Ep 11. A Killer's Skin/Where's Peggy?

The episode "A Killer's Skin/Where's Peggy?" of Cold Case Files Classic season 5 is a true-crime story of two separate investigations that, years later, led to the capture of two different suspects in two cold cases.

The first part of the episode, "A Killer's Skin," focuses on the murder of a young woman named Stephanie Horton in 1989. She was found naked and strangled to death in her apartment in Nashville, Tennessee. The case went cold for years until 2006, when new technology made it possible to extract a DNA sample from the killer's skin cells found under Stephanie's fingernails. The sample was entered into CODIS, a national DNA database, and it matched a man named Danny Ray Hogue, who was already serving a life sentence for another murder in Arkansas.

The investigation into Hogue's past revealed that he was a serial killer who had committed at least two other murders in Nashville during the same period as Stephanie's murder. In 2008, Hogue was brought to trial and convicted of Stephanie's murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The second story, "Where's Peggy?" is about the disappearance of a young woman named Peggy Cox in 1981. She was last seen at a bar in El Paso, Texas, where she had gone to meet a man she had met through a dating service. Her car was later found abandoned on the side of a highway, but Peggy was nowhere to be found. Despite an extensive search, she remained missing for over two decades.

In 2003, a new detective was assigned to the case and he began to re-examine the evidence. He discovered that the man Peggy had gone to meet, a man named Howard Lee Harrod, had a history of violence and had been arrested for the murder of another woman in a nearby state. Harrod was brought in for questioning and eventually confessed to killing Peggy Cox and dumping her body in a remote area. He led investigators to her remains, which had lain undiscovered for over 20 years.

The episode "A Killer's Skin/Where's Peggy?" is a gripping and emotional account of two cases that remained unsolved for years before modern forensic technology and diligent detective work finally brought justice to the victims and their families. It is a testament to the power of perseverance and the importance of never giving up on solving cold cases.