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No Trace: The Disappearances of Pamela and Michael Mayfield · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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  Speaker 1: The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
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  Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised. In nineteen eighty five, Houston Police
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  Speaker 2: reported that at any given time, one hundred thirty to
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  Speaker 2: one hundred forty active missing persons cases were on the books.
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  Speaker 2: The department received about five thousand missing persons reports a
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  Speaker 2: year involving children under the age of seventeen, Houston Police
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  Speaker 2: Sergeant Steve Gregg said, with about ninety five percent of
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  Speaker 2: those solved. Several factors determine whether police take an immediate
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  Speaker 2: or serious interest in the disappearances. Sergeant Gregg reported, when
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  Speaker 2: the child is nine or younger, he said, the department
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  Speaker 2: generally responds immediately. Kids above that age get quote next
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  Speaker 2: working day treatment. Other factors slow down police urgency, too,
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  Speaker 2: such as if an older juvenile had as a history
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  Speaker 2: of running away, A child who never disappeared before, Sergeant
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  Speaker 2: Gregg said, would get priority. In nineteen eighty five, almost
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  Speaker 2: twenty thousand juveniles were reported missing in the state of Texas, and,
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  Speaker 2: like in the case of Houston, ninety five percent of
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  Speaker 2: those were solved, most often the result of running away
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  Speaker 2: from home or family abduction. Nationwide, experts that year estimated
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  Speaker 2: that only around two hundred children went missing due to
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  Speaker 2: a stranger abduction, Though a child disappearing at the hands
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  Speaker 2: of a predator was and is among parents' greatest fears.
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  Speaker 2: Beyond the extremely low likelihood of such an abduction, high
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  Speaker 2: profile cases such as the disappearance and murder of Adam
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  Speaker 2: Walsh in Florida fed mother's and father's paranoia all over
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  Speaker 2: the United States and the world. Police in Houston and
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  Speaker 2: the Galveston Bay areas commented that children kidnapped by strangers
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  Speaker 2: was a rare thing, but they treated every case with
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  Speaker 2: that possibility in mind, though they went on to jokingly
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  Speaker 2: speak of kids avoiding parents because of things like report cards.
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  Speaker 2: In the very next breath, whatever the reason a child disappears,
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  Speaker 2: even if the child ran away, the likelihood of that
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  Speaker 2: child being a victim of violence, usually sexual violence, increases exponentially.
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  Speaker 2: There is little doubt that the nineteen eighty five disappearances
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  Speaker 2: of siblings Michael and Pamela Mayfield where the result of
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  Speaker 2: foul play, and the events and circumstances surrounding their cases
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  Speaker 2: only confused the investigation further. The made for television film
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  Speaker 2: Adam was based on the true story of the nineteen
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  Speaker 2: eighty one abduction and murder of six year old Adam Walsh.
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  Speaker 2: Though Adam's head was found weeks after he disappeared in
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  Speaker 2: a drainage ditch, the rest of the body was never found.
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  Speaker 2: Audis Toole later confessed to Adam's murder and recanted and
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  Speaker 2: confessed again, although many don't believe the confession to this day.
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  Speaker 2: The case was officially closed in two thousand and eight.
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  Speaker 2: The Hollywood, Florida Police Department, along with Adam's father, John Walsh,
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  Speaker 2: confident that Tool was responsible. The television movie Adam originally
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  Speaker 2: aired on October tenth, nineteen eighty three, on NBC and
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  Speaker 2: received an audience of about thirty eight million viewers. The
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  Speaker 2: high viewership was significant as following the broadcast, a series
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  Speaker 2: of photographs and descriptions of missing children were shown alongside
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  Speaker 2: a telephone number for viewers to call should they have
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  Speaker 2: any information about them, and it worked. Following the original broadcast,
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  Speaker 2: thirteen out of the fifty five children featured were found
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  Speaker 2: as the result of tips called into the hotline. Among
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  Speaker 2: those children, interestingly was future hip hop artist and star
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  Speaker 2: Busy Bone of Cleveland, Ohio's Bone Thugs and harmony. In
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  Speaker 2: April of the next year, nineteen eighty four, the movie
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  Speaker 2: Adam was rebroadcast. Missing kids photos and descriptions were again
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  Speaker 2: featured at the end of the program, and this time
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  Speaker 2: nineteen of the fifty one featured children were found. After
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  Speaker 2: only two days of the film's third broadcast in April
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  Speaker 2: of nineteen eighty five, the hotline had received over thirty
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  Speaker 2: five hundred tips, though a final number is a li elusive.
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  Speaker 2: Five of the fifty four children featured on that rebroadcast
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  Speaker 2: or found in those two following days, including nine year
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  Speaker 2: old Theresa MacDonald of Fresno, California, who'd been missing nearly
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  Speaker 2: two years. She'd been abducted by her mother and was
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  Speaker 2: found in Detton, Texas. A sequel to Adam aired on
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  Speaker 2: September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty six, titled Adam His Song Continues.
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  Speaker 2: The second film concentrated mostly on the Walsh's advocacy concerning
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  Speaker 2: missing children, legislation, and their formation of groups to help
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  Speaker 2: combat the issue. Much of the movie was filmed in Houston, Texas,
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  Speaker 2: the home of two missing children who'd been featured at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the third broadcast of Adam, brother and sister,
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  Speaker 2: Michael and Pamela Mayfield. On Thursday, January tenth, nineteen eighty five,
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  Speaker 2: six year old Michael and his sister, five year old Pamela,
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  Speaker 2: or last seen as they walked toward their home from
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  Speaker 2: Betsy Ross Elementary School. The school is in northeast Houston
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  Speaker 2: on the twenty nine hundred block of Bay Street at
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  Speaker 2: the East tex Freeway. At an apartment complex near where
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  Speaker 2: Pamela and Michael lived with their family, eyewitnesses saw the
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  Speaker 2: young siblings playing together and witnessed them entering a green
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  Speaker 2: vehicle with an unidentified man. It was the last time
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  Speaker 2: they were ever seen again. Virtually no other information about
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  Speaker 2: what happened to them exists. Little has been publicized about
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  Speaker 2: the siblings themselves at all. Michael Ray Mayfield was born
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  Speaker 2: on June sixth, nineteen seventy nine, in Harris County, Texas.
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  Speaker 2: At the time of his disappearance, it is reported that
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  Speaker 2: Michael had a speech impediment a stutter. He had a
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  Speaker 2: burned scar on his right wrist. Michael stood three feet
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  Speaker 2: two and weighed seventy five pounds. His hair was black
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  Speaker 2: and his eyes were brown. He was attending kindergarten at
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  Speaker 2: Betsy Ross Elementary School for the second time. It was
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  Speaker 2: suggested that he'd started the first time too young. Pamela,
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  Speaker 2: who weighed fifty pounds and stood two feet nine inches tall,
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  Speaker 2: also attended kindergarten there. She was also born in Harris County,
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  Speaker 2: her hair black and her eyes brown. Pamela's ears were pierced.
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  Speaker 2: She and Michael's parents, Cynthia and Michael Gant, were separated
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  Speaker 2: but not divorced, and the children most often resided with
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  Speaker 2: their maternal grandmother in northeast Houston on de chom Street,
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  Speaker 2: about a mile from Betsy Ross Elementary. Michael and Pamela
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  Speaker 2: were given their mother's maiden name, since she and their
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  Speaker 2: father weren't married at the time of their births. Lily Mayfield,
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  Speaker 2: their grandmother, primarily raised the children, though they did see
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  Speaker 2: their parents. Pamela and Michael visited their mother, Cynthia and
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  Speaker 2: her boyfriend Bernard March at their home, as well as
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  Speaker 2: their father, Michael and his girlfriend Charonda Martin, on a
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  Speaker 2: semi regular basis. After their disappearance, investigators began to look
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  Speaker 2: at family members for involvement. At first, Houston Police officer
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  Speaker 2: Gary Montgomery said that they believe a relative or family
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  Speaker 2: friend to be involved since the children were seen wilfully
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  Speaker 2: entering a vehicle and not forced. Officer Montgomery also commented
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  Speaker 2: that both Michael and Pamela were well cared for, with
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  Speaker 2: both their mother and father's side of the family providing
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  Speaker 2: them with plenty of attention. There were no signs of
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  Speaker 2: abuse at all, he said. After checking out the backgrounds
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  Speaker 2: of relevant members of both sides of Pamela and Michael's family,
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  Speaker 2: Officer Montgomery said that nothing at all came came up.
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  Speaker 2: No motives or prior criminal records were found that indicated
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  Speaker 2: anyone was capable of abducting and hurting the children. After
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  Speaker 2: speaking with the families himself, Officer Montgomery remarked that the
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  Speaker 2: children knew not to go with a stranger, which only
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  Speaker 2: strengthened his theory that Michael and Pamela went with someone
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  Speaker 2: they trusted, but after his time, with an investigation into
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  Speaker 2: the family, police all but eliminated their involvement. The Houston
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  Speaker 2: Police were treating it as a non family abduction, though
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  Speaker 2: they did believe that the perpetrator was introduced to the
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  Speaker 2: children through a relative, someone who had previous contact with
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  Speaker 2: six year old Michael and five year old Pamela, whether
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  Speaker 2: prolonged or brief. Officer Montgomery said he didn't think the
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  Speaker 2: abduction was a sex crime, though he did not expound
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  Speaker 2: upon how he'd drawn such a conclusion. The department had
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  Speaker 2: several leads, Officer Montgomery told the press, but they were
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  Speaker 2: all coming up as dead ends. Michael and Pamela's case
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  Speaker 2: information was entered into the FBI's National Crime computer. Lily Mayfield,
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  Speaker 2: the children's grandmother, who primarily cared for them, suffered a
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  Speaker 2: heart attack within days of their disappearance. Pamela and Michael's
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  Speaker 2: disappearance didn't go unnoticed in the press, though the fact
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  Speaker 2: that there were no recent photographs of the children hindered
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  Speaker 2: efforts to make their faces readily recognizable to the public
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  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty five, after all, cameras weren't extensions of
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  Speaker 2: our bodies like they are today, and taking photographs required
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  Speaker 2: much more effort and at least some forethought. Their cases, However,
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  Speaker 2: even with the lack of information, were considered by some
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  Speaker 2: to be Houston's most publicized ongoing case of child abduction
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  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty five. Their descriptions and images were featured
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  Speaker 2: in the closing of the made for television movie Adam
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  Speaker 2: in April of that year, and the most recent photos
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  Speaker 2: of each were displayed on national media. The photographs of
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  Speaker 2: a four year old Michael and three year old Pamela
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  Speaker 2: were quite old still, they were featured on milk cartons,
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  Speaker 2: a program that had begun nationwide just months before. In
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  Speaker 2: late nineteen eighty four, the National Child's Safety Council enacted
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  Speaker 2: the Missing Children Milk Carton program, which placed photos and
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  Speaker 2: descriptions of missing kids on the back side of milk cartons.
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  Speaker 2: Within a few months of the campaign beginning, almost half
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  Speaker 2: the United States dairies were participating in the program, which
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  Speaker 2: ran through the mid nineties. These strategies drummed up leads
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  Speaker 2: in the cases of Michael and Pamela Mayfield. Hundreds of
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  Speaker 2: tips and sightings came in from all over the country,
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  Speaker 2: though none were deemed valid. None that is, except for one.
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  Speaker 2: After being featured on national media, a television movie and
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  Speaker 2: a milk carton campaign, leads as to the whereabouts or
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  Speaker 2: fate of six year old Michael Mayfield and five year
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  Speaker 2: old Pamela Mayfield began pouring in Houston. Police investigators reported
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  Speaker 2: to have followed up on each of the hundreds of tips,
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  Speaker 2: but only one was considered worthy of deep scrutiny, they said.
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  Speaker 2: On May twelfth, nineteen eighty five, after Pamela and Michael
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  Speaker 2: had been missing four months, a dispatcher for the Houston
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  Speaker 2: Police Department received a call. The dispatcher described the man's
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  Speaker 2: voice as sounding like quote. An elderly black man told
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  Speaker 2: the police dispatcher that the children in the quote so
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  Speaker 2: called kidnapping were alive and well, living with their paternal
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  Speaker 2: grandmother in Los Angeles, California. When asked how the caller
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  Speaker 2: knew this information, the dispatcher said he replied, simply, I
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  Speaker 2: know and hung up. The caller never gave a name.
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  Speaker 2: The call was a welcome relief to the Houston police.
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  Speaker 2: It seemed like the most viable call they'd gotten, since
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  Speaker 2: both the children's mother and father's sides of the family
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  Speaker 2: had relatives in the Los Angeles area. The department enlisted
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  Speaker 2: the help of the FBI, who wasted little time checking
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  Speaker 2: out the lead, but they determined that all the children's
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  Speaker 2: relatives there on both the Gant and Mayfield sides, had
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  Speaker 2: no knowledge or information as to Michael and Pamela's whereabouts.
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  Speaker 2: Though the tip seemed to be a dead end. Houston
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  Speaker 2: Juvenile Services officers were keeping it on the back burner
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  Speaker 2: in case something ever came of it. Nothing ever has.
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  Speaker 2: In November of nineteen eighty five, after the Mayfield children
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  Speaker 2: were missing for over ten months, it was reported that
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  Speaker 2: a teacher of Michael and Pamela came forward with something
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  Speaker 2: as she just discovered. As she reviewed negatives of a
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  Speaker 2: class play Pamela had performed in, she discovered that photos
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  Speaker 2: of both the Mayfield children were among them. The press
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  Speaker 2: reported that the photographs would replace the ones that the
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  Speaker 2: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had been circulating
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  Speaker 2: for ten months, since they were more recent. Those photos, however,
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  Speaker 2: are nowhere to be found, and it's unclear if they
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  Speaker 2: were ever circulated at all. Only one group ever came
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  Speaker 2: forward to offer a reward for information leading to Pamela
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  Speaker 2: and Michael. The Top Ladies of Distinction Incorporated, a Houston
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  Speaker 2: based humanitarian organization focused on social issues and teen mentoring,
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  Speaker 2: offered a five hundred dollars reward. The children's grandmother, Lily Mayfield,
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  Speaker 2: said in February of nineteen eighty six that it was
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  Speaker 2: hard waking up in the morning and not seeing them.
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  Speaker 2: The case took a bizarre turn when harassment charges were
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  Speaker 2: brought up against a Houston man. While the investigation into
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  Speaker 2: the disappearances of the Mayfield children was in the throes, however, unsuccessfully,
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  Speaker 2: a twenty eight year old man named Joseph Moses Cochrane
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  Speaker 2: was mucking up the waters. Houston's Channel thirteen television reporter
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  Speaker 2: Melanie Lawson, who was perhaps Pamela and Michael's greatest media advocate,
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  Speaker 2: had been reporting on the children's disappearance since the beginning.
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  Speaker 2: Unbeknownst to Melanie, at least at first, she had a stalker,
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  Speaker 2: Joseph Moses Cochrane, who would exploit the Mayfield children's case
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  Speaker 2: to get close to her. Not long after the disappearance,
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  Speaker 2: Cochrane phoned Melanie Lawson, calling himself Stacy, telling her he
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  Speaker 2: was holding Michael and Pamela and that he and several
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  Speaker 2: others had taken them his attempt to get her to
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  Speaker 2: meet him. When she did meet him, she was wearing
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  Speaker 2: a wire and police were standing by. They swarmed in
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  Speaker 2: and when it was determined he didn't have the children,
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  Speaker 2: he was charged with making a false report, a misdemeanor.
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  Speaker 2: When he was released, Cochrane continued his attempts to meet Melanie.
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  Speaker 2: He tried following her home, visited her place of employment
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  Speaker 2: several times. Channel thirteen, blocked the entrance of the TV
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  Speaker 2: station with his car and repeatedly called Melanie Lawson. When
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  Speaker 2: the calls were traced to a payphone near the man's home,
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  Speaker 2: he was arrested for a combination of all his efforts
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  Speaker 2: to draw Melanie Lawson to him. In April of nineteen
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  Speaker 2: eighty six, Joseph Moses Cochrane was sentenced to prison, but
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  Speaker 2: he didn't stop there. He began writing Melanie letters, signing
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  Speaker 2: them as Stacy and threatening her life for sending Moses
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  Speaker 2: to a penitentiary. Luckily, just before he was set to
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  Speaker 2: be released on parole in nineteen eighty eight, police obtained
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  Speaker 2: the man's fingerprint from a particularly obscene and threatening letter,
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  Speaker 2: and he was sentenced to more time. Cynthia, Pamela and
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  Speaker 2: Michael's mother, told a Houston reporter in twenty sixteen that
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  Speaker 2: she always felt hurt when children went missing. Both Pamela
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  Speaker 2: and Michael are forever in her mind. As young children.
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  Speaker 2: Cynthia couldn't help but feel responsibility. The kids wanted to
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  Speaker 2: walk home, and she gave in, a fact that continues
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  Speaker 2: to haunt her. She told KHOU News. I cry at
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  Speaker 2: night sometimes thinking about them. If you have any information
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  Speaker 2: on the disappearances of Pamela and Michael Mayfield, please contact
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  Speaker 2: the Houston Police at seven one three two two two
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  Speaker 2: three one three one. You can support Gone Cold at
• 18:14
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• 18:20
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  Speaker 2: and the bad actors who perpetrated them. Patreon exclusives include
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  Speaker 2: among many others. Thanks to everyone who supports us there.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: We appreciate y'all. Support. Beyond Words, Ebony Magazine, The Victoria Advocate,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: the Houston Chronicle, kho U Houston, the National Center for
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Missing and Exploited Children, and court documents were used as
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: sources for this episode. Thanks for listening, y'all.
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