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Speaker 1: In southwest Vermont, in the United States. It was sometime

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Speaker 1: around three pm on December first, nineteen forty six, when

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Speaker 1: a truck pulled up to the bottom of the long

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Speaker 1: Trail road a few miles east from the town of Bennington,

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Speaker 1: at the edge of the Green Mountains National Forest. A

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Speaker 1: light snow had just begun to fall as a young

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Speaker 1: woman with dark blonde hair wearing a red Parker jacket,

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Speaker 1: blue jeans, and white trainers jumped out. She thanked the

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Speaker 1: driver for the lift, then shut the door and continued

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Speaker 1: on foot down the mile and a half stretch of road,

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Speaker 1: leading her deeper and deeper into the forest. On and

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Speaker 1: on she walked, as the snow continued to fall, her

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Speaker 1: hands thrust into the pockets of that red Parker jacket.

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Speaker 1: From off in the distance, the sound of a car

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Speaker 1: approaching draws nearer and nearer. The young woman walking in

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Speaker 1: the red Parker, now just an imperceptible echo from another time,

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Speaker 1: vanishes as the dopplers swoosh of the car rushes past.

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Speaker 1: At the wheel is twenty seven year old Robert Singly,

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Speaker 1: a music composition teacher from Bennington College. It is now

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Speaker 1: late September twenty eight Singly parks up at the end

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Speaker 1: of the road and jumps out at the vehicle. He

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Speaker 1: grabs a rucksack from the back packed with a small

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Speaker 1: lunch for his walk, Then, after taking a deep breath

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Speaker 1: of the wet, pine scented air, he places a wooly

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Speaker 1: hat on his head and sets off into the trees.

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Speaker 1: A few hours later, after eating lunch on the slope

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Speaker 1: of Bald Mountain, roughly two miles from his car, Singly

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Speaker 1: continues on the same path for another mile or so

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Speaker 1: before deciding to head back the way he came. But

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Speaker 1: as he walks, it appears to Singly that something strange

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Speaker 1: has happened. Where before the path was clear, a fallen

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Speaker 1: tree now lies strewn across it. Singly turns to examine

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Speaker 1: the path behind him, then looks back to the tree,

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Speaker 1: running his eyes over its soaking, wet, moss covered bark

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Speaker 1: with a sinking realization the path he is on is

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Speaker 1: not the same path he was on before. Trying not

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Speaker 1: to panic, Robert figures he'll find his way eventually if

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Speaker 1: he just keeps heading roughly in the right direction, But

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Speaker 1: after another mile or two of walking, there is still

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Speaker 1: no sign of the long trail road or anything else

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Speaker 1: that he recognizes. It was as though the entire forest

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Speaker 1: had shifted secretly around him. With no mobile phone, map,

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Speaker 1: or cheaps, Robert Singly had no choice but to simply

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Speaker 1: press on and hope for the best. Before long, however,

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Speaker 1: dusk descended, bringing with it a thick fog that appeared

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Speaker 1: from out of nowhere, obscuring the path ahead. Just then,

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Speaker 1: Robert looked up to see a large maple tree a

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Speaker 1: little off the trail that seemed to be beckoning him,

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Speaker 1: taking shelter under its branches. He eventually succeeded in lighting

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Speaker 1: a fire to keep warm, then slumped back against the

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Speaker 1: trunk of the tree and waited for dawn. At first light,

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Speaker 1: Singly set off again in what he assumed to be

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Speaker 1: the direction of his car, but after another few hours,

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Speaker 1: believing he was only a quarter of a mile away,

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Speaker 1: he came across a sign for the Goddard Shelter on

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Speaker 1: Glastonbury Mountain, a place roughly seven miles from where he

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Speaker 1: thought he was, in a completely different stretch of forest. Fortunately,

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Speaker 1: Robert was eventually discovered by a Vermont State Police search

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Speaker 1: team around eleven thirty that morning, A little tired and cold,

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Speaker 1: but otherwise safe and well. Quite what had happened to him,

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Speaker 1: he couldn't be sure, as he put it to the

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Speaker 1: local Bennington Banner newspaper, Either he took a wrong turn,

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Speaker 1: something he was adamant he hadn't done, or something really

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Speaker 1: weird happened out there. For some that Singly got lost

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Speaker 1: on Glastonbury Mountain was no coincidence. Much of Vermont's Green

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Speaker 1: Mountain's forest is steeped in mythology and mysticism, in particular

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Speaker 1: Glastonbury Mountain, where, according to folk legend, there is even

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Speaker 1: a vast ancient boulder that swallows people whole, taking them

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Speaker 1: from the earth without so much a stifled cry. Like

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Speaker 1: much of New England, the area reads like a strange

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Speaker 1: psychogeographic experiment, where place names like Manchester, Sunderland, Somerset and

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Speaker 1: Dover could be found only a stone's throw from each other,

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Speaker 1: all dragged from another world by English settlers and pinned

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Speaker 1: haphazardly onto a strange and unfamiliar landscape, a place that

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Speaker 1: in reality was never for taming, as it continues to

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Speaker 1: this day to wriggle and squirm underneath, alive with unknowable mystery,

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Speaker 1: and it isn't just the land that visitors and locals

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Speaker 1: alike are told to be cautious of. In nineteen twenty five,

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Speaker 1: it's claimed that famed horror writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft once

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Speaker 1: traveled to Richmond, Vermont, a little further north, on the

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Speaker 1: hunt for a strange winged creature that had been dubbed

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Speaker 1: the Awful by local observer, described as having the tale

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Speaker 1: of a serpent, gray wings and huge claws. Having presumably

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Speaker 1: traveled right over the Green Mountains, it is alleged to

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Speaker 1: have been seen again in Berkshire, Massachusetts, just to the south,

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Speaker 1: where it reportedly swooped down and grabbed something from the ground.

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Speaker 1: Some claim it was a dog or a lamb, others

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Speaker 1: that it was in fact a small child. This podcast

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Speaker 1: is sponsored by Better Help. Is there something interfering with

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Speaker 1: forward slash unexplained one zero. Of course, many vast wilderness

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Speaker 1: regions have generated similar myths and legends, no less terrifying.

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Speaker 1: But where the Green Mountains forest seems to differ is

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Speaker 1: in its propensity for the genuinely inexplicable. In nineteen ninety two,

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Speaker 1: local resident and folklorist Joseph Citro coined the term Bennington Triangle,

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Speaker 1: which covers a region of the Green Mountains between the

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Speaker 1: towns of Bennington, Woodford, and Somerset, in an effort to

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Speaker 1: encapsulate the area's many strange stories. In particular, a spate

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Speaker 1: of unexplained vanishings that occurred there between nineteen forty five

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Speaker 1: and nineteen fifty all occurred close to the Long Trail,

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Speaker 1: a two hundred and seventy miles stretch of hiking path

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Speaker 1: that leads straight through the Green Mountains all the way

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Speaker 1: to the Canadian border. The first to disappear was seventy

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Speaker 1: four year old Middy Rivers in nineteen forty five, who

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Speaker 1: vanished while out on a hunting trip with friends. Middy,

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Speaker 1: an experienced hunter who knew the forest well, was last

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Speaker 1: seen most to the Long Trail Road, a short section

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Speaker 1: of road at the southern end of the Long Trail.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen forty nine, sixty eight year old James Tedfoot

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Speaker 1: got on a bus in the town of Franklin, about

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Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty miles north of Bennington, on route

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Speaker 1: for the Bennington Soldier's Home, where he lived. Tedford was

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Speaker 1: reportedly seen on the bus after the last stop before Bennington,

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Speaker 1: but when the bus arrived at his final destination, the

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Speaker 1: man had inexplicably vanished, leaving behind his bag and an

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Speaker 1: open bus timetable on his vacant seat. Then, in nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty eight, year old Paul Jepson was accompanying his mother

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Speaker 1: to a local dump not far from the Long Trail

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Speaker 1: that she and her husband managed, when he too disappeared.

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Speaker 1: Paul had been left in the family truck while his

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Speaker 1: mother left to complete some chores, but when she returned

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Speaker 1: he was gone. Some believe he simply walked into the

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Speaker 1: forest out of curiosity, then somehow lost his way back.

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Speaker 1: Others that something came out of the forest and took him,

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Speaker 1: and some say his parents may in fact have been responsible.

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Speaker 1: And then there is Paula Jean Weldon. Weldon, a student

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Speaker 1: at Bennington College, went missing in nineteen forty six after

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Speaker 1: reportedly setting off for a walk on the Long Trail.

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Speaker 1: As one of the detectives tasked with locating her put

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Speaker 1: it it was the most baffling case he'd ever been

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Speaker 1: connected with. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McClean smith.

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Speaker 1: When seventeen year old Paula Jean Weldon arrived for her

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Speaker 1: first term at Bennington College in nineteen forty five, she

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Speaker 1: wasn't quite sure what to make of her new roommate, Elizabeth.

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Speaker 1: Both had very different backgrounds, with Paula growing up in

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Speaker 1: the city, the daughter of an industrial designer in Stamford, Connecticut,

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Speaker 1: and Elizabeth hailing from near by rural Putney, having grown

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Speaker 1: up on a horse ranch. The pair soon hit it off, however,

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Speaker 1: quickly bonding over their mutual love of the great outdoors

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Speaker 1: and reveled in their new found freedom out on campus

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Speaker 1: away from their families. They even took a job together

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Speaker 1: in the college canteen, working two hour long shifts each

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Speaker 1: day to help cover their boarding fees. Paula arrived at

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Speaker 1: what was then a female only establishment located a few

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Speaker 1: miles north of the city of Bennington, with her ambitions

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Speaker 1: firmly set on becoming an artist. During her freshman year, however,

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Speaker 1: exposed to subjects and ideas she'd never encountered before, somewhere

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Speaker 1: along the line, those ambitions seemed to change. She developed

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Speaker 1: a passion for botany, which dovetailed perfectly with her growing

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Speaker 1: love for long afternoons spent trekking through the surrounding countryside.

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Speaker 1: End Eva present by her side was Elizabeth, always ready

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Speaker 1: to set off with her friend on one of their

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Speaker 1: many adventures into the Green mountains, like the time they

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Speaker 1: hiked up toward Mount Equinox near Manchester, when the pair

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Speaker 1: were joined by two young men from nearby William's College.

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Speaker 1: That afternoon, they hiked until dusk, then, after grabbing dinner together,

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Speaker 1: the four went out to a square dance, but got

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Speaker 1: stuck in a rainstorm on their way back. In the end,

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Speaker 1: thanks to a sympathetic farmer, they were forced to take

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Speaker 1: shelter in a hay barn for the night. Such adventures

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Speaker 1: became a habit for Paula and Elizabeth, who cultivated a

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Speaker 1: lively social life that, for Paula at least, seemed a

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Speaker 1: far cry from her more stilted upbringing and only served

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Speaker 1: to strengthen her burgeoning independent spirit. Encapsulating this was Paula

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Speaker 1: and Elizabeth's love for hitchhiking. Paula had been nervous to

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Speaker 1: try it at first, but soon realized what a joy

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Speaker 1: it could be, never quite knowing what fun or interesting

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Speaker 1: character might pick you up next. In the holidays, Paula

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Speaker 1: and Elizabeth would visit each other's families, where Elizabeth first

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Speaker 1: got the sense that all was not well with her roommate.

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Speaker 1: As the oldest of four daughters, there's been speculation that

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Speaker 1: Paula didn't feel quite as loved as her sisters. Though

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Speaker 1: she'd been close to both parents before college, something in

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Speaker 1: the course of her first year had changed. She described

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Speaker 1: her home to Elizabeth as the ice box. It was

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Speaker 1: a term Eizabeth never quite understood, since Paula's parents seemed

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Speaker 1: so attentive, always asking her how she was getting on,

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Speaker 1: while Paula seemed never to want to discuss anything with them.

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Speaker 1: It seemed to Elizabeth that perhaps Paula felt a little

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Speaker 1: guilty about her new interests but didn't quite have the

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Speaker 1: means to articulate it, or simply didn't want to discuss it,

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Speaker 1: fearing the inevitable argument it would cause. Or perhaps it

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Speaker 1: was the realization she'd come to in that first year

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Speaker 1: of college that she might never live up to her

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Speaker 1: father's expectations that had caused such a frosty relationship. But

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving in nineteen forty six, while Elizabeth went home, then

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Speaker 1: eighteen year old Paula decided to stay in their room

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Speaker 1: at college. When Elizabeth returned the next day, something seemed

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Speaker 1: to have shifted again in Paula. Later that night, while

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth studied, Paula seemed happy and upbeat as she hung

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Speaker 1: out with other students from their halls Dewy House, staying

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Speaker 1: up late into the night and taking part in an

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Speaker 1: impromptu wrestling tournament. By the following day, Sunday, December first, however,

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth thought she seemed a little distracted as she strummed

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Speaker 1: listlessly on her guitar, gazing out at the window of

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Speaker 1: the gray skies above. Elizabeth suggested that Paula take a

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Speaker 1: walk to clear her head, since that had always helped

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00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:35,280
Speaker 1: them both in the past. Later that afternoon, it appeared

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00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:38,440
Speaker 1: that Paula took her friend's advice when she was seen

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00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:41,920
Speaker 1: walking down the long Collige drive toward the main road,

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Speaker 1: dressed in a red Parker jacket, blue jeans, and white trainers.

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Speaker 1: But when Elizabeth returned to their room later in the

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Speaker 1: evening after some studying, Paula was nowhere to be seen.

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Speaker 1: Assuming her roommate was out studying herself, she thought little

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Speaker 1: of it when she got into bed and switched out

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Speaker 1: the light to sleep. A few miles from the college,

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00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:10,480
Speaker 1: it had just gone midnight with a heavy snow now falling,

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00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:14,720
Speaker 1: when a couple traveling along Route nine stopped to put

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00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:17,240
Speaker 1: snow chains on close to the turn off for the

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Speaker 1: long trail road. Stepping out into the silent night with

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Speaker 1: their flashlight, the couple were surprised to find fresh footprints

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Speaker 1: and the snow that appeared to be about a size

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Speaker 1: five similar to Paula's. Fearing that someone could be in

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00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:37,680
Speaker 1: trouble since there seemed to be no buildings anywhere nearby,

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00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:41,400
Speaker 1: the couple followed the prince for about four hundred yards

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Speaker 1: along the road until they stopped abruptly alongside a set

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Speaker 1: of car tracks that disappeared into the dark. When Elizabeth

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00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:02,320
Speaker 1: awoke the next morning, Paula's bed was empty. Elizabeth ran

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Speaker 1: to the canteen to work at breakfast shift and was

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00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:08,919
Speaker 1: troubled to find that Paula wasn't there, and neither had

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Speaker 1: she requested to take the morning off. At the end

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Speaker 1: of the shift, Elizabeth headed straight to the college director

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00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:19,399
Speaker 1: of admissions and informed them that she had no idea

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00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:25,520
Speaker 1: where Paula was. Later that afternoon, Paula's parents, Jean and William,

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00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:28,520
Speaker 1: received a call from the college president at their home

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00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:32,160
Speaker 1: in Stamford, asking if Paula had gone back to visit them,

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Speaker 1: but they two hadn't heard from her. The next day, Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: December third, the story broke in The Bennington Banner that

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Speaker 1: eighteen year old Bennington College student Paula Jean Weldon was missing.

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Speaker 1: Ernie Whitman, who worked night watch at the offices of

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Speaker 1: the Bennington Banner, was sweeping the floor in the press

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00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:58,159
Speaker 1: room on Wednesday afternoon when he saw the front page

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Speaker 1: of Tuesday's paper with a picture of the missing Paula.

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Speaker 1: Grabbing a copy, he ran straight to reporter Pete Stevenson

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00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:10,480
Speaker 1: to tell him he'd seen the exact same woman only

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00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:15,000
Speaker 1: a few days before. Back around four pm on the

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00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:19,360
Speaker 1: afternoon of Sunday, December first, Whitman and three friends were

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00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:22,600
Speaker 1: walking back from a camp on Bickford Hollow Road, which

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00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,359
Speaker 1: branches off from the Long Trail Road, when they were

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00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:30,040
Speaker 1: approached by a young woman matching Paula's description. The woman

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00:18:30,119 --> 00:18:32,480
Speaker 1: wanted to know if the road went all the way

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00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:37,159
Speaker 1: over the mountains. Confirming it did, The group then watched

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00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:41,480
Speaker 1: bemused as she continued heading deeper into the forest, despite

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00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:46,800
Speaker 1: the daylight already beginning to fade. Later that Wednesday afternoon,

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00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:51,560
Speaker 1: armed with the new information, Paula's father, William, arrived in

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Speaker 1: Bennington and immediately set about trying to retrace his daughter's

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00:18:55,880 --> 00:19:00,920
Speaker 1: footsteps alongside Pete Stevenson and the Banners editor Frank Howe,

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00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:05,960
Speaker 1: but the men found no sign of her. The following day,

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00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:10,560
Speaker 1: local builder Lewis Napp contacted police to inform them that

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Speaker 1: he'd been heading home on Route sixty seven A, the

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00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,199
Speaker 1: main road out of Bennington College, around three pm on

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Speaker 1: the Sunday, when he saw a young woman in a

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00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:23,639
Speaker 1: red jacket trying to hitch a lift. The woman, who

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00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:26,600
Speaker 1: said her name was Paula, asked to be dropped off

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Speaker 1: as close to the long trail as possible. Napp claimed

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00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:33,080
Speaker 1: to have driven her all the way to Woodford Road,

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00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:35,720
Speaker 1: where he lived, where she got out of his truck

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00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,480
Speaker 1: and proceeded toward the Green Mountains on foot. As per

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00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:44,920
Speaker 1: Ernie Whitman's description, NAP's wife confirmed that her husband returned

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00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:50,879
Speaker 1: home that day about three fifteen pm. Meanwhile, as temperatures

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00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:54,920
Speaker 1: steadily dropped day by day, reaching below zero at night,

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00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:58,280
Speaker 1: a number of search parties were arranged to help find

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00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:03,639
Speaker 1: the missing student. On Thursday, December fifth, roughly five hundred people,

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00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:08,160
Speaker 1: led by County Sheriff Clyde Peck, including three hundred students

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00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:12,480
Speaker 1: and faculty members from Bennington College, scoured the woods alongside

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00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:15,520
Speaker 1: the Long Trail, as well as large swathes of Bald

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00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:26,760
Speaker 1: and Glastonbury Mountain, but nothing was found. After news of

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00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:30,960
Speaker 1: Paula's disappearance broke in the national press, police were alerted

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00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:35,080
Speaker 1: to numerous apparent sightings from all over Connecticut, New York,

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00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:40,199
Speaker 1: and Massachusetts, but all came to nothing. Frustrated by the

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00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:43,480
Speaker 1: police's inability to find even a hint of a clue

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00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,600
Speaker 1: as to his daughter's whereabouts, William Weldon increasingly took it

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00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,160
Speaker 1: on himself to follow up potential leads, but as one

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00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:56,240
Speaker 1: after another led nowhere, in desperation, he turned to local

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00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:01,000
Speaker 1: self described psychic, Clara Jepson at her home in Pownell,

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00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:05,560
Speaker 1: not far from Bennington. Jepson took hold of William's hand

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00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:09,919
Speaker 1: and closed her eyes. She saw a young woman, she said,

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00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,600
Speaker 1: dressed in a red park a jacket, walking through a

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00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:18,400
Speaker 1: covered bridge across a fast moving river. But William wasn't

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00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,679
Speaker 1: to worry. The young woman was alive and would be

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00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:25,480
Speaker 1: found before long. Sheltering in an old shack close to

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00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:30,399
Speaker 1: the river. Weldon returned immediately to the Long Trail Road

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00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:35,159
Speaker 1: and the Woolloomsac River that snaked alongside it, finding the

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00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:39,280
Speaker 1: two covered bridges that spanned it. He searched desperately again

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00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:43,960
Speaker 1: for any sign of Paula, but found nothing. About the

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00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:49,399
Speaker 1: same time, Vermont State detective Almo Franzoni joined the search,

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00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:53,439
Speaker 1: heading straight out to the Long Trail Road where Paula

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00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 1: was last seen alive. Franzoni noticed a gully close to

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00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:01,240
Speaker 1: the Route nine highway out one hundred and twenty five

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00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,840
Speaker 1: feet from where Lewis Knapp claimed to have dropped Paula off.

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00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:09,680
Speaker 1: Searching the area a few moments later, Franzoni caught sight

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00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:13,159
Speaker 1: of some soggy material that appeared to have been discarded

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00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:17,119
Speaker 1: under a nearby bush. Moving in for a closer look,

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00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:19,760
Speaker 1: he took a pen from his pocket and hooked the

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00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 1: material out, then spread it out on the ground to

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00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:27,240
Speaker 1: reveal a small pair of pink underpants covered in blood.

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00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:32,000
Speaker 1: The item of clothing was later shown to Bennington College

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00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:37,320
Speaker 1: Director of Admissions Mary Garrett, who declared confidently that they

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00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,880
Speaker 1: couldn't possibly have belonged to Paula, and so the lead

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00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: was quickly discarded with little progress being made. Thirty five

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00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 1: year old detective Robert Rundle and police officer Dorothy Scoville

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00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:00,400
Speaker 1: were drafted in to assist in the case. The led

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00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:04,040
Speaker 1: a renewed effort to interview everyone and anyone who'd known

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Speaker 1: Paula or had for any reason come into contact with

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00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:12,080
Speaker 1: her recently. It wasn't long before their efforts coalesced around

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00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:15,200
Speaker 1: the Maxwell family, who were determined to be the last

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00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:19,959
Speaker 1: people to see Paula alive. The Maxwells owned a house

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00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 1: about two thirds of the way up the long Trail road,

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00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:26,399
Speaker 1: roughly half a mile from where it turned into the

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00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 1: forest path. Interviewing them one afternoon in their home, Rundeland

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00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:36,560
Speaker 1: Scoville listened carefully to Viola Maxwell and her fifteen year

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Speaker 1: old daughter Mary as they described coming out of their

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00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 1: cowbarn sometime around four pm on Sunday, December first, when

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00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 1: they saw a young, blondhaired woman wearing a red Parker jacket,

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00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:54,160
Speaker 1: blue trousers and trainers heading up the road toward them.

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00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: As mother and daughter talked, Alfred Godet, Viola's on and

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00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,440
Speaker 1: off boyfriend who sometimes stayed with them, sat listening quietly

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00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:07,439
Speaker 1: in the corner. When the pair finished their account, the

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00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:10,680
Speaker 1: officers turned to Alfred to ask if he'd also seen

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00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: the woman in the red Parker, to which he replied no,

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00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: since he'd been away in New York State for most

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00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 1: of that day. When Rundell and Scoville returned a few

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00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:26,479
Speaker 1: days later to interview the family again, Alfred changed his story,

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00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:29,720
Speaker 1: telling them he hadn't been in New York State at all,

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00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:32,840
Speaker 1: but had in fact gone to Bennington early in the

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00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:38,119
Speaker 1: morning before returning to the house just after midnight. Concerned

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00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:41,920
Speaker 1: by the sudden change of story, Rundle and Scoville had

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00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,560
Speaker 1: each of the Maxwell children four in total, pulled out

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00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:49,920
Speaker 1: of school and interviewed separately, though ten year old Preston

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00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:52,280
Speaker 1: was confirmed to have been out all day with his

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00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:56,919
Speaker 1: grandparents at the time. Mary reiterated that on December first,

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00:24:57,320 --> 00:25:00,679
Speaker 1: only she, her mum, and her brother Anley were at

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00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: home because Alfred and her brother Clarence had gone to

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00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:08,720
Speaker 1: town early in the morning. Though she couldn't be sure

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00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:12,640
Speaker 1: exactly what time they came home, she was adamant they

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00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 1: were both back in time for supper in the early evening.

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00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:21,600
Speaker 1: Sixteen year old Clarence backed up Mary's statement, telling police

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00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: also that he and Alfred had left the house in

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00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 1: the morning and driven into Bennington, adding curiously, however, that

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00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 1: at some point while he stayed in town, Alfred left

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00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:37,360
Speaker 1: him there and drove off somewhere else. Twelve year old

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00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 1: Stanley Maxwell agreed that he was at home on the

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00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:44,399
Speaker 1: day in question, but only until about two thirty pm,

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00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,440
Speaker 1: when he left with his uncle to carry out some

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00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 1: odd jobs. Stanley was certain that Alfred was also at

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00:25:52,600 --> 00:26:02,400
Speaker 1: the house around this time. One lesser known fact about

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00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 1: Unexplained is that it actually started life as a website

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00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:08,719
Speaker 1: built through square Space, which I heard about from an

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00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 1: advert on one of my favorite podcasts. Having no idea

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00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: where to even begin with publishing my own, it was

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00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: only when I realized how easy it would be with

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00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:19,959
Speaker 1: square Space that I finally went ahead and did it.

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00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,399
Speaker 1: Whether you're a dreamer, a maker, or simply a doer,

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00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: Square Space can provide you with all the tools you

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Speaker 1: need to bring your creative ideas to life. With their

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Speaker 1: dynamic all in one platform, you can build a website,

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00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: claim a domain, sell online, and instantly begin marketing your brand,

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00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 1: Combining cutting edge design and world class engineering. With square Space,

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Speaker 1: you have the ability to customize the look and feel, settings, products,

379
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00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:52,399
Speaker 1: create your website you'll get free, unlimited hosting, top of

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00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 1: the line security, and dependable resources to help you succeed.

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00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:59,439
Speaker 1: There'll be nothing to patch your upgrade ever, and twenty

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Speaker 1: four seven award winning customer support always on hand whenever

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00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 1: you need it. Go to squarespace dot com forward slash

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00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: unexplained for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch,

386
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 1: used the offer code unexplained to save ten percent of

387
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:20,679
Speaker 1: your first purchase of a website or domain. After further

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00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 1: conflicting statements, Rundle and Scoville returned to the Maxwell house

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00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,479
Speaker 1: for a fourth time, joined by Sheriff Peck, who had

390
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 1: also received conflicting statements from the family. This time, Viola

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00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: claimed that although Alfred had left the house early in

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00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:40,960
Speaker 1: the morning with Clarence, he then returned for lunch, leaving

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00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 1: again early in the afternoon. Sometime later, she and her

394
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:48,479
Speaker 1: daughter Mary had left to see a movie, but as

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00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 1: they made their way down the long trail road, they

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00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: bumped into Alfred coming the other way in his truck.

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00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 1: The pair then traveled back to the house with Alfred,

398
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:00,960
Speaker 1: who stayed inside while they went to the cow barn

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00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 1: to complete some chores. It was a short time later

400
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 1: that she and Mary saw the young woman in the

401
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 1: red jacket walking up the road toward them. Alfred, she

402
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: was certain was in the house at the time and

403
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:21,080
Speaker 1: had not seen the woman. After yet another altered story,

404
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: the police felt they had no choice but to arrest

405
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: Alfred and bring him in for questioning, and once again,

406
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 1: he too changed its story. Alfred did confirm that he'd

407
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: met Viola and Mary coming up the long trail in

408
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 1: his truck and dropped them back off at home. However,

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00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 1: he also added that after parking up his truck, he'd

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00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 1: neglected to head straight back to the house with them

411
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 1: when he saw two men sat in a car parked

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00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:53,400
Speaker 1: up outside it. Suspecting that one of the men was

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00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: Viola's new boyfriend, he decided to watch from afar as

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00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 1: she and Mary spoke to them. Then, despite consistently stating otherwise,

415
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,520
Speaker 1: he told police that he had seen the young woman

416
00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: in the red parker after all walking past while he

417
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 1: sat and watched the men in the car. When the

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00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,719
Speaker 1: men finally drove off, Alfred explained that he then chased

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00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: after Viola and scolded her for cheating on him. An

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00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 1: argument ensued between them for a good few hours until

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00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,720
Speaker 1: Viola's parents, who also lived at the property, returned home,

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00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: at which point, he said, Viola went upstairs to bed,

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00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: and he left the house in a rage and spent

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00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 1: the night at a shack across the road where he

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00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 1: often stayed. After being confronted with Alfred's completely new statement,

426
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 1: Viola once again changed her story too, telling police that

427
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 1: she had been lying all along because she was in

428
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 1: the middle of applying for a divorce and didn't want

429
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: it known that she and Alfred were still seeing each

430
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 1: other in case it jeopardized and think The two men

431
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,600
Speaker 1: who Alfred claimed had been parked outside the house were

432
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 1: eventually tracked down and seemingly verified his latest version of events,

433
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: saying also that they too had seen the young woman

434
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 1: in the red coat walking by that day. With little

435
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:30,719
Speaker 1: else to go on, Alfred was released from custody about

436
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:34,800
Speaker 1: the same time that Alfred Godet was being interrogated by police.

437
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: One hundred and fifty miles to the north in the

438
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 1: town of South hero Vermont, a missus w Champagne tosses

439
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: and turns in her sleep. Through a dark haze of

440
00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 1: soft and fuzzy light, a haunting image takes shape in

441
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 1: her unconscious mind. Paula Jean Weldon walking along the long

442
00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:01,240
Speaker 1: trail road, her red jacket wrapped tightly around her, as

443
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,719
Speaker 1: a black car pulls up with a dark, faceless figure

444
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:09,200
Speaker 1: sitting at the wheel. Paula asked the driver for a ride,

445
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 1: to which he agrees, but only after he has a

446
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 1: cup of tea first. The young woman thanks him, then

447
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: pulls open the back door and lets herself in. But

448
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:25,080
Speaker 1: now the image is twisting and morphing again, and suddenly

449
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 1: the driver is on her, grabbing hard at her neck,

450
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,640
Speaker 1: as the young woman's arms flail about in a desperate

451
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: effort to fend him off. And now Paula's body is

452
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: lifeless in the back seat, as another image swirls into view,

453
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: a bungalow or a shack, the third of three, running

454
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 1: down from the top end of the long trail road.

455
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 1: Then a pair of hands ripping up a linoleum floor

456
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 1: and a body being slid into the gap underneath. Then

457
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 1: the linoleum is smoothed down once more, and a large

458
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: black stove slid back into place on top of it.

459
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,440
Speaker 1: Missus Champagne informed the police of her terrifying dream the

460
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,440
Speaker 1: next day, and though most were reluctant to give it

461
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 1: any credibility, it was soon discovered that the bungalow, lying

462
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,080
Speaker 1: third in line from the top of the Long Trail

463
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 1: road just so happened to belong to Alfred Cadet. Detective

464
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: Almo Franzoni was promptly dispatched to search the area, but

465
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: he failed to find anything incriminating. A little more than

466
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 1: two weeks after Paula's disappearance, a broken William Weldon collected

467
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 1: his daughter's belongings from her dorm room and put them

468
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 1: in the back of his Buick coupe. Then, without so

469
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: much as a glance back, he drove away from the campus,

470
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: vowing only to return if anything significant came up. But

471
00:32:54,240 --> 00:33:05,240
Speaker 1: nothing did. On May twenty fourth, nineteen forty seven, with

472
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: the winter snow having finally thawed, another search party of

473
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 1: more than a hundred volunteers combed the Long Trail for

474
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 1: two days, looking for any clues as to Paula's whereabouts,

475
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 1: but once again, the forest relinquished nothing. In the following years,

476
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 1: a number of strange reports linked to the case filtered

477
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 1: through to the police, including the story of an armed

478
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:34,480
Speaker 1: robber arrested in Cambridge, Massachusetts in nineteen forty eight, who

479
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:37,720
Speaker 1: was found with an article about Paula in his pocket

480
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 1: and a sketch resembling her in his boarding room. He

481
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 1: also admitted to once having visited the Glastonbury area, who

482
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: claimed to know nothing of the woman's disappearance. In nineteen

483
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: fifty two, the dying ex girlfriend of a thirty five

484
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 1: year old lumberjack claimed that he'd once told her that

485
00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:00,400
Speaker 1: he had good reason to believe that Paula was buried

486
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: under a porch in a cellar somewhere close to the

487
00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:09,360
Speaker 1: Long Trail. That same year, Alfred Godet told friends that

488
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:14,240
Speaker 1: he also knew where Paula was buried. Godet was promptly

489
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 1: called in again for questioning, but told police he'd simply

490
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 1: been joking, fully aware of the suspicion that had fallen

491
00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:24,280
Speaker 1: on him at the time. When asked to give another

492
00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:28,040
Speaker 1: account of his movements on the day of Paula's disappearance, however,

493
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:33,479
Speaker 1: his statement changed again. This time, instead of claiming he'd

494
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: stormed out at the Maxwell property and headed straight to

495
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: his place across the road. He'd actually got into his

496
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: truck and driven it up the Long Trail Road in

497
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 1: the direction that Paula had last been seen walking. At

498
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:53,040
Speaker 1: the time of Alfred's last questioning, the then state's attorney,

499
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:57,080
Speaker 1: John Hart was away on National Guard training, leaving Reuben

500
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 1: Leavin as a temporary state attorney in his since believing

501
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,840
Speaker 1: they finally had grounds to properly search two bungalows that

502
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: belonged to Alfred Godet, one on the Long Trail and

503
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:13,400
Speaker 1: one in Bickford Hollow, Reuben Leavin made it one of

504
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,120
Speaker 1: his last duties before Heart returned, to sign off on

505
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:20,279
Speaker 1: a search warrant to examine the cellars of the bungalows,

506
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:24,440
Speaker 1: But when Hart came back the next day, he immediately

507
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 1: canceled the warrant, arguing that the simply wasn't enough evidence

508
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: to justify it. As such, to this day, the fate

509
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:39,880
Speaker 1: of Paula Jean Weldon remains a mystery. But somewhere it

510
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:44,319
Speaker 1: is always December first, nineteen forty six, on that mile

511
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 1: and a half stretch of the Long Trail Road that

512
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 1: branches off from Route nine, and there is always a

513
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 1: light snow beginning to fall as a young woman dressed

514
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:58,600
Speaker 1: in a red park a jacket makes her way quietly,

515
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 1: steadily toward the forest, and as she goes, never once

516
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 1: looking back, she takes a whole world with her as

517
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:19,920
Speaker 1: she continues deeper and deeper into the trees. If you

518
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,759
Speaker 1: enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can

519
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Speaker 1: three episodes, just go to patron dot com, forward Slash

521
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Speaker 1: Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained. The book and audiobook,

522
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Speaker 1: featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on

523
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Speaker 1: the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can

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Speaker 1: purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores.

525
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Speaker 1: All elements have Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced

526
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Speaker 1: by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the

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Speaker 1: show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to

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529
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Speaker 1: stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an

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531
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Speaker 1: reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter

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