Photo: Catherine Townsend via Twitter
It's been 14 years.
By Sarah Gangraw — Written on Oct 26, 2018
The unsolved murder of Rebekah Gould has haunted private investigator Catherine Townsend for 14 years. She hopes her investigative podcast Hell and Gone will uncover the truth about the death of the 22-year-old college student — and finally bring her killer to justice.
According to the show's preview episode, the true crime podcast will “take listeners through a real-time murder investigation as Townsend and her team interview new witnesses, unearth evidence and leave no stone unturned on their hunt for Gould’s killer."
Over a decade has passed since Rebekah was found dead on the side of Highway 9, just south of Melbourne, Arkansas.
"The murder has become one of the most notorious cold cases in the region but for me, this case is personal," Townsend said. "I have a long history with this area... Rebekah's murder continued to haunt me."
Townsend's ties with the little Arkansas town sparked her interest in Rebekah's death. Her sister went to high school with Rebekah's younger sister and her father is a deputy sheriff in the Melbourne area where the blonde-haired young woman went missing.
The first episode of her podcast debuted on Oct. 17 and is the beginning of an eight-part series that details Townsend's journey as she looks further into the Arkansas murder. The podcast, produced by School of Humans in partnership with iHeartRadio and HowStuffWorks, will release new episodes every Wednesday.
Rebekah's body was found on Sept. 27, 2004, a week after she was reported missing when she didn't return to college. She was staying at her boyfriend's place over the weekend and drove him to work on Sept. 20 and was killed later that day, KAIT8 reported. Her cause of death was determined to be a blow to the head.
Rebekah's killer has never been caught. Many leads have been followed but to no avail, and the case went cold.
"I couldn't figure it out," she said. "If everyone in town thought they knew who killed Rebekah, why hadn't her case been solved?"
Townsend went to the Ozarks a few months ago to look for anything that could shed light on the college student's murder and said that her interest in Rebekah's case became an obsession. She's still there, searching, investigating, and questioning locals.
"I'm not stopping until I get justice for Rebekah," she said.
Townsend and her crew focus on the last days of Rebekah's life in this first broadcast. They meet with those who Townsend believes know most about Rebekah — her sister Danielle, her father Larry, and local journalist George Jared.
"Since we have no forensics and so few details have been revealed about this case, we have to focus on victimology," Townsend said. "We have to enter the mind of the crime victim so that we can understand the relationship with her killer or killers. To understand her death, we have to go back to the last weekend of her life."
Although Rebekah's case is still considered an active investigation, authorities have not come any closer to solving it. By talking to those who were close to Rebekah, as well as the journalist who saw her body when it was found and locals, Townsend hopes to change that.
“It’s a small town, and I know someone has a secret that will break this case wide open,” Townsend says in a promotional trailer for the podcast, adding that "not everybody wants to talk, or wants this case solved.”
She has made it her life mission to find Rebekah's killer and bring peace to her loved ones.
The Arkansas State Police and the Izard County Sheriff’s Department ask anyone with information about this case to contact them at (800) 553-3820 or (870) 368-4203. Tips can be sent to info@asp.arkansas.gov.
Sarah Gangraw writes about all things news, entertainment and crime. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.