The Trail Went Cold - Episode 422 - Marlene Santana and Laurence Harding Jr.

October 21, 1985. Brooklyn, New York. Three days after she is born, Marlene Santana is carried out of Brookdale Hospital by her mother, Francesca Santana, before they are confronted by a woman who had been seen hanging around the hospital nursery earlier that night. The woman points a gun at Marlene and orders Francesca to walk six blocks before she abducts the baby and escapes in a car being driven by an accomplice. There is speculation that the woman may have kidnapped Marlene in order to raise the child as her own, but she is never identified and no trace of Marlene is ever found.

June 30, 1944. Chicago, Illinois. Ten-week old Laurence Harding Jr. is taken grocery shopping by his mother, but shortly after they return home, Laurence is abducted from his baby carriage by two teenage girls who had been eyeing him at the market. Four decades later, Laurence’s brother obtains the original FBI file from the investigation and learns that a pair of railroad porters at a train station in St. Louis, Missouri had spoken to a woman carrying a baby four days after Laurence’s disappearance. The woman claimed that the child was given to her by a teenage girl at a train station in Chicago and she was planning to take him to Magnolia, Arkansas, but while it is suspected this baby might have been Laurence, he is never recovered.

On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore two unsolved cases involving abducted infants who have may have been unknowingly raised under false identities following their disappearances.

if you happen to have any information about the disappearance of Marlene Santana, please contact the New York City Police Department Missing Persons Squad at (212) 694-7781.

Additional Reading:

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Marlene_Santana

https://unsolved.com/gallery/marlene-santana/

https://charleyproject.org/case/marlene-santana

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/10/24/Police-find-one-of-two-stolen-babies/2793498974400/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/709783318/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/491373321/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/491376220/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/406642817/

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/02/nyregion/crime-update-85-kidnapping-of-newborn-baby-is-still-a-mystery.html

https://unsolved.com/gallery/laurence-harding-jr/

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Laurence_Harding_Jr.

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The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.