Prática de Shadowing: The IMPOSSIBLE Cold Case That Was Solved By Redditors - Aprenda a falar inglês com vídeo

Christina Skates thought she was killing time.

The 23 -year -old biology student was scrolling through cemetery records on a quiet afternoon in 2014,

when the line 82483 stopped her cold.

And on that line was a date of death, February 5th, 1975.

And beside the date was a name.

But it wasn't a name.

It just said, unknown white female bones.

So Christina just stared, puzzled.

Someone had been murdered, buried without identity, and completely forgotten.

As she later put it, quote, It was in the back of my mind for a couple months every day, thinking this isn't right, this isn't how things should be.

What Christina couldn't know was that her inability to let go would set off a chain reaction spanning years and continents.

A single college student's curiosity would mobilize internet strangers,

expose massive system failures, and ultimately solve a decades old cold case that stumped police for generations.

So this is that story, how one haunting line in a cemetery ledger became a digital crusade to give a nameless murder victim her identity back.

Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder.

All things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, a little intellectually minded fk.

And today we are doing just that.

We're getting into a case that is extremely interesting because my good friends over at Reddit solved a dang cold case.

And it is an extremely interesting case.

So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield into this solved cold case together.

So Christina Skates had always been drawn to mysteries, hiding in plain sight.

And as a biology major at Cleveland State University, she spent her free time tracing family histories and connecting dots across generations.

But this wasn't casual hobby work.

Christina had developed serious genealogy skills using advanced database searches,

DNA analysis, and cross -referencing techniques that would make professional researchers envious.

So genealogy just satisfied something in her methodical mind.

The puzzle -solving, the detective work of uncovering forgotten stories and she'd become known in genealogy communities for her thoroughness,

her ability to track down records others missed, and her persistence in cases where the trails had gone cold.

But line 82483 was different because the entry appeared clinical,

routine even, because beside the name was unknown white female bones.

And most people would have just scrolled past it, but Christina couldn't.

And the geography of this particular case made it personal to Christina because she had grown up in Strongsville,

which was just 20 minutes from where the remains were discovered.

So this wasn't some distant tragedy.

This was her backyard.

Someone murdered, buried, nameless, and forgotten just miles from her childhood home.

So to understand how a murder became a footnote, we need to rewind back to February 15th, 1975

when three teenage boys were exploring along Rocky River in Mill Stream Run Reservation when they made a grim discovery.

Scattered among the winter debris were partial skeletal remains, clearly human and clearly old.

Or that's what they thought.

And the boys would call the police eventually.

It took them a minute, but, you know, whether they were scared of admitting it to their parents or they were just scared in general, we won't know.

But they did end up calling the police.

And the excavation that followed yielded more questions than answers.

But the skull told the story because there was a .24 caliber bullet lodged in the left temple.

And on February 12th, 1975, the death was ruled a homicide.

But the skeleton was incomplete, weathered by months of exposure.

And animal scavenging had scattered bones throughout the woods.

So crucial pieces were entirely missing and the jawbone was completely gone.

Along with most of the teeth, there was only five left.

Plus one interrupted wisdom tooth.

And the age estimate was about 20.

But without the completed remains, that was even educated guesswork.

So investigators knew they had a young white woman murdered and dumped along Rocky River.

And someone had executed her with a single shot to the head, then abandoned her body in the woods.

But without identification, without family coming forward, the case grew cold fast.

The investigation tried everything 1975 had to offer.

They even compared the skull to photos of Patty Hearst.

She was actually making headlines at the time.

So the police just thought, you know, the most famous person in the United States right now, it's not even near this location.

Maybe it's Patty Hearst, you know, they're kind of crossing their fingers that they could solve one of the biggest cases in the United States at the time.

But alas, the dental records did not match, and it was just far -reaching anyway.

So they couldn't find a match and no missing persons reports fit with this case and no families claimed her.

So on May 15th, 1975, three months after discovery, the identified remains were buried in Potter's Fields at Memorial Garden Cemetery.

And Memorial Garden Cemetery was basically where bodies that were unclaimed went.

And her headstone was unmarked and unremarkable.

And there was no grieving family, no friends, just another unclaimed body in an anonymous section reserved for those with nowhere else to go.

And that cemetery entry would be what caught Christina's attention all those years later, unknown white female bones.

So someone was looking for her once again.

But since 1975, years had passed and the case files just gathered dust

and detectives were tired and evidence was just boxed away.

So the young woman murdered along Rocky River became truly forgotten, existing only in that ledger.

But in 2014, Christina decided to do something about it.

Because Christina's biology training had taught her to question, to dig deeper when something didn't add up.

And her genealogy hobby had shown her how to research, how to connect seemingly unrelated information.

And her naturally inquisitive personality, what friends called her amateur detective streak, wouldn't abandon someone so completely forgot by the system meant to protect them.

So staring at the cemetery entry, Christina had no idea she was about to trigger a chain of events that would captivate online communities,

engage professional forensic artists, expose system -wide failures, and give a name back to someone erased from history for 44 years.

So Christina made the decision that would consume the next several years of her life.

An unknown white female bones would get her name back because of it.

So she started where any good researcher would, the newspaper.

So hours at local libraries, hunched over microfiche machines, scrolling through decades -old archives,

she searched for any mention of February 1975 discovery along the Rocky River,

just hoping contemporary coverage might reveal details missing from official reports.

But what she found was worse than silence.

There was virtually nothing.

A young woman murdered remains discovered by children, and it barely rated as a news brief.

So in 1975, this case was treated as just another Jane Doe, another unidentified body worth little public interest.

So without media coverage, there'd be no public awareness at all.

No tips, no pressure on investigators.

And the young woman had been forgotten by the press as thoroughly as by the system.

And next came the police departments and Christina called everyone.

The Cleveland police, the Akron police, the Cowahoga County Sheriff's office and she hit wall after wall.

And some departments had no records at all and others had incomplete files.

But most simply told her cold case information wasn't public or she'd need formal requests, which would take weeks or even months.

So the digital age had just spoiled Christina and here was a decades old murder with no apparent ongoing investigation.

Yet accessing basic information required navigating bureaucracies that seemed designed to discourage inquiry.

She was actually starting to learn why so many cold cases stayed cold,

and institutional barriers can be as formidable as investigative challenges.

100

But then she caught her first break.

101

Lieutenant Don Silvis of Cleveland Metro Parks Police was different, and when Christina explained her interest in Strongsville Jane Doe,

102

Silvis, surprisingly, didn't dismiss her like the other ones.

103

He would actually recognize something in her persistence and her genuine concern for a forgotten victim,

104

and her demonstrated genealogy expertise from their phone conversation.

105

So Silvis would do something extraordinary and he gave Christina copies of the original case files.

106

Crime scene photos, forensic reports, investigative notes that hadn't seen daylight in decades.

107

And this was not standard procedure.

108

You know, just ask the police, hey, can I have some crime scene photos?

109

And they give it to you.

110

Because sharing active case files with civilian researchers broke protocol.

111

But Silvis saw an opportunity.

112

If Christina's genealogy skills and online networks could generate new leads on a stone cold case, why not take a chance?

113

And those files would change everything.

114

And the photos were haunting.

115

Images of the muddy skull discovered by three teenagers

116

and forensic shots of the bullet in the temple and documentation of scattered remains.

117

So this wasn't just a cemetery ledger entry anymore.

118

This was a real person who'd suffered real violence and Christina was staring at the evidence now.

119

So she would work on it for a while by herself

120

but she would start to hit a wall and she had taken her solo investigation as far as possible.

121

So she needed help and she needed to get other eyes on this case, the kind of collective intelligence only a community could provide.

122

And that's when Christina turned to Reddit.

123

Shout out to Reddit.

124

And she would choose r slash unsolved mysteries, a community of over 400 ,000 members dedicated to cold cases and missing persons.

125

I have spent many an hour on this subreddit and the people in it are awesome.

126

And she would actually use the username callmeice.

127

Her name's Christina.

128

My name's Christina.

129

I said, call me Chris.

130

She said, call me ice.

131

I don't know.

132

I feel like we need to be friends.

133

Anyway, so Christina would share everything.

134

The cemetery record that started it all.

135

Details from Silvis's case files, crime scene photos, her theory that this case had fallen through the cracks, and more.

136

And the response was immediate and overwhelming.

137

Christina would say, I posted on Reddit because I figured other people could do more than I could at that point.

138

And she was right.

139

So the community was fascinated, but not for the typical true crime reasons.

140

As Christina noted, people were actually interested in the case because they were amazed that there wouldn't be something in a database.

141

And these weren't just armchair detectives seeking entertainment.

142

They were genuinely outraged that a murder victim could be so completely erased from official records.

143

And the case represented everything wrong with cold case handling, jurisdictional confusion, poor record keeping, communication failures, and casual dismissal of searching families.

144

So users immediately began deploying sophisticated research techniques,

145

and some would cross -reference the Strongsville's discovery with missing persons databases from the 1970s,

146

and others use advanced Google searches to hunt for newspaper mentions that Christina might have missed.

147

And digital archives, genealogy databases, military records, social security death indexes,

148

the community just cast a research net wider than any individual could manage.

149

And the case would spread beyond Reddit even.

150

With Christina's permission, a websleuths .com username, Migmu, cross -posted her research.

151

And Websleuths was purpose -built for public involvement in missing persons cases.

152

And it had 115 ,000 members, 12 million posts, and proven track record of matching over 20 unidentified bodies with missing people,

153

which is crazy.

154

My kind of people.

155

But the platform had specific forms for different types of cases.

156

Unidentified persons, missing persons, cold cases, and members included retired law enforcement, genealogy experts, former military investigators,

157

and amateur sleuths with specialized knowledge.

158

And when this case appeared, it just triggered systemic investigation by people who knew how to research exactly such mysteries.

159

So Christina had accidentally created a perfect storm, a storm of crowdsourced investigation.

160

So the collaboration between Reddit and the web sleuths became seamless

161

and users on both platforms shared their theories and divided research tasks

162

and cross -posted significant findings and some focused on newspaper archives from the 1970s and others specialized in genealogy research,

163

building family trees from potential matches.

164

And others reached out through professional networks, sharing information with colleagues in law enforcement or forensic sciences.

165

So this collective effort kind of wielded a power traditional law enforcement just couldn't match.

166

Because while individual detectives juggled dozens of cases, these online communities could focus entirely on one single mystery.

167

And while official investigations faced jurisdictional boundaries and bureaucratic constraints, internet sleuths could follow leads anywhere,

168

regardless of geographic or institutional limits.

169

Thank God for the internet.

170

So Christina just watched in amazement as her solitary obsession became a collaborative investigation involving dozens of people across the country.

171

Because one college student's inability to forget a cemetery entry had

172

become a community effort to restore identity to someone systemically erased from memory.

173

So hundreds of miles away from Christina's Ohio investigation was a 54 -year -old former CPA in California.

174

And he was just browsing the same forums that had become captivated by the Strongsville's Jane Doe case.

175

And this man was Carl Kopelman.

176

And he was not your typical forum user.

177

No, no, nay, nay.

178

This was a man who discovered an unusual calling.

179

And that calling was creating facial reconstructions of unidentified remains.

180

Very niche, but very cool.

181

And Kobelman's path to forensic artistry was unconventional.

182

Because after retiring from accounting, he developed an interest in unidentified remains cases.

183

And initially just following them online, but his analytical mind and natural artistic ability led him to try something something ambitious,

184

which was learning to create facial reconstructions using computer software and anatomical knowledge acquired through intensive self -study,

185

which is so impressive.

186

Like, I like to paint, you know, but this guy's like, you know what I'm going to do?

187

I'm going to be a f*ing hero, basically.

188

So it started as a hobby had become something much bigger, and Kopelman had that already helped solve high profile cases,

189

including the identification of Tammy Jo Alexander, known for decades as Caledonia Jane Doe.

190

And his reconstructions combined artistic skill with forensic science, using skull measurements, tissue depth markers,

191

and anatomical knowledge to build faces that could spark recognitions from families and friends.

192

So when he encountered Christina's research, he was immediately intrigued.

193

But intrigue and action are different things, obviously.

194

So Kopelman's initial reaction to the Strongsville case was professional skepticism

195

because the photos Christina had obtained were challenging

196

because the skull was caked with mud after months of exposure and damaged by decomposition and animals.

197

So crucial facial features were missing entirely.

198

And he would say, I looked at that for a couple of months and I thought, no, the angles are wrong.

199

There's no mandible, no hair color.

200

The front teeth are missing.

201

There's no way I can do anything with this." So for a forensic artist, these weren't inconveniences, they were fundamental obstacles.

202

Because the mandible determines facial structure and jawline, and hair color affects perception and memory, and teeth influence lip positioning and facial symmetry.

203

So without these elements, Kopelman was being asked to create a face from fragments

204

and to restore humanity to someone whose most distinctive features had been lost.

205

So the technical challenges were immense, and Koppelman would need to estimate mandible size and position based on what remained of the skull's attachment points.

206

So for months, the photos sat in his files, a constant reminder of an impossible challenge.

207

But something about the case wouldn't let him go.

208

And maybe it was Christina's persistence documented in forum posts.

209

Maybe it was institutional failure that had left the murder victim nameless for 40 years.

210

And maybe it was just recognition that if he didn't try, no one else would.

211

So finally, Kopelman made his decision with characteristic directness.

212

And he would say, eventually I came along and said, what the hell, I'll give it a shot.

213

And thank God he did.

214

So using sophisticated 3D modeling software, typically employed by professional forensic anthropologists,

215

Kopelman began to painstakingly process a digital reconstruction.

216

And he studied the skull photographs from every available angle, taking precise measurements and noting anatomical landmarks.

217

And using tissue depth data from the FBI's forensic database, he calculated how flesh would have sat on the bone structure.

218

Which, again, just like crazy that people can do this.

219

But anyway, so the missing mandible was the one that required educated guesswork based on skull proportions and attachment points.

220

And Kopelman studied similar cases and consulted anthropological references and made careful estimates about jaw size and position.

221

And for the missing teeth, he estimated lip positioning based on remaining dental structure.

222

Because remember, she had five teeth left, so not a lot to work with.

223

And the hair presented another challenge.

224

With no DNA to indicate color or texture, Kobleman chose a neutral brown that wouldn't bias recognition one way or another.

225

So the goal was creating a face people could see as their missing loved one, regardless of specific details that might have changed.

226

So using digital reconstruction techniques and years of studying facial anatomy, Koppelman began rebuilding a face from the damaged skull in those muddy crime scene photos.

227

And the result was remarkable.

228

Because despite limitations, Koppelman had created a facial reconstruction that looked like a real person rather than a medical illustration.

229

And the digital artwork showed a young woman with soft features,

230

kind eyes, and an approachable face someone who could have been anyone's daughter or sister.

231

So for the first time in over 40 years, the Strongsville's Jane Doe had a face people could connect with emotionally.

232

But creating the reconstruction was only half the battle.

233

The real challenge was getting it before the right people.

234

And those people were investigators and family members who might recognize those carefully reconstructed features.

235

And this is where Christina's internet community proved invaluable because the facial reconstruction spread across Reddit, web sleuths and other platforms,

236

reaching thousands who might have information.

237

Yet even with this breakthrough, the case might have stayed in internet forums indefinitely, if not for a completely unrelated phone call Kopelman made in 2016.

238

So he'd been working on another case and needed to contact Cahuahoga County Medical Examiner's Office about different remains entirely.

239

And during that conversation, he mentioned the Strongsville's bones case, describing his facial reconstruction and his frustration with the lack of progress.

240

And the response was shocking because on the other line, the person said, What bones?

241

Because the officials had no record of the Strongsville Jane Doe case in their system at all.

242

So this wasn't an oversight or misfiled report.

243

The case had never been entered into NAMM -US, the National Missing and Unidentified Person System,

244

which was the primary database for cross -referencing unidentified remains with missing persons reports nationwide.

245

So the revelation was stunning because for over a decade,

246

NAMM -US had been solving cold cases by allowing investigators to search for matches between missing persons and unidentified remains.

247

But the system was specifically designed to prevent cases like Strongsville Jane Doe from falling through bureaucratic cracks.

248

But as we know, it did.

249

And none of that mattered if the case was never entered to begin with.

250

So it all ended up being a simple clerical error, likely a spelling mistake or a jurisdictional confusion from the 1970s.

251

And it had prevented this murder victim from being included in modern tools designed to identify her.

252

So the discovery exposed systemic failure beyond one tragedy

253

and how many other cases were lost to similar errors

254

and how many families were still searching for missing loved ones whose cases had never made it into databases

255

that could provide answers.

256

But once discovered, correcting the error was pretty straightforward.

257

And the Strongsville Jane Doe case was finally entered into Nam -US,

258

complete with Kopelman's facial reconstruction and all the forensic details gathered over decades.

259

So for the first time since 1975, this person, this victim was officially part of the system designed to help identify her.

260

And the impact was almost immediate.

261

So in December of 2016,

262

Sergeant Jeff Smith of Akron Police was conducting routine NOMUS database searches when he came across the newly entered Strongsville case.

263

And something caught his attention.

264

The age estimate, the timeframe, and the location.

265

So Smith began cross -referencing with missing persons reports from the same period, looking for potential matches.

266

And that's when he found her.

267

A missing person report from September 1974.

268

A 17 -year -old girl who had disappeared from Akron just months before the Strongsville remains discovery.

269

And the age was right, and the timing was right, and the geographic proximity made sense.

270

But what really convinced Smith he might have found a match was Kopelman's facial reconstruction

271

because when Smith pulled up the missing person photo and compared it to the digital artwork, the resemblance was unmistakable, which is wild,

272

especially based off of how little evidence he had to work off of.

273

And Koepelman's reaction when he saw the photograph for the first time was immediate and definitive, and he would say, She looked like my drawing.

274

So after months of painstaking work reconstructing a face from fragmentary remains, and after years of the case languishing in digital obscurity,

275

the breakthrough had finally come.

276

And the forgotten murder victim finally had a name.

277

And that name was Linda Marie Pagano.

278

So at this point, having a potential match was one thing.

279

Proving it scientifically was another thing entirely.

280

So what followed Sergeant Jeff Smith's discovery would require months of legal consultations,

281

forensic planning, and scientific precision to finally answer questions that had haunted a family for over four decades.

282

And this was nothing less than the resurrection of Linda Marie Pagano, both literally and figuratively.

283

So the first step was dental records

284

because Linda's 1974 missing persons file included dental record charts from regular checkups and detailed records documenting her teeth's unique characteristics.

285

So when investigators compared these to the Strongville's Jane Doe's remaining dental structure, they found promising similarities.

286

But as we know, the skeletal remains were incomplete and only five teeth plus one interrupted wisdom tooth was available for comparison.

287

So while encouraging, the dental evidence wasn't conclusive enough for definitive identification.

288

So for that, they needed DNA.

289

So obtaining DNA samples meant exhuming remains buried in an unmarked grave for over 40 years.

290

So in October of 2017, the investigators returned to Memorial Garden Cemetery with court orders and ground penetrating radar from the universal of Akron.

291

And the technology would let them conduct magnetic surveying of Potter's Field, searching for the exact 1975 burial location among dozens of unmarked graves.

292

Very difficult.

293

And the exhumation proved more challenging than anticipated, because Potter's Field is notoriously difficult.

294

Because with the minimal record keeping, graves were poorly marked or just not marked at all.

295

So the first attempt yielded wrong remains entirely.

296

And it was just another stark reminder of how easily the dead were forgotten, especially when the proper documentation was lacking.

297

But with multiple attempts and careful surveying, they were finally able to find the correct location.

298

And they were able to successfully exhume the remains buried as unknown white female bones in 1975.

299

So once recovered, samples were extracted and sent to the University of North Texas DNA Laboratory for forensic identification.

300

The lab would conduct mitochondrial DNA testing, comparing genetic materials from the remains with cheek swabs from Linda's surviving siblings.

301

And this type of DNA is ideal for degraded remains

302

because it's more stable than regular DNA and passed through the maternal line.

303

So perfect for sibling comparisons.

304

So while science was working, investigators pieced together who Linda Pagano had been in life.

305

So born April 11th, 1957, Linda was the youngest of three children.

306

And friends and family called her Mitch, short for Midget, A playful reference to her petite stature, which is not okay to say now,

307

but it's, it's, that's what they called her.

308

It's not me saying it, it's what they called her.

309

And it was a different time, and it's terrible, but anyway.

310

It was based on her petite stature of about 4 '10 and about 100 pounds.

311

But Linda's small size belied a big personality.

312

And those who knew her described her as honest, hardworking, and surprisingly independent for someone so young.

313

And she had blonde hair and blue eyes that seemed to sparkle with mischief.

314

And despite being naturally shy, Linda was well liked among her classmates at Springfield High School in Akron.

315

And she worked part -time at the A &W restaurant in Talmadge, earning her own money and just saving it for the future.

316

So Linda was the kind of teenager who followed the rules.

317

And she stayed out of any serious trouble, but had dreams beyond her small town circumstances.

318

So what investigators discovered about Linda's final night alive was magical and heartbreaking.

319

So on August 31st, 1974, Linda had tickets to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young at Cleveland Stadium.

320

I absolutely love them. So good.

321

Wish I could have seen them in concert.

322

But it was one of the biggest concerts of the year.

323

It was three hours of music, 26 songs, and two encores.

324

And the crowd of 80 ,000 was electric.

325

And Linda was having the time of her life.

326

And the final song of the evening was Ohio.

327

Neil Young's haunting tribute to the Kent State shootings just a few hours away from Cleveland Stadium.

328

And the irony in that would become heartbreaking, as Linda Marie Pagano's final night, Alive, ended about a song about young people dying in Ohio.

329

And within 12 hours, she would become another Ohio tragedy.

330

So Linda was particularly close to her mother, and her relationship with her stepfather,

331

Byron Claflin, had always been tense because Claflin was a strict disciplinarian with a volatile temper,

332

especially when he'd been drinking.

333

And as Linda approached 18, the household tensions were escalating and she was starting to assert independence that Claflin saw as defiance.

334

So the last weekend of August, 1974 started Ordinary for Linda.

335

She had tickets to her favorite band

336

and she drove there with her prized gold Mustang she saved up to buy and she would pick up her boyfriend, and Steve Wilson along the way and her friends.

337

So they would all go to the concert and enjoy it.

338

And as one friend later recalled, Linda seemed on top of the world.

339

But the evening would run late and the concert didn't end until after 11 PM.

340

And then there was traffic dropping off friends and the drive back to Akron.

341

So Linda didn't return home until about 4 AM on September 1st. And her father, Byron Claflin was waiting for her.

342

The Claflin was a bartender with a reputation for heavy drinking and a temper, as we know, that made him unpredictable when angry.

343

And he'd been drinking that night, stewing over Linda's absence, working himself into a rage about her independence and perceived disrespect.

344

And the argument that followed was heated and final.

345

And in his fury, Claflin threw Linda out of the apartment, telling her to never come back.

346

And those were the last words anyone would officially hear Linda Pagano speak.

347

And after that night, Linda was reported missing September 2nd of 1974, just one day after the confrontation.

348

And she had nowhere to go, no money beyond what was in her purse, and few options for someone her age in 1974.

349

And unlike today, no cell phones to track, no social media to monitor, no digital footprint providing clues, so Linda Pagano had simply vanished.

350

And despite her family's efforts, she remained missing for 44 years, as we know.

351

And Byron Claflin, the last person to see Linda alive, remained a person of interest until his death in 1990, though never charged with any crime.

352

So he took whatever knowledge he had about Linda's fate to his grave, and the investigation always suspected Linda's disappearance connected to that final argument.

353

But without a body, evidence, or witnesses, nothing could be proven in court.

354

So flash forward to 2017 again with the DNA matches going on.

355

So if the Strongsville remains were Linda's, the mitochondrial DNA would match exactly.

356

But the test had limitations because mitochondrial DNA is less discriminating than nuclear DNA

357

because thousands of people might share the same mitochondrial profile.

358

So the test could rule Linda out definitively if it didn't match.

359

But a positive match would only indicate family relationship, not absolute identification.

360

But fortunately, in Linda's case, other evidence supported the DNA match.

361

The age, height, timing, and geographical proximity all aligned.

362

So when combined with that positive mitochondrial DNA result,

363

investigators had scientific confirmation of what Carl Kopelman's facial reconstruction had suggested months earlier.

364

So on June 29, On the 9th, 2018 now, those questions finally received their scientific answer.

365

And the DNA results from the University of North Texas came back with a definitive confirmation.

366

And the remains discovered by three teenage boys along Rocky River in 1975 were indeed Linda Marie Paganos.

367

So after 44 years, the girl thrown out of her home after a late night had finally been found.

368

And Christina Skates learned the news while gaming at home,

369

receiving a phone call that validated years of obsessive research and sleepless nights wondering about a forgotten murder victim.

370

And as she later described her reaction, quote unquote, I got choked up when I got the news.

371

I can't even imagine, like, just doing a hobby,

372

like to look for somebody's name that just got forgotten by bureaucratic bullshit

373

and then being able to solve the case with the help of so many people like this, it's just amazing.

374

It's amazing to me.

375

So the cemetery ledger entry that had haunted her for months finally had resolution.

376

An unknown white female bones now had a name, a family and people who never stopped loving her.

377

And the official announcement came July 12th, 2018 at a press conference marking the end of one of Ohio's longest running Jane Doe cases.

378

And Linda Marie Pagano was no longer a mystery.

379

She was a murder victim who deserved justice, and her case immediately transferred to the Cleveland Metro Parks Police as an active homicide investigation.

380

So for Michael Pagano, Linda's brother, who had called the police in 1975 only to be dismissed, the confirmation was overwhelming.

381

Because back in 1975, Michael heard about the remains that were found, and he thought they were his sisters.

382

But the police just said, nah, nah, it doesn't sound right.

383

And the case was, as we know, filed away and forgotten.

384

So I can't even imagine the relief her brother has felt and also just the betrayal at the same time.

385

But what he said about the case was, I thought I was in a dream.

386

I thought I would never see this.

387

I thought this day would never come.

388

I thought I would die wondering.

389

I am amazed how this came to light like it did.

390

So the man who had spent over four decades wondering what happened to his little sister finally had his answer.

391

And Michael made sure to meet Christina Skates in person, to thank the young woman whose curiosity

392

and persistence had accomplished what the official system failed to do for nearly half a century.

393

And it was a meeting between strangers whose lives had been connected by tragedy

394

and determination and recognition that sometimes the most important justice work happens outside official channels designed to provide it.

395

So in January, 2019, Linda Marie Pagano was finally laid to rest properly

396

and her remains were cremated and buried next to her mother in Holy Cross Cemetery, ending a journey from an unmarked Pottersfield grave to a final

397

resting place surrounded by family who would never stop searching for her.

398

But finding Linda Pagano's identity was only half the battle.

399

Now investigators face the daunting challenge of proving who killed her.

400

So when the case transferred to Cleveland Metroparks Police as an active homicide investigation in July 2018,

401

detectives inherited a murder nearly 44 years old,

402

degraded evidence with deceased suspects and witnesses scattered to the winds over four decades.

403

So the primary suspect had always been clear,

404

Byron Claflin, Linda's stepfather, who'd thrown her out after the final argument in the early morning hours of September 1st, 1974.

405

So these circumstances just painted a disturbing picture.

406

A young woman with nowhere to go, kicked out by her angry stepfather in the middle of the night.

407

But as we know, Byron Claflin had died in 1990.

408

So whatever knowledge he had about that night had died with him.

409

So even if investigators could have built a strong case against him, there would be no trial,

410

no conviction, no formal acknowledgement of guilt and the most likely suspect had escaped earthly justice by nearly three decades.

411

But the other key figure was Linda's boyfriend, Steve Wilson, because he had also vanished from the official record.

412

Wilson had been with Linda at the concert, drove her home that night, and would have been crucial to understanding the final hours.

413

But decades of dead ends had failed to locate Wilson.

414

So by 2018, investigators weren't even certain if he was still alive.

415

So without testimony, crucial details about Linda's final hours remained forever lost.

416

And for Michael Bogano, who'd waited 44 years for answers, the investigation's limitations were deeply frustrating.

417

And the family finally knew what happened to Linda, but legal accountability remained painfully unresolved.

418

And as Michael put it, with weary resignation, we'll know in our hearts who did it, but we'll never be able to prove it.

419

Which is so heartbreaking.

420

The challenges facing Linda's case were symptomatic of broader problems plaguing cold case work nationwide.

421

Because evidence degrades, witnesses die or disappear, and suspects escape accountability through death or time's passage.

422

But Linda's case also exposed systemic failures beyond normal cold case difficulties.

423

And the clerical error

424

that kept Linda's case out of the national database for over

425

a decade raised troubling questions about the entire missing person system

426

is how many families were waiting for answers prevented by similar bureaucratic failures.

427

And NAMM -US had been operational since 2009, designed specifically to prevent cases like Linda's from falling through the cracks.

428

Yet as of 2016, thousands of older cases have never been entered into the system.

429

So if a spelling mistake or jurisdictional confusion could erase a murder victim from identification systems, how many other Linda Paganos were buried in unmarked graves,

430

lost to administrative incompetence rather than investigative limitations.

431

The revelation sparked audits of missing person databases across Ohio and beyond.

432

And investigators found hundreds of cases that have never been properly entered into modern systems.

433

And Jane and John Doe's from 1970s and 1980s who'd been forgotten, not because they were unsolvable,

434

but because they'd never been dignitized or cross -referenced with missing person reports.

435

So the interagency communication breakdown

436

that dismissed Michael Pagano's 1975 inquiry just revealed how easily crucial information falls through the cracks

437

when police departments fail to coordinate effectively.

438

And Akron police who took Linda's missing persons report apparently never received proper notification about Strongsville's remains discovery.

439

Or if they did, the information was never processed or cross -reference.

440

And in the pre -computer era, a 20 mile jurisdictional gap might have well have been 2 ,000 miles.

441

So it took a volunteer forensic artist working from his home computer to finally give Linda a recognizable face.

442

Technology that cost thousands of dollars in the 1970s was now accessible to dedicated amateurs with modern software and internet tutorials.

443

But Linda's case also demonstrated the transformative potential of modern technology and community collaboration.

444

And Christina Skates accomplished what decades of official investigation had failed to achieve.

445

Not because she had special training or resources, but because she had persistence,

446

curiosity, and access to digital tools that let her connect with like -minded investigators worldwide.

447

And more importantly, Linda's case revealed how internet communities could serve as force multipliers for justice.

448

The collective intelligence of Reddit and WebSleuth users provided research capacity that no individual detective could match.

449

Because when hundreds of people could simultaneously research different aspects of the case, cold cases that had been dead for decades suddenly became solvable.

450

So Christina's approach became a model for responsible amateur investigation.

451

Because she'd been meticulous in research, respectful, and careful to verify information before sharing publicly.

452

And her success inspired other amateur investigators to tackle similar cases,

453

always understanding that responsible sleuthing required the same attention to evidence and accuracy that professional investigators demanded.

454

And law enforcement agencies began recognizing the value of work of amateur investigators rather than dismissing them as interfering busybodies.

455

And Linda's case showed that citizen involvement,

456

when properly channeled, could provide additional investigative capacity that cash strapped police departments desperately needed.

457

Because cold case units overwhelmed by decades of unsolved mysteries suddenly had access to volunteer researchers.

458

And for Christina herself, Linda's case resolution was both ending and the beginning.

459

And when asked about her role in solving the 44 year old mystery, Christina remained characteristically modest and said,

460

I was perfectly fine just bringing the case interest back to the case.

461

And she'd never sought fame or recognition, only knowledge that a forgotten murder victim had finally received deserved attention.

462

And what began as a haunting line, unknown white female bones, had become Linda Marie Pagano.

463

Not just a name, but a life restored to memory.

464

A 17 -year -old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes who loved music and worked at A &W, who saved money for a gold Mustang whose friends called her Midge,

465

which was questionable, and who spent her final night singing along to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, feeling on top of the world.

466

So the faceless victim had become someone's daughter, someone's sister, someone who mattered.

467

And Christina and Carl Kopelman and all the other researchers accomplished something remarkable.

468

And somewhere today or tonight, other families are still searching.

469

And other victims wait in unmarked graves for someone who won't give up.

470

And someone who believes every person deserves to be remembered by name

471

and every person deserves to come home and

472

that is it for today's case i think it is incredible what christina

473

and carl were able to to accomplish along with everyone else involved i think it's

474

so wonderful that linda was able to be put to rest

475

and her family was able to breathe a sigh of relief

476

even though they weren't able to get the justice they deserved but i just think Like it's pretty amazing.

477

And obviously, you know, there's a responsible way to go about it.

478

I'm not saying go solve cold cases, do it.

479

But I think it's important to talk about cold cases and the potential to solve them.

480

Yeah, let me know what other cold cases you want me to go over, ones that haven't been solved yet.

481

I think that's really important.

482

And until next time, I will see you beautiful face.

483

All right, bye.

✨ Vídeo recomendado

47 frases

Cold Case Files: A 2-Year-Old's Memory Solves a Mother's Murder after 17 YEARS | A&E

IELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

809 frases

I Couldn't Help but Notice | This American Life | Episode 894

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

96 frases

The Discovery of King Richard III

Daily ConversationWorking Adults

Vocabulário e dicas de fala para esta lição

Esta aula de conversação de nível B2 usa o vídeo “The IMPOSSIBLE Cold Case That Was Solved By Redditors”. As palavras que mais se repetem: christina, linda, missing. Este vídeo tem 483 frases e 6533 palavras para praticar shadowing. A fala dura 42:03. O falante fala em ritmo natural, cerca de 155 palavras por minuto, próximo de uma conversa do dia a dia. Apenas 77% das palavras estão entre as 3.000 mais comuns do inglês, por isso o vocabulário é exigente.

Vocabulário principal deste vídeo

As 15 palavras mais avançadas do vídeo, com pronúncia e significado:

Palavra	Pronúncia	Significado
investigator substantivo	/ɪnˈvɛs.tɪˌɡeɪ̯.təː/	investigador, investigadora
forensic adjetivo	/fəˈɹɛn.zɪk/	forense
reconstruction substantivo	/ˌɹiːkənˈstɹʌkʃən/	reconstrução, restauração
facial adjetivo	/ˈfeɪ.ʃəl/	facial
genealogy substantivo	/ˌd͡ʒiniˈɑlədʒi/	genealogia
bury verbo	/ˈbɛɹi/	enterrar, soterrar
haunt verbo	/hɔnt/	perseguir, assombrar
dental adjetivo	/ˈdɛn.təl/	dental, dentário
identification substantivo	/aɪˌdɛn(t)ɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/	identificação
jurisdictional adjetivo		jurisdicional
mitochondrial adjetivo	/ˌmaɪ.təˈkɑːn.dɹi.əl/	mitocondrial
persistence substantivo	/pəˈsɪst(ə)ns/	persistência
bureaucratic adjetivo	/ˌbjʊəɹəˈkɹætɪk/	burocrático
mandible substantivo	/ˈmæn.dɪb.əl/	mandíbula, queixada
scatter verbo	/ˈskætɚ/	espalhar, dispersar

Phrasal verbs que você vai ouvir

Palavra	Pronúncia	Significado
end up verbo		terminar, acabar
come back verbo		voltar
drop off verbo		entregar
give up verbo		render-se
kick out verbo		expulsar
pick up verbo		pegar
pull up verbo	/ˌpʊl ˈʌp/	puxar para cima
reach out verbo		estender a mão, esticar a mão

Gramática neste vídeo

As estruturas que o falante mais usa, com as palavras exatas do vídeo:

Estrutura	No vídeo
Frases condicionais if + oração, will/would + verbo — uma condição e seu resultado	if he didn't try, no one else would
Voz passiva be + particípio passado — o foco está no que acontece, não em quem faz	had been murdered · been drawn · were discovered
Orações relativas who / which + oração — informação extra sobre uma pessoa ou coisa	people who knew · man who discovered · someone who could
Present perfect have/has + particípio passado — uma ação passada que ainda importa agora	have spent · has felt · have never been entered

Pronúncia para ficar de olho

O falante usa 56 contrações e formas reduzidas, como wasn't, didn't, couldn't. Diga-as na forma curta, do jeito que você ouve.

Os sons de “th”: sleuth /sluːθ/, breakthrough /ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː/, tooth /tuθ/
Os sons de “sh” e “zh”: reconstruction /ˌɹiːkənˈstɹʌkʃən/, facial /ˈfeɪ.ʃəl/, identification /aɪˌdɛn(t)ɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, limitation /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/, institutional /ˌɪn.stɪˈtju.ʃə.nəl/
Palavras longas — acerte a sílaba tônica: investigator /ɪnˈvɛs.tɪˌɡeɪ̯.təː/, reconstruction /ˌɹiːkənˈstɹʌkʃən/, cemetery /ˈsɛm.ɪˌtɛɹ.i/, genealogy /ˌd͡ʒiniˈɑlədʒi/, unidentified /ˌʌnaɪˈdɛntɪfaɪd/

Sons difíceis para falantes de português:

Consoante final — sem acrescentar um “i” depois: forensic /fəˈɹɛn.zɪk/, unidentified /ˌʌnaɪˈdɛntɪfaɪd/, haunt /hɔnt/, bureaucratic /ˌbjʊəɹəˈkɹætɪk/, systemic /sɪˈstɛm.ɪk/
/l/ final — a língua toca o céu da boca, não vira “u”: facial /ˈfeɪ.ʃəl/, dental /ˈdɛn.təl/, mitochondrial /ˌmaɪ.təˈkɑːn.dɹi.əl/, mandible /ˈmæn.dɪb.əl/, anatomical /æ.nəˈtɑ.mɪ.kəl/
/h/ — um sopro suave, diferente do “r”: haunt /hɔnt/, hobby /ˈhɑ.bi/, homicide /ˈhɑ.məˌsaɪ̯d/

Como praticar com este vídeo

Ouça o vídeo inteiro uma vez sem falar e anote as palavras que você não conhece.
Comece na velocidade 0,75×, faça shadowing frase por frase e volte à velocidade normal quando ficar fácil.
Grave a sua voz e compare com o original, prestando atenção a palavras como investigator, forensic, reconstruction.

O que é a Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing é uma técnica de aprendizado de idiomas com base científica, originalmente desenvolvida para o treinamento de intérpretes profissionais. O método é simples, mas poderoso: você ouve áudio em inglês nativo e repete imediatamente em voz alta — como uma sombra seguindo o falante com 1-2 segundos de atraso. Pesquisas mostram melhora significativa na precisão da pronúncia, entonação, ritmo, sons conectados, compreensão auditiva e fluência na fala.

Técnica de shadowing: leia o guia completo passo a passo →

Prática de Shadowing: The IMPOSSIBLE Cold Case That Was Solved By Redditors - Aprenda a falar inglês com vídeo

How to find hidden clues at crime scenes Theodore E Yeshion

I deleted my social medias (as a content creator) my month offline

Why Jane GAVE UP on Nicole — The Mentalist Moment Fans STILL Argue About

We Let $200 GPT-Pro Think for 7 Days on Unsolved Math

Her Teacher Gave Her An F For Being Right 💀

6 Most Disturbing Reddit Threads

S3 165462 21cc2e cpt l2 u1 f

Human Immortality 4K | Can Science Defeat Aging?

your city is full of fake buildings, here's why