255 - The Murder of Maggie Long

March 14, 2026·1 hr 51 min·5 clips

Maggie's sister Connie described standing in the school auditorium watching the door, knowing something was terribly wrong before anyone confirmed it.

Maggie Long was seventeen. The episode opens with a plain, painful picture of who she was: smart, driven, compassionate, and tied closely to the people around her. Then the mood shifts. The case stops feeling like a clear investigation and starts feeling like a fight for basic answers. No suspect had emerged. Interviews and DNA collection, according to the account, had not produced a lead or even much direction. Some people were ruled out, but the official speaking publicly would not say who they were or how they entered the case. The community wanted clarity. What it got instead was talk of tactics, withheld timeline details, and warnings that disclosure could hurt the investigation. The host lets that phrasing sit there, dry and uneasy. The autopsy report still had not been released. Park County Coroner Dr. Kin was described as no longer asking for cooperation, but weighing legal action to force disclosure. He felt vindicated after the sheriff's office and DA Molly Chilson acknowledged his account of requests to delay the report. The roadblock sounds bureaucratic, which almost makes it worse. The host argues that the case keeps running into secrecy and odd official decisions, not some brilliant scheme or simple lack of evidence. Maggie stays at the center, while the investigation around her becomes harder and harder to explain.

As heard by us

A grave portrait of Maggie Long, with dignity held against delay and unanswered questions.

Trace Evidence treats the murder of 17-year-old Maggie Long as a loss first and a case second, and that choice gives the episode its force. It spends time on who she was - smart, driven, compassionate - and on the reach she already had in her community, which makes the grief…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a careful true-crime account that centers Maggie Long.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Trace Evidence