The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
Listener discretion is advised.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm Ali.
And I'm Eli.
Welcome back everyone.
As always at the top, I'd just like to say thank you when we get some new reviews in
the podcast.
And I saw several come in this week.
So thank you so much if you took the time to do that.
We really appreciate it.
The podcast really appreciates it.
And all these cases that we cover, like that's doing the work that's advocating for them
because it helps other people find the podcast and listen to it.
It's all an algorithm machine, unfortunately.
So it really, really helps when you take the time to rate and review.
I just I really appreciate it.
I appreciate you being on the same journey and mission with us with what we're trying
to do here at Cold and Missing.
So yeah.
But we are on episode 117 this week.
Yeah, we are on episode 117.
And just in case if you are new here, every week we go back and forth between a cold case
and a missing person case.
And this week we happen to be on a cold case.
So should we just get into it?
Let's do it.
So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person.
Today we are talking about the cold case of Hannah Truelove.
And this takes place in August of 2012 in Gainesville, Georgia.
But first a little bit about Hannah.
Hannah is 16 years old in 2012.
She has just started her junior year of high school.
She's also just learning how to drive and had a goal of driving to school that year.
She had two cats and a little Yorkie named Jake.
She had dreams of becoming a veterinarian.
Her family and friends remember her as a hilarious and kind girl.
She was gentle and compassionate.
Hannah's parents are divorced and she lives with her mother in the Lake Lanier Club Apartments,
but her dad still lives nearby.
And now a timeline of events.
On Thursday, August 23, 2012, Hannah was just getting into the swing of things that school
year.
The day started out a little out of the ordinary.
Hannah was visited by an investigator with the Division of Family and Children's Services,
or DFCS.
A case had been opened because Hannah had gotten some truancy the last school year.
Also Hannah's mom had gotten into trouble for drinking and driving.
The caseworker made notes about Hannah that day.
The investigator wrote that Hannah, quote, appeared to be fine, end quote.
Hannah and the caseworker talked about getting her math grade up so she could advance to
11th grade math.
After school, we know that Hannah made it home to the apartment where she lived with
her mother.
At around 332 in the afternoon, Hannah tweeted out, quote, um, yes, ma'am, end quote, in
response to someone.
Investigators say, quote, she made it home from school and took all her school books
and stuff into her apartment and dropped them off, end quote.
From there, Hannah headed outside.
This was normal for her to hang out at the picnic benches in the apartment complex.
Neighbors saw Hannah hanging out there at the picnic tables all summer long.
There were some parents outside with their toddlers and boys playing football nearby.
Several people saw Hannah.
At one point, the exact timing is unclear.
A witness sees a small four-door silver sedan pull up into the parking lot.
Inside of the vehicle were four occupants.
One of the people get out of the car and them and Hannah walk for a little bit.
After some time, the car left.
Hannah was seen after the car left.
Some witnesses put her outside as late as 730.
However, the hours start to tick by and by 930, Hannah's mom is worried that she hasn't
come home and that she can't find her.
Mona decides to call the police at around 930 p.m.
The police launched a search for Hannah that evening around the apartment, since that was
the last place she was seen.
Police are seen on the docks of Lake Lanier shouting for Hannah.
However, that night, a strong storm rolls in and several inches of rainfall on the area
and make the search difficult.
The next day, Friday, August 24th, Hannah was a no-show at school.
A hope that she would turn up in the morning fades.
At around 730 p.m., a man visiting his daughter, a Vietnam veteran, went for a walk in the
wooded area around his daughter's apartment complex.
When he looks into the ravine, he sees what he thinks is a mannequin.
As he gets closer, he recognizes Hannah from her missing person poster that had sprung
up on the news over the last 24 hours.
Police are called around 730 p.m.
While publicly police do not confirm if it is Hannah, they do announce that they're
treating the death as suspicious.
Behind the scenes, police begin to work the case as a homicide and Hannah's parents
confirm her identity.
Police at the scene are optimistic that someone heard or saw something.
While the woods are secluded where Hannah's body is found, you are able to just make out
apartment balconies from the spot, so it was close enough that maybe someone could have
seen or heard it something.
Over the weekend, police canvass the apartment complex to understand what people saw and
heard.
Police also start to dig into her social media.
There were some concerning tweets that police know they need to dig more into.
On August 12th, 12 days before the murder, she tweeted, quote, I got me an ugly ass stalker,
end quote.
And then a few hours later, quote, too many lame people live where I live, dot, dot, dot,
end quote.
On August 18th, five days before the murder, she tweeted out, quote, so scared right now,
end quote.
And on August 22nd, just a day before the murder, she says, quote, I need to move out
of these dang apartments, end quote.
Other leads start to come in from the community as word spreads, but police encourage parents
to talk to their children, quote, kids tend to talk and we hope that as people discuss
this with parents and whatnot, that somebody will come forward with some real good evidence
that could break the case for us.
Right now, we're just encouraging folks if they do have any information or they have
seen anything during that time period that she was missing to call us, we would like
to determine if there's anything to their story, no matter how small it is, end quote.
On Monday, August 27th, four days after the murder and on what should have been the start
of a normal school week, instead Hannah's autopsy is conducted.
It confirms what seemed obvious to police at the scene, that she died from multiple
stab wounds.
Again, at this time in 2012, police do not release the cause of death, but they do officially
rule her death a homicide.
At the time, police say, quote, we know that she did receive injuries that resulted in
her death.
Injuries on her body were indicative that she died from a violent death, end quote.
Police at this point are operating with the belief that Hannah was killed by someone that
she knew, that this was not a random act, quote, we have information that would lead
us to believe that this was a person that the victim knew, end quote.
Her family and friends are shocked by her death.
Her father stresses that she hadn't voiced any concern about living in the apartment
complex and that if she had, he would have let her live with him.
On Tuesday, August 28th, it's been five days since the murder and police are busy chasing
down the leads that have come in.
Police also take the time to interview friends and students from Hannah's school to see
if they have any additional information on Hannah.
Police allude to the fact that there are a couple of people that they would like to talk
to but they haven't been able to yet.
On Wednesday, August 29th, just shy of one week from her murder, Hannah's funeral is
held and she is laid to rest.
Two weeks after the murder, on September 7th, police announced that they're looking for
a late 1990s to early 2000s four-door sedan, possibly a Chevrolet or a Dodge.
The car is light silver in color but with a lot of front end damage at the time of Hannah's
murder.
The driver's door was also lighter in color than the rest of the car as well, either a
lighter silver or white color.
I believe that this car is the car with the four occupants that arrived at the apartment
the day that Hannah was murdered.
It takes years for police to mention this next part but they confirm that these people
in the car are just people of interest.
Police confirm that Hannah was seen alive after the car left.
However, no one ever comes forward claiming that they were in the car that day.
It appears that at this point, the case stalls.
Police do work to keep the case in the media but no suspects are named in the case.
Police mention again that there are a couple people that they would like to talk to but
they have not cooperated.
A year come and goes and police announce that they're still looking for the driver of the
silver car but stress that the front end damage would likely have been fixed by now.
In 2014, so it's been two years since the murder, we learn that police did ask the GBI
to create a profile of the murderer.
The GBI does create a profile but to date it has never publicly been shared.
In 2016, so it's been four years since Hannah's murder, police announced that through their
investigation into her Twitter that there wasn't any merit to her tweets before her
death.
That it was all surrounding teenage drama and not related to her murder.
Police also say that they are hoping that someone will still come forward that has knowledge
of the crime.
Detective Dan Franklin says quote, there have been persons of interest that we've looked
at and that we continue to look at.
Over time we're hoping that someone with knowledge that maybe was not necessarily directly
involved would come forward.
End quote.
In 2017, five years since Hannah's murder and police reveal that she was last using
her Nintendo DS to communicate with her friends.
Police don't say directly if this holds clues to her case but the investigator working the
case keeps it on his desk to remind him of her and to keep the case active in his mind.
In 2022, so 10 years since Hannah's murder, police announced that there is a suspect in
the case but they still declined to name them.
Detective Dan Franklin says quote, we're confident we know who is responsible for her
death.
We've had a suspect since the beginning.
Our issue is that we have a lack of evidence to tie that person to the crime.
It's not to say that we have zero evidence but we just didn't have enough.
End quote.
Police at this point are banking on advances in DNA since Hannah's body was left out in
a strong rainstorm.
It washed most trace DNA from her body.
So they're hoping advances will be able to detect smaller amounts of DNA that potentially
could still be on evidence.
That or somebody confesses to the crime.
Police do not want to bring charges without a rock solid case so there is no chance of
the person walking free.
However, that is all we know about the murder of Hannah Truelove.
There has to date not been any arrests in her case and still no suspect has been named.
So if you know anything about the murder of Hannah True Love in August of 2012, please
call the GBI Region 8 Cleveland office at 706-348-4866.
So that is the case of Hannah True Love.
And covering cases, weather cold or missing cases, when they involve children, it just
never gets easier.
Never gets easier to listen and digest.
To be honest with you, when I'm listening to other podcasts, sometimes they are the
episodes that I skip and getting the chance to do cold and missing now, I'm so grateful
that I don't skip them anymore.
As someone who engages with true crime, I think there's a sense of responsibility in
listening if you choose to engage with it.
And that's just my own, my personal feelings about it.
So I don't even want to skip them anymore.
And even though it was difficult to listen to the timeline of events that resulted in
Hannah's ending, I loved hearing how happy she was and how happy she made other people
and that she wanted to work with animals.
I think that always says that speaks volumes about someone's character and pretty much
every vet I've ever met was someone I was rooting for.
She should have had a chance to grow up.
I'm really grateful that we know this case and the fact that it's recent gives me a lot
of hope as well.
Yeah, Hannah's life being cut so short just at 16 years old, it's really heartbreaking
that she didn't get the opportunity to chase her dreams like you said.
I think you said that really beautifully.
I think you did an incredible job sewing the timeline together with a linear path.
The whole time I was listening, I was scribbling down questions.
So if it's all right with you, I think I'd love to just dive in and start kind of from
the top as my questions gathered while you covered the timeline.
Yeah, thank you.
A lot in the timeline I had to kind of piece together because police at the time weren't
releasing a lot of details.
They've kind of released details over the last decade or so.
So thank you.
I appreciate that.
So we know Hannah was at the picnic table from 3.30 on or at least 3.30 to 7.30.
We know of that window.
She was near that part of the apartment complex in the exterior.
I'm wondering, I don't know if you said it and maybe I just missed it, but when did Hannah's
mother get home?
It's a really great question.
It's unclear when Hannah's mom got home, if she was home already when she got home from
school or if she got home from work maybe later that evening.
That part was never really clear.
It just seems that by 9.30 her mom had noticed she'd been missing for a minute.
She couldn't find her a locator.
So she called the police at 9.30 after it seemed like a few hours of worry of where
is she?
Okay.
So the reason I was asking that question was just to kind of gauge the sense of urgency
around everything that was happening.
But honestly, because the window of time is so small, whether it's an hour, two hours,
three hours, it all happens on the same night.
But again, my question was to really try to pinpoint as much as I can as a listener to
just nail that timeline down more.
Yeah.
And actually a big question I have in the timeline is when police think the time of
death occurred.
Because one thing I've noticed kind of over and over again is that Hannah's date of death
is listed as August 24th.
So that would have been the day after she went missing.
I don't know if they're using that because that's the date that she was found ultimately,
or if they have a time of death that puts her after midnight, you know, going from the
23rd into the 24th.
That part's never really been clear or laid out by police exactly what time they think
the crime occurred.
And I think that does play into it a little bit because it appears that police were, you
know, kind of in the apartment complex and in the woods searching, you know, 930, 10
o'clock, like right in that timeframe it was happening.
So yeah, Hannah was found not too far from where she was last seen at the picnic benches
in a wooded area, but the woods were very close to where she was last seen.
I'm also curious of, you know, where she was found.
Use the word ravine, and maybe that was the word that was also used in, you know, media
coverage of her case at the time.
But you know, to me a ravine can mean a bunch of different things depending on the ecological
environment, you know.
So I'm, my first question about the ravine is was it, was there water at the bottom?
Was there a running stream through it?
Because sometimes at the base of a ravine that is what's there, but it can also just
be, you know, two steep edges with a small wedge, like wedge of space in between that
can collect water if there's a storm, which there was in this case.
So I'm just curious again as to what that looked like and if she was found underwater
or kind of to the side, maybe in foliage or sticks or...
Yeah, so this wooded area is leading up to Lake Lanier.
From my understanding, there aren't necessarily trails going throughout it, but it's not so
dense that you can't like move through it to get to the lake is kind of what I understand.
So this ravine where she was found would be the latter of what you said, the like shallow
place between two high steep spots.
It did not normally have water running through it, but because of the intensity of the storm
the night that she went missing, there was water running over her at some point.
Police said that she would have been fully submerged in water at one point of running
water from the storm.
Okay.
So that leads me to my follow up question, which is do you think that the perpetrator
or perpetrators, whoever committed this crime, do you think that they were counting on the
fact that there would be a storm that night?
It's a really great question.
Honestly, I don't know because whenever I look at it from a few different angles, I
can kind of like talk myself in circles around it because on the one hand, there's a part
of me that's like, well, they're not that smart.
The criminal is not going to be that smart to like think of the weather and it's kind
of a big gamble to like hope that the water is going to be enough to completely wash DNA
or evidence from the body.
You're banking on a lot.
So I don't know if it was part of the plan, but then at the same time, sometimes criminals
are smarter than we give them credit for.
And you know, maybe they weren't necessarily banking on it, but they figured it would help.
So I'm not sure.
I think we won't really know if the storm was part of the calculation in this crime
until we know who did it.
Right, and this is, you know, the part of our podcast where we try to just ask very
rooted questions in evidence we have from the case and facts about the case, but it
leaves room for speculation.
And my brain is trying to come up with theories that I think it's a very normal part of engaging
with this part of true crime.
Yeah, you know, Hannah seemed like such, you know, like a bright young person and like
had so much potential in front of them that you want to like figure it out and try to
answer this because it's like how could someone take a light out of this world, especially
someone that knew her?
How could you do that?
Yeah, I, you know, I can't agree more with you.
You know, my least favorite part is revisiting the upsetting details of how someone's life
was ended or taken.
But in Hannah's case, being discarded down a ravine, it's very, it's just very upsetting
and just lights that fire in me to become investigative myself.
I agree with law enforcement in that she knew the perpetrator or perpetrators.
I know law enforcement said that the tweets had nothing to do with her death and that's
fine.
But at least for me, while this case is fresh to me, I'm interested.
Quite possibly my brain is trying to correlate them to come up with an answer, but the tweets
for me led me to think that someone was bothering her and it's possible that that person lived
in the complex or someone who lived close by who knew where she lived, which in both
of those circumstances, those people would know those woods.
So again, you know, my question to you is, do you think as far as perpetrators go that
either of those are possibilities here in relation to the tweets as well?
Yeah, I would be very curious to have like all of her communications.
You know, we know she was using her Nintendo DS to communicate with people.
She didn't have a phone at this time.
From my understanding, she didn't have a cell phone.
So I would be curious to read all her social media that police have and like, you know,
those direct messages, the private messages, all of that to get a better understanding
because I, again, I don't know if I'm just trying to like force meaning into the tweets
in order to solve this case.
But yeah, to me, it's like, okay, like, sure.
Maybe you know, the one where she says, you know, I got me an ugly ass stalker.
Like, yeah, okay, maybe that's referring to a boy at school.
But she mentions like the apartments, like, I need to get out of here.
Like there's like weirdos where I live and I'm very much paraphrasing here.
We'll have the tweets on our Instagram at Cold and Missing so you can see for yourself.
But she mentions just the people in the apartment a few times, which wouldn't be related to
like her teenage drama, you know, unless maybe some kids from school also lived there too.
But still, like, I don't know, it's just referencing the apartments is just kind of like an adult
issue to me for like a teenager to be tweeting out.
Like, I don't know.
That's just my thought.
It didn't seem it didn't seem just like teen drama to me.
But again, I don't have all all of the facts and all of the evidence.
Which brings me to my next thought or question.
Do you think that police or law enforcement were holding cards close to their chest because
she because she's a child because she's a minor?
I do think that's some of it.
Yes.
You know, I can't help but wonder if like, part of the reason they never named like a
suspect or anything is because maybe they're a minor too in 2012.
Again, all speculation, but it's just something I wonder if that's why nobody was ever named
and things were kept really close.
And you know, like, police seem to like kind of imply like parents talk to your children.
And then also kind of seem to talk to kids of like, you know, maybe you weren't there,
maybe you weren't involved necessarily, but know something.
So it seems like to me, police believe that whoever did this likely talked to someone
likely told someone, or somebody would have known maybe that they were going to see Hannah
or meet Hannah or talking to her that day, whatever the case may be.
So that's what I kind of wonder and their silence in this case specifically and how
they've dropped details over, you know, the years.
Well, again, you know, just like my hope with every episode, I'm I'm grateful to know Hannah
Truelove now.
And I hope that us covering the case will spark some more people to do their own investigation,
maybe some more people cover the case and something happens.
You know, we see movement and I would love nothing more to to see this case solved.
Yeah, I'm hopeful that this case will be solved.
It does seem like police feel pretty confident in their suspects.
I really hope it's not tunnel vision.
And you know, they do have their sights on the right person.
Hopefully, you know, the technology gets there and we're able to pick up more DNA or more
evidence or whatever it is they need to really bring those charges and bring justice for
Hannah.
It wasn't that long ago, people still have memories from that time.
Somebody knows something.
So again, if you know anything about the murder of Hannah Truelove in August of 2012, please
contact the GBI Region 8 Cleveland office at 706-348-4866.
You will be able to see pictures of Hannah and details about the case on our Instagram
at Cold and Missing.
We will also have graphics of screenshots of Hannah's tweets.
Again, like I mentioned at the top, thank you so much to everyone who's rated and reviewed
us.
I hope you enjoyed today's new day.
I would appreciate it and love it so much.
I know we both would.
If you took the time to leave us a written review, you can even do that on our website
www.coldandmissing.com.
We do have our official transcripts there.
So those are the ones that I go in, I edit, I make sure all the spellings are correct.
So those are on our website www.coldandmissing.com.
The ones that are automatically generated by some podcast platforms are not the official
ones.
If you or a loved one needs them, you can find them at our website.
But that is all I have.
Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host Allie.
And I'm your co-host Eli.
Have a good week and stay safe y'all.
Stay safe y'all.