Episode Transcript
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Hi. This is Amy Donaldson, host of
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the letter. I wanted to share something with
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you from one of my colleagues, Dave Cauley.
1:01
Dave is an investigative journalist who created
1:04
one of the most popular and thought provoking
1:06
true crime podcasts. Cold.
1:08
This season, he investigates the nineteen
1:10
eighty five disappearance of Sherry Warren,
1:13
a young mother who's trying to rebuild her life
1:15
in the wake of a bad marriage. Trie
1:18
had moved back in with her family, found a great
1:20
job, and was even spending time with
1:22
a new boyfriend. She seemed to be
1:24
genuinely happy for the first time
1:26
in a long time. But on
1:28
a mild October evening after work,
1:30
Sherry said goodbye to her coworkers, left
1:33
the office, and was never heard
1:35
from again. All
1:38
eyes quickly focused on her ex husband
1:40
who she was supposed to meet that night, hit
1:42
history of violence and had previously
1:44
lured another woman into the woods in beat her
1:47
with a tire iron. But
1:49
there was also another man who eventually picked
1:51
the interest of investigators, Sherry's
1:53
new boyfriend, He was a former reserve
1:56
police officer, a man who distributed
1:58
flyers asking for help finding her,
2:00
but who also had a lengthy, dark
2:02
history of sexual violence. Two
2:06
men who profess to care about who
2:08
said at different points that they loved
2:10
her became the prime suspects
2:12
in her disappearance. So why
2:15
hasn't her case been solved? Dave's
2:18
investigation doesn't just turn up evidence
2:20
about what might have happened to Sheree. It
2:22
also reveals how issues between police
2:24
departments could have contributed to the
2:27
case remaining unsolved for decades.
2:30
There is no one better at investigative journalism
2:32
than Dave Collie. But this podcast
2:35
isn't just concerned with what happened, but
2:37
why there has been no justice for Sheree
2:40
or her family. It's a heartbreaking
2:43
and maddening season of one of the best
2:45
True Crime Podcasts out there. I'm
2:48
about to play you a clip from Cold, the
2:50
search for Sherry. While you're listening,
2:52
take a minute to follow Cold wherever you
2:54
get your podcast. Then you'll never miss
2:56
an episode or an update. And for
2:58
you Prime members, you can binge all
3:01
ten episodes ad free on Amazon
3:03
Music. Just download the Amazon
3:05
music app today.
3:13
Rain drizzled over the canyon of the south
3:15
fork of the Ogden River. It patter
3:18
on the canvas top of Heidi Posnines' jeep.
3:20
As she drove up Utah State Highway thirty
3:22
nine on the morning of Friday June fourth
3:25
nineteen seventy one. She
3:27
was on her way to meet the strange man who had
3:29
for weeks been calling her demanding they
3:32
go on a date. I can't see
3:34
it, but I'm doing air quotes. She
3:37
turned right off the highway at entrance to the
3:39
Meadows Campground. Crossed a
3:41
short bridge over the river barely more
3:43
than creek really and stopped
3:45
next to a camper trailer on the far
3:47
side. A pair of sheriff's deputies
3:49
dressed as fishermen stepped out to greet her.
3:51
And I said, what should I do? And he
3:53
said, well, he just pull
3:55
across the street
3:57
and then leave the Jeep part
4:00
like the sideways. You know what I mean? As
4:02
Heidi's describing this to me decades later,
4:04
She's using her hands to show the positions
4:06
of her jeep in the trailer, how
4:08
the deputies told her to park next to them,
4:11
but to reverse out after the collar arrived
4:13
and passed by her position to block
4:15
him from getting back across the bridge to
4:17
the
4:17
road. She
4:20
was the cheese on the mousetrap. Lizette,
4:23
make sure when he comes up, identify,
4:26
make sure that he's the right person.
4:30
Two miles down the can, back in
4:32
the direction of Huntsville, her husband
4:34
John Posnine waited at another
4:36
campground called Magpie. The
4:39
Sheree was with him, along with the deputy
4:41
Albert Bailey. They all watched the
4:43
highway as the clock ticked toward
4:45
the time for Heidi's date to arrive.
4:48
A little after ten AM, a red
4:50
and white half ton pickup truck past
4:52
magpipe going up the canyon toward meadows.
4:56
John Posney saw a logo printed
4:58
on the truck's door and a dummy he
5:00
was driving his debts business
5:02
truck and said Hartman
5:05
Plumbing. And when they drove past
5:07
Magpie, John Seth, he immediately
5:09
knew who it was Hartman Plumbing
5:11
and Heating belonged to a man named Bill
5:13
Hartman. John Newbill.
5:16
They had golfed together at the Oregon golfing
5:18
country club. Bill was also
5:20
a fellow member of The Weber Club.
5:23
The caller had told Heidi he'd seen her at
5:25
The Weber Club. It clicked
5:27
for John he recognized the
5:29
man at the wheel of the pickup as Bill
5:32
Hartman's oldest son, Carrie
5:34
Hartman. The Sheree tried
5:36
to radio the two undercover deputies who were
5:38
with Heidi at Meadows to let them know the collar
5:41
would soon reach them. But the radio
5:43
didn't work in the narrow canyon. Heidi
5:46
had no idea who the young man
5:48
in the pickup truck was when he turned
5:51
off the
5:51
highway, drove across the bridge,
5:54
and stopped next to her jeep.
5:56
No. Because I never paid any attention
5:58
to him before. I didn't notice him before.
6:00
The young man rolled down his window.
6:03
Heidi saw he had brown hair, green
6:05
eyes, and appeared clean-cut like
6:07
a cop or military man. Kind
6:10
of forgettable.
6:11
He said, hi. I can't remember exactly.
6:13
And and then I said, why would you
6:16
pick on an old lady like
6:17
me? Then he made some remark that I
6:19
was six year, pretty year, something,
6:21
you know.
6:21
You're not an old lady at this point though.
6:23
No. Gosh. No. But
6:26
I was way older than he was. I
6:28
already had
6:29
kids, you know, teenagers. So,
6:31
yeah, I was an old lady. Carrie
6:35
Hartman was twenty two to Heidi's thirty
6:37
KSL. And he kept looking at that trailer
6:39
and was getting a little nervous. And
6:42
he said, I'm gonna just
6:44
pull up there. Why don't you follow me up there?
6:47
By up there, Carrie meant farther into the campground
6:50
behind a line of trees out of sight of the
6:52
road. He drove past her up
6:54
around bend, Heidi put
6:56
her jeep in reverse pulled out and blocked the
6:58
narrow road just as the deputies had
7:00
instructed. She then leapt from the
7:02
jeep and rushed into the safety of their trailer.
7:05
The deputies told her to stay put,
7:07
then went to stand next to the Jeep.
7:10
Heidi poured herself cup of coffee
7:12
with shaking hands, listened
7:15
for the sound of the pickup. It had
7:17
returned after a few minutes. Heidi
7:20
peeked out the window as the deputies pulled
7:22
carry out of the truck and placed him under arrest.
7:25
They frisked him, finding a small knife
7:27
in his pocket. Then they tried to
7:29
call their backup down at the Magpie camp ground
7:32
only to discover their radios didn't work in
7:34
the canyon
7:35
either. So the deputies
7:37
piled into Carrie's truck and drove it
7:39
and him down the canyon to meet
7:41
with the sheriff. I stayed while because
7:44
I was all
7:46
nervous. I kids. Whatever
7:48
you I'd had my coffee and then I got Najib
7:50
and I drove down and they were already gone. So
7:53
Only later did Heidi learn from her
7:55
husband, John, what had happened? When Carrie
7:57
had arrived in handcuffs at
7:59
Magpie. John, she told
8:01
me, had turned to the sheriff. He
8:03
says, boy, she would like to smack him in
8:05
the mouth, and he says, well, we looked the other way.
8:08
So they they had him already out
8:10
and tried touched him.
8:13
And he he was embarrassed. He looked down and he
8:15
says, I wish he had a gun and shoot me,
8:18
really? Yeah.
8:19
He said that because he was embarrassed. He
8:21
was ashamed. John Poss
8:23
needing had punched Carrie Hartman in the face,
8:26
while the Sheree and his deputies looked
8:28
the other way. Needless to
8:30
say, this wasn't legal. The
8:32
deputies had then taken Carrie to the Weber County
8:35
jail in Ogden where they'd booked him on suspicion
8:37
of making threatening phone calls. A
8:39
minor, misdemeanor charge,
8:42
that didn't quite match the gravity of
8:44
the whole situation. Carrie
8:46
provided handwritten statement admitting to what
8:48
had happened, I called the lady and
8:50
said, would you meet me at a time and place?
8:53
If not, some harm would come to your husband's
8:55
car and possibly him. That's
8:58
not Carrie's voice, but they are his
9:00
words read by a voice actor.
9:02
Even today, Heidi downplays
9:05
the seriousness of what happened, or
9:07
because he really hadn't done anything other
9:09
than met me. But
9:11
I'm here to tell you, there was something much
9:14
more ominous behind those phone calls.
9:16
Something that makes Heidi's mouth go dry
9:18
and her hands fidget when she really stops
9:20
to think about it. This
9:23
season isn't about Heidi Posnering. As
9:25
I said earlier, it's about the disappearance of
9:27
Sherry Warren, but there's a
9:29
reason we're starting with Heidi
9:31
instead of Sherry. It's because
9:33
Carrie Hartman, the man who tried
9:35
to lure Heidi up that canyon, would
9:38
years later meet a friend
9:41
and woo Sheree Warren.
9:51
Our story begins with a phone call.
9:53
Voice on the phone said I was sexy.
9:55
He had made literally thousands of those types
9:57
calls. He follows the women, gets
10:00
to know them, and then then
10:02
Don't report your body as I found it.
10:04
Everything. There are a lot of missing girls.
10:07
Escalates.
10:08
She was beaten, stabbed until the knife
10:10
broke, and then shot twice in the head.
10:13
Sherry Warren disappeared in the fall of nineteen
10:15
eighty five. Her
10:16
friends and families say she's not the type to just
10:18
run away. Sheree wouldn't leave her child.
10:20
No one can say just what happened to
10:22
Sheree. No one's faced charges for
10:24
her disappearance. Not her ex
10:26
husband, Chuck Warren, money
10:28
was a big issue. Chuck,
10:30
who told her If I can't have you nobody's
10:32
going to. I'm
10:33
not Sheree he's boyfriend, Carrie Hartman.
10:35
I remember
10:36
her scene. Be careful with him. Yeah. Too
10:38
disposition. Doctor Jackal, mister
10:40
Hyde, he could be the nicest guy you ever wanted
10:42
me, but he also had that
10:44
sinister side. Hey,
10:47
Prime members. You can binge all
10:49
ten episodes of cold, the search for
10:52
Sheree, ad free on Amazon Music.
10:54
Download the Amazon Music app today.
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