The Trail Went Cold - Episode 344 - Jim Rice and Mark Groezinger

July 20, 1986. Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. 66-year old Jim Rice phones his daughter to let her know that he will be traveling to California to undergo shoulder surgery the following week, but he never arrives and no one ever hears from him again. Jim’s common-law wife, Astarte Davis-Rice, initially claims that he took off to Australia with another woman, but evidence soon emerges that Astarte has committed fraud to seize control of Jim’s estate. Astarte eventually winds up serving prison time for these offenses, but while the authorities suspect that she killed Jim and disposed of his body, there is not enough evidence to file murder charges and no trace of him is ever found.

April 7, 1984. Golden, Colorado. The body of 29-year old Mark Groezinger is found inside his parked car on Lookout Mountain and he has been shot several times with a .38-caliber weapon. Mark’s wife, Judy Groezinger, comes under suspicion once investigators discover that she purchased a .38 in the days prior to the murder and stands to benefit from a substantial life insurance policy on her husband. Even though there are a number of discrepancies in Judy’s story and circumstantial evidence pointing to the involvement of multiple conspirators in a murder-for-hire plot, no one is ever charged with killing Mark.

On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore two cold cases featured on “Unsolved Mysteries” in which a male victim was suspected of being murdered by his spouse.

Additional Reading:

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Jim_Rice

https://www.newspapers.com/image/271995772/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/268114772/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/895925589/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/736959308/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/738811599/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/311363305/

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/43/41/552777/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/457368620/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/575843469/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-oct-05-me-woman5-story.html

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-canb-4_06-ap-04113/pdf/USCOURTS-canb-4_06-ap-04113-0.pdf

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Mark_Groezinger

https://unsolved.com/gallery/mark-groezinger/

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“The Trail Went Cold” is doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.

“The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon” at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida on September 22-24, 2023. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to the event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD23”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.com.

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.