Two new episodes of APB Cold Case, a true crime audio podcast featuring unsolved missing persons and murder cases from across the country, discusses Bucks County cases.
In “Girl in the Well: Who Killed Lisa Todd?,” podcast host and former police Chief Mark Spawn delves deep inside the case of Lisa Todd, previously known as “Publicker” or “Bucks County” Jane Doe, alongside former Bensalem Police Detective Chris McMullin, who chronicles the moment he glimpsed the forensic sculpture of Publicker Jane Doe in his boss’ office through the years of his dogged investigation as he painstakingly searched for clues and utilized ever-evolving DNA technology and genetic genealogy to identity the remains of a young pregnant girl found in a well.
The case is full of twists, turns and a few surprises that link three young victims of unfortunate circumstances. Listeners will hear about the connections to two other cases featured in the APB Cold Case series: “Family Secrets: Where is Tracy Byrd?” (previously released and available online) and “Tortured: Who Killed Jeanette Tambe?” (recently released).
Jeanette Tambe was only 24 years old when she was last seen in 1984 near her hometown in Bensalem. When skeletal remains were discovered in an abandoned industrial well in Bensalem in 1988, police investigated whether the remains matched any missing persons reports. One theory was that the remains might be Tambe. Police collected DNA specimens from family members and sent them to a lab. When the results came back, there was a match, but not to the girl from the well.
Since 1986, a murder victim in New Jersey had been a Jane Doe until she was matched to Tambe’s family. Tambe’s body was found at a construction site of a new home in Atlantic County, New Jersey. Her hands were bound behind her back, she had been stabbed several times and acid had been poured on her.
In this episode of APB Cold Case, Spawn explores the circumstances of the murder with New Jersey State Police, and the circumstances of fortune that led to the identification of a murder victim whose killer had not been caught.
Visit APBColdCase.com for more information.
