WEBVTT - Season 6 Episode 11: Slide Away 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.960 In southwest Vermont, in the United States. It was sometime 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:18.400 around three pm on December first, nineteen forty six, when 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:20.720 a truck pulled up to the bottom of the long 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.200 Trail road a few miles east from the town of Bennington, 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:28.400 at the edge of the Green Mountains National Forest. A 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:31.280 light snow had just begun to fall as a young 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.120 woman with dark blonde hair wearing a red Parker jacket, 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:40.080 blue jeans, and white trainers jumped out. She thanked the 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.840 driver for the lift, then shut the door and continued 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.600 on foot down the mile and a half stretch of road, 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.920 leading her deeper and deeper into the forest. On and 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:56.160 on she walked, as the snow continued to fall, her 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.800 hands thrust into the pockets of that red Parker jacket. 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:03.960 From off in the distance, the sound of a car 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:09.360 approaching draws nearer and nearer. The young woman walking in 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.759 the red Parker, now just an imperceptible echo from another time, 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:18.080 vanishes as the dopplers swoosh of the car rushes past. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.560 At the wheel is twenty seven year old Robert Singly, 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:27.000 a music composition teacher from Bennington College. It is now 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:32.360 late September twenty eight Singly parks up at the end 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.760 of the road and jumps out at the vehicle. He 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.640 grabs a rucksack from the back packed with a small 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.720 lunch for his walk, Then, after taking a deep breath 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.160 of the wet, pine scented air, he places a wooly 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.040 hat on his head and sets off into the trees. 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.280 A few hours later, after eating lunch on the slope 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:57.440 of Bald Mountain, roughly two miles from his car, Singly 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.440 continues on the same path for another mile or so 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.480 before deciding to head back the way he came. But 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.480 as he walks, it appears to Singly that something strange 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.360 has happened. Where before the path was clear, a fallen 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:18.600 tree now lies strewn across it. Singly turns to examine 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.640 the path behind him, then looks back to the tree, 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.799 running his eyes over its soaking, wet, moss covered bark 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.960 with a sinking realization the path he is on is 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.480 not the same path he was on before. Trying not 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.400 to panic, Robert figures he'll find his way eventually if 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.160 he just keeps heading roughly in the right direction, But 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.520 after another mile or two of walking, there is still 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.840 no sign of the long trail road or anything else 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:54.160 that he recognizes. It was as though the entire forest 0:02:54.360 --> 0:03:06.040 had shifted secretly around him. With no mobile phone, map, 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.360 or cheaps, Robert Singly had no choice but to simply 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.360 press on and hope for the best. Before long, however, 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.840 dusk descended, bringing with it a thick fog that appeared 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:24.239 from out of nowhere, obscuring the path ahead. Just then, 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.840 Robert looked up to see a large maple tree a 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.799 little off the trail that seemed to be beckoning him, 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.680 taking shelter under its branches. He eventually succeeded in lighting 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.840 a fire to keep warm, then slumped back against the 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:44.000 trunk of the tree and waited for dawn. At first light, 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.200 Singly set off again in what he assumed to be 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.600 the direction of his car, but after another few hours, 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.320 believing he was only a quarter of a mile away, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.640 he came across a sign for the Goddard Shelter on 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:01.520 Glastonbury Mountain, a place roughly seven miles from where he 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:08.320 thought he was, in a completely different stretch of forest. Fortunately, 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.320 Robert was eventually discovered by a Vermont State Police search 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:16.800 team around eleven thirty that morning, A little tired and cold, 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.720 but otherwise safe and well. Quite what had happened to him, 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.839 he couldn't be sure, as he put it to the 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.799 local Bennington Banner newspaper, Either he took a wrong turn, 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.159 something he was adamant he hadn't done, or something really 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:38.560 weird happened out there. For some that Singly got lost 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:43.840 on Glastonbury Mountain was no coincidence. Much of Vermont's Green 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:48.560 Mountain's forest is steeped in mythology and mysticism, in particular 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:53.080 Glastonbury Mountain, where, according to folk legend, there is even 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.840 a vast ancient boulder that swallows people whole, taking them 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:02.960 from the earth without so much a stifled cry. Like 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.520 much of New England, the area reads like a strange 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:13.000 psychogeographic experiment, where place names like Manchester, Sunderland, Somerset and 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:16.560 Dover could be found only a stone's throw from each other, 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.280 all dragged from another world by English settlers and pinned 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:26.480 haphazardly onto a strange and unfamiliar landscape, a place that 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.719 in reality was never for taming, as it continues to 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:35.920 this day to wriggle and squirm underneath, alive with unknowable mystery, 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.400 and it isn't just the land that visitors and locals 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:45.320 alike are told to be cautious of. In nineteen twenty five, 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:50.440 it's claimed that famed horror writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft once 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.520 traveled to Richmond, Vermont, a little further north, on the 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.080 hunt for a strange winged creature that had been dubbed 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:03.000 the Awful by local observer, described as having the tale 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:07.880 of a serpent, gray wings and huge claws. Having presumably 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.440 traveled right over the Green Mountains, it is alleged to 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.600 have been seen again in Berkshire, Massachusetts, just to the south, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:20.159 where it reportedly swooped down and grabbed something from the ground. 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:26.000 Some claim it was a dog or a lamb, others 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:35.240 that it was in fact a small child. This podcast 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:38.279 is sponsored by Better Help. Is there something interfering with 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.560 your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals? Better 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:43.880 Help will assess your needs and match you with your 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.359 own license to professional therapist. It's not a crisis line 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.680 or self help. Its professional therapy done securely online with 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.440 a broad range of expertise that may not be locally 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.279 available in many areas. You can log into your account 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.640 anytime and send a message to your therapist, get timely 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.919 and thoughtful responses. Plus you can schedule weekly video or 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:06.279 phone sessions so you won't ever have to sit in 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.920 an uncomfortable waiting room as with traditional therapy. Better Help 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.440 is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.400 it easy and free to change therapists if need it. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.080 It's more affordable than traditional online therapy, and financial aid 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.000 is also available. Better Help once you to start living 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:25.679 a happier life today, and they have a special offer 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.920 for unexplained listeners. Get ten percent off your first month 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:33.680 visit beetterhelp dot com forward slash unexplained one zero. That's 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.720 better Help Help and join the over two million people 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.240 who have taken charge of their mental health with the 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.520 help of an experienced professional. That's Better Help dot com 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:53.600 forward slash unexplained one zero. Of course, many vast wilderness 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:58.000 regions have generated similar myths and legends, no less terrifying. 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.960 But where the Green Mountains forest seems to differ is 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:07.400 in its propensity for the genuinely inexplicable. In nineteen ninety two, 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:13.680 local resident and folklorist Joseph Citro coined the term Bennington Triangle, 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:16.960 which covers a region of the Green Mountains between the 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.640 towns of Bennington, Woodford, and Somerset, in an effort to 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:26.239 encapsulate the area's many strange stories. In particular, a spate 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.600 of unexplained vanishings that occurred there between nineteen forty five 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:35.640 and nineteen fifty all occurred close to the Long Trail, 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.199 a two hundred and seventy miles stretch of hiking path 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.960 that leads straight through the Green Mountains all the way 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:47.920 to the Canadian border. The first to disappear was seventy 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.520 four year old Middy Rivers in nineteen forty five, who 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.440 vanished while out on a hunting trip with friends. Middy, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.440 an experienced hunter who knew the forest well, was last 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.760 seen most to the Long Trail Road, a short section 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:04.920 of road at the southern end of the Long Trail. 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.920 In nineteen forty nine, sixty eight year old James Tedfoot 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.800 got on a bus in the town of Franklin, about 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.160 one hundred and sixty miles north of Bennington, on route 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:21.000 for the Bennington Soldier's Home, where he lived. Tedford was 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:25.079 reportedly seen on the bus after the last stop before Bennington, 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.880 but when the bus arrived at his final destination, the 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:33.520 man had inexplicably vanished, leaving behind his bag and an 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:39.040 open bus timetable on his vacant seat. Then, in nineteen 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:43.080 fifty eight, year old Paul Jepson was accompanying his mother 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.160 to a local dump not far from the Long Trail 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:50.000 that she and her husband managed, when he too disappeared. 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:53.880 Paul had been left in the family truck while his 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.480 mother left to complete some chores, but when she returned 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:02.560 he was gone. Some believe he simply walked into the 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:06.840 forest out of curiosity, then somehow lost his way back. 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:12.480 Others that something came out of the forest and took him, 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.439 and some say his parents may in fact have been responsible. 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:23.800 And then there is Paula Jean Weldon. Weldon, a student 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.920 at Bennington College, went missing in nineteen forty six after 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.840 reportedly setting off for a walk on the Long Trail. 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.079 As one of the detectives tasked with locating her put 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.840 it it was the most baffling case he'd ever been 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:45.400 connected with. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McClean smith. 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.640 When seventeen year old Paula Jean Weldon arrived for her 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.480 first term at Bennington College in nineteen forty five, she 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.840 wasn't quite sure what to make of her new roommate, Elizabeth. 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.439 Both had very different backgrounds, with Paula growing up in 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:13.040 the city, the daughter of an industrial designer in Stamford, Connecticut, 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.760 and Elizabeth hailing from near by rural Putney, having grown 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.959 up on a horse ranch. The pair soon hit it off, however, 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.920 quickly bonding over their mutual love of the great outdoors 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.640 and reveled in their new found freedom out on campus 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.440 away from their families. They even took a job together 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.560 in the college canteen, working two hour long shifts each 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:42.400 day to help cover their boarding fees. Paula arrived at 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:46.319 what was then a female only establishment located a few 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.760 miles north of the city of Bennington, with her ambitions 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:54.520 firmly set on becoming an artist. During her freshman year, however, 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:59.640 exposed to subjects and ideas she'd never encountered before, somewhere 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:04.640 along the line, those ambitions seemed to change. She developed 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.440 a passion for botany, which dovetailed perfectly with her growing 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.840 love for long afternoons spent trekking through the surrounding countryside. 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.960 End Eva present by her side was Elizabeth, always ready 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.360 to set off with her friend on one of their 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:24.320 many adventures into the Green mountains, like the time they 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:28.440 hiked up toward Mount Equinox near Manchester, when the pair 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:32.239 were joined by two young men from nearby William's College. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:37.720 That afternoon, they hiked until dusk, then, after grabbing dinner together, 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.920 the four went out to a square dance, but got 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.319 stuck in a rainstorm on their way back. In the end, 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.920 thanks to a sympathetic farmer, they were forced to take 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:52.319 shelter in a hay barn for the night. Such adventures 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.720 became a habit for Paula and Elizabeth, who cultivated a 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.240 lively social life that, for Paula at least, seemed a 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:03.040 far cry from her more stilted upbringing and only served 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:09.160 to strengthen her burgeoning independent spirit. Encapsulating this was Paula 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:13.560 and Elizabeth's love for hitchhiking. Paula had been nervous to 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.600 try it at first, but soon realized what a joy 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.320 it could be, never quite knowing what fun or interesting 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:32.080 character might pick you up next. In the holidays, Paula 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:36.079 and Elizabeth would visit each other's families, where Elizabeth first 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.160 got the sense that all was not well with her roommate. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.800 As the oldest of four daughters, there's been speculation that 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.960 Paula didn't feel quite as loved as her sisters. Though 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.560 she'd been close to both parents before college, something in 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:55.560 the course of her first year had changed. She described 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.319 her home to Elizabeth as the ice box. It was 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:03.800 a term Eizabeth never quite understood, since Paula's parents seemed 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.280 so attentive, always asking her how she was getting on, 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.360 while Paula seemed never to want to discuss anything with them. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.679 It seemed to Elizabeth that perhaps Paula felt a little 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.120 guilty about her new interests but didn't quite have the 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:23.000 means to articulate it, or simply didn't want to discuss it, 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:27.320 fearing the inevitable argument it would cause. Or perhaps it 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.760 was the realization she'd come to in that first year 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.480 of college that she might never live up to her 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:39.240 father's expectations that had caused such a frosty relationship. But 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:44.560 Thanksgiving in nineteen forty six, while Elizabeth went home, then 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.800 eighteen year old Paula decided to stay in their room 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:52.720 at college. When Elizabeth returned the next day, something seemed 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:57.120 to have shifted again in Paula. Later that night, while 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.120 Elizabeth studied, Paula seemed happy and upbeat as she hung 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:04.840 out with other students from their halls Dewy House, staying 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.680 up late into the night and taking part in an 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:13.840 impromptu wrestling tournament. By the following day, Sunday, December first, however, 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.320 Elizabeth thought she seemed a little distracted as she strummed 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.800 listlessly on her guitar, gazing out at the window of 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:27.040 the gray skies above. Elizabeth suggested that Paula take a 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.120 walk to clear her head, since that had always helped 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:35.280 them both in the past. Later that afternoon, it appeared 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.440 that Paula took her friend's advice when she was seen 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.920 walking down the long Collige drive toward the main road, 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.560 dressed in a red Parker jacket, blue jeans, and white trainers. 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:50.880 But when Elizabeth returned to their room later in the 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.760 evening after some studying, Paula was nowhere to be seen. 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.920 Assuming her roommate was out studying herself, she thought little 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.880 of it when she got into bed and switched out 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.080 the light to sleep. A few miles from the college, 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:10.480 it had just gone midnight with a heavy snow now falling, 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.720 when a couple traveling along Route nine stopped to put 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.240 snow chains on close to the turn off for the 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:21.760 long trail road. Stepping out into the silent night with 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:26.120 their flashlight, the couple were surprised to find fresh footprints 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.080 and the snow that appeared to be about a size 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:33.800 five similar to Paula's. Fearing that someone could be in 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:37.680 trouble since there seemed to be no buildings anywhere nearby, 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.400 the couple followed the prince for about four hundred yards 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.840 along the road until they stopped abruptly alongside a set 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:57.080 of car tracks that disappeared into the dark. When Elizabeth 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:02.320 awoke the next morning, Paula's bed was empty. Elizabeth ran 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.399 to the canteen to work at breakfast shift and was 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.919 troubled to find that Paula wasn't there, and neither had 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.479 she requested to take the morning off. At the end 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.080 of the shift, Elizabeth headed straight to the college director 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.399 of admissions and informed them that she had no idea 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:25.520 where Paula was. Later that afternoon, Paula's parents, Jean and William, 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.520 received a call from the college president at their home 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.160 in Stamford, asking if Paula had gone back to visit them, 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:37.560 but they two hadn't heard from her. The next day, Tuesday, 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:41.600 December third, the story broke in The Bennington Banner that 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:46.680 eighteen year old Bennington College student Paula Jean Weldon was missing. 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.600 Ernie Whitman, who worked night watch at the offices of 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.520 the Bennington Banner, was sweeping the floor in the press 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.159 room on Wednesday afternoon when he saw the front page 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.280 of Tuesday's paper with a picture of the missing Paula. 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:06.679 Grabbing a copy, he ran straight to reporter Pete Stevenson 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.480 to tell him he'd seen the exact same woman only 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:15.000 a few days before. Back around four pm on the 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:19.360 afternoon of Sunday, December first, Whitman and three friends were 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.600 walking back from a camp on Bickford Hollow Road, which 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.359 branches off from the Long Trail Road, when they were 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:30.040 approached by a young woman matching Paula's description. The woman 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.480 wanted to know if the road went all the way 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:37.159 over the mountains. Confirming it did, The group then watched 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.480 bemused as she continued heading deeper into the forest, despite 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:46.800 the daylight already beginning to fade. Later that Wednesday afternoon, 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.560 armed with the new information, Paula's father, William, arrived in 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.880 Bennington and immediately set about trying to retrace his daughter's 0:18:55.880 --> 0:19:00.920 footsteps alongside Pete Stevenson and the Banners editor Frank Howe, 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.960 but the men found no sign of her. The following day, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.560 local builder Lewis Napp contacted police to inform them that 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.800 he'd been heading home on Route sixty seven A, the 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.199 main road out of Bennington College, around three pm on 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:19.720 the Sunday, when he saw a young woman in a 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.639 red jacket trying to hitch a lift. The woman, who 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.600 said her name was Paula, asked to be dropped off 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:30.720 as close to the long trail as possible. Napp claimed 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.080 to have driven her all the way to Woodford Road, 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.720 where he lived, where she got out of his truck 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.480 and proceeded toward the Green Mountains on foot. As per 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.920 Ernie Whitman's description, NAP's wife confirmed that her husband returned 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:50.879 home that day about three fifteen pm. Meanwhile, as temperatures 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.920 steadily dropped day by day, reaching below zero at night, 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.280 a number of search parties were arranged to help find 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:03.639 the missing student. On Thursday, December fifth, roughly five hundred people, 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:08.160 led by County Sheriff Clyde Peck, including three hundred students 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.480 and faculty members from Bennington College, scoured the woods alongside 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.520 the Long Trail, as well as large swathes of Bald 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:26.760 and Glastonbury Mountain, but nothing was found. After news of 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.960 Paula's disappearance broke in the national press, police were alerted 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.080 to numerous apparent sightings from all over Connecticut, New York, 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:40.199 and Massachusetts, but all came to nothing. Frustrated by the 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.480 police's inability to find even a hint of a clue 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.600 as to his daughter's whereabouts, William Weldon increasingly took it 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.160 on himself to follow up potential leads, but as one 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:56.240 after another led nowhere, in desperation, he turned to local 0:20:56.320 --> 0:21:01.000 self described psychic, Clara Jepson at her home in Pownell, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.560 not far from Bennington. Jepson took hold of William's hand 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:09.919 and closed her eyes. She saw a young woman, she said, 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:13.600 dressed in a red park a jacket, walking through a 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:18.400 covered bridge across a fast moving river. But William wasn't 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.679 to worry. The young woman was alive and would be 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:25.480 found before long. Sheltering in an old shack close to 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:30.399 the river. Weldon returned immediately to the Long Trail Road 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:35.159 and the Woolloomsac River that snaked alongside it, finding the 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:39.280 two covered bridges that spanned it. He searched desperately again 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:43.960 for any sign of Paula, but found nothing. About the 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:49.399 same time, Vermont State detective Almo Franzoni joined the search, 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.439 heading straight out to the Long Trail Road where Paula 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:58.000 was last seen alive. Franzoni noticed a gully close to 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:01.240 the Route nine highway out one hundred and twenty five 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.840 feet from where Lewis Knapp claimed to have dropped Paula off. 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:09.680 Searching the area a few moments later, Franzoni caught sight 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:13.159 of some soggy material that appeared to have been discarded 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:17.119 under a nearby bush. Moving in for a closer look, 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:19.760 he took a pen from his pocket and hooked the 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.040 material out, then spread it out on the ground to 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:27.240 reveal a small pair of pink underpants covered in blood. 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.000 The item of clothing was later shown to Bennington College 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:37.320 Director of Admissions Mary Garrett, who declared confidently that they 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:40.880 couldn't possibly have belonged to Paula, and so the lead 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:52.080 was quickly discarded with little progress being made. Thirty five 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:56.560 year old detective Robert Rundle and police officer Dorothy Scoville 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.400 were drafted in to assist in the case. The led 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:04.040 a renewed effort to interview everyone and anyone who'd known 0:23:04.080 --> 0:23:07.240 Paula or had for any reason come into contact with 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:12.080 her recently. It wasn't long before their efforts coalesced around 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.200 the Maxwell family, who were determined to be the last 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:19.959 people to see Paula alive. The Maxwells owned a house 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:22.960 about two thirds of the way up the long Trail road, 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.399 roughly half a mile from where it turned into the 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:32.240 forest path. Interviewing them one afternoon in their home, Rundeland 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:36.560 Scoville listened carefully to Viola Maxwell and her fifteen year 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.040 old daughter Mary as they described coming out of their 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:45.520 cowbarn sometime around four pm on Sunday, December first, when 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.840 they saw a young, blondhaired woman wearing a red Parker jacket, 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:54.160 blue trousers and trainers heading up the road toward them. 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:59.320 As mother and daughter talked, Alfred Godet, Viola's on and 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:03.440 off boyfriend who sometimes stayed with them, sat listening quietly 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:07.439 in the corner. When the pair finished their account, the 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:10.680 officers turned to Alfred to ask if he'd also seen 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:14.560 the woman in the red Parker, to which he replied no, 0:24:15.240 --> 0:24:18.000 since he'd been away in New York State for most 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:21.760 of that day. When Rundell and Scoville returned a few 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:26.479 days later to interview the family again, Alfred changed his story, 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:29.720 telling them he hadn't been in New York State at all, 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:32.840 but had in fact gone to Bennington early in the 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:38.119 morning before returning to the house just after midnight. Concerned 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.920 by the sudden change of story, Rundle and Scoville had 0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:45.560 each of the Maxwell children four in total, pulled out 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:49.920 of school and interviewed separately, though ten year old Preston 0:24:50.280 --> 0:24:52.280 was confirmed to have been out all day with his 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:56.919 grandparents at the time. Mary reiterated that on December first, 0:24:57.320 --> 0:25:00.679 only she, her mum, and her brother Anley were at 0:25:00.720 --> 0:25:04.800 home because Alfred and her brother Clarence had gone to 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:08.720 town early in the morning. Though she couldn't be sure 0:25:08.760 --> 0:25:12.640 exactly what time they came home, she was adamant they 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:16.000 were both back in time for supper in the early evening. 0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:21.600 Sixteen year old Clarence backed up Mary's statement, telling police 0:25:21.640 --> 0:25:24.480 also that he and Alfred had left the house in 0:25:24.480 --> 0:25:29.040 the morning and driven into Bennington, adding curiously, however, that 0:25:29.160 --> 0:25:32.840 at some point while he stayed in town, Alfred left 0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:37.360 him there and drove off somewhere else. Twelve year old 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:40.560 Stanley Maxwell agreed that he was at home on the 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:44.399 day in question, but only until about two thirty pm, 0:25:44.920 --> 0:25:47.440 when he left with his uncle to carry out some 0:25:47.480 --> 0:25:52.600 odd jobs. Stanley was certain that Alfred was also at 0:25:52.600 --> 0:26:02.400 the house around this time. One lesser known fact about 0:26:02.520 --> 0:26:05.920 Unexplained is that it actually started life as a website 0:26:06.040 --> 0:26:08.719 built through square Space, which I heard about from an 0:26:08.720 --> 0:26:12.080 advert on one of my favorite podcasts. Having no idea 0:26:12.160 --> 0:26:15.040 where to even begin with publishing my own, it was 0:26:15.080 --> 0:26:17.080 only when I realized how easy it would be with 0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:19.959 square Space that I finally went ahead and did it. 0:26:20.280 --> 0:26:23.399 Whether you're a dreamer, a maker, or simply a doer, 0:26:23.600 --> 0:26:26.000 Square Space can provide you with all the tools you 0:26:26.040 --> 0:26:29.200 need to bring your creative ideas to life. With their 0:26:29.280 --> 0:26:32.520 dynamic all in one platform, you can build a website, 0:26:32.720 --> 0:26:37.520 claim a domain, sell online, and instantly begin marketing your brand, 0:26:37.960 --> 0:26:42.280 Combining cutting edge design and world class engineering. With square Space, 0:26:42.359 --> 0:26:46.080 you have the ability to customize the look and feel, settings, products, 0:26:46.119 --> 0:26:48.720 and more with just a few clicks. And when you 0:26:48.760 --> 0:26:52.399 create your website you'll get free, unlimited hosting, top of 0:26:52.440 --> 0:26:56.040 the line security, and dependable resources to help you succeed. 0:26:56.320 --> 0:26:59.439 There'll be nothing to patch your upgrade ever, and twenty 0:26:59.440 --> 0:27:03.200 four seven award winning customer support always on hand whenever 0:27:03.240 --> 0:27:06.560 you need it. Go to squarespace dot com forward slash 0:27:06.720 --> 0:27:10.000 unexplained for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, 0:27:10.359 --> 0:27:13.560 used the offer code unexplained to save ten percent of 0:27:13.640 --> 0:27:20.679 your first purchase of a website or domain. After further 0:27:20.760 --> 0:27:25.200 conflicting statements, Rundle and Scoville returned to the Maxwell house 0:27:25.240 --> 0:27:28.479 for a fourth time, joined by Sheriff Peck, who had 0:27:28.520 --> 0:27:33.960 also received conflicting statements from the family. This time, Viola 0:27:34.080 --> 0:27:37.080 claimed that although Alfred had left the house early in 0:27:37.119 --> 0:27:40.960 the morning with Clarence, he then returned for lunch, leaving 0:27:40.960 --> 0:27:45.600 again early in the afternoon. Sometime later, she and her 0:27:45.680 --> 0:27:48.479 daughter Mary had left to see a movie, but as 0:27:48.480 --> 0:27:51.280 they made their way down the long trail road, they 0:27:51.320 --> 0:27:54.080 bumped into Alfred coming the other way in his truck. 0:27:55.080 --> 0:27:57.800 The pair then traveled back to the house with Alfred, 0:27:58.160 --> 0:28:00.960 who stayed inside while they went to the cow barn 0:28:01.080 --> 0:28:04.720 to complete some chores. It was a short time later 0:28:04.960 --> 0:28:07.760 that she and Mary saw the young woman in the 0:28:07.800 --> 0:28:12.280