The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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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.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm Ali.
And I'm Eli.
And we're back at Cold and Missing on our 43rd episode.
That's correct, episode 43.
Wow.
What'd you say?
Wow.
I thought you said, well.
I was like, oh, we're just going to go right into getting started, okay.
But I love that energy.
I think people enjoy that we get right to it.
Well, with that said, would you like to get us started?
Yeah, let's just get into it.
Okay, great.
Episode 43.
Ah, this is a missing persons case, correct?
All right, let's do it.
So today I have for you a missing persons case.
And this is the case of Nefertiti Trader.
And this takes place in June of 2014 in Newcastle, Delaware.
But first a little bit about Nefertiti.
Nefertiti, or Neffie, as her family and friends call her, is 33 years old in 2014.
She was born February 21st, 1981, and she would be 42 years old today.
Neffie is a loving mother of three and is extremely close with her family.
She talks with her mother every day, multiple times a day.
Her cousin, William Trader, said she was, quote, an outgoing person.
She is real fun to be around.
And if you don't like her, you will love to not like her.
She is a real good person, end quote.
Nefertiti is described as an outgoing people person who lived life to the fullest.
At this time in 2014, she was on medical leave from her custodial job at Christiana Hospital
as she was about to undergo a medical procedure.
Neffie lived in a duplex in the Saddlebrook community in Newcastle, Delaware.
This subdivision is a big square with an empty field in the middle.
And there is only one way in and one way out.
So the way you come in is the way you have to exit.
There's just one road that runs through the subdivision.
And now a timeline of events.
On Sunday, June 29th, 2014, I couldn't find a lot of details surrounding Neffie's movements
earlier in the day.
But what we do know is that in the evening, she took her cousin, William, who also lived
with her, to work, and when she returned home, she watched the BET Awards.
After the award show ends, her and her mother, Denise Trader, talk on the phone to discuss
the award show.
Now it's unclear if Neffie goes to sleep or if she has insomnia, but early the next morning,
so this would be Monday, June 30th, 2014, around 3.30am, Neffie leaves her home to go
to a nearby 7-Eleven.
It was about a 7 minute drive from her home.
According to her family, it was normal for her to go to 7-Eleven to get coffees for her
and her daughter.
Police are able to confirm that Neffie does go to the 7-Eleven and buys a pack of Newport
cigarettes, two coffees, and a loaf of bread.
There is no surveillance footage of her at the 7-Eleven, but she was a regular there
and the clerk recognized her in her pink sweatsuit.
The clerk did say that it was unusual for Neffie to be there at 7-Eleven at that time.
Neffie's two oldest teenage children were at the home during this outing.
Her 17-year-old son heard a noise early in the morning and went downstairs to investigate
but didn't see anything, so he went back to bed.
At around 4am, a neighbor, his name is Joe Robinson, he happened to be up at that time
and he noticed that Neffie's front porch light lit up.
When he went to go look out the second-story window, he saw someone dragging Neffie into
her 2000 Acura RL and putting her in the back seat.
The person was wearing tan shorts and a black hoodie.
By the time Joe got downstairs, the car is gone.
Joe says that he hesitated calling police because he was unsure if someone was sick
and was taken to the hospital.
He says, quote, had I known something was going on like that, I wouldn't have hesitated.
It bothers me.
I hope they find her.
End quote.
According to Officer Tracy Duffy with the New Castle County Police, quote, the witness
saw her speaking to someone, but they weren't able to tell if it was a male or female, and
then they forced her into the vehicle.
End quote.
As the day breaks, on June 30th, Neffie's family began calling her as this was their
usual routine.
When her mother is unable to get a hold of her, she thinks that maybe Neffie had returned
to work early and this would explain why her cell phone was off.
Denise decides to head over to Neffie's house around 6 p.m. that day when she would have
normally returned home from work.
When her mother arrives at Neffie's house, she notices several strange things.
She finds a loaf of bread that someone had stepped on in the front yard.
On the front porch are two coffees, a pack of Newports, and an unopened condom on a chair.
And then Neffie's flip flops were laying near each other by the front door.
But there are no signs of Nefertiti at her home.
Her mother is worried since Neffie is not home and her car is gone.
Denise decides to return to her home and try Neffie's cell phone one more time.
When she doesn't pick up, Denise reports her missing at 9.37 p.m.
Now presumably from here, the police do begin to investigate, but the next update we get
is July 2nd, so this would just be two days after her abduction.
Police have been unable to track down Neffie's car.
After the vehicle left her home, it was seen on surveillance footage passing a nearby Verizon
store, but this is the last time that the vehicle is caught on surveillance.
And to date, the car has never been found.
Police ask for the public's help in looking for Neffie's car.
On July 15th, so this is just 15 days, Officer Tracy Duffy says, quote, we think that she
knew her abductor, but we can't rule out that it was a stranger, end quote.
So the summer comes and goes, and then the next update I could find is in October of
that same year, so this would be three months after Nefretiti's abduction.
Police at this time have no strong leads and no solid information, according to Tracy Duffy.
There is a rumor that Neffie's cell phone was powered on a few weeks after her abduction
and then powered off again very quickly, but police refuse to confirm or deny this rumor.
On Monday, November 17th, 2014, so this is four and a half months now, Denise Trader,
Neffie's mom, speaks out in the local media against the New Castle County police claiming
that they are not doing enough to find her daughter.
Denise says, quote, it eats me up a whole lot.
There's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder where she's at and when she'll be
back, end quote.
Police say the case is still open and active, but Denise spends most of her free time driving
around looking for Neffie's car.
Denise believes that if you find the car, you'll find Neffie.
On Saturday, February 21st, 2015, this is almost eight months Nefretiti has been gone,
family gather for what should have been Neffie's 34th birthday.
Nefretiti and her mother Denise share birthdays, so they usually had a family dinner together
and then the family went out to celebrate the mother daughter duo.
But this year's gathering is much more subdued.
Police says, quote, I talk to her all the time.
I tell her, get ready to get home, baby.
Get prepared, end quote.
Police do say that since Neffie's abduction, there have been no cell phone activity and
no bank activity.
In June of 2015, so this is one year now, the FBI get involved and they offer a $30,000
reward for information leading to Neffie.
Neffie's cousin, Corey Trader, says, quote, we need to know if Nef's alive.
We need to know if she's gone.
It's just hard to have that lingering over your head.
It's been a year.
You know, Nef done missed her birthday and her kids birthdays, end quote.
Police say her car is still missing and they don't have any leads and there aren't any
tips coming in regarding the case.
And then it appears that the case does get pretty cold.
The next update I could find came from 2017.
So this would be three years that Nefertiti has been gone.
And the FBI believe that she is deceased and she's declared legally dead.
And this is just three years after her abduction.
In February of 2018, despite the hearing that declared Neffie as legally dead, Denise, her
mother still believes that her daughter is alive.
Denise has heard rumors that a woman was seen in Wilmington, Delaware that looked like Neffie.
She says, quote, I've heard that some girl has been spotted in Shop Right over on South
Market Street.
Some girl who resembles her has been spotted over there, end quote.
And now this piece is not necessarily connected to Nefertiti's case, at least not officially,
but it did seem relevant to share in the timeline of events.
So in November of 2020, a man named Roddy Prince is on trial for shooting five of his
coworkers, three of which died in 2017.
After killing his coworkers in Maryland, he drove to Delaware to try and kill a business
owner.
He does end up shooting this man, but he survives.
During the trial, it is revealed that on February 22nd, 2014, Roddy Prince was jumped outside
of Club Rebel early in the morning and Neffie was a witness to this.
Neffie was with Roddy during the attack.
They had been sitting in her car when five or six men pulled Prince from the passenger
seat and attacked him.
Neffie told police that she couldn't see any of the attackers because the attack happened
towards the back of her vehicle and on the ground.
After the attack, Roddy Prince admits that everything changed for him and he became suspicious
of everyone.
He believed that the men who attacked him and Neffie were paid by the local businessman
to attack him.
This is the same man that Roddy will try to shoot and kill in 2017.
Neffie would go missing four months after this attack in 2014, but Prince has never been
charged in relation to her disappearance.
But that is the last update that I could find for Nefertiti Trader.
If you know anything about the abduction of Nefertiti Trader or her whereabouts today,
you are encouraged to call the New Castle County Cold Case Squad at 302-395-2781.
And the sources for the timeline today come from the News Journal, ABC 6, ABC 7, and News
1.
So that is the case of Nefertiti Trader.
Thank you for bringing this case to light.
Like I say, I think pretty much every episode at this point, I don't understand how I haven't
heard about it.
And I don't understand how this isn't solved.
I was shocked like kind of continuously when you kept saying 2014.
And that it aligned so close with something pretty terrible happening a few months prior
directly relating to her.
Yeah, I mean, a lot jumped out immediately.
But honestly, the most disturbing thing was my body had a full reaction when you said
the loaf of bread was stepped on and that there was a condom there.
I was just like the mark of the bread of a foot step in the foot imprint in the bread.
To me, like that sounds like a struggle.
And then the this my body like, it was like repulsed, I think.
Because I was like, that's fucking planned.
And that's disgusting.
I just was upset because, well, I was scared listening to you tell me that.
So I was just listening to it, so I imagine that she was probably really scared.
It was really scary, like hearing what you said.
I guess I wanted to know like what you thought like, how is this not solved?
I don't understand.
Yeah, there's a lot of questions.
The event that happened about four months before she disappeared.
I could only find one news source that talked about this or that made this connection.
So that was the news journal.
So just a shout out to the news journal and their writing.
Yeah, thank you.
I mean, but they made this connection.
And they're the only ones that I found that wrote about it in this way.
But it does seem like this would be a place to begin an investigation.
And a huge place.
Yeah.
I was like, how is it not?
Right.
Because, you know, the officer, the spokesperson officer, Tracy Duffy, did say that they believed
that the abductor was known to her.
And there are a couple of clues at the crime scene that kind of indicate this.
Like, the coffees were not spilled, right?
They were set down.
So that would indicate that she either, you know, got to the front door, set them down,
or she felt comfortable enough to like talk to someone and set them down.
There's a lot of questions too, because no other car was seen.
Because there is a witness in this, the neighbor who lived a few houses down, it seems like,
herself of the description, saw the abduction take place, and there was no other car mentioned,
at least to the media.
There was no other car mentioned.
So this person, whoever did this, how did they get there?
That's a big question that I have.
That's what I think that's why I was emphasizing the planned part.
It's like, were you watching?
But again, it was kind of odd for her to be out at that hour.
So was there a planned meeting?
Was she going to meet somebody?
Was somebody going to swing by to talk?
That's what I meant, I guess, more to emphasize again, that it's very scary.
It's like, was that person in one place for multiple days watching and waiting?
Totally, yeah.
That's what I'm saying.
But I also think it's a great point that what you, like what you just said, I mean, there's
tons of ways it could have happened that this person, you know, what seems like just appeared
or whatever.
And one person saw it.
But like, if it's dark, they said they couldn't tell the gender of the person.
Like that person, you know, if they had brought a condom that was maybe going to be used to
like prevent DNA or whatever, maybe they were wearing gloves too, you know, so.
Yeah, her cigarettes, her shoes and the coffees were found on the porch table.
Oh, her shoes.
Her shoes were found.
Her shoes were up on the table?
They weren't up on the table.
They were like kind of kicked off near the front door, but they were near each other.
They weren't like scattered around the front yard.
They were near each other by the front door.
Yeah, it was it what what it sounds like to me is that she basically like completely disarmed
herself as if she was about to walk inside, like put everything like kicked off her shoes,
set like the stuff down to open the door.
And that's like, maybe where.
Yeah, the family did think it was strange that the shoes were on the outside.
That was weird to them.
And out of the normal, like she wouldn't leave her shoes on the front porch.
Like her shoes would be inside.
Oh, God.
So that's even more disturbing.
There's yeah, there's like I thought that like maybe she was sitting down, having a
cigarette, drinking her coffee and somebody that she knew was like, oh, hey, right.
Stop by whatever.
Because her family said she wouldn't talk to somebody she didn't know at this hour.
Like they were pretty sure about that, that if some stranger had just like start talking
to her, she wouldn't have engaged this person.
That doesn't mean that either.
I would have immediately walked inside at 3am outside of our home.
Right.
No, I would walk in, lock my door.
I'm not doing it.
Right.
And I mean, maybe that is what happened, because also there's the idea like maybe she was just
walking to the front door, put the coffees down on the front porch table, get her keys,
unlock the door, and then somebody like grabs her, snatches her out of her shoes, essentially.
And the struggle happens.
She has the bread in her hand because she's still trying.
She was unlocking the door.
She kept that that gets stepped on.
She gets put in her car.
But this person, whoever did this, like they are banking that, you know, she has her keys
on her.
They're able to get the car keys from her.
Like it's there are elements of it that seemed very preplanned, but then also elements of
it that it's like this was just like sheer randomness.
Like, yeah, it could be.
I mean, it's speculative.
There could be so many things.
Right.
But it seems like to me, the biggest lead at this point would be speaking to Roddy Prince.
In her home, I'm sorry to interrupt, but just before we keep moving on in her home, she
lived with her mother, sister, or she lived alone.
So she lived with her children, two of which were home at this time.
And she usually brought a coffee home for her daughter.
OK.
And her 17 year old son did hear a commotion early in the morning, went downstairs, didn't
see anything and went back to bed.
We don't know.
And then her cousin also lived with her, but he was at work during this time, I believe.
And I don't know the timeline as far as the kids go, because I assume they wake up and
they know their mom's not there.
They would be confused.
But you said her nephew lived with her?
Her cousin.
Who is her cousin?
That's her cousin William.
She had dropped him off at work earlier that evening.
Yeah, to emphasize the theory of it was a it was possibly a planned attack.
They are with knowing that information about her cousin William, they're banking on the
fact that an adult male won't be in the home who's working a third shift.
And if he's where does he work?
I couldn't find that information.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, third shift at that time.
I'm just going to like based on like statistics, I'm going to go ahead and assume that maybe
Williams a big dude, you know, like because the fact that there is like a young son there.
I mean, I don't know physically know these people.
But like, if you're banking on it, if you're if you if you know, OK, she lives with a couple
of people who's going to be home, oh, this guy's going to be out of there.
This is a good time.
Everyone's going to be asleep.
You know, like rarely is she home alone.
And this is like the best case scenario of being alone when people are kind of incapacitated
by sleep and, you know, the biggest person isn't around and not really that I'm leaning
towards like gender.
It's more just like size.
Mm hmm.
Yeah, I agree with you.
I think that's all makes a lot of sense.
And then the question just like that remains in that scenario is like, how do you get her
outside?
How do you make sure she goes to the 7-Eleven?
How do you you know, how do you get her outside of her home?
Mm hmm.
Yeah, that's why I think that quite possibly because it is three thirty a.m. and everyone
is kind of saying the odd thing about it all is like, yes, it's yes, it's commonplace
for her to be going to the 7-Eleven.
Yes.
The things that she buys.
Yes, yes, yes.
I don't think that second coffee was for her daughter.
I think the second coffee was for someone that she was meeting up with.
And that person is.
Yeah, and you know, her cell phone being taken and that.
You know, I think that would have a lot of evidence on it.
Who was the last person to contact her?
And I don't know if they why they wouldn't be able to get that information from the cell
phone carrier themselves.
You know what I mean?
Mm hmm.
To be able to pull that data of like the last phone numbers or the last texts.
I feel like they should have been able to do this in 2014 and maybe they have and they
just haven't released that information.
And I understand that, again, like that there's emphasis on keeping things under wraps.
I understand that.
But.
But me and my Nancy Drew, like this is where I would start.
And like these are the things that I would want to like check off my list to like.
No, because the attack seems targeted, but so chaotic and random.
The stepped on bread, that's the it's so careless.
Another thing that wasn't mentioned that I just have questions about is if the loaf
of bread was in a plastic bag and if so, what happened to that plastic bag?
Because they don't mention it at the crime scene.
It doesn't mean that it wasn't there.
Maybe it just wasn't like that significant, but.
Well, yeah, and if there was a blueprint in it, there's got to be a label in it.
Like bread is a perfect medium to catch like, you know, like a Nike print that's in the
bottom of.
Yeah, or even just some tread marks.
Exactly.
It's really sad that there was a delay in getting the police involved in this.
It also really points to the possibility of it being personal because cigarettes are left
behind shoes, coffee, like they don't take anything.
They don't even go in the house.
No, it was about her.
And the car has never been found to date her home, like just looking in Google Maps, it
is not far from the Delaware River.
So I don't I couldn't find any reports that the river had ever been searched for a vehicle
or what's like what's what's the terrain?
Or I mean, like, I guess I'm wondering, does it like rush really fast?
Like if a car were to go in, is it going to dump over to a place where like it would be
really hard to find it?
I don't know.
I think a lot of it depends on where it goes into the river, how deep it is at that part.
What kind of car is it?
It is a silver 2000 Acura RL with Delaware license plates.
Like a sedan like just like a four door.
Yeah, four door sedan.
I have never found any evidence that it was searched in regards to Nefertiti's disappearance.
But her family is holding out hope that she is alive and that she will come back to them.
And again, if you know anything about Nefertiti's abduction in 2014 or her whereabouts today,
you are encouraged to call the Newcastle County cold case unit at 302-395-2781.
Wow, thanks for bringing this case to light.
Yeah, and her case has been covered by other podcasts before.
We're not the first.
Usually we are, but in this case, we are not the first.
But that's great.
I'm glad we're yeah, joining the ranks.
I hope that like even if you're listening to us, you go and listen to the other episodes
to other podcasts who are doing it too, because it'll the name will start to like circulate.
That's the thing is that like, if people are pressing play, even if it's not just on ours,
that name, it'll appear in other algorithms.
And you know, while you're getting ready to go maybe to that other podcast, if you could
just give us a five stars a thumbs up.
If you're an Apple podcast, if you could write us a review, doing that actually really benefits
the work that we're trying to do here as far as getting the names out there.
The more written reviews we have an Apple podcast, the more we pop up to other potential
listeners who might be interested in this content, and the more likely they are to click
and listen if there's good reviews from our wonderful listeners.
And we've gotten so many over the past few weeks.
Thank you so much.
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So with that, have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
Stay safe, y'all.
Bye.