Cold Cases Podcast Summaries
Cold Cases on Yedapo: 6 summarized podcast and YouTube episodes. Each includes key takeaways, core concepts and notable quotes with timestamps.
What happened to Cheryl Scherer? Preview Dateline: Missing In America Season 5
Dateline NBC
Aug 10, 2026
Dateline's 'Missing in America' returns for a fifth season, focusing on cold cases from an era before digital surveillance. This season explores how the lack of modern tracking technology made vanishing without a trace possible, specifically highlighting the 1979 disappearance of 19-year-old Cheryl Scherer.
Key insight: The Scherer family kept their home phone number unchanged for decades specifically because it was the only number Cheryl knew, illustrating the profound, long-term impact of pre-digital disappearances.
What happened to Zelig Williams? Preview Dateline: Missing In America Season 5
Dateline NBC
Jul 27, 2026
Dateline's Missing in America returns for a fifth season, focusing on the mysterious 2024 disappearance of Broadway performer Zelig Williams. The series aims to leverage public awareness to solve cold cases that have left families and investigators without answers.
Key insight: Zelig Williams, a rising Broadway star who performed in Hamilton, vanished without a trace on October 3, 2024, just as he was preparing to launch a mentorship workshop for aspiring dancers.
Talking Dateline: The Devil Wore White - Update
Dateline NBC
Jun 3, 2026
Sante Kimes was a master of charisma, weaponizing charm to manipulate everyone from officials to her own children. This chilling case reveals how she transformed her youngest son, Kenny, into a criminal accomplice, highlighting the devastating power of maternal manipulation and the tragic, lifelong consequences of being groomed for crime.
Key insight: Sante Kimes was so skilled at deception that she frequently posed as her elderly victim, Irene Silverman, wearing wigs and frilly caps, and came dangerously close to successfully stealing the woman's multi-million dollar property.
INTRODUCING: CounterClock Season 8
Crime Junkie
May 28, 2026
Nearly two decades after a deadly 2008 shooting at a Tinley Park Lane Bryant store, investigative journalist Delia D'Ambra re-examines evidence that defies standard criminal profiling. This season of Counterclock uncovers connections to local institutions and potential motives that suggest a far more complex criminal conspiracy than initial investigations indicated.
Key insight: Despite having a surviving witness, a composite sketch, and a 911 audio recording of the suspect's voice, the case remained cold for nearly twenty years due to a web of seemingly unrelated incidents.
MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: The Jamison Family
Crime Junkie
May 25, 2026
In 2009, the Jamison family vanished on an isolated Oklahoma mountain while scouting land, leaving behind their truck, $32,000 in cash, and an emaciated dog. Despite four years of intensive searches, their remains were only found in 2013, leaving investigators with more questions than answers regarding potential foul play or a tragic accident.
Key insight: Four years after the family disappeared, their remains were discovered by a hunter just 2.6 miles from their abandoned truck, yet the distance and rugged terrain make it physically implausible for the family to have reached that location on foot, especially given Bobby Jamison's chronic back issues.
Arrest in bank secretary's murder. A father's quest for justice. And wrongful death lawsuits 101.
Dateline NBC
May 7, 2026
Advancements in DNA analysis are transforming decades-old cold cases into active prosecutions. This episode explores how familial DNA and CODIS hits are finally providing closure for families, while highlighting the complex legal mechanics of wrongful death lawsuits.
Key insight: In the case of Allison Feldman, investigators used familial DNA—a technique then unused in Arizona—to match a relative of the perpetrator, ultimately leading to a conviction ten years later.