Introducing COLD: The Search for Sheree
11:26 Share

Hey there, it's Kristen, host of Murder, She Told. I want to tell you about the hit podcast, Cold. This season, the host, Dave Crawley, investigates the disappearance of Cherie Warren, a young mother looking for a fresh start. Recently divorced, she had moved back in with her family, found a great new job, and even a new boyfriend.

Her life was turning around and she was happy for the first time in a long time. But on a mild October evening after work, Cherie said goodbye to her co-workers, left the office, and was never heard from again. All eyes quickly turned towards her ex-husband. He had a history of violence and had previously lured another woman into the woods and beat her with a tire iron.

But there was also another man that piqued the interest of investigators. Cherie's new boyfriend, a former reserve police officer who also had a dark history of sexual violence. The two men closest to Cherie swore they loved her and promised to protect her. But did one of them murder her? I'm about to play a clip from Cold, The Search for Cherie. While you're listening, follow Cold wherever you get podcasts.

On the morning of Friday, June 4th, 1971.

She was on her way to meet the strange man who had for weeks been calling her, demanding they go on a date. I can't see it, but I'm doing air quotes. She turned right off the highway at the entrance to the Meadows campground, crossed a short bridge over the river, barely more than a creek, really, and stopped next to a camper trailer on the far side. A pair of sheriff's deputies dressed as fishermen stepped out to greet her. And I said, what should I do? And he said, just pull across the street.

and then leave the Jeep parked, like, just sideways. You know what I mean? As Heidi's describing this to me decades later, she's using her hands to show the positions of her Jeep and the trailer, how the deputies told her to park next to them, but to reverse out after the caller arrived and passed by her position to block him from getting back across the bridge to the road. She was the cheese on the mousetrap.

They said, make sure when he comes up, identify, make sure that he's the right person. Two miles down the canyon, back in the direction of Huntsville, her husband, John Posneen, waited at another campground called Magpie. The sheriff was with him, along with the deputy, Halver Bailey. They all watched the highway as the clock ticked toward the time for Heidi's date to arrive.

A little after 10 a.m., a red and white half-ton pickup truck passed Magpie going up the canyon toward Meadows. John Posney saw a logo printed on the truck's door. And the dummy, he was driving his dad's business truck. It said Hartman Plumbing. And when they drove past Magpie, John said he immediately knew who it was. Hartman Plumbing and Heating belonged to a man named Bill Hartman.

John knew Bill. They had golfed together at the Ogden Golf and Country Club. Bill was also a fellow member of the Weber Club. The caller had told Heidi he had seen her at the Weber Club. It clicked for John. He recognized the man at the wheel of the pickup as Bill Hartman's oldest son, Kerry Hartman. The sheriff tried to radio the two undercover deputies who were with Heidi at Meadows to let them know the caller would soon reach them. But the radio didn't work in the narrow canyon.

Heidi had no idea who the young man in the pickup truck was when he turned off the highway, drove across the bridge, and stopped next to her jeep. No, because I never paid any attention to him before. I didn't notice him before. The young man rolled down his window. Heidi saw he had brown hair, green eyes, and appeared clean-cut, like a cop or military man. Kind of forgettable.

He says, "Hi." I can't remember exactly. And then I said, "Why would you pick on an old lady like me?" And then he made some remark that I was sexy or pretty or something, you know. You're not an old lady at this point, though, right? No, gosh, no. But I was way older than he was. I already had kids, you know, teenagers. So, yeah, I was an old lady. Kerry Hartman was 22 to Heidi's 36. And he kept looking at that trailer and was getting a little nervous.

And he said, "I'm going to pull up there. Why don't you follow me up there?" By "up there," Kerry meant farther into the campground, behind a line of trees out of sight of the road. He drove past her up around a bend. Heidi put her Jeep in reverse, pulled out and blocked the narrow road just as the deputies had instructed. She then leapt from the Jeep and rushed into the safety of their trailer. The deputies told her to stay put, then went to stand next to the Jeep.

Heidi poured herself a cup of coffee with shaking hands. She listened for the sound of the pickup. It returned after a few minutes. Heidi peeked out the window as the deputies pulled Kerry out of the truck and placed him under arrest. They frisked him, finding a small knife in his pocket. Then they tried to call their backup down at the Magpie campground, only to discover their radios didn't work in the canyon either.

So the deputies piled into Carrie's truck and drove it, and him, down the canyon to meet with the sheriff. I stayed a while because I was all nervous, I guess, whatever. I'd had my coffee, and then I got in the Jeep, and I drove down, and they were already gone. Only later did Heidi learn from her husband, John, what had happened when Carrie had arrived in handcuffs at Magpie.

John, she told me, had turned to the sheriff. He says, boy, I'd sure like to smack him in the mouth. And he says, well, we looked the other way. So they had him already out, and John punched him. And he was embarrassed. He looked down, and he says, I wish you had a gun and shoot me. Really? Yeah, he said that because he was embarrassed. He was ashamed. John Posnien had punched Carrie Hartman in the face while the sheriff and his deputies looked the other way.

Needless to say, this wasn't legal. The deputies had then taken Kerry to the Weber County Jail in Ogden, where they'd booked him on suspicion of making threatening phone calls. A minor misdemeanor charge that didn't quite match the gravity of the whole situation. Kerry provided a handwritten statement admitting to what had happened.

That's not Kerry's voice, but they are his words read by a voice actor. Even today, Heidi downplays the seriousness of what happened. Well, because he really hadn't done anything other than met me.

But I'm here to tell you, there was something much more ominous behind those phone calls. Something that makes Heidi's mouth go dry and her hands fidget when she really stops to think about it. This season isn't about Heidi Posnien. As I said earlier, it's about the disappearance of Cherie Warren. But there's a reason we're starting with Heidi instead of Cherie. It's because Cary Hartman, the man who tried to lure Heidi up that canyon, would years later meet, befriend,

and Woo Sheree Warren. Our story begins with a phone call. A voice on the phone said I was sexy. He had made literally thousands of those types of calls. He follows the women, gets to know them, and then hits them. Then... Don't report no body that I found. Everything... There are a lot of missing girls. ...escalates. She was beaten, stabbed until the knife broke, and then shot twice in the head.

Sheree Warren disappeared in the fall of 1985. Her friends and family say she's not the type to just run away. She wouldn't leave her child. No one can say just what happened to Sheree. No one's faced charges for her disappearance. Not her ex-husband, Chuck Warren. Money was a big issue to Chuck. He told her, if I can't have you, nobody's going to. And not Sheree's boyfriend, Carrie Hartman.

I remember her saying, be careful with him. He had two dispositions. Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde. He could be the nicest guy you ever wanted to meet, but he also had that sinister side. Hey, Prime members, you can binge all 10 episodes of Cold, The Search for Cherie, ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. I'm sending my Aunt Tina money directly to her bank account in the Philippines with Western Union. Oh!

She's the self-proclaimed bingo queen of Manila. And I know better to interrupt her on bingo night, even to pick up cash. Sending money direct to her bank account is super fast, and Aunt Tina gets more time to be the bingo queen. Western Union. Send money in-store directly to their bank accounts in the Philippines. Services offered by Western Union Financial Services, Inc., NMLS number 906983, or Western Union International Services, LLC, NMLS number 906985. Licensed as money transmitters by the New York State Department of Financial Services. See terms for details.