# Chilling New England Cases - Part 2 | 153

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 3 Jan 2026, 33 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO5160647832.mp3

Don't forget to follow and turn on all notifications. Also don't forget to drop a rating as well. Join me for some baffling New England crime cases. 👇 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

## Transcript

[0:00] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here thanking you for listening and
[0:03] remember if you want the full experience you can check out my
[0:05] YouTube channels Lazy Chill Zone and Lazy Chill True Crime.
[0:10] Also don't forget to take a moment to rate my podcast and
[0:14] also click that follow button so you get notifications when I
[0:17] drop new content in late December. 20, 2256 year old
[0:22] Bruce Crowley, a counselor from Malden, MA, vanished without a
[0:27] trace during a trip to Provincetown.
[0:30] Bruce was last seen on December 30th, 2022 and despite extensive
[0:35] searches, no clues have emerged to explain what happened.
[0:41] Bruce was, by all accounts, someone who had hit a rough
[0:44] patch. He had become addicted to crack
[0:47] and spent four years caught up in this addiction.
[0:50] In the roughly 2 years prior to this disappearance, he rebuilt
[0:54] his life. After apparently overcoming
[0:56] these struggles. He worked as an addiction
[0:59] counselor in Revere, MA while also pursuing a master's degree
[1:04] in psychology and counseling. He also lived in and managed a
[1:09] sober living home in Malden where he resided.
[1:12] Prior to falling into addiction, he had worked as a hair stylist,
[1:16] and he had recently gone back into this profession on the side
[1:19] as well. It's on this backdrop that Bruce
[1:23] dropped off the face of the earth on December 28th, 2022,
[1:31] just days before New Year's Eve, Bruce left work unexpectedly
[1:36] without telling anyone his plans.
[1:38] That evening, he failed to deliver medication to a client
[1:42] and did not show up for work the next day, an uncharacteristic
[1:46] lapse that raised concern among Co workers.
[1:50] Surveillance footage later confirmed that Bruce had
[1:53] travelled to Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod and checked into
[1:57] the Anchor Inn beach house on Commercial St.
[2:00] He withdrew $950 in cash on December 28th before departing,
[2:05] suggesting he anticipated expenses during his trip.
[2:09] According to the motel staff and security cameras, Bruce was last
[2:13] seen on the evening of December 30th, 2022, leaving the Anchor
[2:18] Inn. He mentioned to the staff that
[2:21] he was going to meet friends for dinner, but he never returned to
[2:24] his room. All of his belongings were left
[2:27] behind in his rented room, and his Gray 2011 Mini Cooper was
[2:32] later found parked in Provincetown's West End, not far
[2:36] from the hotel. After that Friday night, Crowley
[2:41] simply vanished. He didn't check out of the inn
[2:44] nor contact anyone, and he missed the New Year's
[2:47] festivities that he ostensibly had planned to enjoy in
[2:50] Provincetown. It remains unknown who he
[2:54] intended to meet or what his plans were that night.
[3:00] When Crowley failed to return home as expected, his family
[3:04] reported him missing on January 4th, 2023.
[3:09] This prompted an immediate investigation spanning multiple
[3:12] jurisdictions. Both the Provincetown Police
[3:15] Department in Cape Cod and the Malden Police Department in
[3:19] Bruce's hometown launched efforts to locate him.
[3:23] Authorities canvassed Provincetown but found no sign
[3:26] of Crowley beyond the discovery of his vehicle.
[3:30] On January 13th, 2023, about two weeks into the search, the case
[3:37] was turned over to the Massachusetts State Police.
[3:41] State Troopers conducted extensive search operations in
[3:44] the Provincetown area, including aerial searches by helicopter
[3:48] and coordinated water searches along the shoreline.
[3:52] By late January, the District Attorney's office emphasized
[3:56] that the search was ongoing and active.
[3:59] Officials also stated there was no indication of any threat to
[4:02] the public, suggesting that whatever befell Bruce was likely
[4:06] an isolated incident. Despite the intensive effort,
[4:10] from combing beaches and harbor waters to reviewing surveillance
[4:14] footage, no definitive clues were uncovered.
[4:17] Bruce's cell phone and bank accounts yielded no helpful
[4:20] information released to the public, and no witnesses have
[4:23] come forward to provide any meaningful leads.
[4:27] Provincetown, normally a bustling resort in summer,
[4:31] offered little information during the winter lull.
[4:34] Frustratingly for investigators and family alike, the trail went
[4:39] cold. The baffling absence of evidence
[4:44] has led to various theories about what happened to Bruce
[4:46] Crowley that weekend. One theory centers on Crowley's
[4:50] past struggle with addiction. Both his sister and a Co worker
[4:54] have suggested that Crowley may have travelled to Provincetown
[4:58] secretly to relapse and use substances far from the watchful
[5:02] eyes of his sober community. The fact that he withdrew a
[5:06] large sum of cash before the trip supports the idea that he
[5:10] intended to fund a private binge.
[5:13] If this is true, Crowley might have suffered from an accidental
[5:17] overdose. He may have been using
[5:20] substances with individuals who didn't have his best interests
[5:23] at heart. If Bruce did overdose, it's
[5:26] conceivable that others with him panicked and disposed of his
[5:29] body or simply left him to his fate in an isolated area.
[5:37] Another possibility is that Crowley fell victim to foul
[5:40] play. Carrying a significant amount of
[5:42] cash and being alone in an unfamiliar town could have made
[5:45] him a target for robbery or violence.
[5:48] If he pulled out a fat wad of cash to pay for his next fix, a
[5:52] dealer or perhaps more likely, another junkie may have robbed
[5:56] him. Finally, though his family finds
[6:00] it unlikely, there's the theory of a voluntary disappearance,
[6:05] suggesting that Bruce chose to walk away from his life.
[6:10] Perhaps the pressure of maintaining sobriety and his
[6:12] responsibilities became overwhelming, and he decided to
[6:16] start a new somewhere else. Notably, though, he left behind
[6:20] his car, which the authorities don't consider typical of a
[6:24] planned getaway. To this day, the fate of Bruce
[6:28] Crowley remains unknown, and his case is an agonizing mystery for
[6:32] his family and an open investigation for law
[6:35] enforcement. Judy Smith was a 50 year old
[6:41] nurse from Newton, MA and a mother of two adult children.
[6:46] In April 1997, she accompanied her husband, Jeffrey Smith, on a
[6:52] trip to Philadelphia for a conference.
[6:55] They treated it as a short working vacation, hoping to
[6:58] enjoy some sightseeing together during their stay.
[7:02] What began as a routine visit turned into a haunting mystery
[7:06] when Judy went missing during a day of sightseeing.
[7:09] Five months later, her remains were discovered over 600 miles
[7:13] away in the mountains of North Carolina, a turn of events that
[7:17] left both her family and investigators stunned.
[7:24] On April 9th, 1997, Judy and Jeff flew separately from Boston
[7:29] to Philadelphia. Because Judy initially forgot
[7:31] her photo ID and had to catch a later flight, she arrived that
[7:36] evening without issue. The next morning, April 10th,
[7:40] Jeff attended his conference sessions while Judy set off
[7:43] around 9:00 AM with her trademark red backpack in tow to
[7:48] explore the city's historic sites.
[7:51] Also keep this red backpack in mind because we're going to be
[7:56] coming back to it later. They plan to meet back at their
[8:01] Center City Hotel by late afternoon, but Judy never
[8:04] returned. As expected, When Jeff realized
[8:08] his wife was missing, he searched the hotel and nearby
[8:11] tourist areas. He even hired a taxi to follow a
[8:14] tourist bus route Judy might have taken, but found no sign of
[8:18] her. Finally, he contacted the
[8:22] Philadelphia police by around midnight to report her
[8:25] disappearance. Authorities were initially
[8:28] skeptical about a missing adult who had been out sightseeing,
[8:32] but Jeff insisted something was wrong and an investigation was
[8:36] soon underway. In the ensuing days, police and
[8:40] family members launched A thorough search of Philadelphia.
[8:44] Jeff circulated thousands of missing person Flyers and hired
[8:48] private investigators to assist. A few people claim to have seen
[8:53] a woman resembling Judy in Philadelphia or neighboring New
[8:56] Jersey after April 10th, but none of those sightings could be
[9:00] verified. Investigators considered the
[9:03] possibility that Judy had simply wandered off, or even that her
[9:08] disappearance might not have happened in Philadelphia at all.
[9:12] Jeff himself fell under some suspicion early on, a standard
[9:16] procedure in cases where a spouse goes missing, but there
[9:19] was no evidence implicating him. In fact, given Jeff's documented
[9:24] presence at the conference and his heart health issues that
[9:26] would have made body disposal extremely difficult, police
[9:30] later ruled him out as a suspect.
[9:33] But I'm getting ahead of myself. He wasn't ruled out as a suspect
[9:37] just yet. And at this time, they hadn't
[9:39] even found her body. Everything changed on September
[9:44] 7th, 1997. On that day, a father and son
[9:49] hiking in Pisgah National Forest near Asheville, NC, stumbled
[9:54] upon human remains in a remote wooded area.
[9:57] Bones and clothing were scattered around a shallow
[10:00] grave, suggesting someone had tried to bury the body in haste.
[10:05] Local forest critters had ended up digging up this body and they
[10:08] had strewn all these items surrounding this makeshift
[10:10] grave. Investigators determined the
[10:13] victim was a female in her late 40s to early 50s, and they noted
[10:18] that one knee showed severe arthritis.
[10:21] This was a distinguishing trait that matched Judy Smith Having
[10:25] seen Judy's missing person Flyers in the Asheville area.
[10:29] Authorities requested her dental records, and soon they confirmed
[10:32] the remains were indeed Judy's. It was apparent that Judy had
[10:37] met a violent end. Her clothing and bones bore
[10:40] slash marks, leading authorities to conclude this is what ended
[10:44] her. The location and condition of
[10:47] the body deepened the mystery. Judy's body was found roughly
[10:51] 600 miles from where she disappeared in rugged terrain.
[10:56] But here's where things get really weird.
[11:00] She wasn't wearing the outfit she had worn in Philadelphia.
[11:03] Intriguingly, the clothes on her body were suitable for hiking in
[11:07] the North Carolina mountains. This indicated that Judy had
[11:11] spent some time in the Asheville area before she was slain at the
[11:16] crime scene. Investigators recovered Judy's
[11:18] diamond wedding ring and about 200 bucks in cash, indicating
[11:23] that robbery was likely not a motive.
[11:26] However, two peculiar items were also found that didn't belong to
[11:30] Judy, a blue and black backpack and a pair of bolet sunglasses
[11:36] presumed to have been left by the perp.
[11:38] Conspicuously missing were Judy's own red backpack and the
[11:42] clothing she had worn on April 10th, which have never been
[11:46] recovered. All evidence suggested that Judy
[11:49] had somehow traveled to North Carolina of her own accord and
[11:53] crossed paths with someone who eventually ended her.
[11:59] The investigation now spanned multiple states, and detectives
[12:03] in North Carolina teamed up with Philadelphia police and the FBI
[12:07] to retrace Judy's last known movements.
[12:10] The central question was how and why Judy ended up in Asheville.
[12:16] There were no records of Judy taking any flight or train
[12:19] South, and if she travelled by bus or car, she left no paper
[12:23] trail. Despite Jeff's insistence that
[12:27] Judy wouldn't have left him voluntarily, evidence now
[12:30] pointed to her being alive in North Carolina shortly after her
[12:33] disappearance. Indeed, several eyewitnesses
[12:37] came forward to report seeing a woman matching Judy's
[12:39] description in the Asheville area in mid-april 1997.
[12:44] One Asheville shop clerk later recalled chatting with a Judy
[12:48] from Boston who mentioned that her husband was at a convention
[12:52] in Pennsylvania. This woman said that she had
[12:55] decided to come down to North Carolina on a trip of her own.
[13:00] Another witness, a hotel desk clerk, remembered a guest
[13:04] resembling Judy who stayed alone around the same time.
[13:08] According to these witnesses, Judy spent a day or two in
[13:11] Asheville as a tourist, browsing shops and staying at a local
[13:15] hotel, and appeared healthy and in good spirits.
[13:19] These accounts suggest that she travelled S willingly and was in
[13:23] no distress when seen in Asheville.
[13:28] However, other reports indicate that a woman believed to be Judy
[13:31] appeared to be in mental distress and had engaged in
[13:35] inappropriate behavior around town.
[13:38] That said, most of these sightings were later attributed
[13:41] to a homeless woman who bore A striking resemblance to Judy.
[13:48] Given the bizarre and mysterious circumstances, this case has
[13:52] been a hotbed of speculation, both in terms of what happened
[13:56] to Judy and who ended her. It's possible that once in
[14:01] Philadelphia, Judy decided on a spur of the moment journey to
[14:05] explore a place that interested her without telling anyone.
[14:10] If so, that spontaneous decision tragically put her in harm's
[14:13] way. Investigators believe that Judy
[14:16] was likely slain at or near the spot where her remains were
[14:20] found, likely by a person she encountered during her travels
[14:24] in North Carolina. The presence of the unknown
[14:28] backpack and sunglasses at the scene strongly implies that a
[14:32] second individual had stalked her in the woods.
[14:35] This unknown person has never been identified, but detectives
[14:39] theorize that he might not have been a local resident and that
[14:43] he could have been passing through the area on the prowl.
[14:49] One theory floated in Judy Smith's case is dissociative
[14:52] fugue, a rare psychological condition in which a person
[14:56] loses awareness of their identity and may unexpectedly
[15:00] travel far from home. In this state, individuals often
[15:05] adopt new identities and generally appear coherent to
[15:08] others and show no signs of distress.
[15:12] Some investigators and observers speculated that Judy may have
[15:15] experienced A fugue episode triggered by stress or emotional
[15:19] strain, possibly related to marital issues.
[15:24] Notably, one of her friends suggested she may have taken the
[15:27] Unexpected Journey to clear her mind and get away from her
[15:30] husband for a bit. There are a number of factors
[15:33] which support this finding, at least on a circumstantial basis.
[15:38] She made an uncharacteristic decision to travel alone to
[15:41] North Carolina. Further, her calm demeanor when
[15:45] seen in Asheville and the lack of evidence suggesting immediate
[15:49] foul play in Philadelphia are consistent with this
[15:52] possibility. However, dissociative fugue is
[15:56] extremely rare, and without direct psychiatric evidence,
[16:00] this theory remains speculative. Unfortunately, given that she
[16:05] was deceased when she was found, that direct evidence can never
[16:09] be obtained. Still, it offers one potential
[16:13] explanation for how Judy could suddenly disappear and travel
[16:18] 600 miles without informing anyone.
[16:23] Over the years, various theories about the perp's identity have
[16:27] been proposed. One theory suggests that Judy
[16:30] fell victim to a random predator, perhaps someone posing
[16:34] as a Good Samaritan or a fellow hiker who gained her trust.
[16:39] Another theory emerged linking her case to a known serial
[16:42] predator, Gary Michael Hilton. Hilton was convicted in the late
[16:48] 2000s of slaying hikers and forests in Georgia, North
[16:52] Carolina, and Florida. Notably, one of his crime scenes
[16:56] was in the same National Forest where Judy was found.
[17:00] This LED some to suspect that Hilton might have crossed paths
[17:03] with Judy. In 1997, authorities did examine
[17:08] Hilton's possible involvement. One of his later victims was
[17:12] found not far from where Judy was discovered, but they found
[17:15] no evidence linking him to her case.
[17:19] Notably, Hilton's confirmed spree ran from October 2007 to
[17:24] January 2810, years after Judy Smith's case.
[17:29] However, he's suspected in a number of other crimes spanning
[17:33] about a decade prior to these confirmed acts.
[17:36] In 1997, a quiet estate in rural Rhode Island became the scene of
[17:41] a chilling discovery. 2 new home owners investigating A foul odor
[17:46] and an overflowing septic system open the underground tank,
[17:50] expecting a plumbing issue. Instead, a skull bobbed up in
[17:55] the murky water, and these remains were soon identified as
[17:58] those of Cam Lyman, a multimillionaire dog breeder who
[18:02] had vanished A decade earlier. Cam Lyman was born in 1932 into
[18:09] a prominent Boston family, though his path in life was
[18:13] anything but usual. The Lymans were old money
[18:16] aristocrats who had been established since the 18th
[18:19] century. Cam shared his father's passion
[18:22] for purebred dogs, especially Clumber Spaniels, and became a
[18:27] highly respected breeder and exhibitor in the dog show
[18:30] circuit. By all accounts, Cam was
[18:33] talented yet reclusive, preferring the company of his
[18:36] dozens of prize winning dogs over people he never married or
[18:41] had children, and instead his dozens of show quality spaniels
[18:45] were his pride and joy. In the 1970s, after his parents
[18:51] passed away, Cam retreated from society almost completely, only
[18:56] communicating with friends from the dog world.
[19:01] After his parents had passed, Cam publicly transitioned to a
[19:05] male identity. The reports suggest his few
[19:08] friends had known this for years.
[19:11] This decision appears to have further alienated him from his
[19:14] aristocratic friends who already saw him as an unusual and
[19:18] eccentric figure who didn't fit into high society.
[19:23] At around 6 feet tall with a mustache, short cropped hair and
[19:28] tweed jackets, Cam cut a distinctly masculine figure and
[19:33] by 1985 he had legally changed his name.
[19:37] Despite a significant inheritance and a multimillion
[19:40] dollar trust fund, Cam lived in a way contemporary reports
[19:44] called relatively modestly on a 40 acre estate in Hopkinton, RI.
[19:49] And I assure you that the words relatively are doing some heavy
[19:52] lifting here since to me it looked like he was living large.
[19:59] He built a high stockade fence around his house and installed
[20:02] no trespassing signs deterring visitors.
[20:07] Cam's daily life revolved around his kennel of dogs and feeding,
[20:11] grooming and training them for competition.
[20:14] While he was rich and dog companions, his human friends
[20:18] were few and mostly also drawn from the same upper class
[20:21] background. However, one person managed to
[20:25] enter Cam's insulated world. George O'Neill, A fellow dog
[20:30] enthusiast. Cam met George around 1981 at
[20:34] dog shows and by 1984 he had hired O'Neill as a caretaker and
[20:39] assistant. George helped manage the estate,
[20:43] pay bills, and drive Cam to dog events.
[20:46] In time, George became Cam's closest confidant, and reading
[20:51] between the lines, it looks as though he portrayed himself as a
[20:55] non judgmental figure in his life.
[20:58] Cam trusted him enough to grant George power of attorney over
[21:01] his affairs, meaning O'Neill could handle Cam's finances and
[21:05] property. According to later court
[21:07] records, Cam even named O'Neill as sole beneficiary in his will,
[21:12] designating that O'Neill would inherit Cam's personal estate
[21:16] upon his death. It was an unusual level of
[21:19] trust, and one that would come under scrutiny once Cam
[21:22] disappeared. Sometime in the summer of 1987,
[21:28] Cam Lyman vanished. The exact date isn't clear, but
[21:32] July 20th, 1987 is often cited as the day anyone last heard
[21:37] from him. As indicated in court
[21:39] documentation which I was able to dig up, George O'Neill would
[21:44] later tell police that he and Cam had an argument over the
[21:47] phone about dog business, and Cam abruptly hung up on him.
[21:51] The next day, O'Neill drove to the Hopkinton estate to check on
[21:55] his supposed friend. What he found was strange.
[21:59] The mansion's doors were left wide open, the telephone had
[22:03] been ripped out of the wall, and Cam was nowhere to be seen.
[22:08] Dozens of Cam's beloved spaniels were unattended on the property.
[22:12] O'Neill claimed he never saw Cam again after that day.
[22:18] Perhaps even stranger, O'Neill didn't report Cam missing, and
[22:21] he later asserted that Cam had a habit of taking off
[22:24] occasionally. This appears to be true, and Cam
[22:28] was indeed an eccentric multi millionaire with no
[22:30] responsibilities beyond his dogs.
[22:33] That said, he took his responsibilities to his dogs
[22:37] extremely seriously, and these animals had been left in a
[22:40] precarious state on the property.
[22:44] O'Neill said he assumed Cam left town voluntarily for a surgery
[22:47] to cement his male identity. However, he offered no evidence
[22:51] for this theory. Nonetheless, O'Neill treated the
[22:55] situation as if Cam was simply away on an extended trip.
[23:00] He continued caring for the dogs and maintaining the estate.
[23:03] He even started showing Cam's prize dogs under his own name at
[23:07] competitions, as if the animals now belong to him.
[23:13] For over a year, none of Cam's relatives realized he was
[23:17] missing, showing just how secluded Cam's life had become.
[23:22] The first red flag came that winter, when Cam failed to send
[23:25] his usual Christmas cards in December 1987.
[23:29] Cam had a tradition of mailing cards each year, and he wasn't
[23:33] known to forget. Still, for reasons which remain
[23:37] unclear, months passed before the family took action in 1988.
[23:42] Cam's sisters and brother grew increasingly concerned by the
[23:46] silence and by some odd financial signs.
[23:49] Checks from Cam's trust fund, which were normally signed over
[23:53] to him, we're being cashed with a strange Rhode Island bank
[23:57] account number instead of Cam's signature.
[24:00] This indicated someone else was depositing Cam's money.
[24:04] By December 1988, nearly 18 months after Cam's
[24:08] disappearance, the Lyman family finally contacted the Hopkinton
[24:12] police and filed a missing person report.
[24:16] They also alerted the law firm managing the Lyman Family Trust
[24:20] that something was very wrong. When authorities approached
[24:25] George O'Neill in late 1988, he repeated his belief that Cam had
[24:30] likely gone abroad for personal reasons.
[24:34] At the time, local police didn't treat the disappearance as foul
[24:37] play and wrote it off as just an eccentric rich person doing
[24:41] eccentric rich people things. The Lyman siblings hired a
[24:47] private detective named Charles John Allen to dig into Cam's
[24:52] disappearance. Allen quickly grew suspicious of
[24:55] George O'Neill's role, and he discovered that O'Neill had been
[24:59] depositing Cam's investment dividend checks into a Rhode
[25:03] Island bank account. O'Neill, it turned out, had
[25:06] nearly complete control over Cam's money, and he found out
[25:10] about the power of attorney and the will situation.
[25:13] In essence, if Cam had passed, O'Neill stood to inherit a
[25:16] substantial fortune valued at around $2,000,000.
[25:22] By the early 1990's, the case remained unsolved and
[25:25] increasingly cold. Cam's two sisters, Mary and
[25:29] Edith, pushed to have him officially declared dead in
[25:32] absentia so that his affairs could be settled.
[25:36] In 1994, seven years after Cam's disappearance, they petitioned
[25:41] the Rhode Island courts for a death declaration.
[25:45] This move drew media attention, partly because of the aspects of
[25:49] the story involving A wealthy individual who sought to
[25:52] transition, which wasn't a commonly known practice at the
[25:55] time. In June 1995, before the skull
[26:00] was found, Cam Lyman was legally declared dead.
[26:05] Despite the legal declaration, Cam's actual fate was still a
[26:09] mystery. No body had been found, and no
[26:12] one had been charged with any crime in relation to the case.
[26:17] George O'Neill continued to maintain his innocence and
[26:20] insisted that he believed Cam was alive somewhere.
[26:26] Everything changed in the fall of 1997, when A twist of fate
[26:30] finally answered the question of where Cam Lyman had gone.
[26:34] That year, Hopkinton got a new police chief, John Skunkyo, who
[26:39] decided to take a fresh look at the cold case.
[26:42] Skunkyo, a former state police detective, was apparently amazed
[26:48] that a wealthy person's disappearance had never been
[26:51] thoroughly investigated. And yeah, I'm just going to stop
[26:56] here for a second to let that sink in before we move on.
[27:02] He quietly reopened the case and even brought a cadaver sniffing
[27:06] dog to search Cam's old estate. By this time, Cam's property had
[27:11] been sold to new owners, dog breeder Greg Signer, and a
[27:14] partner who had purchased the 40 acre spread and moved in with no
[27:19] idea of its dark history. As Skunky O's team was sniffing
[27:24] around the grounds, the new owners themselves stumbled onto
[27:27] the crucial evidence. In late September 1997, Signer
[27:32] noticed a repugnant smell and sewage backing up signs of a
[27:36] septic tank problem. On September 24th, 1997, Signer
[27:42] and a friend opened the underground septic area,
[27:45] assuming they'd find a clog. They did indeed find the most
[27:49] horrific clog imaginable, partly caused by a skull floating amid
[27:53] the sludge. Investigators recovered a nearly
[27:57] complete human skeleton from the septic tank, which was located
[28:00] just yards from Cam's old house. Right away, there was little
[28:06] doubt who the remains belonged to.
[28:09] No other person was known to be missing in Hopkinton in that
[28:12] time frame, and Cam had literally been right under
[28:15] everyone's feet the whole time. Over the next year, forensic
[28:20] experts confirmed via dental records that the bones were
[28:23] indeed Cam Lyman. The medical examiner determined
[28:27] that Cam's death was from foul play, likely occurring around
[28:31] the time he disappeared in 1987. In other words, Cam had been
[28:37] slain and his body hidden in his own septic system.
[28:41] Truly a disturbing final resting place for someone who just
[28:45] wanted to be left alone with their dogs.
[28:48] While finding the body brought some closure, it also ignited a
[28:52] further investigation. From the moment Cam was
[28:57] confirmed slain, George O'Neill became the prime suspect in the
[29:01] eyes of many, including Cam's family and the police.
[29:05] The motive seemed clear. As with Cam out of the picture,
[29:09] O'Neill had stood to gain financially and did in fact
[29:13] assume control of Cam's assets for years.
[29:17] Several suspicious actions by O'Neill, both before and after
[29:20] the disappearance bolster this allegation.
[29:23] George never alerted authorities or family that Cam was missing.
[29:27] He waited until the family contacted police over a year
[29:30] later, and even then he was nonchalant, as if Cam's absence
[29:34] were no big deal. Forensic accountants discovered
[29:39] significant irregularities, and it appeared that a large portion
[29:43] of Cam's net worth ended up vanishing under George's
[29:46] questionable stewardship. O'Neill had legal power of
[29:50] attorney and was named to inherit Cam's estate in the
[29:54] will. This allegedly gave him a strong
[29:57] motive to ensure Cam never returned.
[30:00] Despite all this circumstantial evidence and suspicion,
[30:03] authorities never charged O'Neill or anyone else with
[30:07] Cam's slaying. No direct evidence or forensic
[30:11] links to George could ever be established.
[30:13] And interestingly, he wasn't the only credible suspect.
[30:19] There were a couple of other persons of interest floated in
[30:21] Cam's case. One was Bob Ragosta, Cam's
[30:25] attorney and Co trustee of the Lyman Trust alongside O'Neill.
[30:29] Ragosta had also been given power of attorney by Cam as well
[30:34] and was named executor of Cam's will.
[30:37] Essentially, Ragosta and O'Neill together controlled Cam's
[30:40] finances when he disappeared. If O'Neill had a hand in
[30:44] wrongdoing, some wondered if Ragosta could have been
[30:47] complicit, or at least aware. However, no concrete evidence
[30:52] tying Ragosta to the disappearance ever surfaced
[30:54] publicly. Another pair mentioned by the
[30:58] authorities were John and Judy Weeks, a couple who worked as
[31:01] caretakers on Cam's property before the sale to the new
[31:04] owners. It's unclear what, if anything,
[31:08] made the Week suspicious to investigators, and the case
[31:12] remains an active and ongoing investigation.
[31:15] To date, no charges have been filed against Rogosta or the
[31:19] Weeks, and they have denied any involvement.
[31:24] George O'Neill was eventually charged with embezzlement in
[31:27] relation to a false check for $15,000 he had unlawfully cashed
[31:31] for himself. All of the other financial
[31:34] irregularities appear to have simply been chalked up to poor
[31:38] management rather than malice. At any rate, George eventually
[31:42] pleaded guilty to the embezzlement and was given one
[31:45] year probation. George O'Neill would die in 2011
[31:49] without ever revealing any further information about the
[31:51] slaying of Cam Lyman, if he knew anything at all anyway.
[31:58] Obviously, theories about Cam Lyman's passing have centered on
[32:01] the people closest to him, and the most obvious suspect has
[32:04] always been George O'Neill. Still, the theory that O'Neill
[32:08] ended Cam is built almost entirely on inference.
[32:11] There's no forensic evidence linking him to the remains, no
[32:15] eyewitnesses, and no confession. Other figures in Cam's life were
[32:20] mentioned as possible suspects, though nothing concrete tied
[32:25] them to the crime either. The truth is that Cam was
[32:29] reclusive, wealthy, and surprisingly vulnerable and
[32:33] isolated, which meant multiple people may have had reasons to
[32:36] take advantage of him. Given the fact that no
[32:40] functional investigation started until almost a decade later, we
[32:44] may never know who else stood to benefit.

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