Trail Off Tuesdays: The Vanishing of John and Giannina

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Two bright children vanish without a trace on their way to a Puerto Rican beach, leaving behind bedrooms that would remain untouched for nearly 50 years. This is the haunting mystery of John and Janina Colonna.

Someone, somewhere, knows what happened to John and Janina Colonna. If you have any information about this case, no matter how small, please come forward. After nearly 50 years, this family deserves answers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome back to Trail of Tuesdays, your weekly detour
into the bizarre, themysterious and the sadly true.
Today's story takes us toPuerto Rico in 1974, where two
siblings bright, curious andinseparable set out for a sunny

(00:40):
afternoon at the beach.
But they never made it there.
What followed was decades ofsearching, rumors and heartbreak
.
This is the unsolveddisappearance of John and Janina
Colonna.
John Sr, a French-American inhis 50s, met 19-year-old Puerto

(01:20):
Rican Noemia Ponte in the 1960s.
Despite their age gap, theysoon built a family and their
son, john, was born in 1962.
Janina followed just over ayear later.
The kids were incredibly close,just a year apart, speaking

(01:41):
four languages fluently English,spanish, french and Italian.
By all accounts, they werewell-educated, well-loved and
always together.
It was a warm Sunday in Lukiloon 5th of May 1974.

(02:04):
A perfect beach weather.
The children left home to meeta family friend who was taking
them and her own kids to LukiloBeach, a mile-long stretch of
golden sand and coconut palmsgolden sand and coconut palms.

(02:27):
When Noemi arrived later topick them up, the friend told
her something unthinkable thechildren had never shown up.
Noemi called the policeimmediately and a large search
began, with officers andvolunteers combing the beach,
nearby trails and roads.
Even Interpol was notified, yetthere were no witnesses, no

(02:50):
belongings left behind and nosigns of where they'd gone.
The case quickly became afrustrating mix of urgency and
silence, with police revealingalmost nothing to the family or
the public.
Then, eight months later, aneighbor named Thomas Rodriguez

(03:13):
died by suicide in Florida andinvestigators claimed he left a
note saying the Colonna childrenhad been kidnapped for ransom
with help from a localbusinessman.
But that note was never madepublic and no one was arrested.

(03:34):
And rumours spread that theneighbour's death wasn't even
suicide at all, that there wereno fingerprints on the gun and
the letter might have beenplanted.
Some even suspected thechildren were taken as a warning
to John Senior, who wasrumoured, without proof, to have

(03:54):
ties to organised crime.
Yet no threats were ever madepublic.
Then, in the early 2000s, ayoung woman came forward
convinced she was Janina.
It was the first real hope inyears.
Noemi even agreed to have herlate husband's remains exhumed

(04:18):
for testing.
She also handed over thechildren's baby teeth for a DNA
comparison.
But the result?
That woman wasn't Janina.
But that test revealedsomething no one expected John
Sr was not the biological fatherof either child.

(04:42):
This discovery shifted the focus.
Investigators looked again atthe possibility of family
members' involvement, evenquestioning Noemi extensively,
but she passed all polygraphsand maintained her innocence.
Sadly, the paternity twistdistracted from the original

(05:03):
question what happened to Johnand Giannina that day?
John Sr died of cancer in 1982,never knowing the truth, but
Noemi kept searching for decades, even as her own health
declined.
She even kept her children'sbedrooms exactly as they were on

(05:30):
the day.
They vanished, frozen in timefor nearly 50 years.
Noemi passed away in April 2023, without answers.
The disappearance of John andJanina is still officially

(05:56):
unsolved.
Potential evidence, likeRodriguez's alleged letter,
remains to this day hidden fromthe public.
This is a mystery where timehasn't brought clarity, only
more questions.
If you know anything about thedisappearance of John and Janina
Colon, no matter how small,please share it.

(06:20):
Someone somewhere knows thetruth.
Until next time, stay safe andstay curious.
¶¶, ¶¶, thank you.