WEBVTT - Season 06 Episode 11: Slide Away (RERUN) 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.800 Hello, It's Richard mcclinsmith here with Unexplained. On a short 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.280 break for the holiday season, we'll be dipping back into 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:09.520 the archive for one more week. In this week's episode, 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:13.560 we returned to Bennington, Vermont, where between nineteen forty five 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.640 and nineteen fifty four people vanished without trace in an 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:21.880 area dubbed the Bennington Triangle, so called because of the 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.759 many strange and weird occurrences said to have taken place there. 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:30.200 In nineteen forty six, eighteen year old Paula gene Weldon 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.839 became the second of those four people to disappear, in 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.960 a case one investigator described as the most baffling he'd 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:42.960 ever come across. This is Unexplained, Season six, episode eleven, 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:59.760 slide away in southwest Vermont in the United States. It 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:04.320 was sometime around three pm on December one, nineteen forty six, 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:06.920 when a truck pulled up to the bottom of the 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.039 long Trail road a few miles east from the town 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.720 of Bennington, at the edge of the Green Mountains National Forest. 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.520 A light snow had just begun to fall. As a 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.720 young woman with dark blonde hair wearing a red Parker jacket, 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:26.560 blue jeans, and white trainers jumped out. She thanked the 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.360 driver for the lift, then shut the door and continued 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.120 on foot down the mile and a half stretch of road, 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:38.480 leading her deeper and deeper into the forest. On and 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.640 on she walked, as the snow continued to fall, her 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.360 hands thrust into the pockets of that red Parker jacket. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.560 From off in the distance, the sound of a car 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:55.840 approaching draws nearer and nearer the young woman walking in 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.800 the red Parker, now just an imperceptible echo from another 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:03.520 top time vanishes as the topless swish of the car 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:08.160 rushes past. At the wheel is twenty seven year old 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:13.080 Robert Singly, a music composition teacher from Bennington College. It 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:18.360 is now late September twenty oh eight. Singly parks up 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:20.600 at the end of the road and jumps out of 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.639 the vehicle. He grabs a rucksack from the back packed 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.400 with a small lunch for his walk. Then, after taking 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.800 a deep breath of the wet, pine scented air, he 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:34.760 places a wooly hat on his head and sets off 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:39.120 into the trees. A few hours later, after eating lunch 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.440 on the slope of Bald Mountain, roughly two miles from 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.320 his car. Singly continues on the same path for another 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.359 mile or so before deciding to head back the way 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.520 he came. But as he walks, it appears to Singly 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:58.760 that something strange has happened. Where before the path was clear, 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:04.560 a fallen now lies strewn across it. Singly turns to 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:08.240 examine the path behind him, then looks back to the tree, 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:12.240 running his eyes over its soaking, wet, moss covered bark 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:17.480 with a sinking realization the path he is on is 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:22.000 not the same path he was on before. Trying not 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.919 to panic, Robert figures he'll find his way eventually if 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:29.680 he just keeps heading roughly in the right direction. But 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.040 after another mile or two of walking, there is still 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.320 no sign of the long trail road or anything else 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.640 that he recognizes. It was as though the entire forest 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:52.520 had shifted secretly around him. With no mobile phone, map 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.840 or GPS, Robert Singly had no choice but to simply 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:00.840 press on and hope for the best. Before long, however, 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.360 dusk descended, bringing with it a thick fog that appeared 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:10.720 from out of nowhere, obscuring the path ahead. Just then, 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.360 Robert looked up to see a large maple tree a 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:18.000 little off the trail that seemed to be beckoning him, 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.200 taking shelter under its branches. He eventually succeeded in lighting 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.320 a fire to keep warm, then slumped back against the 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:30.480 trunk of the tree and waited for dawn. At first light, 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.680 Singly set off again in what he assumed to be 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:37.120 the direction of his car, but after another few hours, 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.800 believing he was only a quarter of a mile away, 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.159 he came across a sign for the Goddard Shelter on 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:48.039 Glastonbury Mountain, a place roughly seven miles from where he 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:54.800 thought he was, in a completely different stretch of forest. Fortunately, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.839 Robert was eventually discovered by a Vermont State Police search 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.760 team around a seven thirty that morning, a little tired 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:07.200 and cold, but otherwise safe and well. Quite what had 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.880 happened to him, he couldn't be sure, as he put 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.560 it to the local Bennington Banner newspaper, either he took 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.640 a wrong turn, something he was adamant he hadn't done, 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:23.800 or something really weird happened out there. For some that 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:29.320 Singly got lost on Glastonbury Mountain was no coincidence. Much 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:33.960 of Vermont's Green Mountain's forest is steeped in mythology and mysticism, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:39.120 in particular Glastonbury Mountain, where, according to folk legend, there 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:43.080 is even a vast ancient boulder that swallows people whole, 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.599 taking them from the earth without so much as a 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:52.159 stifled cry. Like much of New England, the area reads 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:58.520 like a strange psychogeographic experiment, where place names like Manchester, Sunderland, 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.320 Somerset and Dover can be found only a stone's throw 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:06.200 from each other, all dragged from another world by English 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:12.240 settlers and pinned haphazardly onto a strange and unfamiliar landscape, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.400 a place that in reality was never for taming, as 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:20.000 it continues to this day to wriggle and squirm underneath, 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:25.080 alive with unknowable mystery. And it isn't just the land 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.080 that visitors and locals alike are told to be cautious of. 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.359 In nineteen twenty five, it's claim that famed horror writer 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:39.440 Howard Philip's Lovecraft once traveled to Richmond, Vermont, a little 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.200 further north, on the hunt for a strange winged creature 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:48.479 that had been dubbed the Awful by local observers, described 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.719 as having the tail of a serpent, gray wings, and 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:57.040 huge claws, having presumably traveled right over the Green Mountains, 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:00.800 it is alleged to have been seen again in Berkshire, Massachusetts, 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.800 just to the south, where it reportedly swooped down and 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:09.000 grabbed something from the ground. Some claim it was a 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:13.600 dog or a lamb, others that it was in fact 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:28.920 a small child. Of course, many vast wilderness regions have 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.520 generated similar myths and legends, no less terrifying, But where 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.800 the Green Mountain's forest seems to differ is in its 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:42.760 propensity for the genuinely inexplicable. In nineteen ninety two, local 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:48.160 resident and folklorist Joseph Citro coined the term Bennington Triangle, 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.440 which covers a region of the Green Mountains between the 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:55.160 towns of Bennington, Woodford, and Somerset, in an effort to 0:07:55.240 --> 0:08:00.760 encapsulate the area's many strange stories, In particular, a spate 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.120 of unexplained vanishings that occurred there between nineteen forty five 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:10.160 and nineteen fifty all occurred close to the Long Trail, 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.720 a two hundred and seventy mile stretch of hiking path 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.440 that leads straight through the Green Mountains all the way 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:22.400 to the Canadian border. The first to disappear was seventy 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.040 four year old Middy Rivers in nineteen forty five, who 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.920 vanished while out on a hunting trip with friends. Midy, 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.920 an experienced hunter who knew the forest well, was last 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.200 seen close to the Long Trail Road, a short section 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:39.440 of road at the southern end of the Long Trail. 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:45.520 In nineteen forty nine, sixty eight year old James Tetford 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.320 got on a bus in the town of Franklin, about 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:51.720 one hundred sixty miles north of Bennington, en route for 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:56.160 the Bennington Soldier's home where he lived. Teedford was reportedly 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.560 seen on the bus after the last stop before Bennington, 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.400 but when the bus arrived at his final destination, the 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:08.000 man had inexplicably vanished, leaving behind his bag and an 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:13.520 open bus timetable on his vacant seat. Then, in nineteen 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.600 fifty eight, year old Paul Jepson was accompanying his mother 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.640 to a local dump not far from the Long Trail 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.439 that she and her husband managed, when he too disappeared. 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.360 Paul had been left in the family truck while his 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.959 mother left to complete some chores, but when she returned 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:37.040 he was gone. Some believe he simply walked into the 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:41.360 forest out of curiosity, then somehow lost his way back. 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.920 Others that something came out of the forest and took him, 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.959 and some say his parents may in fact have been responsible. 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:58.280 And then there is Paula Jean Weldon. Weldon, a student 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.400 at Bennington College, where missing in nineteen forty six after 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.320 reportedly setting off for a walk on the Long Trail. 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.520 As one of the detectives tasked with locating her put 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.360 it it was the most baffling case he'd ever been 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:19.920 connected with. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:31.120 When seventeen year old Paula Gene Weldon arrived for her 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:35.040 first term at Bennington College in nineteen forty five, she 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.360 wasn't quite sure what to make of her new roommate, Elizabeth. 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.960 Both had very different backgrounds, with Paula growing up in 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:47.360 the city, the daughter of an industrial designer in Stamford, Connecticut, 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:52.480 and Elizabeth hailing from nearby rural Putney, having grown up 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.439 on a horse ranch. The pair soon hit it off, however, 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.880 quickly bonding over their mutual love of the great out 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.199 and reveled in their new found freedom out on campus, 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.960 away from their families. They even took a job together 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.040 in the college canteen, working two hour long shifts each 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.920 day to help cover their boarding fees. Paula arrived at 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.880 what was then a female only establishment located a few 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.239 miles north of the city of Bennington, with her ambitions 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:29.000 firmly set on becoming an artist. During her freshman year, however, 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:34.200 exposed to subjects and ideas she'd never encountered before, somewhere 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:39.120 along the line, those ambitions seemed to change. She developed 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:42.960 a passion for botany, which dovetailed perfectly with her growing 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:47.319 love for long afternoons spent trekking through the surrounding countryside, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:52.439 and ever present by her side was Elizabeth, always ready 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.839 to set off with her friend on one of their 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.800 many adventures into the Green Mountains, like the time they 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.960 hiked up toward Moultae Equinox near Manchester, when the pair 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:07.400 were joined by two young men from nearby Williams College. 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:12.200 That afternoon, they hiked until dusk, then, after grabbing dinner together, 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.400 the four went out to a square dance, but got 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.760 stuck in a rainstorm on their way back. In the end, 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.440 thanks to a sympathetic farmer, they were forced to take 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:26.800 shelter in a hay barn for the night. Such adventures 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.200 became a habit for Paula and Elizabeth, who cultivated a 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.800 lively social life that, for Paula at least, seemed a 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.520 far cry from her more stilted upbringing and only served 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:43.640 to strengthen her burgeoning independent spirit. Encapsulating this was Paula 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.920 and Elizabeth's love for hitch hiking. Paula had been nervous 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:50.760 to try it at first, but soon realized what a 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.080 joy it could be, never quite knowing what fun or 0:12:54.200 --> 0:13:06.000 interesting character might pick you up next. In the holidays, 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:10.239 Paula and Elizabeth would visit each other's families, where Elizabeth 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.880 first got the sense that all was not well with 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:17.319 her roommate. As the oldest of four daughters, there's been 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.440 speculation that Paula didn't feel quite as loved as her sisters. 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.959 Though she'd been close to both parents before college, something 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.480 in the course of her first year had changed. She 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.680 described her home to Elizabeth as the ice box. It 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.920 was a term Elizabeth never quite understood, since Paula's parents 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.760 seemed so attentive, always asking her how she was getting on, 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.800 while Paula seemed never to want to discuss anything with them. 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.160 It seemed to Elizabeth that perhaps Paula felt a little 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.600 guilty about her new interests but didn't quite have the 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.520 means to articulate it, or simply didn't want to discuss it, 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.880 fearing the inevitable argument it would cause. Or perhaps it 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.199 was the realization she'd come to in that first year 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.959 of college that she might never live up to her 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:14.559 father's expectations that caused such a frosty relationship. But Thanksgiving 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.880 in nineteen forty six, while Elizabeth went home and then 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.280 eighteen year old Paula decided to stay in their room 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.200 at college. When Elizabeth returned the next day, something seemed 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.600 to have shifted again in Paula. Later that night, while 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.600 Elizabeth studied, Paula seemed happy and upbeat as she hung 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:39.360 out with other students from their halls Dewey House, staying 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:42.160 up late into the night and taking part in an 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:48.360 impromptu wrestling tournament. By the following day, Sunday, December one, however, 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.800 Elizabeth thought she seemed a little distracted as she strummed 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.400 listlessly on her guitar, gazing out at the window at 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:01.400 the gray skies above Elizabeth suggest test that Paula take 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.320 a walk to clear her head, since that had always 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:09.400 helped them both in the past. Later that afternoon, it 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.640 appeared that Paula took her friend's advice when she was 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:16.400 seen walking down the long Collige drive toward the main road, 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:21.600 dressed in a red Parker jacket, blue jeans, and white trainers. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.360 But when Elizabeth returned to their room later in the 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.280 evening after some studying, Paula was nowhere to be seen. 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:34.480 Assuming her roommate was out studying herself, she thought little 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.400 of it when she got into bed and switched out 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:41.320 the light to sleep. A few miles from the college, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.520 it had just gone midnight with a heavy snow now 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.960 falling when a couple traveling along Route nine stopped to 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.600 put snow chains on close to the turn off for 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.880 the long trail road. Stepping out into the silent night 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.840 with their flashlight, the couple was surprised to find fresh 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.080 footprints in the snow that appeared to be about a 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:08.200 size five, similar to Paula's. Fearing that someone could be 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.160 in trouble since there seemed to be no buildings anywhere nearby, 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.920 the couple followed the Prince for about four hundred yards 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:20.320 along the road until they stopped abruptly alongside a set 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:31.600 of car tracks that disappeared into the dark. When Elizabeth 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:36.840 awoke the next morning, Paula's bed was empty. Elizabeth ran 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:39.920 to the canteen to work her breakfast shift and was 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.440 troubled to find that Paula wasn't there, and neither had 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:47.000 she requested to take the morning off. At the end 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.600 of the shift, Elizabeth headed straight to the college director 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.840 of admissions and informed them that she had no idea 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:59.800 where Paula was. Later that afternoon, Paula's parents, Jean and William, 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.000 received a call from the college president at their home 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.680 in Stamford, asking if Paula had gone back to visit them, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:12.080 but they too hadn't heard from her. The next day, Tuesday, 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:16.119 December third, the story broke in the Bennington Banner that 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:21.159 eighteen year old Bennington College student Paula gene Weldon was missing. 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.080 Ernie Whitman, who worked night watch at the offices of 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.000 the Bennington Banner, was sweeping the floor in the press 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.639 room on Wednesday afternoon when he saw the front page 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:36.080 of Tuesday's paper with a picture of the missing Paula. 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:41.200 Grabbing a copy, he ran straight to reporter Pete Stephenson 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.920 to tell him he'd seen the exact same woman only 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:49.359 a few days before. Back around four p m. On 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:53.640 the afternoon of Sunday, December first, Whitman and three friends 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.560 were walking back from a camp on Bickford Hollow Road, 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.719 which branches off from the Long Trail Road, when they 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:04.199 were approached by a young woman matching Paula's description. The 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.720 woman wanted to know if the road went all the 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:11.280 way over the mountains. Confirming it did, The group then 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.040 watched bemused as she continued heading deeper into the forest, 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:21.280 despite the daylight already beginning to fade. Later that Wednesday afternoon, 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:26.080 armed with the new information, Paula's father, William arrived in 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:30.320 Bennington and immediately set about trying to retrace his daughter's 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:35.359 footsteps alongside Pete Stephenson and The Banner's editor Frank Howe, 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.440 but the men found no sign of her. The following day, 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:45.119 local builder Lewis Knapp contacted police to inform them that 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.320 he'd been heading home on Route sixty seven a, the 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.679 main road out of Bennington College, around three pm on 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.280 the Sunday when he saw a young woman in a 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.200 red jacket trying to hitch a lift. The woman, who 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.320 said her name was Paula, to be dropped off as 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:05.320 close to the Long Trail as possible. Knapp claimed to 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:07.840 have driven her all the way to Woodford Road, where 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.560 he lived, where she got out of his truck and 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.320 proceeded toward the Green Mountains on foot. As per Ernie 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:19.680 Whitman's description, NAP's wife confirmed that her husband returned home 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:24.680 that day about three point fifteen p m. Meanwhile, as 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:29.440 temperatures steadily dropped day by day, reaching below zero at night, 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.760 a number of search parties were arranged to help find 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:38.199 the missing student. On Thursday, December fifth, roughly five hundred people, 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.679 led by County Sheriff Clyde Peck, including three hundred students 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.919 and faculty members from Bennington College, scoured the woods alongside 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.040 the Long Trail, as well as large swathes of Bald 0:19:50.080 --> 0:20:01.240 and Glastonbury Mountain, but nothing was found. After news of 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:05.440 Paula's disappearance broke in the national press, police were alerted 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.600 to numerous apparent sightings from all over Connecticut, New York, 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:14.720 and Massachusetts, but all came to nothing. Frustrated by the 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.879 police's inability to find even a hint of a clue 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:22.080 as to his daughter's whereabouts, William Weldon increasingly took it 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:25.680 on himself to follow up potential leads, but as one 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:30.760 after another led nowhere, In desperation, he turned to local 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:35.480 self described psychic Clara Jepson at her home in Pownell, 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:40.080 not far from Bennington. Jepson took hold of William's hand 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.399 and closed her eyes. She saw a young woman, she said, 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.479 dressed in a red Parker jacket, walking through a covered 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:53.439 bridge across a fast moving river. But William wasn't to worry. 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:57.240 The young woman was alive and would be found before long. 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:02.520 Sheltering in an old shack close to the river, Wheldon 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.280 returned immediately to the Long Trail Road and the Wooloomsac 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:10.760 River that snaked alongside it, finding the two covered bridges 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.600 that spanned it, he searched desperately again for any sign 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:20.040 of Paula, but found nothing. About the same time, Vermont 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:25.760 state detective Almo Franzoni joined the search, heading straight out 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.119 to the Long Trail Road where Paula was last seen alive. 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.639 Franzoni noticed a gully close to the Route nine Highway, 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.080 about one hundred and twenty five feet from where Lewis 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:41.199 Knapp claimed to have dropped Paula off. Searching the area 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:45.040 a few moments later, Franzoni caught sight of some soggy 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:49.880 material that appeared to have been discarded under a nearby bush. 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:52.680 Moving in for a closer look, he took a pen 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:56.000 from his pocket and hooked the material out, then spread 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:58.840 it out on the ground to reveal a small pair 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:04.080 of pink underpants covered in blood. The item of clothing 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:09.119 was later shown to Bennington College Director of Admissions Mary Garrett, 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:13.840 who declared confidently that they couldn't possibly have belonged to Paula, 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:24.920 and so the lead was quickly discarded with little progress 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:28.840 being made. Thirty five year old detective Robert Brundle and 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:32.720 police officer Dorothy Scoville were drafted in to assist in 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:36.480 the case. The pair led a renewed effort to interview 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:40.080 everyone and anyone who'd known Paula or had for any 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:44.320 reason come into contact with her recently. It wasn't long 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:48.320 before their efforts coalesced around the Maxwell family, who were 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:51.600 determined to be the last people to see Paula alive. 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:55.879 The Maxwells owned a house about two thirds of the 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:59.200 way up the Long Trail road, roughly half a mile 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:03.880 from where it turned into the forest path. Interviewing them 0:23:04.080 --> 0:23:08.520 one afternoon in their home, Rundal and Scoville listened carefully 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:12.119 to Viola Maxwell and her fifteen year old daughter Mary 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:16.679 as they described coming out of their cowbarn sometime around 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.920 four pm on Sunday, December one, when they saw a young, 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:25.560 blondhaired woman wearing a red Parker jacket, blue trousers and 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:30.000 trainers heading up the road toward them. As mother and 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:34.960 daughter talked, Alfred Godett, Viola's on and off boyfriend, who 0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:38.640 sometimes stayed with them, sat listening quietly in the corner. 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:42.960 When the pair finished their account, the officers turned to 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.159 Alfred to ask if he'd also seen the woman in 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:50.240 the red Parker, to which he replied no, since he'd 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:53.160 been away in New York State for most of that day. 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:57.280 When Rundal and Scoville returned a few days later to 0:23:57.359 --> 0:24:02.200 interview the family again, Alfred changed his story, telling them 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:04.840 he hadn't been in New York State at all, but 0:24:04.880 --> 0:24:07.720 had in fact gone to Bennington early in the morning 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:12.800 before returning to the house just after midnight. Concerned by 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:16.640 the sudden change of story, Rundle and Scoville had each 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:20.159 of the Maxwell children four in total, pulled out of 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:24.879 school and interviewed separately, though ten year old Preston was 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:27.560 confirmed to have been out all day with his grandparents 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:32.359 at the time. Mary reiterated that on December first, only she, 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:36.320 her mum, and her brother Stanley were at home because 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:40.040 Alfred and her brother Clarence had gone to town early 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:43.919 in the morning. Though she couldn't be sure exactly what 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:47.679 time they came home, she was adamant they were both 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:52.280 back in time for supper in the early evening. Sixteen 0:24:52.359 --> 0:24:56.480 year old Clarence backed up Mary's statement, telling police also 0:24:56.920 --> 0:24:59.080 that he and Alfred had left the house in the 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:03.840 morning and driven into Bennington, adding curiously, however, that at 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:07.520 some point while he stayed in town, Alfred left him 0:25:07.560 --> 0:25:12.400 there and drove off somewhere else. Twelve year old Stanley 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:15.320 Maxwell agreed that he was at home on the day 0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:19.600 in question, but only until about two thirty pm, when 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:22.679 he left with his uncle to carry out some odd jobs. 0:25:24.040 --> 0:25:27.600 Stanley was certain that Alfred was also at the house 0:25:28.080 --> 0:25:42.840 around this time, After further conflicting statements, Rundel and Scoville 0:25:43.080 --> 0:25:46.159 returned to the Maxwell house for a fourth time, joined 0:25:46.200 --> 0:25:50.000 by Sheriff Peck, who had also received conflicting statements from 0:25:50.040 --> 0:25:55.120 the family. This time, Viola claimed that although Alfred had 0:25:55.200 --> 0:25:58.119 left the house early in the morning with Clarence, he 0:25:58.200 --> 0:26:03.159 then returned for lunch again early in the afternoon. Some 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:06.280 time later, she and her daughter Mary had left to 0:26:06.320 --> 0:26:08.840 see a movie, but as they made their way down 0:26:08.920 --> 0:26:12.119 the Long Trail road, they bumped into Alfred coming the 0:26:12.160 --> 0:26:15.760 other way in his truck. The pair then traveled back 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:19.159 to the house with Alfred, who stayed inside while they 0:26:19.200 --> 0:26:22.760 went to the cow barn to complete some chores. It 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:25.960 was a short time later that she and Mary saw 0:26:26.040 --> 0:26:28.639 the young woman in the red jacket walking up the 0:26:28.720 --> 0:26:33.119 road toward them. Alfred, she was certain was in the 0:26:33.160 --> 0:26:36.040 house at the time and had not seen the woman. 0:26:38.400 --> 0:26:41.920 After yet another altered story, the police felt they had 0:26:41.920 --> 0:26:44.600 no choice but to arrest Alfred and bring him in 0:26:44.640 --> 0:26:49.680 for questioning, and once again he too changed its story. 0:26:51.400 --> 0:26:55.200 Alfred did confirm that he'd met Viola and Mary coming 0:26:55.280 --> 0:26:57.800 up the Long Trail in his truck and dropped them 0:26:57.880 --> 0:27:01.439 back off at home. However, her He also added that 0:27:01.560 --> 0:27:04.960 after parking up his truck, he neglected to head straight 0:27:05.040 --> 0:27:07.480 back to the house with them when he saw two 0:27:07.520 --> 0:27:11.560 men sat in a car parked up outside it. Suspecting 0:27:11.600 --> 0:27:14.560 that one of the men was Viola's new boyfriend, he 0:27:14.680 --> 0:27:18.119 decided to watch from afar as she and Mary spoke 0:27:18.160 --> 0:27:23.880 to them. Then, despite consistently stating otherwise, he told police 0:27:24.160 --> 0:27:26.440 that he had seen the young woman in the red 0:27:26.480 --> 0:27:30.439 parker after all walking past while he sat and watched 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:34.560 the men in the car. When the men finally drove off, 0:27:34.760 --> 0:27:38.920 Alfred explained that he then chased after Viola and scolded 0:27:39.000 --> 0:27:43.120 her for cheating on him. An argument ensued between them 0:27:43.200 --> 0:27:46.879 for a good few hours until Viola's parents, who also 0:27:46.960 --> 0:27:50.840 lived at the property, returned home, at which point, he said, 0:27:51.160 --> 0:27:54.399 Viola went upstairs to bed, and he left the house 0:27:54.440 --> 0:27:57.000 in a rage and spent the night at a shack 0:27:57.040 --> 0:28:02.520 across the road where he often stayed. After being confronted 0:28:02.600 --> 0:28:07.200 with Alfred's completely new statement, Fiola once again changed her 0:28:07.240 --> 0:28:11.119 story to telling police that she'd been lying all along 0:28:11.400 --> 0:28:13.359 because she was in the middle of applying for a 0:28:13.400 --> 0:28:16.240 divorce and didn't want it known that she and Alfred 0:28:16.280 --> 0:28:19.520 were still seeing each other in case it jeopardized anything. 0:28:21.520 --> 0:28:24.760 The two men whom Alfred claimed had been parked outside 0:28:24.800 --> 0:28:28.679 the house were eventually tracked down and seemingly verified his 0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:33.040 latest version of events, saying also that they too had 0:28:33.119 --> 0:28:36.000