The Gone Cold Podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.

Listener discretion is advised.

In June of 1987, a big break on a year old cold case landed in the lap of El Paso police.

The case wasn't theirs. In fact, it wasn't even on their radar.

Instead, it belonged to a jurisdiction almost 800 miles away, the Galveston County Sheriff's

Department. A young Texas City woman, 19-year-old Shelly Sykes, was abducted there.

Her car forced off the road by two men in a pickup truck, one of which violently shattered

Shelly's window to get her,

dragged her by the hair to the men's vehicle,

and she was never seen again.

These are some of the details the El Paso police read in a would-be final note they discovered

as they investigated the attempted suicide of a man who was new to the desert city,

John Robert King. They were shocked, of course, and alerted authorities

in Galveston County who had been chomping at the bit to solve the case of Shelly Sykes disappearance. They were thrilled with the lead too as the

young woman's disappearance had left the community in Texas City in a state of constant fear and paranoia as they wondered when Shelly's

abductor would strike again. When King laid out his story he told the police of

an accomplice Gerald Peter Swarst, who also ultimately confessed to his role in Shelly's abduction,

although the two men pointed the finger at one another for the responsibility of Shelly's demise.

Zwurst and King were eventually charged and convicted for Shelly's abduction, but no evidence could be obtained as to what fate the 19-year-old

met because her body was never located.

Upon the investigation into King and Swarst, Galveston and the surrounding towns in Galveston and Houston counties were relentlessly scanning their unsolved to see if the two men could possibly be connected to other abductions,

sexual assaults, or homicides in the area.

...