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0:00
Hello everyone, before we begin this episode, I
0:02
just wanted to mention that during the month
0:04
of February, The Trail Went Cold
0:06
is partnering with Season of Justice,
0:08
a non-profit organization dedicated to helping
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families shed new light on their
0:13
cold cases and helping investigative agencies
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bridge the funding gap preventing them
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from accessing cutting-edge forensic technology. So
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we would like to invite you, the listeners, to
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join us in a special campaign in support of
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Season of Justice, who works directly
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with families to fund comprehensive awareness
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campaigns in hopes of bringing a
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resolution to unsolved cases. Season
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of Justice provides grants to investigative agencies
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that fund DNA testing and forensic genetic
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genealogy research to solve cold cases, and
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since 2020, they have raised more than
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$1 million in grants for more than
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140 cold cases in
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North America. In fact, six
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of them have wound up being solved. But
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since Season of Justice can't do this alone,
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we're asking you to consider donating this month.
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If you are able to make a meaningful
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donation to them, you can be helping victims'
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families find answers. To
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donate to Season of Justice,
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please visit the website givebutter.com/
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also find links and information about this in our
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show notes and on our social media pages. Our
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campaign with Season of Justice will be lasting
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the entire month of February and there will
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be more reminders on our upcoming episodes. So
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thank you very much for your support and enjoy
1:35
today's episode. February
1:40
11th, 2004. Lake
1:42
Township, Pennsylvania. After
1:45
returning home from work, 22-year-old
1:47
Felicia Thomas goes missing and
1:50
her boyfriend's best friend, Stephen Allen Martin,
1:52
soon becomes a person of interest. Two
1:55
and a half years earlier, an 18-year-old
1:57
friend of Felicia's named Jennifer Barzaloski
2:00
had also disappeared, and since
2:02
Steve was the last known person to see
2:04
Jennifer alive, there is speculation that the cases
2:06
are connected. Over the
2:08
years, rumors circulate that Felicia may have been
2:11
murdered at a party, but while
2:13
Jennifer's skull is found in a wooded area in 2010,
2:16
there are no conclusive answers about how
2:18
she died, and Felicia remains a missing
2:20
person. After that, the
2:23
trail went cold. The
2:31
trail was
2:36
a a
2:40
a a
2:44
a a
2:48
a a
2:52
a a a
2:58
a a
3:02
a a
3:06
a a a
3:12
a a a
3:18
a a
3:22
a a a
3:28
a a a
3:34
a a
3:38
a a a
3:44
a a a
3:50
a a
3:54
a a a
4:00
between them was a man named Stephen Alan
4:02
Martin, who was the boyfriend of
4:04
Jennifer's older sister, and the
4:06
best friend of Felicia's boyfriend. Since
4:08
he commonly went by Steve, yes,
4:10
that technically means that his name was
4:12
Steve Martin, and I promise not
4:15
to make any only murders in the building
4:17
jokes during the episode. While
4:19
investigators considered Steve to be a person
4:21
of interest in both cases, there was
4:23
no real evidence against him, though
4:25
a prevalent rumor is that Felicia attended a
4:27
party with Steve on the night of her
4:30
disappearance, and multiple people were responsible
4:32
for killing her and disposing of her
4:34
remains. There would be
4:36
a bit of a resolution in Jennifer's case
4:38
when her skull was found in a wooded
4:40
area in 2010, but the rest
4:42
of her remains have not been recovered, and her
4:44
cause of death is still unknown. This
4:47
is a very strange and frustrating
4:49
story which seems to be filled with
4:51
unconfirmed rumors and innuendo, but
4:53
the fact of the matter is that there's still
4:56
no conclusive answers about what happened to both of
4:58
these victims, which is why we're going to explore
5:00
these cases on this episode. Anyway,
5:03
before we get started, just a quick
5:05
reminder that The Trail Went Cold is
5:07
a weekly podcast which is currently available
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Podcasts and Spotify. So, if
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episodes in our archives which are
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not available on a regular feed.
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So, with all that out of the
5:51
way, let us now explore the cases
5:53
of Felicia Thomas and Jennifer Barzoloski. Our
6:39
story begins in 2004 in Lake Township,
6:41
Pennsylvania which is located in Luzerne County
6:43
as part of their Back Mountain region
6:45
and had a population of just over
6:47
2,000 people at that time.
6:50
Our first victim is 22-year-old Felicia Thomas
6:53
who is the fourth of seven children
6:55
born to her mother, Pauline Bailey. Felicia
6:59
spent much of her childhood living with her
7:01
family in Dorrance Township and while she is
7:03
dropped out of high school, she currently works
7:05
as a clerk at a pump and pantry
7:07
convenience store located on State Route 29. For
7:11
nearly three years, Felicia has been involved in
7:13
a relationship with her 27-year-old live-in boyfriend
7:16
Ed Rudosky. The
7:18
couple tried living with Felicia's mother for a
7:20
while but since Ed was also a high
7:23
school dropout who would not get a job
7:25
and help pay the bills, Pauline made the
7:27
move out. At
7:29
this particular point, Felicia and Ed are
7:31
now living with Ed's mother, Catherine Rudosky,
7:34
at her residence on State Route 118. At
7:37
around 11pm on the evening of February 11,
7:40
Felicia finished her shift at the pump and pantry
7:42
and was given a ride home by a male
7:44
friend of one of her co-workers. This
7:47
person would later confirm that he dropped Felicia
7:49
off and saw her enter the Rudosky residence
7:52
but what supposedly happened next is Ed
7:54
Rudosky's version of events. According
7:57
to Ed, he had fallen asleep on the
7:59
couch but sometime between 11.30 pm
8:01
and midnight Felicia woke him up by
8:03
giving him a hug and kiss. Ed
8:06
said that he chatted for a brief period
8:09
and discussed their upcoming plans for Valentine's
8:11
Day as they were hoping to
8:13
go on a horse-drawn sleigh ride to celebrate
8:15
their three-year anniversary as a couple. Felicia
8:18
wanted to have some beers with Ed but he said
8:20
he was too tired and told
8:23
her that since his mother did not
8:25
allow alcohol in the house he was
8:27
keeping some beer in his ATV outside.
8:29
Ed then said that he fell back asleep
8:31
and recalled hearing Felicia walk outside and
8:33
he woke up over an hour later
8:35
sometime between 1 o'clock and 1.30 am
8:37
on the morning of February the 12th.
8:41
When Ed got up and walked into his bedroom he
8:43
was surprised to discover that Felicia was not
8:46
there and he could not find her anywhere
8:48
inside or outside the house. Since
8:51
Felicia's cigarettes were missing Ed
8:53
initially assumed that she went somewhere but
8:55
curiously her purse and winter coat had
8:57
been left behind even though it was
8:59
a cold February night. Ed
9:02
went outside and noticed that the beer on
9:04
his ATV had not been touched so he
9:06
decided to use the ATV to ride over
9:08
to a friend's house about a mile away
9:10
to check if Felicia might be there. When
9:13
he discovered that no one was at the house Ed
9:16
rode back home to wait for her. Now
9:19
here's where things get sketchy. Even
9:22
though Felicia never resurfaced she was not
9:24
actually reported missing to the Pennsylvania State
9:26
Police until 5.30 pm on
9:28
February the 13th which was
9:30
over 40 hours after she was last seen.
9:34
It was Felicia's mother Pauline Bailey who
9:36
filed the missing persons report and
9:38
Pauline and Ed seemed to have differing accounts
9:41
of what transpired. During
9:43
the earliest media coverage of this case Ed
9:46
told the Wilkesbury Times leader newspaper that
9:48
he wasn't initially concerned because there were
9:51
no signs of forced entry at his
9:53
residence and he hadn't heard or seen
9:55
anything suspicious. At one point
9:57
Ed went on her hypnosis to see if he
10:00
he could remember any more details about his
10:02
last encounter with Felicia, and he said he
10:04
recalled hearing what sounded like the front door
10:06
closing, and then a car door closing outside
10:08
as he was falling asleep on the couch.
10:12
Ed said that he believed Felicia had left to
10:14
go visit her mother in Doran's township, but
10:17
since he didn't have any minutes left on
10:19
his long distance calling card, Ed
10:21
was unable to phone Pauline to check if
10:23
Felicia was there. It
10:25
was not until Ed called the pump and
10:27
pantry one day later, and learned that Felicia
10:29
had not shown up for her next scheduled
10:31
shift when he started to become worried. After
10:35
speaking to numerous people and learning that
10:37
no one had seen or heard from
10:39
Felicia in two days, he finally got
10:41
in touch with Pauline and she subsequently
10:44
contacted the Pennsylvania State Police to report
10:46
Felicia missing. Well, over
10:48
the years, Pauline has shared a different
10:50
version of how these events unfolded. She
10:53
claimed that she first learned that her daughter was
10:56
missing when the pump and pantry called her
10:58
on February the 13th to inform
11:00
her that Felicia had not shown up to
11:02
collect her most recent paycheck. When
11:05
Pauline called the Radaski residence to check what
11:07
was going on, she said that
11:09
Ed's mother Catherine answered the phone and
11:11
told her that Felicia had just stepped out in
11:13
order to go pick up her check, which
11:16
turned out not to be true. It
11:18
was after this when Pauline decided to file
11:21
a missing persons report for Felicia. What
11:24
makes things even more complicated is
11:26
that a neighbor of the Radaskis
11:28
later contacted Pauline and told her
11:30
that during the early morning hours of February the
11:32
12th, they had seen four people
11:35
leaving the Radaski residence on ATVs but
11:37
only three of them came back. These
11:41
three people then apparently spent the next
11:43
few hours leaving and coming back on
11:45
their ATVs multiple times. While
11:48
this was going on, a black truck was
11:50
parked in front of the Radaski residence before
11:52
someone drove it away at 4.30am. However
11:56
it's been reported that the police have never
11:58
taken the neighbors' accounts all that seriously,
12:01
as the neighbor apparently had some sort
12:03
of personal issue with Ed, and investigators
12:06
felt they may have been fabricating stories in
12:08
an attempt to get Ed into trouble. In
12:12
spite of these odd discrepancies between Ed
12:14
and Pauline's version of events, the police
12:16
have stated that Ed was nothing but
12:18
cooperative with the investigation, and they have
12:20
never considered him to be a suspect.
12:23
It's been reported that Ed took a polygraph test,
12:25
and while he claimed that he passed it, the
12:28
police have never confirmed or denied this. They
12:31
also do not believe that the man who drove
12:33
Felicia home on the night she disappeared was a
12:35
suspect either. In the
12:38
days following Felicia's disappearance, investigators
12:40
would uncover some mysterious notes alleging
12:42
that Felicia's body could be found
12:44
behind the mountain fresh supermarket located
12:46
on State Route 118, only about
12:48
a tenth of a mile away
12:51
from the Radosky residence. This
12:53
supermarket would become the unofficial command center
12:55
for the search effort, but even
12:58
though members of law enforcement and numerous volunteers
13:01
would extensively check the area behind the
13:03
market and the surrounding woods, nothing could
13:05
be found. While on
13:07
February the 20th, the Pennsylvania
13:09
State Police obtained a warrant to search
13:12
a residence on Golf Course Road in
13:14
nearby Ross Township. The residence
13:16
belonged to 30-year-old Steven Allen Martin,
13:19
who happened to be Ed Radosky's best friend.
13:22
An ATV was confiscated from Steve's
13:25
house, along with several guns, ammunition,
13:27
ashtrays with cigarette butts, and garbage
13:29
bags filled with empty beer cans,
13:32
but at the time, police would not publicly
13:34
comment on what, if any, evidence might have
13:36
been found. It
13:39
turned out that sometime between 11.30 p.m. and
13:41
midnight on February the 11th, Steven
13:44
called the Radosky residence to speak with
13:46
Ed, as he claimed they had made plans
13:48
to see each other that night. But
13:50
Felicia wound up answering the phone and told
13:52
Steve that Ed was sleeping before he hung
13:55
up. If this story
13:57
was true, this technically made Steve the last known person
13:59
to be a person to communicate with
14:01
Felicia before she vanished, so
14:03
he was considered to be a person of interest in
14:05
the case. For his
14:07
part, Steve denied any involvement in her
14:10
disappearance, claiming that he went to bed
14:12
shortly after he spoke with Felicia. Steve
14:15
also claimed that at around 4 am,
14:17
he was awakened by a phone call
14:20
from his girlfriend, Leanne Barzolowski, who told
14:22
him that she had received five prank
14:24
calls from someone breathing heavily into the
14:26
receiver and she was quite perturbed about
14:28
it. This prompted
14:30
Steve to travel to Leanne's house in order
14:32
to comfort her before he returned home later
14:35
that morning. Well
14:37
believe it or not, it would turn out
14:39
that Steve had another connection to an unsolved
14:41
missing persons case from the area. The
14:44
victim in question was 18-year-old Jennifer
14:47
Barzolowski, who happened to be the
14:49
younger sister of Steve's girlfriend, Leanne.
14:52
Jennifer also lived in Lake Township and went missing on
14:54
the evening of June 23, 2001. It
14:59
turned out that Steve was the last known person
15:01
to see her alive, as he claimed that
15:03
he gave Jennifer a ride to the C
15:05
Major Sports Bar located on Main Street in
15:08
the borough of Edwardsville and dropped her off
15:10
before driving away. Her
15:12
case was originally investigated by the
15:14
Lake Township Police Department, who wound
15:17
up disbanding a few months later, so
15:19
it was taken over by the Pennsylvania State
15:21
Police. Jennifer's
15:23
disappearance initially got very little coverage in
15:25
the media, as an article published in
15:27
the July 3, 2001
15:30
edition of the Wilkesbury Times-Leader said
15:32
that she was a known heroin user. At
15:35
the time, it was believed that Jennifer
15:37
had traveled to the Badlands neighborhood in
15:39
Philadelphia to score drugs, and
15:41
Steve seemed to concur with this theory. However,
15:44
Jennifer's case would be given renewed attention when
15:46
Felicia went missing two and a half years
15:48
later, As it turned
15:50
out, there were no independent eyewitnesses who
15:53
recalled seeing Jennifer at the C Major
15:55
Sports Bar on the night she vanished
15:57
and could corroborate Steve's story. For
16:00
his part. Steve. Claimed that he
16:02
drove to Leon's residents right after dropping
16:04
off Jennifer. And. Told the press that
16:06
Leann had attached to his whereabouts that night.
16:10
Since. Leann Steve are still together and
16:12
now had two small children. It did
16:14
not appear that Leah had suspected him
16:16
of anything. Exactly.
16:18
And had even need for instance
16:20
daughter Jennifer after her sister. In
16:23
another interesting turn of events, it turned
16:25
out that Jennifer and Felicia were friends
16:27
and new a number of the same
16:29
people. Even. Though Steve
16:31
would become a person of interest in both
16:34
cases, there was no evidence that he had
16:36
done anything wrong. But. His life would
16:38
soon go into a downward spiral. Sees.
16:41
Legal problems began on March seventeenth,
16:44
only one month after Felicia went
16:46
missing. When. He was arrested on
16:48
the first degree misdemeanor charge of possessing
16:50
a prohibited offensive weapon. When.
16:53
A pair of state troopers visited Sees
16:55
residents in order to interview him about
16:57
police case. They. Noticed a sawed off
16:59
shotgun lying on a wouldn't stand next to
17:01
a staircase. And it would be
17:03
confiscated during the police's search of the house
17:06
five days later. While. The
17:08
charge was later dismissed see started
17:10
facing more serious issues two months
17:12
later. When. He was accused of
17:14
supplying drugs and alcohol to appear teenage
17:16
girls. He. Allegedly learn
17:18
these two girls to his house by offering
17:20
to pay them to clean it. Though.
17:23
He never actually gave them any money. Steve.
17:25
Was charged with to town siege
17:27
of delivering marijuana, endangering the welfare
17:30
of children, corruption of minors and
17:32
provide alcohol to minors along with
17:34
a single count of tobacco to
17:36
a minor. While.
17:38
He was released on Bond. Things got even
17:41
worse for speed in July of that year.
17:43
When. He was rearrested and charged
17:45
with endangering the welfare of children
17:47
Corruption: a miner's giving alcohol to
17:50
minors and possessing your controlled substance.
17:53
Over. one two year period steve
17:55
had supposedly supplied alcohol and drugs
17:57
to a pair of completely different
17:59
tt girls and was also accused of
18:01
fondling one of them. Once
18:04
again, Steve was allowed to remain
18:06
free on bond, but these new
18:08
allegations were only increasing suspicion about
18:10
his potential involvement in the disappearances
18:13
of Felicia and Jennifer. When
18:16
Steve appeared at the Luzerne County courthouse
18:18
for a hearing about these charges, a
18:20
bunch of protesters showed up side,
18:23
including Pauline Bailey. They
18:25
held up signs which read, quote, number
18:28
one, Jen, number two, Felicia,
18:30
number three, your daughter. And
18:33
Pauline flat out yelled at Steve, quote,
18:35
you took my daughter, how does it feel
18:37
to rip someone's heart out? End quote. Well,
18:40
believe it or not, Steve would
18:43
be re-arrested and hit with even
18:45
more charges in November, including burglary,
18:47
indecent assault, and corruption of minors.
18:50
These charges stem from an incident in January
18:52
of 2003, when
18:54
Steve illegally entered a friend's home and
18:57
crawled into bed with two teenage girls,
18:59
where he attempted to undo one of
19:01
their bras. The
19:03
adult woman who resided in the home said
19:05
that she remained silent because Steve had threatened
19:07
to burn her house down, but she now
19:09
wanted to come forward due to all the
19:12
newfound publicity surrounding him and his additional charges.
19:15
Even though this marked the fourth time Steve was arrested in
19:17
2004, he was once again released on
19:21
bond, but shortly thereafter, Leanne filed
19:23
a protection from abuse order against
19:25
him, which led to their two
19:27
children being removed from Steve's custody.
19:31
While Leanne would withdraw the order five
19:33
days later, it wasn't long before Steve
19:35
found himself involved in an accident which
19:37
took someone's life. On
19:40
December the 9th, Steve drove his pickup
19:43
truck to the Luzerne County Children and
19:45
Youth Services Office in Wilkes-Barre in
19:47
order to attend a supervised visit with his
19:49
children, but the Pennsylvania State
19:52
Police received information that Steve was
19:54
driving with his suspended license due
19:56
to a previous DUI conviction. Steve
20:00
Troopers waited outside the office and attempted
20:02
to pull Steve over after he left,
20:05
but he decided to speed up and leave the
20:07
police on a brief chase until he ran a
20:09
red light and crashed into
20:11
a car containing 61-year-old Raymond Simon
20:13
and his 55-year-old sister Vera Simon.
20:17
Steve attempted to flee the accident scene on
20:20
foot before he was captured at a Taco
20:22
Bell restaurant several blocks away. He
20:24
was charged with two counts of reckless
20:27
endangerment along with one count each of
20:29
accidents involving death or injury, fleeing police
20:31
and driving without a license. Raymond
20:35
and Vera Simon were taken to a hospital
20:37
and placed in the intensive care unit, but
20:40
while Raymond made a full recovery, Vera
20:42
passed away on December 20th. Steve
20:45
was then hit with the additional
20:47
charges of vehicular homicide and involuntary
20:49
manslaughter and this time he
20:52
was held at the Luzerne County Correctional
20:54
Facility without bail. Rather
20:56
than go on trial, Steve agreed to a plea
20:58
deal and on March 29th, 2005, he pled guilty
21:03
to all charges in relation to Vera's
21:05
death and received a sentence of 51-126
21:07
months in
21:10
prison. In June of
21:12
that year, Steve pled guilty to all
21:14
of the other charges he had faced
21:16
involving the numerous teenage girls such as
21:18
corruption of minors and indecent assault. Interestingly
21:22
enough, one of the girls
21:24
he had victimized claimed that Steve once
21:26
told her he was the last person
21:28
to see Jennifer Barziloski alive. She
21:30
stated, quote, he said everyone tried to
21:33
blame him. He said everyone thinks he
21:35
did it, but he didn't say what he meant
21:37
by did it, end quote. Later
21:39
that month, a wrongful death lawsuit
21:41
that Vera Simon's family had filed against
21:43
Steve was settled out of court. Steve
21:47
was scheduled to be sentenced for his
21:49
charges with the teenage girls sometime in
21:51
mid-August and was held in custody at
21:53
the State Correctional Institution in Camp Hill.
21:56
However, on the morning of August 12th,
21:59
Steve was found. Hanging by his
22:01
neck inside itself. He.
22:03
Was immediately rushed to a medical center and
22:05
died the following day at the age of
22:07
thirty two. His death
22:09
was ruled to be a suicide as a
22:11
few days earlier. Steve. It sent a
22:13
letter to Louis and Zandt in which he rode
22:15
quote. Hopefully. Soon I will be
22:18
dead and I will not have to deal with
22:20
this. Pay no more and quote. Shortly.
22:22
Before Steve died, we're headed informed him
22:25
that he was now dating someone else.
22:27
As he soon made this statement to the
22:29
press quote. I'm. Stuck between a rock
22:31
and a hard place as far as this is
22:34
concerned. He. Killed my sister and I
22:36
love him and point. We.
22:38
And said that she never wanted to
22:40
believe that see was responsible for Jennifer's
22:42
disappearance. Bought. Following Steve's
22:44
incarceration. The. Lead detective and
22:46
Jennifer's case spoke to Leann and finally
22:49
convinced her that see was the guilty
22:51
party. says. Jennifer and
22:53
Felicia's remains had still not been found.
22:56
Steve. Suicide was a bittersweet feeling
22:58
for their families. But. Over the
23:00
next several years. Pauline. Bailey would
23:02
publicly express or believe. That
23:04
multiple people were involved in police's
23:07
disappearance and see did not act
23:09
alone. While.
23:11
On April the second, two thousand
23:13
and ten two teenagers riding their
23:15
A T V through Harmless Township
23:17
discovered a human skull near the
23:19
bottom of an embankment in a
23:21
secluded wooded area alongside Roaring Procreate.
23:24
The. Authorities were soon notified about the
23:26
discovery and ten days later. It
23:29
was announced that dental records have
23:31
positively identified the skull as belonging
23:33
to Jennifer Bars Laski. Unfortunately,
23:36
And extensive search of the area failed to
23:38
turn up the rest of Jennifer's remains. Based.
23:41
On a available evidence, Jennifer's exact
23:43
cause of death cannot be determined.
23:46
But. When the loser and county coroner's office
23:48
examined her skull, They. Did not
23:50
find any perforated marks to suggest that a
23:52
cutting tool have been used to detach from
23:55
her spine. Since. this
23:57
particular wooded area was apparently searched on
23:59
prior occasions without finding anything, it was
24:01
theorized that the skull may have been
24:04
brought to the spot it was found
24:06
via animal activity or possibly
24:08
even flooding or heavy rain. Indeed,
24:11
there have always been rumors that Felicia's remains
24:14
and the rest of Jennifer's remains were
24:16
dumped into one of the large ponds in the area
24:18
which discharged into Roaring Brook Creek,
24:21
explaining how Jennifer's skull flowed to this
24:23
spot. While the authorities
24:26
have never officially stated that Jennifer was
24:28
the victim of homicide, it seems very
24:30
likely she was the victim of foul
24:32
play. And interestingly
24:34
enough, her skull was only found
24:36
about a mile away from the residence where
24:39
Steve Martin had lived before his arrest. Well,
24:42
as the years went on, Pauline would
24:44
publicly express her belief that Felicia was
24:46
murdered because she knew incriminating
24:48
information about what happened to Jennifer.
24:51
In January of 2012, a letter
24:53
from Pauline was published in the
24:55
letters to the editor section of
24:58
another Wilkes-Barre newspaper, The Citizen's Voice,
25:00
where she wrote, "...some very
25:03
bad people hurt her and killed her as
25:05
they did Jen Barzolowski. She told
25:07
me someone killed her friend and buried her and
25:09
wanted me to help find her. I
25:11
did not believe it. I told her in this
25:13
day and age, you can't kill people and get
25:15
away with it. God, why didn't I
25:18
listen to her?" It
25:20
has since come out that Felicia specifically
25:23
told her mother that she believed Steve
25:25
Martin had killed Jennifer and
25:27
Pauline theorized that this was Steve's
25:29
motive for making Felicia disappear. Well,
25:33
in April of 2016, the story
25:35
would be featured on an episode of
25:38
the true crime show, Crime Watch Daily,
25:40
which pushed forward a specific scenario for
25:42
how Felicia was allegedly murdered. Pauline
25:45
was interviewed on the show along with
25:47
a close family friend named Judy Fisher,
25:49
who had become a major advocate in
25:51
Felicia's case. Pauline
25:54
and Judy both claimed that they were told
25:56
by numerous people that on the night Felicia
25:58
disappeared, she had attempted to kill attended a
26:00
party at a mobile home located in
26:02
Hunlock Township on Timber Lane off Golf
26:05
Course Road. The home
26:07
was owned by a man named John Anthony
26:09
Neary who was friends with Steve Martin and
26:11
Steve's residence was only about a half mile
26:13
away. There were supposedly
26:15
at least 17 people at the party
26:18
and the story goes that Steve and
26:20
at least three other men convinced Felicia
26:22
to join her inside a bedroom in
26:24
order to smoke some marijuana. They
26:27
then proceeded to sexually assault Felicia and
26:29
she apparently let out some disturbing screams
26:31
for help which prompted a couple
26:33
of people to leave. In
26:35
fact it's been reported that Steve drove
26:37
both Felicia and Ed Radosky to the
26:40
party. After they
26:42
arrived, Ed went inside the bedroom with
26:44
Felicia but the other guys told
26:46
him to quote unquote take a walk
26:48
so Ed left while Felicia's assault took
26:50
place. One of
26:53
these guys was also supposedly seen carrying a
26:55
video camera into the bedroom implying that the
26:57
assault may have been filmed. Afterward,
27:01
multiple witnesses apparently went into the
27:03
bedroom and saw Felicia's dead body
27:05
wrapped in a blanket. One
27:08
of the most prevalent rumors is that
27:10
the responsible parties took Felicia into a
27:12
barn located on the same property and
27:14
proceeded to dismember her body on top
27:16
of a large tarp. They
27:19
then burned her remains in a debris pile
27:21
and buried them in a vegetable garden in
27:23
a field on top of a nearby hill.
27:26
But here's where the whole thing gets confusing.
27:29
The Crimewatch Daily episode features an
27:31
interview with Officer Tom Kelly who
27:33
was the lead investigator with the
27:35
Pennsylvania State Police at that time
27:38
and he does confirm that Felicia was seen
27:40
attending this party at the mobile home. But
27:43
he also said that she was last seen
27:45
leaving the party with Steve Martin and another
27:48
on identified mail. This
27:50
other guy was subsequently dropped off at
27:52
his own place leaving Felicia and Steve
27:55
alone and Felicia was never seen alive
27:57
again. But when asked
27:59
if the second male was Edwardosky, Kelly
28:01
just said he could not confirm or deny it.
28:05
So the big issue here is that
28:07
we have two separate stories about this
28:09
party which completely contradict each other because
28:12
if Felicia was seen leaving the party with
28:14
Steve, then she obviously couldn't have
28:16
been killed inside the bedroom. For
28:19
his part, Kelly said that he
28:21
has never found any evidence or
28:23
information to confirm the rumors that
28:25
a so-called quote-unquote snuff film had
28:28
been shot of Felicia's alleged assault
28:30
and murder. It's
28:33
also worth noting that Jennifer Skull was
28:35
found about three-quarters to one mile downstream
28:37
from the barn where Felicia's dismemberment supposedly
28:39
took place and the barn was right
28:42
next to a feeder creek to Roaring
28:44
Brook Creek. Shortly before
28:46
the Crimewatch Daily episode came out, the
28:48
previous owners of this property had moved
28:50
away, so Pauline and Judy got
28:52
permission from the new owners to perform a
28:55
search of the property with cadaver dogs in
28:57
August of 2016. They claimed that
29:00
these dogs got hits on a deteriorating tarp
29:03
found in a wooded area 100 yards behind
29:06
the barn as well as the stone floor in
29:08
the corner of the barn. There
29:10
was also apparently a noticeable dip in
29:12
this floor to indicate that some sort
29:15
of excavation might have occurred. By
29:17
this point, the mobile home where this
29:20
party supposedly took place had been demolished
29:22
and the debris burn pile on the
29:25
property had been removed, raided and seated.
29:28
Now, the Pennsylvania State Police said that
29:30
they later performed their own search of
29:32
the property but the same cadaver dogs
29:35
but did not get any hits at
29:37
the spots where the dogs had allegedly
29:39
reacted during Pauline's previous search and
29:42
they also did not find anything of
29:44
evidentiary value. However,
29:46
Pauline and Judy have claimed that
29:48
they since performed additional private searches
29:50
of the property with cadaver dogs
29:53
and continued to get hits from them but
29:55
never found anything. The
29:57
Wilkes-Barre Times leader ran a couple of
29:59
articles of about this story in early 2018 and
30:02
while they attempted to get comment
30:04
from the property's previous owner, John
30:06
Anthony Niere, they were unable to
30:08
track him down. However,
30:10
on the 14-year anniversary of
30:12
Felicia's disappearance, the Times
30:15
leader revealed that they had been
30:17
contacted by several anonymous individuals who
30:19
claimed they had been inside Niere's mobile
30:21
home during the spring of 2004 and
30:24
noticed that floorboards were conspicuously missing
30:27
in the bedroom and kitchen. As
30:30
of right now, all further search
30:32
efforts to recover Felicia and the
30:34
rest of Jennifer's remains have been
30:36
unsuccessful. So after 20
30:38
years, there's still no conclusive answers about
30:40
what happened to either of these victims.
30:43
So I guess you could say the
30:45
trail went cold. So
31:01
this is not the first time I've done
31:03
an episode featuring two separate cold cases and
31:05
more often than not, I find
31:08
out that one of the featured cases got
31:10
considerably more media coverage than the other. As
31:13
an example of this, look at the
31:15
episode I released two weeks ago about
31:17
the murders of Heidi Seaman and Erika
31:19
Betteo, which both took place in San
31:21
Antonio in August of 1990. I
31:24
think the only reason that Erika's case got
31:26
any media coverage at all is because she
31:28
happened to go missing only 19 days
31:31
after Heidi did, so the
31:33
city was in a major frenzy about
31:35
abducted children and rumors about the two
31:37
cases possibly being connected. Here,
31:40
we have one young woman, Jennifer
31:42
Barzoloski, whose disappearance received very little
31:44
media coverage at all for two and a
31:47
half years until Felicia Thomas went
31:49
missing and people started noticing the
31:51
links between them, particularly involving
31:53
Steve and Alan Martin. I
31:57
previously mentioned that the earliest reporting
31:59
about Jennifer's case. case, mention her
32:01
having issues with heroin and possibly
32:03
running off to Philadelphia to score
32:05
drugs, so I'm guessing that the
32:07
police pretty much wrote her off as
32:09
a runaway and did not aggressively pursue
32:11
an investigation. Of
32:13
course the main narrative which has been
32:15
pushed forward by Felicia's mother, Pauline Bailey,
32:18
is that her daughter went missing because she
32:20
had taken the initiative to try
32:22
and solve Jennifer's case herself, and
32:25
since Felicia believed that Steve was responsible
32:27
for what happened to Jennifer, he may
32:29
have decided to get rid of her too. Well
32:32
if that is actually what happened, then
32:34
the ironic thing is that Steve's strategy
32:36
backfired in a huge way, since
32:39
Felicia's disappearance brought a bunch of
32:41
attention to this entire story and
32:43
even though Steve was never officially charged with
32:46
either of these crimes, he still
32:48
wound up experiencing a major downfall.
32:52
Pauline has stated in interviews that prior
32:54
to her disappearance, Felicia told
32:56
her that she believed Steve had buried
32:58
Jennifer in his basement, but we
33:00
know that part is likely not true, since
33:03
Jennifer's skull was found in a wooded area.
33:06
However, this spot was in very
33:08
close proximity to Steve's residence and
33:10
the mobile home where Felicia was
33:12
allegedly killed at a party, so
33:14
there has always been speculation that Felicia's
33:17
remains and the rest of Jennifer's remains
33:19
are in that same general region of
33:21
Honlock Township. But
33:24
before I talk any more about Felicia's case,
33:26
I'm going to start off by analyzing Jennifer's
33:29
death, since there obviously isn't all
33:31
that much evidence to discuss. Since
33:34
all that was found was Jennifer's skull, I
33:36
guess it's technically never been conclusively proven that
33:38
she was the victim of a homicide. I
33:41
mean theoretically, I guess you can't
33:43
completely discount the possibility that Jennifer could
33:46
have wandered out into the woods and
33:48
died of exposure or something, but
33:50
that's extremely unlikely. The
33:53
only confirmed facts we have is that the
33:55
last known person to see Jennifer alive was
33:57
Steve Martin, who claimed he dropped her
33:59
off outside the C Major Sports
34:01
Bar in Edwardsville. Since
34:04
Jennifer's sister Leanne was Steve's girlfriend and she
34:06
continued to remain with them for the next
34:08
two and a half years, I'm guessing
34:10
she did not question Steve's story
34:12
or believe he was responsible for
34:14
Jennifer's disappearance, but the issue
34:16
is that investigators could not find any
34:19
witnesses to confirm that Jennifer was anywhere
34:21
near that bar on the night she
34:23
disappeared. At the time,
34:25
it might not have seemed implausible that
34:27
Jennifer hitched a ride there with an
34:29
unknown party and traveled to Philadelphia or
34:31
something, but it just seems like
34:34
too much of a coincidence that her
34:36
skull would turn up only about a mile
34:38
away from Steve's former residence. While
34:40
I have no idea what motive Steve
34:42
would have had to kill Jennifer, the
34:45
fact that he would eventually be charged
34:47
with multiple acts of predatory behavior towards
34:49
teenage girls definitely shows a
34:51
pattern with Steve, so perhaps he
34:54
tried the same thing with Jennifer and
34:56
thinks escalated into violence. Of
34:58
course, that's all just speculation as there
35:01
is no real evidence that Steve did
35:03
anything, and just because no
35:05
witness is recalled seeing Jennifer in the bar that
35:07
night does not necessarily mean his
35:09
story about dropping her off is not true,
35:12
but when you consider the later issues
35:15
involving Steve, the idea of him
35:17
harming Jennifer is certainly not implausible.
35:20
It really is crazy to see how much
35:22
of a downward spiral Steve went through after
35:25
he was named as a person of interest
35:27
in these cases because in the
35:29
span of one calendar year, he was
35:31
arrested on no less than three
35:33
occasions for separate incidents involving different
35:35
teenage girls and then wound
35:38
up being charged with vehicular homicide for
35:40
taking the life of Vera Simon. Steve's
35:43
defense attorney would argue that Vera's
35:45
death was the result of him
35:47
cracking under the extreme pressure of
35:50
being falsely accused of Felicia and
35:52
Jennifer's disappearances, and that he
35:54
only tried to outrun the police because he
35:56
had become paranoid they were attempting to railroad
35:58
him. Of course, that's all. That's a
36:00
pretty lame excuse for his actions, and I
36:02
know that when Steve read a tearful apology
36:05
to Vera Simon's family at a sentencing hearing,
36:07
a lot of people thought it came across
36:10
as very insincere, considering that Steve
36:12
couldn't even get the family's last name
36:14
right and kept referring to them as
36:16
Simpson instead of Simon. And
36:19
while I'm sure Steve didn't intend on killing Vera,
36:22
that doesn't change the fact that many
36:24
of the inappropriate incidents with the
36:26
teenage girls took place before Felicia
36:28
even went missing, and since
36:30
he ultimately pled guilty to all these charges,
36:33
he can't argue that he was falsely accused.
36:36
So the motive for Steve's suicide is still up
36:39
for debate, as even though I'm
36:41
sure that serving 51 to 126 months
36:43
in prison for Vera's death would not be
36:46
a picnic, he would be released
36:48
eventually and still have the opportunity to
36:50
continue on with his life. But
36:53
I will add the disclaimer that Steve had
36:55
not yet been sentenced for the charges with
36:57
the teenage girls, so it
36:59
was possible that he was going to have a
37:02
lot more years added on and serve a much
37:04
lengthier sentence. It's
37:06
been theorized that the breaking point which led
37:08
to Steve's suicide was when Leanne
37:10
told him she had started dating someone else,
37:13
and he also found it difficult to be away
37:15
from his children, but it's also been
37:17
speculated that the guilt and paranoia associated
37:19
with his potential involvement in what happened
37:22
to Felicia and Jennifer drove him to
37:24
take his own life. Of
37:27
course the families of the two victims
37:29
were left disappointed by Steve's suicide because
37:31
their remains had not yet been found, and they
37:34
felt that Steve may have taken the secrets about
37:36
what happened to them to his grave. However
37:39
in Felicia's case at least, there
37:41
has been speculation that Steve was not the
37:43
only person involved, and there might be others
37:45
out there who know the full truth. I
37:49
will say that Felicia's mother, Pauline Bailey,
37:51
as well as her friend Judy Fisher,
37:54
have been amazing advocates for Felicia
37:57
as they have never stopped spreading awareness about
37:59
her disappearance as well as Jennifer's death.
38:02
Looking through the news archives, it seems
38:04
like without fail, Pauline has made sure
38:06
to hold a vigil for Felicia every
38:08
year on the anniversary of her disappearance,
38:11
and I have no doubt that she will
38:13
do the same thing for the 20-year anniversary
38:15
which is taking place a few days after
38:17
this episode's release. Pauline
38:20
is not hesitated to express her belief
38:22
that Felicia was murdered and that Steve
38:24
Martin was involved, but over the years,
38:26
it seems like a number of people
38:28
have shared information with both her and
38:30
Judy to make them believe
38:33
there was an act of conspiracy to cover
38:35
up Felicia's death. For years,
38:37
the narrative seemed to be that Felicia
38:39
inexplicably vanished from her residence in the
38:41
middle of the night, and
38:43
during my research, the first source I
38:45
found which started reporting on the story
38:47
about Felicia being killed at a party
38:50
was the Crime Watch Daily episode which aired in
38:52
2016. The
38:55
show's betrayal of this story
38:57
was heavily sensationalized and
38:59
also brought up an angle involving
39:01
convicted serial killer Hugo Selensky who
39:04
had lived on a property in the same
39:06
region of Luzerne County. So
39:08
I actually talked about Hugo Selensky back
39:10
on episode number 98 of
39:12
this podcast as he was looked
39:15
at as a potential suspect in the disappearance
39:17
of Cindy Song, a 21-year-old Penn
39:20
State student who vanished from State
39:22
College, Pennsylvania during the early morning hours
39:24
of November 1, 2001. Selensky
39:29
is currently serving a life sentence in prison
39:31
for murder, but the authorities have
39:33
been unable to determine how many
39:35
people he actually killed, as
39:37
bone fragments which may have belonged to as
39:40
many as 12 different people were found in
39:42
a burn pit on Selensky's property. Now
39:45
since Selensky was arrested in 2003,
39:47
he would have been behind
39:49
bars by the time Felicia went missing, so
39:52
he obviously played no role in her
39:54
disappearance. But since Jennifer
39:56
went missing in 2001, the authorities did appear to
39:58
have been arrested make an
40:00
attempt to search for her remains on
40:02
Selensky's property, but none of the bone
40:05
fragments have been linked to her. The
40:07
Crimewatch Daily episode alleged that prior
40:09
to his arrest, Selensky
40:12
had been equated with Steve Martin
40:14
and Felicia's boyfriend, Ed Radosky. In
40:17
fact, it was even implied that Felicia
40:19
herself may have met Selensky, as
40:22
Ed apparently took her to at least
40:24
one party where Selensky was in attendance.
40:27
Like I just said, Selensky was
40:29
already incarcerated by the time Felicia
40:31
disappeared, so I don't know
40:33
why Crimewatch Daily felt the need to
40:35
put so much focus on him, but it
40:38
seemed to imply that being acquainted with
40:40
Selensky may have given Steve or
40:42
other people from the community ideas
40:44
about how to commit murder and dispose
40:46
of a victim's body. After
40:49
all, a heavily shared rumor is that
40:51
after Felicia was murdered, her body
40:53
was dismembered and her remains burned
40:55
and scattered, much like what
40:57
Selensky did with his victims. Obviously,
41:01
my main issue with the Crimewatch Daily
41:03
episode is that it pushes forward the
41:05
rumor that Felicia was killed after attending
41:08
a party, but it also
41:10
presents two different scenarios which seem to
41:12
contradict each other. But before
41:14
we talk any more about this angle,
41:16
let's first discuss the known facts about
41:19
Felicia's disappearance. We know
41:21
that she left her job at the Pump
41:23
and Pantry convenience store and arrived home sometime
41:25
between 11.30 pm and midnight,
41:28
but the man who gave Felicia a ride is not
41:30
considered to be a suspect and law
41:32
enforcement seemed to believe his account that he
41:34
saw her walk inside a residence after he
41:36
dropped her off. All we
41:38
know about what happened next is Ed
41:40
Radosky's version of events and even
41:43
though he was also not considered to be a suspect,
41:45
it's obvious that some people,
41:47
including Pauline Bailey, do not
41:50
believe his story. It's worth
41:52
noting that when lead investigator Tom
41:54
Kelly was interviewed on Crimewatch Daily,
41:56
he put over Ed as being cooperative with
41:58
the investigation and but would not say
42:01
he was ruled out as a suspect because at
42:03
that point no one could be completely
42:05
ruled out. As you
42:07
recall, Ed claimed that he was sleeping on
42:09
the couch until Felicia woke him up, and
42:12
after she said she was going outside to
42:14
get some beer from his ATV, Ed
42:16
fell back asleep and when he woke up
42:18
about an hour later Felicia was gone. On
42:22
the surface, Steve would seem to corroborate
42:24
Ed's story since he claimed that he
42:26
called the residents during this time period,
42:28
but Felicia answered the phone and told
42:30
him Ed was sleeping. However,
42:32
since Ed and Steve were best
42:34
friends, and there's been speculation that
42:37
they were both complicit in Felicia's
42:39
disappearance, they could have potentially been
42:41
covering for each other. Until
42:43
I learned about this whole party angle, I
42:46
initially had a hard time figuring out how
42:48
Felicia could have gone missing that night. The
42:51
thing I can't wrap my head around
42:53
is that even though Ed claimed that
42:55
Felicia's cigarettes were missing, which gave him the
42:57
impression that she went out somewhere, her
42:59
purse and winter coat were left behind even
43:01
though it was a cold winter night. To
43:05
be quite honest, the detail about the coat
43:07
is the one thing which has always left
43:09
me a bit skeptical that Felicia ever attended
43:11
this party, because why would she
43:14
have left without her coat? Ed
43:16
told police that he didn't hear or see
43:18
anything unusual, and that there were no signs
43:20
of forced entry at the residence, so
43:23
I considered the possibility that someone could
43:25
have abducted Felicia while she was grabbing
43:27
beer from the ATV, particularly
43:29
since Ed claimed that the beer did not
43:31
appear to have been touched. But
43:34
once again, wouldn't Felicia put on her
43:36
coat if she stepped outside? So
43:39
Ed claims that he did go out on his
43:41
ATV to check if Felicia had gone to a
43:43
nearby friend's house, and then returned
43:45
home when it turned out she wasn't there, but
43:48
we have this odd account from one of
43:50
Ed's neighbors who claimed they saw
43:52
multiple people going back and forth on
43:54
ATV throughout the course of the night,
43:57
as well as a black truck which was parked in front of the
43:59
residence. until around 4.30 a.m. It
44:03
sounds like investigators did not take this neighbor's
44:05
account all that seriously because they supposedly had
44:08
a personal grudge against Ed and the police
44:10
thought they were trying to get him into
44:12
trouble, which is a pretty odd take to
44:14
have than an unsolved missing persons case. But
44:17
to be fair, if Felicia was killed at
44:19
a party which was taking place at another location,
44:22
then I'm not sure why there would be
44:24
so much activity like this outside the Radaski
44:27
residence. I do know that Steve
44:29
was driving a 1997 Ford
44:31
pickup truck during this time period, since
44:33
this detail was reported during the news
44:36
accounts about the vehicular homicide of Vera
44:38
Simon, but none of the sources
44:40
I could find mention if it was black. Regardless
44:43
of whether or not the neighbor's account is true,
44:46
it's still pretty strange to me that after
44:48
taking the initiative to go out on his
44:50
ATD and search for Felicia in the middle
44:53
of the night, and never bothered
44:55
to call the police to report her missing, or
44:57
do much of anything at all for the next day and a
45:00
half. He said
45:02
that he just figured Felicia had gone to
45:04
stay with her mother in Doran's township, but
45:06
couldn't actually phone her because he had no
45:08
minutes left on his long-distance calling card, which
45:11
seems like a pretty lame excuse to me.
45:14
I mean, how did Ed expect Felicia to
45:16
have traveled to her mother's place to begin
45:18
with? Felicia did not drive
45:20
or own a vehicle at that time, and
45:23
Ed's mother Catherine would often drive her to work.
45:26
As you might recall, Catherine owned the
45:28
house where Ed and Felicia were living, but
45:30
I haven't heard any information about her
45:33
whereabouts and the night Felicia disappeared, and
45:35
whether or not she was at the residence at that
45:37
time. Pauline has
45:40
claimed that when she phoned there looking
45:42
for Felicia, Catherine flat-out lied to her
45:44
by saying that Felicia had just stepped
45:46
out to pick up her paycheck from
45:48
a workplace, which of course turned
45:50
out not to be true, and didn't make
45:52
much sense either, since Catherine usually drove her
45:54
there anyway. On
45:57
the Crime Watch Daily episode, the crew showed up
45:59
at Catherine's door and attempted to interview
46:01
her, but she didn't want to talk to them,
46:04
though she denied the allegations that her
46:06
son was involved in Felicia's disappearance, and
46:08
claimed that Paulina has always spread false rumors about
46:11
him. And of course, it
46:13
does not sound like Ed himself has
46:15
done any interviews about the case for
46:17
nearly two decades. Now
46:20
as for Steve's whereabouts during the time
46:22
period Felicia went missing, when he
46:24
was first named as a person of interest, he
46:26
claimed that after he spoke with Felicia on the
46:28
phone, he went to bed until he was woken
46:30
up when Leanne called him at 4am. Since
46:34
she had apparently been receiving a series of disturbing
46:36
prank calls, Steve then headed over to her place
46:38
to spend the rest of the night with her.
46:42
I haven't read anything to indicate that Leanne
46:44
disputed this story, but even if Steve
46:46
did come see her, there's still
46:48
a window of time between midnight and
46:50
4am, in which Steve's only alibi
46:52
is that he was sleeping, so if he
46:55
was guilty, he still would have had ample
46:57
time to do something with Felicia. It's
47:00
interesting how Steve supposedly arrived at Leanne's
47:02
place shortly after 4am, which is
47:05
the same approximate time period when Ed's
47:07
neighbor claimed that all this weird activity
47:09
outside the Radaski residence came to a
47:11
halt. And of course,
47:14
if there were a bunch of witnesses who saw
47:16
Ed at a party during this time period when
47:18
he claimed he was at home sleeping, then that's
47:20
a major red flag. One
47:23
big clue during the early stages of the
47:25
investigation were some anonymous notes
47:27
which stated that Felicia's body was
47:30
buried behind the mountain fresh supermarket,
47:32
but a search of this area never
47:34
went anywhere, and oddly, none of the
47:36
sources I found have revealed where exactly
47:38
these notes came from in the first
47:40
place. For all we know,
47:42
this may have been nothing more than a cruel prank,
47:45
but what if it was someone attempting to
47:47
throw off the investigation by directing the search
47:50
effort towards the and
47:52
away from the location where Felicia
47:54
was actually buried? The
47:57
most prevalent rumor is that Felicia's remains
47:59
are somewhere near the mountain. in Honlock
48:01
Township near Golf Course Road and Timber
48:03
Lane, the location of the mobile
48:05
home where this party was supposedly held. The
48:09
former owner of the mobile home, John
48:11
Anthony Niere, has never gone on the
48:13
record to publicly confirm or deny that
48:15
the party took place, and
48:17
in fact, I have not seen anyone personally
48:20
state during an interview that they were in
48:22
attendance that night. All
48:24
we have are third-hand accounts from people
48:26
like Pauline Bailey, Judy Fisher, and Tom
48:29
Kelly, who claim that witnesses
48:31
have told them they were there when
48:33
Felicia was taken into a bedroom to
48:35
be sexually insulted and murdered by Steve
48:37
Martin and about three other guys. The
48:40
responsible individuals then disposed of Felicia's
48:43
remains, but even though there were
48:45
supposedly at least seventeen people at this party
48:47
when all this took place, their
48:49
accounts were apparently not strong enough evidence
48:51
to lead to anyone's arrest. I
48:54
know it's been implied that all the witnesses
48:56
from the party who were not directly involved
48:58
in Felicia's murder have been too fearful to
49:00
go on the record, but it
49:03
is surprising to me that this many
49:05
people could stay silent for twenty years,
49:07
particularly since Steve, the alleged
49:09
mastermind behind this crime, wound
49:12
up going to prison and died by suicide.
49:16
One of the biggest red flags to
49:18
me is when rumors started circulating that
49:20
someone brought a video camera into the
49:22
bedroom to record a so-called snuff film
49:24
of Felicia's rape and murder. As you
49:27
know, urban legends about snuff films are a
49:29
relic from the 1970s and 80s, and considering
49:31
that Officer
49:33
Kelly stated that he's found no evidence to
49:36
indicate that a snuff film exists in this
49:38
case, I wouldn't be surprised
49:40
if certain stories about what happened to
49:42
Felicia have been exaggerated. Like
49:45
I've reiterated before, my biggest issue
49:47
with this whole party scenario is
49:49
that Kelly claims he has been told
49:51
that Felicia was seen leaving the party
49:53
with Steve and another unidentified male and
49:56
then disappeared a short time later. But
49:59
if Felicia was murdered, at the party and
50:01
then dismembered inside a nearby barn, how
50:04
could she have left with the guy who was suspected of
50:06
killing her? I can
50:08
understand the police staying tight-lipped about
50:10
certain aspects of the investigation, but
50:12
I sure would like to know the credibility
50:15
of the witnesses who claimed they saw Felicia
50:17
leave versus the credibility of
50:19
the witnesses who have told her mother
50:21
that Felicia was raped and murdered inside
50:23
the bedroom. The
50:25
story that Kelly has pushed forward is that
50:27
after Steve dropped off this other male, he
50:30
and Felicia drove off together and this was
50:32
the last time she was confirmed to be
50:34
alive. When Kelly
50:36
was asked if the second male was Ed
50:38
Rudosky, he replied that he could not confirm
50:41
or deny it, a statement
50:43
which can be interpreted in multiple ways. Does
50:46
Kelly just not want to publicly reveal the
50:48
identity of the second guy or
50:50
does he legitimately not know who it is? Since
50:53
Ed and Felicia live together in the same
50:56
residence, it technically wouldn't make much
50:58
sense for Steve to drop Ed off
51:00
and then go elsewhere with Felicia. But
51:03
theoretically, if the second male is not
51:05
Ed and police have interviewed him and
51:07
deemed him to be credible, then
51:09
there's no other conclusion that can
51:11
be reached other than Steve being
51:13
responsible for Felicia's disappearance. It
51:16
would be one thing if Steve had acknowledged
51:18
having seen Felicia that night, but his original
51:21
story is that he was at home sleeping
51:23
and if there are credible witnesses placing
51:25
him at other locations during that time
51:27
period, then that looks pretty damning.
51:30
Personally, Steve doing something to Felicia while
51:32
they were alone together after he dropped
51:34
this other guy off seems
51:36
more believable to me than her being
51:39
murdered at a party in the presence
51:41
of several witnesses. However,
51:44
even if Steve is the guilty party,
51:46
the big unanswered question is how Ed
51:48
figures into this whole situation because
51:50
even though police have never named him as a
51:53
suspect, there are definitely some troubling things
51:55
about his actions. The
51:57
story which has been pushed forward is that Ed
51:59
was left so intimidated by the people who
52:01
assaulted and killed Felicia that he walked away
52:04
from the party and left her to die.
52:07
So even if he was not directly
52:09
responsible for Felicia's death, Ed
52:11
would still have reason to lie to law enforcement.
52:14
Pauline has claimed that prior to her
52:17
disappearance, Felicia told her that Steve murdered
52:19
Jennifer Barzoloski and that she was going
52:21
to prove it, which is what
52:23
motivated Steve to kill her. Now,
52:26
if Felicia was afraid of Steve, that
52:28
it wouldn't make much sense for her to get into his
52:30
truck and go to a party with him, which
52:33
is why Pauline is certain that Ed was there
52:35
too, as she may have felt that her
52:37
boyfriend would be able to protect her. My
52:40
biggest issue with this whole theory is
52:42
that if Steve was paranoid that Felicia
52:44
was going to expose him for killing
52:46
Jennifer, then it seems
52:48
really counterproductive to enlist multiple
52:50
accomplices to help him murder Felicia and
52:53
then commit the crime at a party
52:55
in front of several witnesses. We
52:58
also have this odd situation where Pauline
53:00
has brought cadaver dogs to search the
53:02
property where this murder took place and
53:05
they've supposedly hit on some spots where
53:07
Felicia may have been dismembered. Yet
53:10
police have claimed that when they've brought
53:12
these same cadaver dogs to search the
53:14
same location, they've turned up nothing. Given
53:17
that Jennifer's skull was found less than
53:19
a mile away from there, I certainly
53:22
don't discount the possibility that one or
53:24
more murders took place in that property
53:26
at some point. I'm
53:28
also intrigued by the idea that Felicia and
53:31
Jennifer's remains may be in one of the
53:33
ponds in that area and Jennifer's skull washed
53:35
up and flowed to the spot where it
53:37
was found because of a heavy rainstorm or
53:40
something. Remember, this
53:42
spot was within a mile of Steve's own
53:44
residence, so even if Felicia was not actually
53:46
killed at this party, she may have been
53:48
murdered in the same general area. Look,
53:51
I certainly have no doubt that Steve
53:53
was responsible for what happened to Jennifer
53:56
and Felicia and there may be others
53:58
who were involved in Felicia's disappearance. or
54:00
at least no more than they're letting on. I'm
54:03
just a bit skeptical that the crime was
54:05
this brazen and took place in full view
54:07
of so many people. But
54:10
as weird as this may sound, I do hope
54:12
that Steve did not act alone because at least
54:14
that would mean the truth about what happened did
54:16
not die with him and there
54:18
are others out there who know something and
54:21
could help lead to the recovery of Felicia's
54:23
remains. Since the
54:25
20th anniversary of Felicia's disappearance is almost
54:27
upon us, I hope there
54:29
will be extra publicity surrounding this case and
54:32
perhaps it will compel someone to come
54:34
forward to the authorities with cold, hard
54:36
facts. So if
54:38
you happen to have any information about
54:41
the disappearance of Felicia Thomas or the
54:43
death of Jennifer Barzoloski, please
54:45
contact the Pennsylvania State Police at
54:47
570-697-2000 That's
54:50
570-697-2000. But if you just have your own thoughts about
54:52
what happened, feel free
54:59
to leave me a comment or
55:02
send me an email to robin.worder@icloud.com.
55:05
That's robin.worder@icloud.com.
55:08
We also wanted to remind everyone that
55:10
for the month of February, the trail
55:12
when coal will be teeming with a
55:14
non-profit organization called Season of Justice, which
55:16
raises money for the families of cold
55:18
case victims by helping spread awareness and
55:20
doing what they can to fund DNA
55:23
testing. If you would
55:25
like to make a donation to
55:27
Season of Justice, all the information
55:29
about them is listed in our
55:31
show notes and on our social
55:33
media pages, but you can donate
55:35
by visiting the link givebutter.com/soj underscore
55:37
the trail or texting
55:40
trail 24 to 53555. That's
55:42
givebutter.com/soj underscore the trail
55:49
or you can text trail 24
55:51
to 53555. Now
55:54
the reminder that the trail when coal
55:56
is on Patreon, so please visit patreon.com/the
55:58
trail. trail and cold to learn how
56:01
you can support our podcast and become
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the past six years, our Patreon page
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which are all currently available in our
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archives for our Patrons in tiers 2
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and 3. This
56:17
past month, I released an episode about
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a very memorable case from Unsolved Mysteries,
56:22
the disappearance of wanted fugitive
56:24
Randall Utterback, who has not been
56:26
seen since he broke out of jail nearly 30
56:28
years ago. I've also
56:30
dropped an exclusive bonus episode from my
56:32
spinoff podcast, The Path Win Chili, in
56:35
which myself and my two co-host, Jules
56:37
and Ashley, cover another memorable case from
56:39
Unsolved Mysteries, the 1984 murder
56:42
of Morris Davis. And
56:44
for our Patrons in tier 3, I
56:46
recorded another new audio commentary track which
56:48
can be played over a classic episode
56:51
of Unsolved Mysteries, and we now have
56:53
nearly 60 of these commentary tracks in
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our archives. I'd also
56:57
like to give a shout out
56:59
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S, Abigail B, Crystal, and
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for your support! I also wanted
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to remind everyone that The Trail Went
57:17
Cold has once again been booked to
57:19
appear on Podcast Row at CrimeCon UK
57:21
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September 21st and 22nd. If
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you would like to purchase tickets to
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this event, please visit their website, crimecon.co.uk,
57:35
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57:50
just wanted to give another shout out to my
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