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 your
host, Ali . And I'm your co -host, Eli. Welcome
back, everyone. And welcome back to me, because
I was out last week. Yes, Eli is back, and we
are here to bring you a cold case. That's right,
and we are on episode 131 this week. So let's
go ahead and just get into it. So just as a quick
content warning, there are some brief mentions
of sexual assault. Today, we are talking about
the cold case of Marisa Lee Rose, and this takes
place in July of 2001 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
But first, a little bit about Marisa. Marisa
is 24 years old in 2001. She had grown up in
New Jersey, but moved to South Philly a few years
before her timeline picks up. She had bought
a house on the 1500 block of South 26th Street.
She lived there by herself. Marisa was married,
but her husband, Stokely Orlando Rose, was serving
time in a New Jersey prison for drug offenses.
Marisa kept to herself, but always offered her
neighbors a wave when she saw them out. They
would see her sitting on her front porch with
her cat smoking cigarettes. She would often stop
by the pizza place that was on the corner of
her street. Neighbors remember her for her sense
of style. More than one neighbor mentioned that
she was always very well -dressed. Marisa worked
as a hairdresser at Regis Hairstyles at the Springfield
Mall in Delaware. She had dreams of owning her
own studio one day. Marisa had worked hard to
get here. She had dropped out of school at 16
years old. In order to make money and save for
beauty school, She would be hired for private
parties as an exotic dancer as a young teenager.
She quit dancing when she met her future husband.
Her parents didn't know about this before the
timeline starts. On top of cutting hair, she
would also flip cars. Neighbors said she would
park them in front of her house. She had recently
sold a Volkswagen Jetta and wanted to use part
of the money to take a vacation to the Caribbean.
Marisa was someone who was always fun to be
around. She was the friend that you would call
when you were having a bad day, as she had a
way of making you feel lighter. The conversation
would always end in a good place. Marisa was
extremely loyal, loyal to her family and friends.
She was extremely close to her parents and sister
and protective over her nephew. She talked on
the phone with her family nearly every day. Her
father, Dennis Torrey, says, quote, To raise
a person as precious as Marisa is more than
anything a father could ever wish for. As a young
girl, she would always play with her dolls. She
was into makeup and cosmetology. I'm so proud
that she's gotten as far as she did with her
career. And now a timeline of events. On July
3, 2001, so the day before the 4th of July, this
is the last day that Marisa sees her family.
She had visited her parents and sister in New
Jersey and had spent the day dyeing her sister's
hair. On Monday, July 9, 2001, Marisa talks
on the phone with her husband after 10 p .m.
Again, her husband is serving time in prison.
This is the last known contact that anyone has
with Marisa. The next day, Tuesday, July 10,
2001, Marisa's family start calling her after
9 a .m. which was normal for the tight -knit
family. But what was strange is that no one could
get a hold of Marisa, not her dad or mom or
her sister. Her family grows more and more concerned
throughout the day as each one of their phone
calls goes unanswered. The next day, Wednesday,
July 11, 2001, after not hearing from Marisa,
her father and sister decide to head into Philly
and check on her at her home. They get to her
house around 9 .30 in the morning. They knock
on the doors and windows, but Marisa doesn't
answer. Her younger sister, Nicole, ends up prying
a window open and climbing inside to get in.
She unlocks the front door for her dad and they
start checking the house. As Nicole and Dennis
are checking the house, they make the horrifying
discovery of Marisa. They find her in the basement.
She was lying on her stomach. She had been shot
once in the back of the head and looked as if
she had been beaten. Her hands were tied behind
her back with duct tape. She also had duct tape
on her mouth and ankles. Her pants and underwear
had been pulled down around her knees. Police
respond to a 911 call around 9 .45 a .m. The
neighborhood where Marisa lived was a block
of row homes. There was some drug problems in
the neighborhood, but rarely any violence like
this. When police arrive, they begin to process
the scene. They believe that Marisa had been
dead for more than 24 hours when they found her.
Based on how she was found, they assume that
she had been sexually assaulted. The house is
a mess. It had been ransacked. Captain Thomas
Lippo with the Philadelphia PD says, quote, We're
not sure if there was forced entry at this point.
We can tell you the house appears ransacked.
investigators will have to work through the home
to determine if anything was stolen. However,
they do know right away that her 1999 silver
mercury trace was stolen. She had rented the
car from Alamo Renta Car as she had gotten in
a wreck the week beforehand and was using the
rental car to get around. Her family is shocked
by her murder. Her father says, quote, she was
fragile and little and beautiful and some bastard
took her away from me. Some low life, some son
of a bitch. It is so hard to describe seeing
her there. It's a total loss. I felt empty inside
as if a piece of me was no longer there. We were
very, very close. She's my number one baby. She
always will be. The neighbors are shocked by
the murder of their well -dressed neighbor. A
friend of Marisa's who worked around the corner
at a barber shop says, quote, this is real shocking
that anybody would do that to her. This is a
real calm block. The next day, Thursday, July
12th, Marisa's autopsy is conducted. It confirms
that the cause of death was a bullet to the back
of the head. Her autopsy shows that there were
no apparent signs of sexual assault, but they
are still waiting on further testing. To date,
police have never confirmed if she was or was
not assaulted. but today on their website, they
do not mention sexual assault as part of her
murder. Police don't have any suspects this early
in the investigation, but they are chasing down
some leads. It comes to light that U .S. Marshals
had visited Marisa's home a few weeks before
her murder. They were looking for a fugitive
who had escaped from a halfway house, Patrick
Brown. Brown was an associate of her husband's,
but Marisa had told them that she didn't know
where he was. After her murder, the marshals
returned to the neighborhood, presuming to continue
to search for Brown, but it's never really mentioned
anymore after this. Police are looking into Marisa's
husband's other associates to see if any of them
could have been involved in her murder as part
of retaliation. Marisa's husband had cooperated
with authorities previously, and they thought
that Marisa's murder could be in retaliation
of that. Police are also trying to determine
if the murderer had forced their way inside or
if Marisa had let them in. To date, police have
never been firm on this detail. Another question
that they have, was there only one killer or
multiple? Her father believes that there had
to be more than one person because, quote, she
was physically strong and street smart. On Friday,
July 13th, 2001, so it's been two days since
Marisa was found, and police get a break in
the case. They are able to locate the stolen
rental car. A resident in the Olney neighborhood
spots Marisa’s stolen vehicle and calls police.
The Olney neighborhood, or Olney as I've also
heard it pronounced, is about a 20 -minute drive
north of Marisa's apartment. The neighbor spotted
the car just after 8 a .m. Police tow the vehicle
to a crime lab so techs can go through the car
and try to get any evidence. Police say, quote,
maybe she was transported in the vehicle. Maybe
she was killed in the vehicle. Anything's possible.
We do know that police are able to pull fingerprints
from the car, but to date there has never been
any confirmed matches. Police at this point have
also made progress going through the ransacked
home. Police say that the intruder, or intruders,
seem to focus on the second floor bedroom specifically.
Police say, quote, Her wedding band wasn't there.
Neither was her engagement ring. Marisa was
also known to wear her husband's wedding band
while he was locked up, and this was missing
as well. As the days press on, police announce
that they do have a suspect. It's an associate
of her husband's that is also serving time in
prison. They don't name the suspect, but they
believe he could have targeted Marisa in retaliation
against her husband. Her sister Nicole said,
quote, Police also say that they have other leads
that are pointing them in different directions.
Quote, But no suspect is ever named by police.
No one is ever arrested. The case appears to
go cold very quickly. In February of 2002, so
seven months after the murder, Crime Stop offers
a $2 ,000 reward for information leading to the
arrest of the killer. However, the media really
stops covering her case fairly quickly, and I
couldn't find any updates after 2002. So if you
know anything about the murder of Marisa Rose
in 2001, please call the Philadelphia Police
at 215 -686 -8477. So that is the case of Marisa
Lee Rose. I really loved hearing about Marisa's
aesthetic and personality and what she did for
both what seemed for a living and for joy. I
was happy listening to you talk about her. My
mom was a hairdresser, so I grew up. And I had
a little salon in my childhood home in our basement.
And I just grew up around hairstylists and hairdressers
and in that environment. And it's kind of a whole
culture in its own. So she immediately felt familiar
to me. So it's really sad to me to know that
she's not here anymore because, I don't know,
she sounded awesome, like badass, flipping cars.
going after what she wanted in life. I don't
know. Yeah, I'm sad because, you know, no one
should depart this world in the way that she
did. But with that, you know, I'm very glad to
know this case now. Her father seems like an
incredible advocate for her. So I'm... I'm just
really interested to dig in more about the case
with you. Yeah, this is one of those instances
where I had more information on the person than
the actual crime, which is always a joy in a
lot of ways to know more about the person than
the last days of their life to just really get
a full picture of them. Unfortunately, it's not
the case. Every case we cover, sometimes we know
very little about the victim in the story. But
here with Marisa, I agree. I felt like I got
to know a bit of her and could really sense like
her vibe, you know, like the aura that she would
cast around her. Like I could really feel that
through the way her family talked about her.
You mentioning her family. Yeah, it seemed like
they had an incredible family dynamic. all up
in each other's lives and living near each other
and connected. Honestly, talking about them makes
me want to get into the timeline a bit because
when they show up to her place, when you were
talking about how they just kind of broke in,
I said out loud to myself, of course they did.
It's instinctual. It's automatic. It seemed like
they were that type of family. Like they knew
something was wrong. But I wanted to talk about,
you know, what happened and that moment a little
bit more with you. But if you want to move backwards
a little bit in the timeline, I wanted to clarify
some things. Just the details of what was happening
the day before they got into her place. And,
you know, the last known bits. Yeah, so there's
really not a lot known. We know that her last
contact comes on Monday, July 9th at 10 p .m.
or after 10 p .m., I believe. She was talking
on the phone with her husband. So that is the
last known contact we have. I don't have any
details surrounding what the conversation was
like or, you know, if anything was discussed
that maybe is pertinent to the case. I believe
the phone call would have been recorded since
he's in. So that would have likely been known
to investigators. But then it appears that the
next day, starting very early in the morning,
her family couldn't get a hold of her anymore.
So based off of what police say, when they find
her the next day on July 11th, they believe she
had been dead for over 24 hours at that point.
So that would put time of death roughly. After
the phone call with her husband, like kind of
through that night. So that's what I gather based
off the information. But police never really
officially give a timeline. And her family marks
her date of death as July 11th, the date she
was found. So I do just want to like say that
and honor that. I've spoken about before that
details of cold cases are. I think a baseline,
of course, it's difficult for anyone to digest
and listen to, but everyone has varying levels
of that, and my threshold is just very small.
And this was one of those times. It's almost
like my brain works very, very hard to try to
not comprehend it. like to almost like pretend
it isn't happening. Even though I'm just listening
to you tell me this, immediately I think I try
to protect my mind from that information because
I don't want to think about that. And, you know,
I don't think that they would, you know, listen
to this. Or maybe they do. I don't know. I don't
know how families of... Loved ones in this circumstance
navigate that kind of thing, but I'm just so
sorry. So, so sorry. Because it's, I don't know,
Al, unimaginable. Yeah, Marisa seemed to have
a pretty violent death. And, you know, we know
her family breaks in when they can't get a hold
of her. And I think partly to what would have
motivated them if the house was ransacked, it
likely looked a little chaotic inside, maybe
even from where they could see, you know, on
the front porch. So, you know, it makes complete
sense to me that, you know, her family would
try to get in right away. But it is devastating
that. they were the ones to find her body in
that condition and have to take her in in that
way because it's something that they can never
unsee. So that is deeply devastating. You know,
knowing the details, obviously, you know, sadness
and horror and shock, and I also had the response
of, Very, very heated and enraged, honestly,
which makes me feel motivated to do my own investigating
in this case. And it seems like maybe her case
calls for that. You know, at the very least,
she deserves that, like more energy, a little
bit more eyes on her case. Because it's not that
I want to know specifically who did this. I just
want them held. Which is where I have some more
questions for you, which is what do you think?
To me, it reads as that it was someone that maybe
she knew. I think there's still so much left
to the unknown that it's hard to say. The house
was ransacked. So to me, that's a lot of chaos.
We know it was kind of focused on the second
floor bedroom. Is there in that chaos evidence
of a fight, a physical fight of retaliation?
That's something I have a question about. And,
you know, police have never said if there was
forced entry or, you know, if she could have
let the person in. But this kind of got me spinning
in a whole other direction of there's a lot of
ways to get somebody to open a door and then
force your way in without. breaking a window,
jimmying a lock, you know, kicking in a door,
like those very obvious forces of entry. So I
think sometimes, and I think I'm guilty of this
too, when I'm looking at a case and it says there
were no signs of forced entry, I kind of start
to assume that maybe it was somebody they knew.
But I think there's a lot of ways to get somebody
to open their door without force. You know, I
know it's a rumor, but With the serial killer,
Derek Todd Lee, you know, there was that rumor
that kind of surrounded him that he would play
a baby crying and to get women to open their
door. That's a rumor, but it's very much tied
to his case because of pop culture. But that
kind of stuff happens, like, not all the time,
but someone can yell fire. Someone can knock
on your door and say they're having car trouble.
They need to use a phone, especially in 2001
before cell phones were super prevalent. So there's
just a lot of ways to get someone to open a door.
It just leaves me with a lot of questions, so
I'd love to sit down and just see the case file
and know everything about the case to kind of
see what do investigators know and what do they
not know. Well, you know, I couldn't agree more,
honestly, just listening to you and thinking
about, you know, opening the door to our home.
I'm a pretty... small I'm a pretty petite guy
and if I wasn't uh thinking if I wasn't trying
to you know brace the door yeah a hundred percent
very easily you could be knocked backwards because
you're not trying to stop anything because you
don't know so yeah um thank you for like giving
me a different perspective because again it It
can be so easily pointed, but really, because
there is limited information in this case, especially
details about the timeline, it's a vast possibility.
I'm just very grateful that, again, like I said
earlier, that you brought it to our attention
and that our listeners do what they do and share
it with folks. and get Marisa's name out there.
Yeah, this is definitely a case that I really
hope gains some traction and people start covering
it, people start talking about it and get some
energy behind her case. So that way police will
put some resources towards it and try to open
it back up and get some answers for her family,
for her nephew, for everyone that loved her.
2001 doesn't feel like that long ago. So it definitely
feels like... There's still people out there
who could know something about this case, could
know something, heard something. And you know,
if you're new here and maybe think we shared
too many details about Marisa's case, our thinking
here is that we want to share as much information.
that we can because we never know what someone
might have slipped up and said one night when
they were drunk or on drugs or even sleeping.
We never know what someone will say in rage or
admit things to somebody, like what details will
slip up over the years. So I try to give every
detail that I can as a way to try to bring answers
and closures to the case. But again, if you know
anything about the murder of Marisa in 2001,
please call the Philadelphia Police at 215 -686
-8477. As always, I will be providing graphics
of Marisa. They'll be up on our Instagram, at
coldandmissing. They will also be up on our website,
coldandmissing .com. yes so if you're not following
us please follow us on instagram at cold and
missing not only will we have pictures but also
any updates or if we ever need to skip a week
on the podcast we'll always be sure to update
you there and then also on our website our transcripts
in case you or someone you love is hard of hearing
you can find the official transcripts to all
of our episodes on there um as well as all of
our old episodes and then if you could take a
minute to rate and review our podcast in your
podcast player, five stars, drop us a comment,
wherever you're listening, a thumbs up, a five
stars goes a really long way to getting this
podcast out there and getting Marisa's case
out there. So if this was a case that you hadn't
heard of before, maybe give us a review, maybe
share it on your social network, whatever it
feels good for you, feels good to me. So thank
you. But that is all I have for you today. Thank
you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali. And I'm your co -host,
Eli. Have a good week and stay safe, y 'all.
Stay safe, y 'all.