Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

On a narrow stretch of School Road in Austin County, Texas, a small turquoise-and-white trailer sat in the middle of the Raccoon Bend oil field, just miles from the Brazos River. It belonged to 86-year-old Will Stetenpohl — a quiet widower known to everyone simply as “Mr. Will.” He lived simply, kept cash in his pockets instead of banks, left his doors unlocked, and trusted the people around him.

Almost every day, Mr. Will’s daughter Bernice Schiller and her husband Aldon brought him lunch, washed his dishes, and made sure he ate something better than the canned food he preferred. Often, their neighbor Ray Treat Paine — a fellow cattleman and close friend of more than 40 years — would stop by too. On Thursday morning, November 14, 1996, all four of them were inside that small trailer, doing what they always did. By early afternoon, they would all be dead.

When Bernice and Aldon failed to arrive for a doctor’s appointment in Conroe that afternoon, their daughter Sandra grew worried. Calls were made. Family members drove past the trailer and saw the Schillers’ pickup still parked outside. Something wasn’t right. Wendy Lamp, Bernice’s other daughter, called the sheriff’s office for a welfare check — but deputies couldn’t even find the trailer on the winding oil-field back roads. As daylight faded, Wendy sent her husband and brother to look for them themselves.

What they found inside the darkened trailer was beyond anything Austin County had ever seen. In the tiny back bedroom, the bodies of Will Stetenpohl, Bernice Schiller, Aldon Schiller, and Ray Paine were piled on top of each other, soaked in blood, shot at close range with a shotgun.

Why did someone slaughter an old man, his daughter, his son-in-law, and his best friend in the middle of the day… in a place where nothing like that had ever happened before?

If you have any information about the murders of Will Stetenpohl, Bernice and Aldon Schiller, and Ray Paine, contact the Austin County Sheriff’s Office at (979) 865-3111.

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In August 2004, 21-year-old Katara Deboise Johnson finished her shift as an assistant manager at Taco Bell in Taylor, Texas, and drove home to her mobile home on North Dolan Street. By the following evening, her grandmother would discover her shot to death inside her bedroom.

Her car was missing. Her cell phone was gone. Hours after her death, someone answered her phone and claimed to be Katara before laughter echoed in the background and the call disconnected.

Her maroon Mitsubishi Lancer was later found abandoned at the Thorndale Community Pool in neighboring Milam County, miles from her home. No weapon was recovered. No signs of forced entry were reported. More than 50 people were interviewed. Polygraphs were administered. The Texas Rangers and Department of Public Safety assisted. Still, no arrests have been made.

In the months that followed, frustration grew. Family members publicly questioned whether enough resources were being devoted to the case. The NAACP launched its own inquiry. Katara’s sister Kenyatta revealed she had been questioned as a possible suspect, something she strongly denied. Police have never publicly named a suspect.

Years passed. Her mother died in 2012 without answers. In 2019, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office took over the investigation. Authorities now believe more than one person may know what happened that night, particularly how Katara’s car ended up in Thorndale.

If you have any information about the murder of Katara Debois Johnson, please contact Texas Crime Stoppers at (800) 346-3243.

You can support Gone Cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast 

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com

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In the final installment of the Amber Hagerman series: the Amber Hagerman Taskforce disbands. Detective Jim Ford and Sgt. Mark Simpson follow leads out of state, one that has a connection to Berlin, Germany. Amber’s mother Donna Whitson, Brother Ricky. And Father Richard Hagerman struggle to come to terms with the 9-year-old’s senseless and violent death. The legacy left after the tragic death of another little girl, 7-year-old Athen Strand, adds strength to the Amber Alert system in Texas. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD (no spaces) first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477 

If your child is struggling with the loss of a loved one and you’re in North Texas, The WARM Place provides a safe, compassionate space for grieving children and their families. Go to thewarmplace.org for more information. 

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast  
Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

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The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode.
 
#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   

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In 1999, another abduction rocked North Texas when 6-year-old Opal Jo Jennings was snatched in broad daylight as she played with other children in a field next to her house. The similarities were striking, and police in Arlington thought they had their man. In 2007, in Tacoma Washington, a twisted child rapist was exposed when he murdered one of his victims, and his ties to Fort Worth, Texas put him on the persons of interest list in the Amber Hagerman case. The following year, police in Dickinson, Texas renew an investigation from 1990 in which the victim, left for dead, survived. In 2009, her would-be killer was identified and arrested. It’s unclear if this suspect was ever investigated for the 1996 murder of 9-year-old Amber Rene Hagerman, or if the survivor’s case was even compared at all. Part 6 of 7. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD (no spaces) first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477 

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You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast  

Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com  

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode. 

#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   

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The Amber Hagerman Taskforce searched far and wide for suspects. Whether a perpetrator was known, like a Fort Lauderdale, Florida child rapist and killer, or was yet to be apprehended, such as the monster responsible for raping and killing a 12-year-old girl in a Houston suburb, there was certainly no shortage of suspects to scrutinize. Even an obsessive tipster came on the Taskforce’s radar. But police investigating the January 13th abduction and subsequent murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman couldn’t catch a break that led to an arrest, or enough proof that actually made them believe they’d identified their guy. At least in the three cases discussed in this episode. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD (no spaces) first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at (817)469-8477

Get your GIRL SCOUT COOKIES here: https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/alice241168

You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast 
 
Find us at https://www.gonecold.com  

For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com  

Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and court appeal documents were used as sources for this episode. 

#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberAlert #AmberHagerman #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder   

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