ClueTrail
Uncovering forgotten cases, chilling mysteries, and overlooked truths from around the world. From hidden histories to modern investigations and unsettling disappearances, each episode follows the clues...wherever they lead.
Episodes
Halloween Special: The Pendle Witch Trials and the Flannan Isles Mystery
Send us a textTwo mysteries, one restless question: how far will fear carry a story? We mark Halloween by walking two grim paths, through the Pendle witch trials of 1612 and out to the storm-beaten Flannan Isles, where three lighthouse keep…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Dancing Plague of 1518
Send us a textA city built on stone and certainty watched its streets turn into a stage. In the hot summer of 1518, a woman in Strasbourg began to dance, mechanical, relentless, and impossible to stop, and within weeks hundreds followed, th…
The Villisca Axe Murders
Send us a textIn June 1912, the small town of Villisca, Iowa, awoke to a nightmare. Eight people, including six children, were found brutally murdered inside a quiet white house on East 2nd Street. The doors were locked, mirrors were cover…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Exploding Toads of Hamburg
Send us a textA peaceful pond, a morning walk, and a horror scene no one expected: toads swelling, twitching, and then bursting along the water’s edge. We follow the 2005 Hamburg mystery from sensational headlines to a grounded, unsettling …
The Vanishing of Elodia Ghinescu
Send us a textA brilliant lawyer vanishes in Brasov, and suddenly an entire country is asked to decide what justice looks like without a body. We follow the case of Elodia Marilena Ghinescu from the final hours of routine calls to the first…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste
Send us a textSome mysteries don't just perplex us, they haunt us across centuries. The Mary Celeste stands as perhaps the most infamous ghost ship in maritime history, her empty decks still whispering questions that have no answers.When th…
The Pink Panthers: Balkans to Billions
Send us a textThe Pink Panthers emerged not from Hollywood, but from the ashes of war-torn Balkans in the 1990s. Young men who once fought in brutal conflicts found themselves in collapsed economies with few legitimate opportunities but wit…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Giraffe That Walked to Paris
Send us a textLong before viral internet sensations, one extraordinary animal captured the hearts and imaginations of an entire nation. When Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, sought to strengthen diplomatic ties with Europe in th…
Joël Le Scouarnec: A Hidden Life Exposed
Send us a textBehind the white coat of respectability lurked one of Europe's most prolific predators. The ClueTrail podcast dives deep into the harrowing case of Joël Le Scouarnec, a French surgeon whose decades of abuse remained hidden unt…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Cadaver Synod
Send us a textEver wondered what happens when political vengeance goes beyond the grave? The Cadaver Synod of 897 stands as perhaps the most macabre judicial proceeding in religious history; a dead pope put on trial by his living successor…
The Tragic Case of Elizabeth Struhs
Send us a textThis week’s release is a reworked edition of our Elizabeth Struhs episode.How far would you go for your beliefs? Would you risk your child's life? That's the heartbreaking question at the core of Elizabeth Struhs story, an 8-y…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Man Who Mailed Himself Home
Send us a textHave you ever felt so desperate to get home that you'd try anything? Probably not as desperate as Reg Spiers, the Australian javelin thrower who, in 1964, packed himself into a wooden crate and mailed himself from London to Au…
Beasts of Satan: Italy’s Cult Murders
Send us a textThe Beasts of Satan emerged from Milan's late 1990s heavy metal scene as something far more sinister than rebellious teenagers. What began with music, black clothing, and typical adolescent rebellion evolved into ritualistic m…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Great London Beer Flood
Send us a textA tidal wave of beer that destroyed homes and claimed lives sounds like a pub joke gone wrong, but for the residents of St. Giles in 1814 London, it was a devastating reality. The London Beer Flood stands as one of history's m…
Catalin Ciolpan: Killer on the Roads
Send us a textThe highways of post-communist Romania held a deadly secret. For years, a predator lurked along rural roads, targeting women who were simply trying to get from one place to another. They called him "The Husi Monster" - a namel…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Vanishing of John and Giannina
Send us a textTwo bright children vanish without a trace on their way to a Puerto Rican beach, leaving behind bedrooms that would remain untouched for nearly 50 years. This is the haunting mystery of John and Janina Colonna.Someone, somewhe…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Exploding Whale of Oregon
Send us a textEver wondered what happens when well-meaning bureaucrats tackle an eight-ton problem with half a ton of dynamite? Welcome to the legendary tale of Florence, Oregon's exploding whale disaster.November 9, 1970 started like any o…
The Leongatha Mushroom Murders: Erin Patterson Case
Send us a textA family lunch ends in tragedy when a homemade beef wellington serves up more than just a gourmet meal. Three dead, one critically ill, and a small Australian town left reeling in shock.Dive deep into the case of Erin Patterso…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Devil's Footprints
Send us a textSomething walked across Devon, England on a snowy February night in 1855, leaving behind a mystery that has endured for over 165 years. The Devil's Footprints, as they came to be known, weren't ordinary animal tracks – they fo…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Bizarre Life of Monsieur Mangetout
Send us a textYou might think you've heard every strange human feat possible, but the story of Michel Lotito will make you question everything you thought you knew about the human body's limitations. This isn't just about a man with an unus…
Rodney Alcala: The Dating Game Killer
Send us a textThe camera flash was just a distraction. Behind the lens stood one of America's most prolific serial killers - Rodney Alcala, a man whose charm and seemingly legitimate profession as a photographer allowed him to approach wome…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Haunting of Kitty Jay
Send us a textThe mist-shrouded moors of Dartmoor harbor countless secrets, but few as poignant as the lonely grave at a windswept crossroads. Here lies Kitty Jay, a young woman whose tragic story bridges centuries and continues to haunt th…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Kentucky Meat Shower
Send us a textHave you ever experienced something so bizarre that it defies all explanation? The Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876 might top your list of strange phenomena after you hear this tale.On a perfectly clear March day in Olympia Spring…
Patreon Bonus Unlocked: Erasing Minds - The Horror of Pitești Prison
Send us a textSome prisons break bodies—Pitești Prison was designed to break souls. In communist Romania's shadowy post-war years, a horrifying experiment unfolded behind thick walls that would push human psychology beyond recognition.The P…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Ghost in the Courtroom
Send us a textA mother's desperate prayer for answers leads to one of the most extraordinary criminal cases in American history. When young Zona Heaster Shue was found dead at the bottom of her staircase in rural West Virginia in 1897, her …
Into the Dark: The Thai Cave Rescue
Send us a textDarkness. Floodwaters. A mountain closing in around them. When twelve young Thai soccer players and their coach entered Tham Luang Cave after practice, none imagined they would spend the next eighteen days trapped in its depth…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Mummified Outlaw
Send us a textDeath isn't always the end of one's journey, as proven by the bizarre tale of Elmer McCurdy. After being killed in a 1911 shootout following a failed train robbery in Oklahoma, this unremarkable outlaw embarked on an extraordi…
The Kurim Case: Abuse, Identity Lies and Cult Influence
Send us a textA baby monitor test becomes the thread that unravels one of the most disturbing cases in modern Czech history. When Edward Trdy's new device accidentally intercepts video showing a confined, distressed child, he alerts authori…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Great Emu War
Send us a textEver wondered what happens when a modern military faces off against birds? The Great Emu War of 1932 stands as one of history's most bizarre military campaigns, where Australia's government deployed soldiers with machine guns …
Poison in the Valley: The Haunting Legacy of Ceely Rose
Send us a textThe quietest murderer in Ohio history wasn't a mastermind, but a misunderstood mind. Born in 1873, Ceely Rose struggled with cognitive limitations that modern medicine would recognise as a developmental disability. When she fi…
Trail Off Tuesdays: The Man Who Turned Blue
Send us a textEver wondered what would happen if your skin turned permanently blue? Meet Paul Karason, an ordinary redheaded man whose quest for better health led to one of the strangest medical transformations documented in recent history.…
Robert Hanssen: The FBI's Greatest Betrayal
Send us a textA trusted FBI agent who sold America's greatest secrets for over two decades. Robert Hanssen's story represents the ultimate betrayal from within, a tale so astonishing it challenges our understanding of loyalty and deception.…
19 Years of Silence: What Happened to Jennifer Kesse?
Send us a textJennifer Kesse was everything you'd expect from a successful 24-year-old: college graduate, financial manager with multiple promotions, homeowner, and surrounded by loving family and friends. Then, on January 24, 2006, she sim…
Justice From Beneath the Carpet: The Murder of Betty Ketani
Send us a textSome mysteries begin with the smallest clues. For Betty Ketani, justice started with a few sheets of paper hidden beneath a carpet tile.Betty was more than just a missing person statistic. A devoted mother of three, she left h…
Natascha Kampusch: A Story of Survival
Send us a textAt just 10 years old, Natascha Kampusch vanished on her way to school in Vienna. For eight years, the world searched above ground—while she remained hidden below it, locked in a cellar by her captor. This is the story of her s…
Rose Veres: Death in the Boarding House
Send us a textIn 1930s Detroit, men checked into Rose Veres boarding house, and never left. Branded “The Witch of Delray” by the press, she was accused of multiple murders. But was she a killer… or a scapegoat?Uncover the truth behind fear,…
The Angel Maker: How Amelia Dyer Turned Desperation into Death
Send us a textA brown paper parcel floating in the Thames revealed what would become one of Victorian England's most horrifying murder cases. For nearly thirty years, Amelia Dyer had been killing babies for profit in a practice known as "ba…
Mary Ann Cotton: Britain's First Female Serial Killer
Send us a textCoal dust, poverty, and a woman with a deadly secret. The story of Mary Ann Cotton unfolds against the harsh backdrop of Victorian England's industrial northeast, where her murderous path claimed as many as 21 victims over dec…