large eyes,

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standing between 5'10 and six foot.

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The man has bushy eyebrows and a few days of beard growth the day that Robin was murdered.

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Corporal Shade with the state police says quote, we have had this information since about the

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second or third day after the murder.

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Then we came up with another witness just last week to verify the vehicle was in the

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area.

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End quote.

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About two weeks later on August 31st, police release a sketch of the man.

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The sketch comes from two witnesses.

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One of the witnesses was driving by and saw the man get out of his car and walk across

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the embankment below where Sister Robin's body was found.

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Police say that this man was seen near the convent eight or nine months earlier as well.

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A few days later on September 2nd, a man is caught trying to hop a train and railroad

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police arrest him.

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The arresting officers realize that he has a resemblance to the sketch that had recently

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been released by police so they turned him over for questioning.

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Ultimately this man is not charged.

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And then the next update comes about a year later in 1978.

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Police are looking to see if Edward Surratt was connected to the murders.

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Surratt is a convicted murderer and rapist who has only been charged with one murder

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in 1978 but he has confessed to multiple murders.

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Police in Ohio and Pennsylvania have closed cases putting him as the murderer but he has

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not been officially charged in these cases since he's already serving two life sentences

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in Florida.

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Police weren't interested in pursuing charges against him.

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There's a report in the paper around this time that police feel confident that Surratt

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is involved in the case but a few days later they walk that back and say they don't have

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any evidence of it, that they're just searching out all options and they kind of blame the

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reporter.

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As of 2023, Edward Surratt has never been formally linked to Sister Robin's murder.

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And then the next big update comes in 2001.

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This is 24 years after the murder.

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With advances in DNA, investigators were able to generate a DNA sample from the crime scene

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that they believe is the killer's DNA.

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In 2002, they're able to eliminate a longtime suspect through DNA.

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And they don't say who the suspect is but I suspect that that could be Edward Surratt

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that they eliminated in 2001.

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In 2005, so that's 28 years after the murder, the case is reopened.

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Police believe at this time that everyone that knew Sister Robin has been eliminated

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and that the killer was a stranger to her.

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Police reveal that they have been able to eliminate 23 people through DNA.

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And all of those 23 people knew Sister Robin personally.

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And then the last update that I could find on the case comes in 2019.

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So that's 42 years after the murder.

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And this comes from a TV show involving Detective Paul Holes called The DNA of Murder with Paul

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Holes.

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And in this hour long special, he takes a look at the case and he specifically zeros

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in on a suspect that was eliminated early in the investigation.

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His name is John Shoplak.

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According to police reports, he was eliminated because his blood type on his military records

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did not match the blood type that the police were looking for.

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According to Paul Holes, military records used to have a high error rate for blood types

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because of outdated technology that they were using.

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Back in 1977, Shoplak's ex-girlfriend told police that he had tried to choke her before

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and that they broke up one month prior to the murders.

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Shoplak also knew details about the crime scene that had not been made public before.

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One of those details was that Sister Robin was on her period at the time of the murder.

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And Shoplak had told a friend that he murdered a nun and according to police reports, the

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friend said that she was quote, either a virgin or was coming on the rag because he had blood

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on him, end quote.

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Shoplak does have other violent crimes against him, but he died in August of 2019.

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And at the last update, police were trying to obtain tissue samples from a recent hospital

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stay to compare DNA.

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But as of 2023, there have been no updates on the case.

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So we don't know if they ever were able to get those tissue samples to compare DNA or

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if they were able to get tissue samples.

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There has been no update on if they have been tested yet.

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And that is truly the last update I could find for Sister Robin.

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So if you know anything about the murder of Sister Robin Elam in June of 1977, please call

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the West Virginia State Police at 304-746-2100 or the Wheeling Police at 304-234-3665.

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And the sources for the timeline today come from, and it's a long list, Daily News, The

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News, Latrobe Bulletin, The Morning Call, The Herald News, The Record, The Pittsburgh

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Press, The Raleigh Register, The Tribune, The Morning Herald, Tyrone Daily Herald, York

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Daily Record, The Daily American, The Bee, The Daily Courier, The Courier News, The Times

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Tribune, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, The Miami Herald, The Evening Standard, Buckley Post

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Herald, Ashbury Park Press, Evening Herald, The Oil City Derrick, and the TV show, The

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DNA of Murder with Paul Holes.

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So that is the case of Sister Robin, Roberta Elam.

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I feel like there was quite a bit of information actually about this case in kind of in contrast

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to other cases.

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I guess I just like felt like the answer is in there.

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And maybe that's because we cover missing person cases half of the time where generally

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there is less information available.

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And that makes sense because it's a missing persons case.

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But this one I've found myself not really having a lot of questions.

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You know, there were other nuns at the convent that day and she was pretty close to the mother

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house but the golf course was also full that day.

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So she was alone and she was in a secluded area that the nun said was a quiet and peaceful

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spot that a lot of them would spend time at.

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But it is strange that nobody heard anything from the attack.

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And that's something the investigators come back to again and again is that nobody heard

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anything in the middle of the day, even though there were people around even in a secluded

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spot.

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That's one thing that was surprising.

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I think what filled in the blank for me is that so I went to a Catholic college and there

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we shared our campus with a convent.

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So I went to school with folks who were in our nuns and usually at least the kind of

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like Catholic religious, I went to a liberal arts college but it was Catholic.

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I feel like it sounds like I went for religious studies.

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I went for theater.

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But usually those schools are small and it's almost as if they're like plopped into the

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middle of a forest type area.

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Like we had a creek slash like little river running through our entire campus that like,

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you know, past my dorm went like through to the convent.

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And I think I may maybe have mentioned this on a podcast before but like someone fell

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in and died one year and someone was like unfortunately like attacked and like result

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it resulted in death in that area.

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And no one heard anything.

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No one was in the middle of the day.

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There's a lot of sounds coming from that area like rustling maybe because my brain edited

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and like filled in the area of what I'm imagining and where they were in West Virginia.

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I just looked it up really quickly.

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It was like pretty similar to where I was as far as like foliage and everything similar.

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So like again, I'm like, yeah, it's odd that no one heard it but my brain is like it's

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possible for sure.

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One question that I had as I was looking into this case is from the beginning the police

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say that they send blood into a lab and from this they are able to develop a blood type

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that they believe is the killers and this is what they use to eliminate a lot of people.

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I mentioned that they collect blood from priests to golfers to eliminate people based off blood

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type which is kind of the very early DNA tactics that they used.

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So my question would like if I got to sit down with the police and ask anything I wanted

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would just be where did that blood come from, from the attacker, from the suspect because

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she didn't have any defensive wounds on her.

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So was she able to scratch him or and draw blood that way?

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I'm really curious as to where that blood came from.

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And you know, she was strangled so there wasn't a knife situation that we know of.

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Yeah, I'm like, did he like fall and like brambles or something and you got it off of

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yeah, I just like don't understand.

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Yeah, I'm very curious and I couldn't find any explanation of where that came from.

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I saw one big newspaper report that it was on the bench, but they were also talking about

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the fingerprints so they might just be saying fingerprints from the bench.

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But yeah, I that's one question I have is just where did his blood come from?

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But as for you know, the future and where this case is headed, police feel very confident

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that they can still solve this case and they can still close it out.

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They have the DNA of the killer they believe it's been entered into CODIS.

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No other hits.

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They've sent it to other laboratories.

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What does CODIS stand for?

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CODIS stands for the Combined DNA Index System.

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Interesting.

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So if you commit a certain crime, your DNA goes into CODIS.

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But there are crimes where DNA is collected that don't go into CODIS.

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So police have even sent this DNA profile to labs asking them to run it against DNA

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they just have there that hasn't been uploaded into CODIS.

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So they've really moved this DNA around and they're trying to get the case solved.

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But they they think that there is still information out there that somebody knows something.

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That's all we have for now.

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That's all we have for now.

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Yeah, but police are hopeful that this case can be solved.

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Once again, if you know anything about the murder of Sister Robin Ilam in June of 1977,

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please call the West Virginia State Police at 304-746-2100 or the Wheeling Police at

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304-234-3665.

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While we still got your ear.

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If you could please, we love when you leave written reviews, go into your Apple podcast,

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leave us a written review.

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Five stars, please.

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We love it.

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If you don't have Apple podcasts or access to it, you can always go on our website, coldandmissing.com

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and leave a review there.

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A lovely written review and it'll be on our website forever.

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Yeah, you can visit our website.

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And for accessibility needs, we have transcripts if you are deaf and or hard of hearing and

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or know someone who is, you could check out our website.

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00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:40,200
Yeah.

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And of course you can follow us on Instagram or on YouTube.

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We're also on YouTube.

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Instagram at coldandmissing.

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And YouTube at coldandmissing.

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And there's lots of conversations happening there in the comment sections.

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We post pictures every week, so we'll have photos of Sister Robin this week, just highlighting

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her case and getting it back out there.

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So follow us if you don't already.

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You'll get all the good updates.

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And we also during our stories, we just have other missing people reports and true crime

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news that comes up that we like to repost in our stories.

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So yeah, including updates on past episodes, folks, stories we've covered before.

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So come check us out.

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Yeah, lots of good content.

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So again, Instagram cold and missing.

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I think that's everything.

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So thank you for listening.

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I'm Allie.

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I'm Eli episode 50.

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Episode 50 of cold and missing.

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Stay safe, y'all.

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Have a great week and stay safe, y'all.