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The Disappearance and Slaying of Cindy Davis Rendon · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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Speaker 1: Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
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Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. February first, nineteen eighty three. In
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Speaker 1: a quiet neighborhood in northeast Austin, it was morning, but
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Speaker 1: the sun had already began to warm the cold air.
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Speaker 1: Inside a modest home on Brynmar Drive, a twenty three
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Speaker 1: year old mother moved through her morning routine. She dressed
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Speaker 1: in comfortable clothing, set breakfast out for her baby. There
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Speaker 1: wasn't much to do but enjoy being a mother and
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Speaker 1: wait for her parents to return later that day so
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Speaker 1: she could leave for work. She made a phone call.
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Speaker 1: Nothing was out of place, nothing was loud or dramatic,
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Speaker 1: at least not that anyone heard. But suddenly, perhaps her
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Speaker 1: morning ended. A door was left standing open, a baby
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Speaker 1: was alone, and a woman was missing. There were no
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Speaker 1: signs of a struggle, not a trace of where she went.
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Speaker 1: Hours became days, then weeks, then months. Hope was tested, lowered,
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Speaker 1: and finally buried. This is the story of what happened
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Speaker 1: to Cindy Davis. Rendon, Austin, Texas in nineteen eighty three,
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Speaker 1: was a city perched on the edge of transformation, not
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Speaker 1: yet the high gloss tech hub and music pilgrimage site
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Speaker 1: the world knows today, but no longer just a sleepy
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Speaker 1: college town wrapped around the state capitol and honky tonks.
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Speaker 1: Growth had pressed in from every direction, stretching the boundaries
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Speaker 1: of a place that had long tried to keep its
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Speaker 1: eccentricities close. Nearly four hundred thousand people called Austin home then.
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Speaker 1: State workers and politicians, students and professors, bikers, bartenders, musicians,
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Speaker 1: cowboys and misfits. They shared crowded sidewalks and beer sticky
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Speaker 1: bar tops, all humming to a soundtrack that was unmistakably Austin.
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Speaker 1: But for all its charm and creativity, the city in
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Speaker 1: the early eighties wasn't insulated from the darker tides rolling
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Speaker 1: across Texas. The oil bust had hit the lone star state.
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Speaker 1: Hard Austinites watched neighboring cities stumble under the weight of unemployment,
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Speaker 1: collapsing real estate markets, and folded businesses. Their city escaped
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Speaker 1: the worst of it, thanks in part to the University
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Speaker 1: of Texas and a small cluster of emerging outfits on
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Speaker 1: the horizon. But still times were lane, and when communities
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Speaker 1: struggle economically, crime had of filling the gaps the city
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Speaker 1: remembered tragedy well. The nineteen sixty six ut Tower shooting
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Speaker 1: was still a fresh wound for many, to a point
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Speaker 1: it had reshaped local policing and emergency response. In the
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, Austin's police force was undergoing modernization, trying to
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Speaker 1: keep up with growing demands, increasing drug activity, and reports
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Speaker 1: of violence that felt out of step with the city's
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Speaker 1: laid back reputation. Even as the live music capital identity
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Speaker 1: took shape long before anyone had coined the phrase, nighttime,
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Speaker 1: and Austin carried a certain unpredictability. Sixth Street, which was
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Speaker 1: quickly evolving into the heartbeat of downtown nightlife, drew in
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Speaker 1: crowds thick enough to blur strangers into shadows. A quiet
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Speaker 1: walk back to a car parked on a side street
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Speaker 1: didn't always feel secure. Texas itself was facing a frightening
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Speaker 1: trend serial predators and spree killers operating up and down highways,
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Speaker 1: slipping through jurisdictions, exploiting gaps in communication. Dallas had their killers,
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Speaker 1: fort Worth had their madmen, and Houston, well, Houston was Houston.
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Speaker 1: Violence certainly wasn't confined to any specific regions of the state,
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Speaker 1: but that fact often slipped Austin's mind. Daylight in the
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Speaker 1: Capitol could trick you into forgetting the things the mind
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Speaker 1: prefers to forget. The smell of barbecue drifting from local
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Speaker 1: joints tex mechs, staples like Mats l Rancho, and burgers
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Speaker 1: at Dirty Martin's on Guadaloupe, Students crowded the drag while
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Speaker 1: debating politics and art. Government officials huddled in downtown diners
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Speaker 1: over policy and pork chops. Austin in nineteen eighty three
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Speaker 1: was in a state of flux, quirky, rebellious, hopeful, and
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Speaker 1: only beginning to understand the scale of what it would become.
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Speaker 1: But beneath the music and the glow of neon on Stone,
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Speaker 1: there was always the knowledge that darkness could find its
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Speaker 1: way there too. Growth brings opportunity, Opportunity brings people, and people,
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Speaker 1: every single one of them, carry the potential for good
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Speaker 1: and sometimes for bad. In nineteen eighty three, Austin's story
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Speaker 1: was still being written, but like every Texas city, its
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Speaker 1: bright lights cast long shadows. That year, one of them
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Speaker 1: fell over twenty three year old Cindy Rendon. Before anything
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Speaker 1: else Cindy was a mother. Her baby girl, Marabelle, had
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Speaker 1: just learned to walk. She was the center of of
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Speaker 1: Cindy's world. Everyone who knew her said so. The proud
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Speaker 1: mother was working hard to build a life for both
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Speaker 1: of them. She held two jobs, a seasonal evening position
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Speaker 1: at the Internal Revenue Service Offices in Austin and part
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Speaker 1: time as an attendant at Four Seasons Nursing Center. Those
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Speaker 1: who worked with Cindy described her positively sweet, quiet, responsible,
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Speaker 1: the latter characteristic perhaps something she learned during her enlistment
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Speaker 1: in the United States Air Force. Cindy was someone who
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Speaker 1: didn't make the world revolve around her, but she kept
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Speaker 1: hers turning. She came from a blended and supportive family,
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Speaker 1: multiple siblings, and a mother and stepfather who would do
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Speaker 1: anything for her. In nineteen eighty she married jose Angel
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Speaker 1: Rendon the third, or Joe as he was better known,
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Speaker 1: on Christmas Day, but by early nineteen eighty three the
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Speaker 1: marriage was in trouble. Cindy moved back into her parents'
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Speaker 1: house with the baby. She and Joe were separated for
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Speaker 1: only three weeks before she vanished. This is important because
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Speaker 1: that short window when couples are physically apart. Mixing freedom
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Speaker 1: with conflict is statistically among the most dangerous times in
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Speaker 1: any abusive or strained relationship. Cindy never told anyone she
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Speaker 1: feared for her life, but she was building a new one.
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Speaker 1: The last confirmed sighting of Cindy Rindon alive came just
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Speaker 1: after seven am on Tuesday, February first, nineteen eighty three.
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Speaker 1: That morning, her parents left for work just after seeing
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Speaker 1: her wake and begin to prepare for the day. Cindy
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Speaker 1: was to stay with Marabelle until later that afternoon, when
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Speaker 1: she'd need to hand her over to her parents and
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Speaker 1: head to her irs shift, which was the usual arrangement.
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Speaker 1: It was a normal mourning, no alarm bells, no signs
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Speaker 1: of distress. Perhaps the only thing out of the ordinary
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Speaker 1: was a call she made not to her workplace, not
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Speaker 1: to a friend, but to Joe, her estranged husband. He
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Speaker 1: later told police that Cindy phoned and said she had
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Speaker 1: something very important to do and asked him to come
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Speaker 1: get the baby. He drove over immediately, Joe said when
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Speaker 1: he arrived just after eight twenty am, He continued, the
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Speaker 1: front door stood wide open, the baby was inside alone.
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Speaker 1: Cindy was nowhere. Her coat and favorite shoes were still there.
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Speaker 1: Her purse, however, was not the Only other clue in
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Speaker 1: the house was a baby bull overturned on the kitchen floor.
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Speaker 1: Though it looked as if something had interrupted the last
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Speaker 1: moments of her mourning routine, there were no signs that
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Speaker 1: a struggle had taken place. By the morning following the
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Speaker 1: disappearance of Cindy Leo Davis Rendon, after she seemingly vanished
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Speaker 1: into thin air and never checked into work, her family
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Speaker 1: called police. Officers with the Youth Services Detail, who handled
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Speaker 1: missing persons investigations began the search. It wouldn't be easy.
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Speaker 1: There were no witnesses to her departure, no sounds or
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Speaker 1: sights reported by neighbors, no signs of a struggle. Police
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Speaker 1: knew she'd been wearing a white and blue checked blouse, jeans,
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Speaker 1: and white socks the last time she was seen, but
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Speaker 1: ultimately the information would do them little good. Least questioned
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Speaker 1: the one person they knew had spoken with Cindy that morning,
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Speaker 1: a man who might have had a motive to make
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Speaker 1: her disappear, her estranged husband, Joe. Detectives had learned he
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Speaker 1: and Cindy argued the night before she disappeared. They also
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Speaker 1: learned he was the first adult known to see the
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Speaker 1: baby after Cindy was gone and the empty house. They
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Speaker 1: learned he was the last person she called, but those
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Speaker 1: facts weren't enough for an arrest. Not yet. The case
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Speaker 1: grew stranger on Friday, February fourth, when a plain white
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Speaker 1: envelope arrived by US mail at the house. Inside was
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Speaker 1: Cindy's old military ID, some bank deposit slips, and various
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Speaker 1: other personal papers. A wallet style ID with Cindy's name
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Speaker 1: and address was attached to the outside of the envelope,
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Speaker 1: with clear tape securing the card like a label, but
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Speaker 1: there wasn't a note and there was no return address.
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Speaker 1: The postmark was unreadable. If the police were able to
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Speaker 1: lift fingerprints off any of the items, they never released
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Speaker 1: the information publicly. Cindy's driver's license and checkbook were not included.
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Speaker 1: These were items Cindy normally kept in her back pocket.
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Speaker 1: Police checked her bank account. There had been no activity
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Speaker 1: through the local news media, which they only utilized a
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Speaker 1: couple of times. Detectives stated they needed to speak with
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Speaker 1: whoever mailed the items, but that person never stepped forward.
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Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty three without surveillance footage, without cell data,
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Speaker 1: and with limited forensics, these clues were all dead ends.
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Speaker 1: The waiting began every time a woman's body was found
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Speaker 1: in Central Texas. Cindy's mother brod for the call. Just
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Speaker 1: two weeks after Cindy vanished, a woman's body was found
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Speaker 1: in a shallow grave near Smithville. She was killed, violently,
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Speaker 1: stomped on, and strangled. Investigators quickly said it wasn't Cindy,
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Speaker 1: but the case had left her family in a state
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Speaker 1: of fear. That much was clear, someone it seemed, was
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Speaker 1: killing women, and that someone had not been caught. Cindy's
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Speaker 1: mother kept Hope alive barely. She imagined Cindy calling home,
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Speaker 1: walking in the door, explaining everything, but that Hope eventually
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Speaker 1: got too heavy to carry. After all, five months is
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Speaker 1: a long time, and that's how long it was until
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Speaker 1: the discovery. Saturday, June ninth, nineteen eighty three, within the
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Speaker 1: bends of the Colorado River lies Pace Bend Park, about
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Speaker 1: forty two moles northwest of the home Cindy Rendon shared
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Speaker 1: with her parents. The summer heat was heavy, thick, the
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Speaker 1: kind that makes the air in the distance shimmer. A
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Speaker 1: camper in the Marshall Cove area, a remote wooded section,
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Speaker 1: spotted what looked like a rock among weeds and cracked soil.
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Speaker 1: But it wasn't a rock, it was a human skull.
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Speaker 1: The camper quickly made their way to a phone and
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Speaker 1: called the Travis County Sheriff's Office. Deputies secured the area
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Speaker 1: and searched further. Under a shallow grave about twenty inches deep,
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Speaker 1: they found skeletal remains wrapped in a sheet. That was
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Speaker 1: the first clue a sheet had gone missing from Cindy's
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Speaker 1: parents' house the same time she vanished. Medical examiner doctor
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Speaker 1: Robert Bayardo estimated the body had been there four to
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Speaker 1: six months. The death was ruled a homicide, though the
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Speaker 1: pathologist would not reveal the cause of death if he
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Speaker 1: knew it. The remains were completely decomposed, skeletal. There was
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Speaker 1: no indication she'd been sexually assaulted. Travis County Sheriff's deputies
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Speaker 1: learned fast who they needed to contact if this was
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Speaker 1: Cindy Rendon. She was killed not long after she disappeared.
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Speaker 1: Her parents were asked for dental records. Her mother said,
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Speaker 1: we still have hope, but after six months, it makes
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Speaker 1: you wonder. She told reporters she just wanted her daughter
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Speaker 1: back alive, but now she had to switch hope for certainty.
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Speaker 1: That hope had already been tested plenty. The last time
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Speaker 1: was when her missing daughter's purse was discovered in a
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Speaker 1: trash dumpster in southwest Austin on July eleventh. That truth
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Speaker 1: was confirmed. The remains belonged to Cindy. Her sheet wrapped
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Speaker 1: body hidden quickly and crudely in the dirt spoke to urgency.
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Speaker 1: But whoever did this didn't take her away forever by
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Speaker 1: trying to cover up what they'd done, Perhaps they thought
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Speaker 1: they had. After Cindy's remains were found, detectives reviewed every
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Speaker 1: interview from the disappearance. One name, one connection stood out.
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Speaker 1: Jose Angel Joe Rendon the third, the victim's estranged husband.
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Speaker 1: He had told police he argued with Cindy the night
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Speaker 1: before she vanished, suggesting a potential motive, and had received
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Speaker 1: the last call from her. He was also the first
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Speaker 1: to discover she was gone. He had a prior felony conviction,
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Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy eight robbery, and he began parole in
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. Detectives said he denied involvement, but they believed
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Speaker 1: they had evidence to the contrary. On July twenty seventh,
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, a grand jury agreed Joe was indicted
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Speaker 1: for Cindy's murder. He turned himself in hours later. Bail
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Speaker 1: was set at seventy five thousand dollars. For a moment,
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Speaker 1: Cindy's family felt the gears of justice begin to move.
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Speaker 1: But those gears were not well oiled, and, depending on
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Speaker 1: Joe's guilt or innocence, didn't turn the way they should have.
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Speaker 1: In December nineteen eighty three, the indictment was thrown out,
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Speaker 1: not because of evidence, but because of a technical error
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Speaker 1: in the wording. A single phrase was missing, a legal
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Speaker 1: formality about whether the grand jury had exercised reasonable diligence
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Speaker 1: in determining how the murder was committed. Instead, they simply
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Speaker 1: listed the cause as unknown. That one mistake invalidated everything.
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Speaker 1: Prosecutors promised a correction, they delivered one. The case returned
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Speaker 1: to a grand jury in early nineteen eighty four. This
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Speaker 1: time they refused to indict. Joe walked free, and the
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Speaker 1: grand jury's decision is probably reflective of the weak case
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Speaker 1: against him. The investigation into Cindy's murder stalled and then
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Speaker 1: simply faded. There was never a trial, no arrest, no conviction.
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Speaker 1: The justice system closed its book before the story was finished,
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Speaker 1: and with that, the local media's attention span was directed
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Speaker 1: toward the latest news. The case of the murder of
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Speaker 1: Cindy Davis Rindon was and remains cold. When Cindy's obituary
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Speaker 1: was printed. It did not include details of how she
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Speaker 1: disappeared and how she was found. It didn't mention any
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Speaker 1: forthcoming indictments or even arrests. It didn't talk about evidence
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Speaker 1: or envelopes or shallow graves. The obit was simple, like most,
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Speaker 1: and listed the services to come, the rosary and the mass.
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Speaker 1: It listed the family she left behind, her baby daughter
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Speaker 1: who would grow up without her. It told the truth
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Speaker 1: that mattered most. Cindy was loved. She deserved a future,
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Speaker 1: but didn't get one. When she was missing, her family said,
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Speaker 1: it hurts inside and the waiting kills you. They waited
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Speaker 1: for her to return. They waited for answers, then they
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Speaker 1: waited for justice. They are still waiting more than four
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Speaker 1: decades later. Cindy's case sits in a file in it
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Speaker 1: is grand jury testimony. The location of a shallow grave
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Speaker 1: and a family's heartbreak. A missing woman's belongings mailed anonymously
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Speaker 1: remain one of the most chilling elements. Someone took the
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Speaker 1: time to gather her things. Someone stood in a post office,
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Speaker 1: paid postage and sent a message without words. Was it
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Speaker 1: simply a good samaritan returning the items to their rightful
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Speaker 1: owner after stumbling upon them accidentally, or was it someone
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Speaker 1: who knew exactly what they were doing? And how did
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Speaker 1: Cindy's purse end up in a dumpster on the other
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Speaker 1: side of town. This case still needs to be solved.
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Speaker 1: Cindy still deserves the truth. If you have any information
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Speaker 1: about the murder of Cindy Davis Rendon, please contact the
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Speaker 1: Travis County Sheriff's Office tip line at five to one
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Speaker 1: two eight five four one four four four. Like to
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Speaker 1: join gon Coold's mission to shine a light on unsolved
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Speaker 1: homicides and missing persons cases. Get the show at free
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