# 1 Hour of Chilling New England Cases | 161

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 12 Jan 2026, 1 h 01 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO3564148310.mp3

Don't forget to follow and turn on all notifications. Also don't forget to drop a rating as well and check out Lazy Chill Zone and Lazy Chill True Crime on Youtube. Join me for ep 161 of the true crime pod where I discuss 1 hour of chilling New England cases from Massachusetts to Maine and everything in between. Today I'm discussing 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, disturbing cases, true crime analysis, hidden clues, infamous crimes, real crime stories, los angeles true crime, hollywood true crime

## Transcript

[0:00] A three-year old girl stood crying on the stairs, locked out
[0:04] of her home while unimaginable violence unfolded below.
[0:09] It was the afternoon of February 19th, 1982 in a quiet wound
[0:14] socket Rhode Island apartment house, when a neighbor opened
[0:17] the basement door to a nightmare.
[0:20] Blood was spattered across the laundry room walls. 22 year old
[0:24] Doreen Picard lay slumped between a washer and dryer,
[0:28] bludgeoned beyond recognition and strangled with her own
[0:31] sweater. Nearby, 27 year old Susan Lefert
[0:36] was barely alive in a pool of blood.
[0:39] Susan miraculously survived after hours of surgery, but she
[0:43] emerged from her coma with total amnesia about the attack.
[0:49] With Susan unable to remember the attack and a toddler the
[0:52] only other witness, detectives had little to go on in 1982.
[0:57] The perpetrator had left behind a bloodied 28 inch pipe in the
[1:01] basement, but no fingerprints could be lifted from it.
[1:05] Investigators could not discern a clear motive.
[1:08] Susan was a housewife and Doreen a young student, neither with
[1:13] any known enemies or dark secrets that might invite such
[1:16] violence. Detectives were struck by the
[1:19] ferocity of the crime, and early theories ranged widely.
[1:24] The attacker could have been a stranger responding to a
[1:26] classified ad, since La Ferte had advertised puppies for sale.
[1:32] Doreen's distraught family began their own inquiries and pressed
[1:35] authorities not to give up. Doreen's father even received an
[1:39] anonymous phone call warning him to stop pursuing the case, a
[1:44] chilling sign that someone was nervous about the family's
[1:46] search for the truth. But despite their persistence,
[1:51] months turned into years with no arrest.
[1:55] The case slowly went cold and the community remained on edge,
[1:59] knowing a predator was still at large.
[2:04] The long dormant case gained new momentum after a 1988 feature on
[2:08] Unsolved Mysteries which brought in fresh tips.
[2:12] I feel like this show needs no introduction, but if you're not
[2:16] familiar with it, it showcased unsolved crimes and other
[2:20] mysteries. In 1990, a crucial lead finally
[2:26] emerged. A local man, 36 year old Daniel
[2:29] Shaw, came forward and implicated his friend Beaver
[2:33] Tempest in the crime. Tempest, a 37 year old truck
[2:37] driver, was a friend of the Laffert family and had visited
[2:41] the house that day to pick up a pit bull puppy they offered him.
[2:45] Tempest had been on police radar since 1982, but there was never
[2:50] enough evidence to charge him until these new witnesses
[2:53] emerged. There were even rumors that
[2:56] Tempest had been having an affair with Susan, a situation
[2:59] that could have led to a heated confrontation in the basement.
[3:04] In June 1991, Tempest was finally indicted for Doreen
[3:08] Picard's slaying nearly a decade after the crime, and the case
[3:13] went to trial the following year.
[3:17] At trial, Rhode Island prosecutors laid out a dramatic
[3:21] narrative of jealousy and rage. They argued that Tempest got
[3:25] into a violent argument with Susan in the basement and then
[3:29] fatally attacked Doreen when she unwittingly walked in on the
[3:32] scene. According to this theory, he
[3:35] strangled Doreen with her own sweater and bludgeoned both
[3:38] women with a metal pipe before fleeing.
[3:41] It was a compelling story, but it lacked any physical evidence,
[3:45] and nothing at the scene tied Tempest to the crime.
[3:49] Instead, the prosecution's case hinged on a handful of
[3:53] acquaintances who claimed that in the years following the
[3:57] attack, Tempest had privately confessed to them.
[4:02] These witnesses had checkered histories involving significant
[4:06] criminal activities, calling their credibility into question.
[4:10] One witness even claimed Tempest bragged that he would get away
[4:13] with it because he had family members in law enforcement.
[4:16] Still, taken together, the testimony of these individuals
[4:21] painted Tempest as a man who had boasted about committing the
[4:24] crime. In April 1992, the jury found
[4:27] Beaver Tempest guilty in Doreen Picard's demise.
[4:32] He was sentenced to 85 years in prison, but Tempest continued to
[4:36] insist he was innocent even as he was led away in handcuffs.
[4:41] For many locals, the conviction brought relief that someone was
[4:44] held accountable, but others were uneasy with how it was
[4:48] obtained. The Tempest family's deep ties
[4:52] to law enforcement fueled debate.
[4:55] Raymond's late father had been a highly placed wound socket
[4:58] police official, and his brother, Gordon Tempest was a
[5:02] Sergeant in the department who took part in the early
[5:05] investigation. Some thought the family's
[5:08] connections had helped Raymond evade suspicion, while others
[5:12] believed internal police rivalries had made him a target.
[5:16] In a startling twist after the trial, Gordon Tempest was
[5:19] convicted in 1993 of perjury for lying underoath about aspects of
[5:24] another case. The sight of a police officer,
[5:29] the defendant's own brother, being punished for lying about
[5:32] evidence added to the doubt surrounding the investigation.
[5:36] This fact seemed to seal the idea that Beaver had done it and
[5:40] his corrupt family had covered for him.
[5:43] This, of course, matched the narrative that Tempest himself
[5:46] allegedly had spun up. For the next two decades, Beaver
[5:53] Tempest pursued every legal Ave. to prove he had been wrongfully
[5:57] convicted. Eventually, the New England
[5:59] Innocence Project took up Tempest's case.
[6:02] They re examined the old evidence and uncovered stunning
[6:05] new information. For example, one key witness had
[6:09] initially given a statement that contradicted her trial
[6:12] testimony, inconsistencies the state never revealed to the
[6:16] defense. They also discovered that the
[6:19] detective's original informant was a man with a personal grudge
[6:24] against The Tempest family, and that fact was never shared with
[6:28] the defense, either. Investigators had even coached
[6:32] the witnesses on what to say, gently reminding them repeatedly
[6:37] that Beaver Tempest had confessed to the crime.
[6:40] Piece by piece, Tempest's team built the case that his 1992
[6:44] conviction was founded on unreliable, manipulated
[6:47] evidence. In 2015, Tempest's lawyers filed
[6:54] for post conviction relief. A Rhode Island Superior Court
[6:58] judge agreed that the original trial was flawed to the point
[7:01] that Beaver Tempest was denied his constitutional right to a
[7:05] fair trial. In July 2015, he vacated
[7:10] Tempest's conviction, ruling that prosecutors had withheld
[7:13] exculpatory evidence. After spending 23 years in
[7:17] prison, Tempest was released on bail that fall awaiting a new
[7:22] trial. The next year, 2016, the Rhode
[7:27] Island Supreme Court upheld the decision, affirming that
[7:30] Tempest's conviction couldn't stand given the misconduct and
[7:34] new evidence. For the first time in over 2
[7:37] decades, Tempest was out from behind bars, at least for the
[7:41] time being. Even after the courts overturned
[7:46] the conviction, state prosecutors were reluctant to
[7:49] let the case go. They initially announced plans
[7:53] to retry Tempest for the slaying of Doreen Picard.
[7:56] By then, the evidence against him had been severely undermined
[8:00] and memories had faded. Rather than risk a second trial
[8:04] and a possible life sentence, Tempest made a consequential
[8:08] choice. In December 2017, he entered an
[8:12] Alford Plea, a legal mechanism whereby a defendant doesn't
[8:16] admit guilt but acknowledges that the prosecution has enough
[8:19] evidence to convict. In exchange, he received a
[8:25] sentence of time served. This meant that with the decades
[8:29] he had already spent behind bars, Tempest would serve no
[8:32] further prison time. He walked out of court a free
[8:36] man still proclaiming his innocence, even if he had to
[8:40] legally say there was evidence to convict him.
[8:44] And just to put this in perspective, he faced 2 choices,
[8:48] to either take the Alford plea and get released immediately, or
[8:52] to roll the dice with the rest of his life after decades in
[8:55] prison. If he is indeed innocent despite
[8:58] the Alford plea, then that must have been a hell of a difficult
[9:01] decision to make. Ultimately, it remains unclear
[9:07] what really happened to Doreen and Susan that day in February.
[9:11] The case is officially closed and Beaver Tempest has
[9:15] officially been convicted of the crime.
[9:18] Unfortunately, this is a case where a botched investigation
[9:22] has prevented true justice from being served.
[9:24] In any event, if Beaver did it, he's now out free when he should
[9:29] still be behind bars for the attacks.
[9:32] If he's innocent, Beaver now has this millstone around his neck
[9:36] for the rest of his life, and the guy who actually did it
[9:39] could still be walking free knowing he got away with it
[9:42] completely. Cindy Weingar was a typical
[9:48] Vermont teenager in the late 1970s until the night she
[9:52] vanished without a trace. In March 1979, the 16 year old
[9:58] left her family's home on Forest St. to visit a friend and never
[10:02] returned. Just days later, her parents
[10:06] received a chilling anonymous phone call claiming that Cindy
[10:09] was dead and her body was at the bottom of the Winooski River.
[10:14] For over 4 decades, the fate of this Burlington high schooler
[10:18] has remained one of Vermont's most haunting unsolved
[10:21] mysteries. Cindy Winegar grew up as the
[10:26] youngest of a big family. In fact, she was the youngest of
[10:29] six siblings, born 13 years after her nearest sister.
[10:34] By her junior year of high school, Cindy was a bright girl
[10:38] but also a teenager testing boundaries.
[10:42] The family's strict rules couldn't stop her from
[10:44] befriending a rough crowd and occasionally blazing the
[10:47] broccoli. This phase worried her family,
[10:51] and in the weeks before she vanished, they even received
[10:53] eerie, anonymous phone calls directed at Cindy.
[10:57] Despite these troubles, she was still a beloved kid at home,
[11:01] which made her abrupt disappearance all the more
[11:04] shocking. On the evening of March 21st,
[11:09] 1979, everything seemed normal at the family home on Forest St.
[11:15] 16 year old Cindy was last seen watching TV with her family
[11:19] before she said she was heading out to visit a friend nearby.
[11:23] She walked out wearing blue jeans, a green and white striped
[11:27] shirt and low top sneakers, and she never came back.
[11:33] When Cindy hadn't returned by the next morning, her mother
[11:36] knew something was wrong. The family contacted Burlington
[11:40] Police and the family started to frantically search the
[11:43] neighborhood and Cindy's usual Hangouts.
[11:48] I'm going to shock you here. The authorities weren't very
[11:51] alarmed. Given Cindy's recent teenage
[11:54] rebellion, the police suspected she might have run away on her
[11:57] own and didn't immediately escalate the search.
[12:01] This response left the family feeling helpless and dismissed
[12:05] at the worst moment. Then came the phone call that
[12:10] turned their fear into a nightmare.
[12:12] A few days after Cindy went missing, her mother received an
[12:15] anonymous call from a man who delivered a disturbing message.
[12:20] Their daughter was tied up dead at the bottom of the Winooski
[12:23] River. The caller hung up without
[12:26] identifying himself. But there's a twist that made
[12:31] this even more disturbing than it usually would have been.
[12:34] The family changed their number recently in response to the
[12:37] threatening calls. Sources vary as to whether the
[12:40] new number was intentionally unlisted or whether it just
[12:44] hadn't hit the new phone books, but at any rate, the result is
[12:47] the same. That he somehow knew the
[12:50] family's new Incognito number made the situation seem less
[12:55] like a cruel hoax and more like someone had obtained it from
[12:58] Cindy directly. They begged the police to take
[13:03] this tip seriously, but no organized search of the river
[13:07] was done. At the time, investigators
[13:09] couldn't verify the gruesome claim and still lean toward the
[13:13] theory that Cindy had left by choice.
[13:16] For the Winegar family, however, that call felt like proof that
[13:20] something terrible had happened to their daughter.
[13:25] Reading between the lines here, it appears to me that the quote
[13:28] UN quote investigators may have believed that the call was
[13:32] hoaxed by the family to get the cops to take the case seriously.
[13:38] With few leads and a lackluster police response in 1979, Cindy's
[13:43] trail went cold fast and years passed without any sign of her.
[13:48] In 1981, the family suffered another tragedy when Cindy's
[13:53] father, John, drowned in the river near their home.
[13:57] At John's funeral, a relative swore they saw a young woman
[14:00] standing in the back of the church who looked exactly like
[14:04] Cindy. Before anyone could approach,
[14:07] that woman slipped away, leaving the family wondering if Cindy
[14:11] had quietly returned to say goodbye to her dad.
[14:15] In the years that followed, a few other people claimed to spot
[14:19] someone resembling Cindy around Burlington, but none of these
[14:22] sightings could be confirmed. In 1985, a peculiar discovery
[14:29] briefly raised hopes one of Cindy's sister's friends, while
[14:34] fishing in the Winooski River, snagged a clump of long blonde
[14:37] hair on her line. Recalling the anonymous callers
[14:41] dire warning, she alerted the police.
[14:44] Unfortunately, without any other evidence or the ability to test
[14:48] DNA at that time, it was impossible to prove if the hair
[14:51] was Cindy's. Over the ensuing decades,
[14:55] Burlington police did periodically review Cindy's cold
[14:58] case, but no solid leads ever emerged.
[15:02] Officially, the case remained open, although her family
[15:06] strongly believed that labeling her a runaway early on had
[15:10] caused critical delays in the investigation.
[15:13] Cindy's parents passed away never knowing what happened, and
[15:17] her surviving siblings have refused to declare her dead,
[15:21] holding out hope that the truth will be discovered one day.
[15:26] When examining what might have happened to Cindy, 2 main
[15:30] theories stand out, each telling a very different story.
[15:34] Personally, I find myself torn between them, trying to weigh
[15:37] the evidence on each side. One possibility is that Cindy
[15:44] left on her own that night, essentially running away.
[15:48] This was the initial assumption by law enforcement.
[15:51] Indeed, Cindy was a teenager in a rebellious phase, chafing
[15:56] under strict rules and hanging out with a new crowd.
[15:59] Perhaps she wanted a taste of freedom, as so many people
[16:02] around that age do. Supporters of this theory note
[16:06] that there were reported sightings of her after she
[16:08] disappeared as evidence in favor of her survival.
[16:12] Maybe she felt she couldn't come back and chose to start over
[16:15] elsewhere in secret. However, it must be noted that
[16:19] all these so-called sightings remain completely unconfirmed
[16:23] and could honestly be wishful thinking on the part of her
[16:25] friends and family. Personally, I find the runaway
[16:31] theory hard to fully buy unless there was a much more sinister
[16:34] force pulling her away from home.
[16:37] Cindy left without taking any belongings or money, which is
[16:41] unusual for someone planning to be gone long.
[16:44] And would she really cut off all contact for decades?
[16:48] It's hard to imagine her watching her family suffer all
[16:51] this time without ever letting them know she was OK.
[16:55] Moreover, the sinister phone calls that targeted her both
[16:59] before and after she vanished don't fit with a simple runaway
[17:04] scenario. Those calls strongly imply that
[17:08] she was in some kind of danger, not just a teen quietly slipping
[17:12] away. So yeah, I have serious doubts
[17:15] that Cindy simply ran off to start a new life by choice.
[17:21] If this theory is accurate at all, I believe there's the
[17:24] possibility that she may have been trafficked, though there's
[17:27] no real evidence for it. She may have believed that she
[17:30] was running off to start a new life with an older, quote UN
[17:33] quote, boyfriend. This scenario is all too common,
[17:38] and she may have met someone participating in this disturbing
[17:41] trade when she started falling in with the wrong crowd.
[17:46] Traffickers directly prey on vulnerable young people and
[17:50] trick them into believing there's someone that can be
[17:52] trusted and has their best interest in mind instead of
[17:56] their family. But let's put this theory aside
[17:59] for a second. The other theory is that Cindy
[18:04] met with foul play, that she intended only a short outing but
[18:08] fell victim to someone who meant her harm.
[18:11] The menacing calls to the family home before Cindy disappeared
[18:15] suggest that someone was threatening or stalking her.
[18:19] Then the anonymous caller who claimed she was dead in the
[18:22] river could well have been the perpetrator taunting her family
[18:25] with a confession. The fact that he knew an
[18:28] unlisted number hints that this person was likely someone
[18:31] acquainted with Cindy or her family.
[18:34] All of these points indicate that Cindy may have been
[18:37] targeted by someone she knew or encountered rather than choosing
[18:41] to disappear. To me, the foul play theory is
[18:46] unfortunately the more convincing 1 Perhaps Cindy went
[18:49] to meet a friend or acquaintance that night and something went
[18:52] terribly wrong. If she was harmed, the guilty
[18:56] party may have panicked and disposed of her body, and that
[18:59] disturbing phone call might have been a twisted attempt to
[19:02] confess. Given the evidence of direct
[19:05] threats and the complete silence from Cindy after that night,
[19:08] foul play by someone in her orbit seems the most plausible
[19:11] explanation. But back to the trafficking
[19:16] theory once more. Since it potentially intersects
[19:20] with this theory, it's entirely possible that Cindy wasn't
[19:23] willing to do what a trafficker wanted her to do.
[19:27] Rather than let her go and leave evidence of the crime that was
[19:30] already committed. The perpetrator may have slain
[19:33] Cindy. Nearly half a century has passed
[19:38] since Cindy Weingar walked out of her Burlington home and
[19:41] vanished, yet her case remains as perplexing as ever.
[19:45] She's still listed as a missing person, and the investigation is
[19:49] still open to this day. That said, this is an
[19:52] investigation that was likely botched from the start by the
[19:56] common assumption that every teenager is simply a runaway.
[20:00] Her siblings haven't given up hope that they might one day
[20:03] learn what really happened on that March night in 1979.
[20:08] It was a damp, foggy August morning in 1975.
[20:12] When a father and son set out early for a simple fishing trip
[20:16] on Sherman Lake in Newcastle, ME, the serenity of the water
[20:20] was shattered by a gruesome discovery.
[20:23] At about 8:00, as they prepared to cast their lines, the two
[20:28] fishermen noticed something floating near a bridge.
[20:31] Upon further investigation, they discovered the body of a young
[20:35] woman. The horrified pair ran to a
[20:38] nearby farmhouse to call the police, initially reporting what
[20:42] they assumed was a drowning. But as officers arrived, it
[20:46] became clear this was no accident, but rather the
[20:49] beginning of a mystery that would haunt Maine for decades.
[20:55] A Lincoln County Deputy Sheriff was first on the scene on that
[20:58] August 16th, 1975 morning. He noticed potential signs of
[21:03] foul play and secured the area, then called in The Maine State
[21:07] Police from Augusta. By the time state detectives
[21:11] arrived, a small crowd of onlookers had gathered in shock
[21:15] along the road. The victim's body was found face
[21:19] down by the water's edge, arms outstretched and hair fanned
[21:22] across the shallow lake. She was mostly clothed, and she
[21:27] still wore some jewelry, including a silver bracelet and
[21:30] a small pendant. However, despite these
[21:33] identifying features, no ID was found with her, so her name
[21:37] remained a mystery at the time. As officers pulled the body from
[21:43] the water, the cause of death became grimly apparent.
[21:47] A dark ligature mark encircled her neck, and bruises were
[21:50] visible all over her body. The state medical examiner
[21:54] determined she had been in the water less than 24 hours,
[21:58] suggesting the slaying likely occurred the night before.
[22:02] The perp had made little effort to conceal the crime scene, and
[22:05] the young woman had simply been dumped in the lake.
[22:10] In the days after the discovery, the victim still had no name.
[22:14] Investigators canvassed the area, interviewing locals and
[22:18] checking with hotels, campsites and police agencies for any
[22:22] missing person matching her description.
[22:25] Some even theorized she might have been a seasonal waitress or
[22:29] other summer worker passing through.
[22:32] Despite these efforts, no one could identify the young woman.
[22:36] Growing desperate, authorities took a very rare step.
[22:40] They released a post mortem photograph of her face to the
[22:43] media and asked them to broadcast it on the local news
[22:47] and put it in papers. Remarkably, this gamble paid off
[22:51] very quickly. This photograph was published in
[22:56] a Boston newspaper and caught the attention of a family in
[22:59] Massachusetts who immediately recognized the woman. 10 days
[23:04] after the body was found, the young woman was finally
[23:07] identified as 19 year old Florence Lowe's of Brockton, MA.
[23:13] Investigators confirmed the identification through
[23:16] photographs, dental records, and jewelry she had been wearing.
[23:21] Florence's family hadn't even realized she was missing at the
[23:24] time. Her mother had spoken with her
[23:27] only about a week before the tragedy, so no missing person
[23:30] report had ever been filed. Florence was recently divorced
[23:35] from her marriage to Richard Paul Lowe's and had moved back
[23:38] to Brockton, where she was living with a roommate.
[23:43] She had worked as a nurse's aide, but by that summer she was
[23:46] between jobs. Importantly, Florence had strong
[23:50] ties to Maine, and her father lived in the area near where her
[23:53] body was found. Investigators learned that on
[23:57] August 15th, 1975, Florence left Brockton intending to travel N
[24:03] to visit him. With no car, she likely
[24:08] hitchhiked the roughly 150 mile journey.
[24:11] Sherman Lake lies just off US Route One, a major coastal
[24:15] highway, so the hitchhiking theory neatly explained how a
[24:19] Massachusetts traveler could end up there.
[24:22] Tragically, Florence never made it to her father's house.
[24:26] At some point on her journey, she crossed paths with the
[24:29] perpetrator. Once Florence's identity was
[24:35] known, law enforcement in both Maine and Massachusetts retraced
[24:39] her steps and searched for suspects.
[24:42] Maine State Police detectives teamed up with Brockton police
[24:45] and Massachusetts State Police, following leads in both states.
[24:50] Investigators interviewed people in Brockton who had seen
[24:52] Florence before she left, hoping to learn if she mentioned any
[24:56] travel plans or companions. They looked at everyone in her
[25:00] life, including her estranged husband, for anyone with a
[25:04] possible motive. Initial news reports even
[25:07] indicated that detectives had a few promising leads in
[25:10] Massachusetts. Despite this early momentum, no
[25:16] perpetrator was ever identified. By September 1975, officials
[25:21] acknowledge that the investigation had stalled, with
[25:24] no new developments. By 1977, two years after the
[25:29] crime, police admitted they were still no closer to an
[25:33] explanation than on the day Florence's body was found.
[25:39] Over the years, several theories have surfaced about what
[25:42] happened to Florence Lowe's. The most widely held belief is
[25:46] that she fell prey to a dangerous stranger while hitch
[25:49] hiking. Accepting a ride from the wrong
[25:52] person carried obvious risks, and many suspect that Florence
[25:56] was picked up by someone who then turned violent.
[25:59] Her state of undress suggested a possible indecent assault,
[26:03] though the autopsy couldn't prove it one way or the other.
[26:06] Perhaps a passing motorist or truck driver offered her a ride,
[26:10] then assaulted her before dumping her body.
[26:13] If Florence was slain by a random predator, possibly even a
[26:18] serial offender, solving the case would be incredibly
[26:21] difficult. Further, there's no indication
[26:25] that there was any biological evidence of any kind from the
[26:28] offender left at the scene. Given that this was well before
[26:32] the era of the forensic usage of DNA, it's possible that such
[26:36] evidence simply wasn't even collected.
[26:40] While the very obvious and blatant forms of biological
[26:43] evidence did tend to be collected at this time, less
[26:47] obvious forms often didn't. For instance, if there were skin
[26:51] cells from the perpetrator under Florence's nails, this likely
[26:55] would have gone unnoticed at the time.
[27:00] Another theory is that the attacker wasn't an out of towner
[27:03] at all, but someone who knew the local area or even knew Florence
[27:07] personally. Locals noted that a stranger
[27:11] unfamiliar with Newcastle might not easily find the desolate
[27:14] location where she was dumped, especially in the dark.
[27:19] This fuels suspicion that whoever left her body there knew
[27:22] the area well. Indeed, rumors in Newcastle have
[27:26] long speculated that a local person was responsible.
[27:30] Perhaps Florence accepted a ride from someone she thought she
[27:33] could trust, maybe even an acquaintance, who then betrayed
[27:37] her in the worst way. Investigators have never
[27:40] publicly identified a suspect, and no evidence has confirmed
[27:44] this local perpetrator theory. Still, the idea lingers, leaving
[27:50] many to wonder if the perp was closer to home than anyone
[27:53] realized. Decades later, Florence's
[27:58] slaying remains unsolved. With seemingly little to go on,
[28:02] the case remains open and Maine's Cold Case Unit continues
[28:06] to review it periodically in hopes of a breakthrough.
[28:10] Unfortunately, we're now 50 years out from this horrific
[28:13] tragedy, and as time ticks by, it becomes less and less likely
[28:19] that the perpetrator will ever face justice.
[28:23] In late December 20, 2256, year old Bruce Crowley, a counsellor
[28:29] from Malden, MA, vanished without a trace during a trip to
[28:33] Provincetown. Bruce was last seen on December
[28:36] 30th, 2022 and despite extensive searches, no clues have emerged
[28:42] to explain what happened. Bruce was, by all accounts,
[28:47] someone who had hit a rough patch.
[28:48] He had become addicted to crack and spent four years caught up
[28:53] in this addiction. In the roughly 2 years prior to
[28:56] this disappearance, he rebuilt his life.
[28:59] After apparently overcoming these struggles.
[29:02] He worked as an addiction counselor in Revere, MA while
[29:06] also pursuing a master's degree in psychology and counseling.
[29:11] He also lived in and managed a sober living home in Malden
[29:14] where he resided. Prior to falling into addiction,
[29:18] he had worked as a hair stylist, and he had recently gone back
[29:22] into this profession on the side as well.
[29:25] It's on this backdrop that Bruce dropped off the face of the
[29:28] earth on December 28th, 2022, just days before New Year's Eve,
[29:38] Bruce left work unexpectedly without telling anyone his
[29:41] plans. That evening, he failed to
[29:44] deliver medication to a client and did not show up for work the
[29:47] next day, an uncharacteristic lapse that raised concern among
[29:52] Co workers. Surveillance footage later
[29:56] confirmed that Bruce had travelled to Provincetown at the
[29:59] tip of Cape Cod and checked into the Anchor Inn beach house on
[30:02] Commercial St. He withdrew $950 in cash on
[30:06] December 28th before departing, suggesting he anticipated
[30:10] expenses during his trip. According to the motel staff and
[30:15] security cameras, Bruce was last seen on the evening of December
[30:19] 30th, 2022, leaving the Anchor Inn.
[30:24] He mentioned to the staff that he was going to meet friends for
[30:26] dinner, but he never returned to his room.
[30:29] All of his belongings were left behind in his rented room, and
[30:33] his Gray 2011 Mini Cooper was later found parked in
[30:37] Provincetown's West End, not far from the hotel.
[30:42] After that Friday night, Crowley simply vanished.
[30:47] He didn't check out of the inn nor contact anyone, and he
[30:50] missed the New Year's festivities that he ostensibly
[30:53] had planned to enjoy in Provincetown.
[30:56] It remains unknown who he intended to meet or what his
[30:59] plans were that night. When Crowley failed to return
[31:06] home as expected, his family reported him missing on January
[31:10] 4th, 2023. This prompted an immediate
[31:14] investigation spanning multiple jurisdictions.
[31:18] Both the Provincetown Police Department in Cape Cod and the
[31:21] Malden Police Department in Bruce's hometown launched
[31:25] efforts to locate him. Authorities canvassed
[31:29] Provincetown but found no sign of Crowley beyond the discovery
[31:32] of his vehicle. On January 13th, 2023, about two
[31:39] weeks into the search, the case was turned over to the
[31:42] Massachusetts State Police. State Troopers conducted
[31:46] extensive search operations in the Provincetown area, including
[31:50] aerial searches by helicopter and coordinated water searches
[31:54] along the shoreline. By late January, the District
[31:58] Attorney's office emphasized that the search was ongoing and
[32:02] active. Officials also stated there was
[32:05] no indication of any threat to the public, suggesting that
[32:08] whatever befell Bruce was likely an isolated incident.
[32:12] Despite the intensive effort, from combing beaches and harbor
[32:16] waters to reviewing surveillance footage, no definitive clues
[32:20] were uncovered. Bruce's cell phone and bank
[32:23] accounts yielded no helpful information released to the
[32:25] public, and no witnesses have come forward to provide any
[32:29] meaningful leads. Provincetown, normally a
[32:33] bustling resort in summer, offered little information
[32:37] during the winter lull. Frustratingly for investigators
[32:40] and family alike, the trail went cold.
[32:46] The baffling absence of evidence has led to various theories
[32:49] about what happened to Bruce Crowley that weekend.
[32:53] One theory centers on Crowley's past struggle with addiction.
[32:56] Both his sister and a Co worker have suggested that Crowley may
[33:00] have travelled to Provincetown secretly to relapse and use
[33:03] substances far from the watchful eyes of his sober community.
[33:09] The fact that he withdrew a large sum of cash before the
[33:12] trip supports the idea that he intended to fund a private
[33:16] binge. If this is true, Crowley might
[33:20] have suffered from an accidental overdose.
[33:23] He may have been using substances with individuals who
[33:25] didn't have his best interests at heart.
[33:28] If Bruce did overdose, it's conceivable that others with him
[33:32] panicked and disposed of his body or simply left him to his
[33:36] fate in an isolated area. Another possibility is that
[33:42] Crowley fell victim to foul play.
[33:45] Carrying a significant amount of cash and being alone in an
[33:48] unfamiliar town could have made him a target for robbery or
[33:51] violence. If he pulled out a fat wad of
[33:54] cash to pay for his next fix, a dealer or perhaps more likely,
[33:58] another junkie may have robbed him.
[34:02] Finally, though his family finds it unlikely, there's the theory
[34:07] of a voluntary disappearance, suggesting that Bruce chose to
[34:11] walk away from his life. Perhaps the pressure of
[34:15] maintaining sobriety and his responsibilities became
[34:18] overwhelming, and he decided to start a new somewhere else.
[34:23] Notably, though, he left behind his car, which the authorities
[34:27] don't consider typical of a planned getaway.
[34:30] To this day, the fate of Bruce Crowley remains unknown, and his
[34:34] case is an agonizing mystery for his family and an open
[34:38] investigation for law enforcement.
[34:43] Judy Smith was a 50 year old nurse from Newton, MA and a
[34:48] mother of two adult children. In April 1997, she accompanied
[34:53] her husband, Jeffrey Smith, on a trip to Philadelphia for a
[34:57] conference. They treated it as a short
[35:00] working vacation, hoping to enjoy some sightseeing together
[35:04] during their stay. What began as a routine visit
[35:08] turned into a haunting mystery when Judy went missing during a
[35:11] day of sightseeing. Five months later, her remains
[35:15] were discovered over 600 miles away in the mountains of North
[35:19] Carolina, a turn of events that left both her family and
[35:23] investigators stunned. On April 9th, 1997, Judy and
[35:31] Jeff flew separately from Boston to Philadelphia.
[35:34] Because Judy initially forgot her photo ID and had to catch a
[35:38] later flight, she arrived that evening without issue.
[35:42] The next morning, April 10th, Jeff attended his conference
[35:46] sessions while Judy set off around 9:00 AM with her
[35:49] trademark red backpack in tow to explore the city's historic
[35:54] sites. Also keep this red backpack in
[35:58] mind because we're going to be coming back to it later.
[36:03] They plan to meet back at their Center City Hotel by late
[36:06] afternoon, but Judy never returned.
[36:09] As expected, When Jeff realized his wife was missing, he
[36:13] searched the hotel and nearby tourist areas.
[36:17] He even hired a taxi to follow a tourist bus route Judy might
[36:20] have taken, but found no sign of her.
[36:24] Finally, he contacted the Philadelphia police by around
[36:27] midnight to report her disappearance.
[36:31] Authorities were initially skeptical about a missing adult
[36:34] who had been out sightseeing, but Jeff insisted something was
[36:38] wrong and an investigation was soon underway.
[36:42] In the ensuing days, police and family members launched A
[36:46] thorough search of Philadelphia. Jeff circulated thousands of
[36:50] missing person Flyers and hired private investigators to assist.
[36:55] A few people claim to have seen a woman resembling Judy in
[36:58] Philadelphia or neighboring New Jersey after April 10th, but
[37:03] none of those sightings could be verified.
[37:06] Investigators considered the possibility that Judy had simply
[37:09] wandered off, or even that her disappearance might not have
[37:13] happened in Philadelphia at all. Jeff himself fell under some
[37:17] suspicion early on, a standard procedure in cases where a
[37:21] spouse goes missing, but there was no evidence implicating him.
[37:26] In fact, given Jeff's documented presence at the conference and
[37:29] his heart health issues that would have made body disposal
[37:32] extremely difficult, police later ruled him out as a
[37:35] suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
[37:39] He wasn't ruled out as a suspect just yet.
[37:42] And at this time, they hadn't even found her body.
[37:47] Everything changed on September 7th, 1997.
[37:51] On that day, a father and son hiking in Pisgah National Forest
[37:55] near Asheville, NC, stumbled upon human remains in a remote
[38:00] wooded area. Bones and clothing were
[38:03] scattered around a shallow grave, suggesting someone had
[38:06] tried to bury the body in haste. Local forest critters had ended
[38:10] up digging up this body and they had strewn all these items
[38:13] surrounding this makeshift grave.
[38:16] Investigators determined the victim was a female in her late
[38:19] 40s to early 50s, and they noted that one knee showed severe
[38:23] arthritis. This was a distinguishing trait
[38:26] that matched Judy Smith Having seen Judy's missing person
[38:31] Flyers in the Asheville area. Authorities requested her dental
[38:34] records, and soon they confirmed the remains were indeed Judy's.
[38:40] It was apparent that Judy had met a violent end.
[38:43] Her clothing and bones bore slash marks, leading authorities
[38:47] to conclude this is what ended her.
[38:50] The location and condition of the body deepened the mystery.
[38:54] Judy's body was found roughly 600 miles from where she
[38:57] disappeared in rugged terrain. But here's where things get
[39:01] really weird. She wasn't wearing the outfit
[39:05] she had worn in Philadelphia. Intriguingly, the clothes on her
[39:09] body were suitable for hiking in the North Carolina mountains.
[39:14] This indicated that Judy had spent some time in the Asheville
[39:17] area before she was slain at the crime scene.
[39:20] Investigators recovered Judy's diamond wedding ring and about
[39:24] 200 bucks in cash, indicating that robbery was likely not a
[39:28] motive. However, two peculiar items were
[39:33] also found that didn't belong to Judy, a blue and black backpack
[39:37] and a pair of Bolle sunglasses presumed to have been left by
[39:41] the perp. Conspicuously missing were
[39:44] Judy's own red backpack and the clothing she had worn on April
[39:48] 10th, which have never been recovered.
[39:51] All evidence suggested that Judy had somehow traveled to North
[39:55] Carolina of her own accord and crossed paths with someone who
[39:59] eventually ended her. The investigation now spanned
[40:05] multiple states, and detectives in North Carolina teamed up with
[40:09] Philadelphia police and the FBI to retrace Judy's last known
[40:13] movements. The central question was how and
[40:17] why Judy ended up in Asheville. There were no records of Judy
[40:22] taking any flight or train South, and if she travelled by
[40:25] bus or car, she left no paper trail.
[40:29] Despite Jeff's insistence that Judy wouldn't have left him
[40:32] voluntarily, evidence now pointed to her being alive in
[40:36] North Carolina shortly after her disappearance.
[40:39] Indeed, several eyewitnesses came forward to report seeing a
[40:42] woman matching Judy's description in the Asheville
[40:45] area in mid-april 1997. One Asheville shop clerk later
[40:50] recalled chatting with a Judy from Boston who mentioned that
[40:54] her husband was at a convention in Pennsylvania.
[40:58] This woman said that she had decided to come down to North
[41:01] Carolina on a trip of her own. Another witness, a hotel desk
[41:06] clerk, remembered a guest resembling Judy who stayed alone
[41:10] around the same time. According to these witnesses,
[41:14] Judy spent a day or two in Asheville as a tourist, browsing
[41:18] shops and staying at a local hotel, and appeared healthy and
[41:21] in good spirits. These accounts suggest that she
[41:25] travelled S willingly and was in no distress when seen in
[41:29] Asheville. However, other reports indicate
[41:34] that a woman believed to be Judy appeared to be in mental
[41:36] distress and had engaged in inappropriate behavior around
[41:40] town. That said, most of these
[41:44] sightings were later attributed to a homeless woman who bore A
[41:47] striking resemblance to Judy. Given the bizarre and mysterious
[41:54] circumstances, this case has been a hotbed of speculation,
[41:58] both in terms of what happened to Judy and who ended her.
[42:03] It's possible that once in Philadelphia, Judy decided on a
[42:07] spur of the moment journey to explore a place that interested
[42:11] her without telling anyone. If so, that spontaneous decision
[42:16] tragically put her in harm's way.
[42:19] Investigators believe that Judy was likely slain at or near the
[42:22] spot where her remains were found, likely by a person she
[42:26] encountered during her travels in North Carolina.
[42:30] The presence of the unknown backpack and sunglasses at the
[42:33] scene strongly implies that a second individual had stalked
[42:37] her in the woods. This unknown person has never
[42:41] been identified, but detectives theorize that he might not have
[42:45] been a local resident and that he could have been passing
[42:48] through the area on the prowl. One theory floated in Judy
[42:54] Smith's case is dissociative fugue, a rare psychological
[42:59] condition in which a person loses awareness of their
[43:01] identity and may unexpectedly travel far from home.
[43:06] In this state, individuals often adopt new identities and
[43:11] generally appear coherent to others and show no signs of
[43:14] distress. Some investigators and observers
[43:18] speculated that Judy may have experienced A fugue episode
[43:21] triggered by stress or emotional strain, possibly related to
[43:26] marital issues. Notably, one of her friends
[43:29] suggested she may have taken the Unexpected Journey to clear her
[43:32] mind and get away from her husband for a bit.
[43:36] There are a number of factors which support this finding, at
[43:39] least on a circumstantial basis. She made an uncharacteristic
[43:44] decision to travel alone to North Carolina.
[43:47] Further, her calm demeanor when seen in Asheville and the lack
[43:51] of evidence suggesting immediate foul play in Philadelphia are
[43:55] consistent with this possibility.
[43:57] However, dissociative fugue is extremely rare, and without
[44:02] direct psychiatric evidence, this theory remains speculative.
[44:07] Unfortunately, given that she was deceased when she was found,
[44:12] that direct evidence can never be obtained.
[44:15] Still, it offers one potential explanation for how Judy could
[44:19] suddenly disappear and travel 600 miles without informing
[44:24] anyone. Over the years, various theories
[44:30] about the perp's identity have been proposed.
[44:33] One theory suggests that Judy fell victim to a random
[44:36] predator, perhaps someone posing as a Good Samaritan or a fellow
[44:40] hiker who gained her trust. Another theory emerged linking
[44:45] her case to a known serial predator, Gary Michael Hilton.
[44:51] Hilton was convicted in the late 2000s of slaying hikers and
[44:54] forests in Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida.
[44:58] Notably, one of his crime scenes was in the same National Forest
[45:02] where Judy was found. This LED some to suspect that
[45:06] Hilton might have crossed paths with Judy.
[45:08] In 1997, authorities did examine Hilton's possible involvement.
[45:14] One of his later victims was found not far from where Judy
[45:17] was discovered, but they found no evidence linking him to her
[45:21] case. Notably, Hilton's confirmed
[45:25] spree ran from October 2007 to January 2810, years after Judy
[45:31] Smith's case. However, he's suspected in a
[45:35] number of other crimes spanning about a decade prior to these
[45:38] confirmed acts. In 1997, a quiet estate in rural
[45:43] Rhode Island became the scene of a chilling discovery. 2 new home
[45:47] owners investigating A foul odor and an overflowing septic system
[45:53] open the underground tank, expecting a plumbing issue.
[45:56] Instead, a skull bobbed up in the murky water, and these
[46:01] remains were soon identified as those of Cam Lyman, a
[46:04] multimillionaire dog breeder who had vanished A decade earlier.
[46:11] Cam Lyman was born in 1932 into a prominent Boston family,
[46:15] though his path in life was anything but usual.
[46:19] The Lymans were old money aristocrats who had been
[46:21] established since the 18th century.
[46:24] Cam shared his father's passion for purebred dogs, especially
[46:29] Clumber Spaniels, and became a highly respected breeder and
[46:33] exhibitor in the dog show circuit.
[46:35] By all accounts, Cam was talented yet reclusive,
[46:39] preferring the company of his dozens of prize winning dogs
[46:42] over people he never married or had children, and instead his
[46:47] dozens of show quality spaniels were his pride and joy.
[46:52] In the 1970s, after his parents passed away, Cam retreated from
[46:57] society almost completely, only communicating with friends from
[47:01] the dog world. After his parents had passed,
[47:07] Cam publicly transitioned to a male identity.
[47:10] The reports suggest his few friends had known this for
[47:13] years. This decision appears to have
[47:16] further alienated him from his aristocratic friends who already
[47:20] saw him as an unusual and eccentric figure who didn't fit
[47:24] into high society. At around 6 feet tall with a
[47:29] mustache, short cropped hair and tweed jackets, Cam cut a
[47:34] distinctly masculine figure and by 1985 he had legally changed
[47:40] his name. Despite a significant
[47:42] inheritance and a multimillion dollar trust fund, Cam lived in
[47:46] a way contemporary reports called relatively modestly on a
[47:50] 40 acre estate in Hopkinton, RI. And I assure you that the words
[47:55] relatively are doing some heavy lifting here since to me it
[47:59] looked like he was living large. He built a high stockade fence
[48:05] around his house and installed no trespassing signs deterring
[48:09] visitors. Cam's daily life revolved around
[48:13] his kennel of dogs and feeding, grooming and training them for
[48:17] competition. While he was rich and dog
[48:20] companions, his human friends were few and mostly also drawn
[48:24] from the same upper class background.
[48:27] However, one person managed to enter Cam's insulated world,
[48:32] George O'Neill, A fellow dog enthusiast.
[48:36] Cam met George around 1981 at dog shows and by 1984 he had
[48:42] hired O'Neill as a caretaker and assistant.
[48:45] George helped manage the estate, pay bills and drive Cam to dog
[48:49] events. In time, George became Cam's
[48:52] closest confidant, and reading between the lines, it looks as
[48:57] though he portrayed himself as a non judgmental figure in his
[49:00] life. Cam trusted him enough to grant
[49:04] George power of attorney over his affairs, meaning O'Neill
[49:07] could handle Cam's finances and property.
[49:10] According to later court records, Cam even named O'Neill
[49:14] as sole beneficiary in his will, designating that O'Neill would
[49:18] inherit Cam's personal estate upon his death.
[49:22] It was an unusual level of trust, and one that would come
[49:25] under scrutiny once Cam disappeared.
[49:30] Sometime in the summer of 1987, Cam Lyman vanished.
[49:34] The exact date isn't clear, but July 20th, 1987 is often cited
[49:39] as the day anyone last heard from him.
[49:42] As indicated in court documentation which I was able
[49:45] to dig up, George O'Neill would later tell police that he and
[49:49] Cam had an argument over the phone about dog business, and
[49:53] Cam abruptly hung up on him. The next day, O'Neill drove to
[49:57] the Hopkinton estate to check on his supposed friend.
[50:01] What he found was strange. The mansion's doors were left
[50:05] wide open, the telephone had been ripped out of the wall, and
[50:09] Cam was nowhere to be seen. Dozens of Cam's beloved spaniels
[50:14] were unattended on the property. O'Neill claimed he never saw Cam
[50:18] again after that day. Perhaps even stranger, O'Neill
[50:24] didn't report Cam missing, and he later asserted that Cam had a
[50:27] habit of taking off occasionally.
[50:30] This appears to be true, and Cam was indeed an eccentric multi
[50:34] millionaire with no responsibilities beyond his
[50:36] dogs. That said, he took his
[50:39] responsibilities to his dogs extremely seriously, and these
[50:43] animals had been left in a precarious state on the
[50:45] property. O'Neill said he assumed Cam left
[50:49] town voluntarily for a surgery to cement his male identity.
[50:54] However, he offered no evidence for this theory.
[50:57] Nonetheless, O'Neill treated the situation as if Cam was simply
[51:01] away on an extended trip. He continued caring for the dogs
[51:06] and maintaining the estate. He even started showing Cam's
[51:09] prize dogs under his own name at competitions, as if the animals
[51:13] now belong to him. For over a year, none of Cam's
[51:20] relatives realized he was missing, showing just how
[51:23] secluded Cam's life had become. The first red flag came that
[51:28] winter, when Cam failed to send his usual Christmas cards in
[51:31] December 1987. Cam had a tradition of mailing
[51:35] cards each year, and he wasn't known to forget.
[51:39] Still, for reasons which remain unclear, months passed before
[51:43] the family took action in 1988. Cam's sisters and brother grew
[51:48] increasingly concerned by the silence and by some odd
[51:51] financial signs. Checks from Cam's trust fund,
[51:55] which were normally signed over to him, we're being cashed with
[51:59] a strange Rhode Island bank account number instead of Cam's
[52:03] signature. This indicated someone else was
[52:06] depositing Cam's money. By December 1988, nearly 18
[52:11] months after Cam's disappearance, the Lyman family
[52:14] finally contacted the Hopkinton police and filed a missing
[52:18] person report. They also alerted the law firm
[52:22] managing the Lyman Family Trust that something was very wrong.
[52:28] When authorities approached George O'Neill in late 1988, he
[52:33] repeated his belief that Cam had likely gone abroad for personal
[52:36] reasons. At the time, local police didn't
[52:40] treat the disappearance as foul play and wrote it off as just an
[52:44] eccentric rich person doing eccentric rich people things.
[52:50] The Lyman siblings hired a private detective named Charles
[52:53] John Allen to dig into Cam's disappearance.
[52:58] Allen quickly grew suspicious of George O'Neill's role, and he
[53:01] discovered that O'Neill had been depositing Cam's investment
[53:05] dividend checks into a Rhode Island bank account.
[53:09] O'Neill, it turned out, had nearly complete control over
[53:12] Cam's money, and he found out about the power of attorney and
[53:15] the will situation. In essence, if Cam had passed,
[53:19] O'Neill stood to inherit a substantial fortune valued at
[53:22] around $2,000,000. By the early 1990's, the case
[53:28] remained unsolved and increasingly cold.
[53:31] Cam's two sisters, Mary and Edith, pushed to have him
[53:35] officially declared dead in absentia so that his affairs
[53:38] could be settled. In 1994, seven years after Cam's
[53:43] disappearance, they petitioned the Rhode Island courts for a
[53:47] death declaration. This move drew media attention,
[53:51] partly because of the aspects of the story involving A wealthy
[53:55] individual who sought to transition, which wasn't a
[53:58] commonly known practice at the time.
[54:01] In June 1995, before the skull was found, Cam Lyman was legally
[54:07] declared dead. Despite the legal declaration,
[54:11] Cam's actual fate was still a mystery.
[54:14] No body had been found, and no one had been charged with any
[54:18] crime in relation to the case. George O'Neill continued to
[54:22] maintain his innocence and insisted that he believed Cam
[54:26] was alive somewhere. Everything changed in the fall
[54:31] of 1997, when A twist of fate finally answered the question of
[54:36] where Cam Lyman had gone. That year, Hopkinton got a new
[54:40] police chief, John Skunkyo, who decided to take a fresh look at
[54:44] the cold case. Skunkyo, a former state police
[54:49] detective, was apparently amazed that a wealthy person's
[54:53] disappearance had never been thoroughly investigated.
[54:58] And yeah, I'm just going to stop here for a second to let that
[55:02] sink in before we move on. He quietly reopened the case and
[55:08] even brought a cadaver sniffing dog to search Cam's old estate.
[55:13] By this time, Cam's property had been sold to new owners, dog
[55:17] breeder Greg Signer and a partner who had purchased the 40
[55:21] acre spread and moved in with no idea of its dark history.
[55:26] As Skunky O's team was sniffing around the grounds, the new
[55:29] owners themselves stumbled onto the crucial evidence.
[55:33] In late September 1997, Seiner noticed a repugnant smell and
[55:38] sewage backing up signs of a septic tank problem.
[55:43] On September 24th, 1997, Seiner and a friend opened the
[55:47] underground septic area, assuming they'd find a clog.
[55:52] They did indeed find the most horrific clog imaginable, partly
[55:55] caused by a skull floating amid the sludge.
[55:59] Investigators recovered a nearly complete human skeleton from the
[56:02] septic tank, which was located just yards from Cam's old house.
[56:09] Right away, there was little doubt who the remains belonged
[56:12] to. No other person was known to be
[56:15] missing in Hopkinton in that time frame, and Cam had
[56:18] literally been right under everyone's feet the whole time.
[56:22] Over the next year, forensic experts confirmed via dental
[56:26] records that the bones were indeed Cam Lyman.
[56:29] The medical examiner determined that Cam's death was from foul
[56:33] play, likely occurring around the time he disappeared in 1987.
[56:39] In other words, Cam had been slain and his body hidden in his
[56:43] own septic system. Truly a disturbing final resting
[56:47] place for someone who just wanted to be left alone with
[56:50] their dogs. While finding the body brought
[56:53] some closure, it also ignited a further investigation.
[57:00] From the moment Cam was confirmed slain, George O'Neill
[57:03] became the prime suspect in the eyes of many, including Cam's
[57:07] family and the police. The motive seemed clear.
[57:11] As with Cam out of the picture, O'Neill had stood to gain
[57:14] financially and did in fact assume control of Cam's assets
[57:19] for years. Several suspicious actions by
[57:22] O'Neill, both before and after the disappearance bolster this
[57:25] allegation. George never alerted authorities
[57:29] or family that Cam was missing. He waited until the family
[57:32] contacted police over a year later, and even then he was
[57:36] nonchalant, as if Cam's absence were no big deal.
[57:42] Forensic accountants discovered significant irregularities, and
[57:45] it appeared that a large portion of Cam's net worth ended up
[57:49] vanishing under George's questionable stewardship.
[57:53] O'Neill had legal power of attorney and was named to
[57:56] inherit Cam's estate in the will.
[57:59] This allegedly gave him a strong motive to ensure Cam never
[58:02] returned. Despite all this circumstantial
[58:06] evidence and suspicion, authorities never charged
[58:09] O'Neill or anyone else with Cam's slaying.
[58:13] No direct evidence or forensic links to George could ever be
[58:16] established. And interestingly, he wasn't the
[58:19] only credible suspect. There were a couple of other
[58:24] persons of interest floated in Cam's case.
[58:27] One was Bob Rogosta, Cam's attorney and Co trustee of the
[58:31] Lyman Trust alongside O'Neill. Rogosta had also been given
[58:35] power of attorney by Cam as well, and was named executor of
[58:39] Cam's will. Essentially, Ragosta and O'Neill
[58:43] together controlled Cam's finances when he disappeared.
[58:47] If O'Neill had a hand in wrongdoing, some wondered if
[58:50] Ragosta could have been complicit, or at least aware.
[58:54] However, no concrete evidence tying Ragosta to the
[58:57] disappearance ever surfaced publicly.
[59:00] Another pair mentioned by the authorities were John and Judy
[59:03] Weeks, a couple who worked as caretakers on Cam's property
[59:07] before the sale to the new owners.
[59:10] It's unclear what, if anything, made the Week suspicious to
[59:14] investigators, and the case remains an active and ongoing
[59:17] investigation. To date, no charges have been
[59:21] filed against Ragosta or the Weeks, and they have denied any
[59:25] involvement. George O'Neill was eventually
[59:29] charged with embezzlement in relation to a false check for
[59:32] $15,000 he had unlawfully cashed for himself.
[59:37] All of the other financial irregularities appear to have
[59:40] simply been chalked up to poor management rather than malice.
[59:45] At any rate, George eventually pleaded guilty to the
[59:47] embezzlement and was given one year probation.
[59:51] George O'Neill would die in 2011 without ever revealing any
[59:54] further information about the slaying of Cam Lyman, if he knew
[59:58] anything at all anyway. Obviously, theories about Cam
[1:00:03] Lyman's passing have centered on the people closest to him.
[1:00:07] And the most obvious suspect has always been George O'Neill.
[1:00:11] Still, the theory that O'Neill ended Cam is built almost
[1:00:14] entirely on inference. There's no forensic evidence
[1:00:17] linking him to the remains, no eyewitnesses, and no confession.
[1:00:23] Other figures in Cam's life were mentioned as possible suspects,
[1:00:27] though nothing concrete tied them to the crime either.
[1:00:31] The truth is that Cam was reclusive.
[1:00:34] Wealthy and surprisingly vulnerable and isolated, which
[1:00:38] meant multiple people may have had reasons to take advantage of
[1:00:41] him. Given the fact that no
[1:00:44] functional investigation started until almost a decade later, we
[1:00:48] may never know who else stood to benefit.

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