# Disturbing True Crime Cases From New England - Part 1 | 152

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 2 Jan 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO4414473951.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 new england true crime, new england murders, new england cold cases, new england unsolved mysteries, massachusetts true crime, connecticut true crime, rhode island true crime, maine true crime, vermont true crime, new hampshire true crime, boston true crime, cape cod murders, rural new england crimes, small town murders, historic new england crimes, missing persons new england, serial killers new england, old money crimes, coastal new england mysteries, appalachian new england crime, colonial crimes new england, 19th century murders, dark new england history, abandoned towns new england, true crime podcast new england, new england disappearances, lighthouse mysteries, witch trial crimes, puritan justice, haunted new england crimes, unsolved homicides massachusetts, cold cases maine, vermont missing persons, new hampshire murders, rhode island cold cases, connecticut disappearances, true crime storytelling, investigative true crime, american true crime podcast, regional true crime

## Transcript

[0:00] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here thanking you for listening and
[0:02] 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. A three-year old girl stood
[0:21] crying on the stairs, locked out of her home while unimaginable
[0:25] violence unfolded below. It was the afternoon of February
[0:29] 19th, 1982, in a quiet wound socket Rhode Island apartment
[0:34] house, when a neighbor opened the basement door to a
[0:37] nightmare. Blood was spattered across the
[0:41] laundry room walls. 22 year old Doreen Picard lay slumped
[0:45] between a washer and dryer, bludgeoned beyond recognition
[0:49] and strangled with her own sweater.
[0:52] Nearby, 27 year old Susan Leferte was barely alive in a
[0:56] pool of blood. Susan miraculously survived
[1:00] after hours of surgery, but she emerged from her coma with total
[1:04] amnesia about the attack. With Susan unable to remember
[1:10] the attack and a toddler the only other witness, detectives
[1:13] had little to go on. In 1982, the perpetrator had
[1:17] left behind a bloodied 28 inch pipe in the basement, but no
[1:21] fingerprints could be lifted from it.
[1:24] Investigators could not discern a clear motive.
[1:27] Susan was a housewife and Doreen a young student, neither with
[1:32] any known enemies or dark secrets that might invite such
[1:35] violence. Detectives were struck by the
[1:38] ferocity of the crime and early theories ranged widely.
[1:43] The attacker could have been a stranger responding to a
[1:45] classified ad, since La Ferte had advertised puppies for sale.
[1:51] Doreen's distraught family began their own inquiries and pressed
[1:54] authorities not to give up. Doreen's father even received an
[1:58] anonymous phone call warning him to stop pursuing the case, a
[2:03] chilling sign that someone was nervous about the family's
[2:06] search for the truth. But despite their persistence,
[2:10] months turned into years with no arrest.
[2:14] The case slowly went cold and the community remained on edge,
[2:18] knowing a predator was still at large.
[2:23] The long dormant case gained new momentum after a 1988 feature on
[2:27] Unsolved Mysteries, which brought in fresh tips.
[2:31] I feel like this show needs no introduction, but if you're not
[2:35] familiar with it, it showcased unsolved crimes and other
[2:39] mysteries. In 1990, a crucial lead finally
[2:45] emerged. A local man, 36 year old Daniel
[2:48] Shaw, came forward and implicated his friend Beaver
[2:52] Tempest in the crime. Tempest, a 37 year old truck
[2:57] driver, was a friend of the Laffert family and had visited
[3:00] the house that day to pick up a pit bull puppy they offered him.
[3:04] Tempest had been on police radar since 1982, but there was never
[3:09] enough evidence to charge him until these new witnesses
[3:12] emerged. There were even rumors that
[3:15] Tempest had been having an affair with Susan, a situation
[3:19] that could have led to a heated confrontation in the basement.
[3:23] In June 1991, Tempest was finally indicted for Doreen
[3:28] Picard's slaying nearly a decade after the crime, and the case
[3:32] went to trial the following year.
[3:36] At trial, Rhode Island prosecutors laid out a dramatic
[3:40] narrative of jealousy and rage. They argued that Tempest got
[3:44] into a violent argument with Susan in the basement and then
[3:48] fatally attacked Doreen when she unwittingly walked in on the
[3:52] scene. According to this theory, he
[3:55] strangled Doreen with her own sweater and bludgeoned both
[3:57] women with a metal pipe before fleeing.
[4:00] It was a compelling story, but it lacked any physical evidence,
[4:05] and nothing at the scene tied Tempest to the crime.
[4:08] Instead, the prosecution's case hinged on a handful of
[4:12] acquaintances who claimed that in the years following the
[4:16] attack, Tempest had privately confessed to them.
[4:22] These witnesses had checkered histories involving significant
[4:25] criminal activities, calling their credibility into question.
[4:29] One witness even claimed Tempest bragged that he would get away
[4:32] with it because he had family members in law enforcement.
[4:35] Still, taken together, the testimony of these individuals
[4:40] painted Tempest as a man who had boasted about committing the
[4:43] crime. In April 1992, the jury found
[4:46] Beaver Tempest guilty in Doreen Picard's demise.
[4:51] He was sentenced to 85 years in prison, but Tempest continued to
[4:55] insist he was innocent even as he was led away in handcuffs.
[5:00] For many locals, the conviction brought relief that someone was
[5:04] held accountable, but others were uneasy with how it was
[5:07] obtained. The Tempest family's deep ties
[5:12] to law enforcement fuelled debate.
[5:14] Raymond's late father had been a highly placed wound socket
[5:17] police official and his brother Gordon Tempest was a Sergeant in
[5:22] the department who took part in the early investigation.
[5:26] Some thought the family's connections had helped Raymond
[5:28] evade suspicion, while others believed internal police
[5:32] rivalries had made him a target. In a startling twist after the
[5:36] trial, Gordon Tempest was convicted in 1993 of perjury for
[5:41] lying underoath about aspects of another case.
[5:45] The sight of a police officer, the defendant's own brother,
[5:50] being punished for lying about evidence added to the doubt
[5:53] surrounding the investigation. This fact seemed to seal the
[5:57] idea that Beaver had done it and his corrupt family had covered
[6:01] for him. This, of course, matched the
[6:04] narrative that Tempest himself allegedly had spun up.
[6:10] For the next two decades, Beaver Tempest pursued every legal Ave.
[6:14] to prove he had been wrongfully convicted.
[6:17] Eventually, the New England Innocence Project took up
[6:20] Tempest's case. They re examined the old
[6:23] evidence and uncovered stunning new information.
[6:26] For example, one key witness had initially given a statement that
[6:30] contradicted her trial testimony, inconsistencies the
[6:34] state never revealed to the defense.
[6:37] They also discovered that the detective's original informant
[6:41] was a man with a personal grudge against The Tempest family, and
[6:45] that fact was never shared with the defense, either.
[6:49] Investigators had even coached the witnesses on what to say,
[6:53] gently reminding them repeatedly that Beaver Tempest had
[6:57] confessed to the crime. Piece by piece, Tempest's team
[7:01] built the case that his 1992 conviction was founded on
[7:05] unreliable, manipulated evidence.
[7:10] In 2015, Tempest's lawyers filed for post conviction relief.
[7:16] A Rhode Island Superior Court judge agreed that the original
[7:19] trial was flawed to the point that Beaver Tempest was denied
[7:23] his constitutional right to a fair trial.
[7:26] In July 2015, he vacated Tempest's conviction, ruling
[7:31] that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence.
[7:35] After spending 23 years in prison, Tempest was released on
[7:38] bail that fall awaiting a new trial.
[7:42] The next year, 2016, the Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the
[7:47] decision, affirming that Tempest's conviction couldn't
[7:51] stand given the misconduct and new evidence.
[7:55] For the first time in over 2 decades, Tempest was out from
[7:59] behind bars, at least for the time being.
[8:04] Even after the courts overturned the conviction, state
[8:07] prosecutors were reluctant to let the case go.
[8:10] They initially announced plans to retry Tempest for the slaying
[8:14] of Doreen Picard. By then, the evidence against
[8:17] him had been severely undermined and memories had faded.
[8:21] Rather than risk a second trial and a possible life sentence,
[8:25] Tempest made a consequential choice.
[8:28] In December 2017, he entered an Alford Plea, a legal mechanism
[8:34] whereby a defendant doesn't admit guilt but acknowledges
[8:37] that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict.
[8:43] In exchange, he received a sentence of time served.
[8:46] This meant that with the decades he had already spent behind
[8:49] bars, Tempest would serve no further prison time.
[8:53] He walked out of court a free man still proclaiming his
[8:57] innocence, even if he had to legally say there was evidence
[9:00] to convict him. And just to put this in
[9:05] perspective, he faced 2 choices, to either take the Alford plea
[9:09] and get released immediately, or to roll the dice with the rest
[9:12] of his life after decades in prison.
[9:15] If he is indeed innocent despite the Alford plea, then that must
[9:20] have been a hell of a difficult decision to make.
[9:25] Ultimately, it remains unclear what really happened to Doreen
[9:28] and Susan that day in February. The case is officially closed
[9:34] and Beaver Tempest has officially been convicted of the
[9:36] crime. Unfortunately, this is a case
[9:40] where a botched investigation has prevented true justice from
[9:43] being served. In any event, if Beaver did it,
[9:47] he's now out free when he should still be behind bars for the
[9:50] attacks. If he's innocent, Beaver now has
[9:54] this millstone around his neck for the rest of his life, and
[9:57] the guy who actually did it could still be walking free
[10:00] knowing he got away with it completely.
[10:06] Cindy Weingar was a typical Vermont teenager in the late
[10:09] 1970s until the night she vanished without a trace.
[10:14] In March 1979, the 16 year old left her family's home on Forest
[10:19] St. to visit a friend and never returned.
[10:23] Just days later, her parents received a chilling anonymous
[10:26] phone call claiming that Cindy was dead and her body was at the
[10:31] bottom of the Winooski River. For over 4 decades, the fate of
[10:36] this Burlington high schooler has remained one of Vermont's
[10:39] most haunting unsolved mysteries.
[10:44] Cindy Winegar grew up as the youngest of a big family.
[10:47] In fact, she was the youngest of six siblings, born 13 years
[10:51] after her nearest sister. By her junior year of high
[10:55] school, Cindy was a bright girl but also a teenager testing
[10:59] boundaries. The family's strict rules
[11:03] couldn't stop her from befriending a rough crowd and
[11:05] occasionally blazing the broccoli.
[11:08] This phase worried her family, and in the weeks before she
[11:12] vanished, they even received eerie, anonymous phone calls
[11:14] directed at Cindy. Despite these troubles, she was
[11:19] still a beloved kid at home, which made her abrupt
[11:22] disappearance all the more shocking.
[11:27] On the evening of March 21st, 1979, everything seemed normal
[11:32] at the family home on Forest St. 16 year old Cindy was last seen
[11:37] watching TV with her family before she said she was heading
[11:40] out to visit a friend nearby. She walked out wearing blue
[11:44] jeans, a green and white striped shirt and low top sneakers, and
[11:50] she never came back. When Cindy hadn't returned by
[11:54] the next morning, her mother knew something was wrong.
[11:57] The family contacted Burlington Police, and the family started
[12:01] to frantically search the neighborhood and Cindy's usual
[12:04] Hangouts. I'm going to shock you here.
[12:09] The authorities weren't very alarmed.
[12:12] Given Cindy's recent teenage rebellion, the police suspected
[12:15] she might have run away on her own and didn't immediately
[12:18] escalate the search. This response left the family
[12:22] feeling helpless and dismissed at the worst moment.
[12:28] Then came the phone call that turned their fear into a
[12:30] nightmare. A few days after Cindy went
[12:33] missing, her mother received an anonymous call from a man who
[12:37] delivered a disturbing message. Their daughter was tied up dead
[12:41] at the bottom of the Winooski River.
[12:44] The caller hung up without identifying himself, but there's
[12:49] a twist that made this even more disturbing than it usually would
[12:52] have been. The family changed their number
[12:55] recently in response to the threatening calls.
[12:58] Sources vary as to whether the new number was intentionally
[13:01] unlisted or whether it just hadn't hit the new phone books,
[13:06] but at any rate, the result is the same.
[13:09] That he somehow knew the family's new Incognito number
[13:12] made the situation seem less like a cruel hoax and more like
[13:16] someone had obtained it from Cindy directly.
[13:21] They begged the police to take this tip seriously, but no
[13:25] organized search of the river was done.
[13:27] At the time, investigators couldn't verify the gruesome
[13:30] claim and still lean toward the theory that Cindy had left by
[13:34] choice. For the Winegar family, however,
[13:38] that call felt like proof that something terrible had happened
[13:41] to their daughter. Reading between the lines here,
[13:46] it appears to me that the quote UN quote investigators may have
[13:50] believed that the call was hoaxed by the family to get the
[13:53] cops to take the case seriously. With few leads and a lackluster
[13:59] police response in 1979, Cindy's trail went cold fast and years
[14:05] passed without any sign of her. In 1981, the family suffered
[14:10] another tragedy when Cindy's father, John, drowned in the
[14:14] river near their home. At John's funeral, a relative
[14:18] swore they saw a young woman standing in the back of the
[14:21] church who looked exactly like Cindy.
[14:25] Before anyone could approach, that woman slipped away, leaving
[14:29] the family wondering if Cindy had quietly returned to say
[14:32] goodbye to her dad. In the years that followed, a
[14:36] few other people claimed to spot someone resembling Cindy around
[14:40] Burlington, but none of these sightings could be confirmed.
[14:46] In 1985, a peculiar discovery briefly raised hopes one of
[14:51] Cindy's sister's friends, while fishing in the Winooski River,
[14:55] snagged a clump of long blonde hair on her line.
[14:59] Recalling the anonymous caller's dire warning, she alerted the
[15:02] police. Unfortunately, without any other
[15:06] evidence or the ability to test DNA at that time, it was
[15:09] impossible to prove if the hair was Cindy's.
[15:13] Over the ensuing decades, Burlington police did
[15:16] periodically review Cindy's cold case, but no solid leads ever
[15:20] emerged. Officially, the case remained
[15:23] open, although her family strongly believed that labeling
[15:27] her a runaway early on had caused critical delays in the
[15:31] investigation. Cindy's parents passed away
[15:34] never knowing what happened, and her surviving siblings have
[15:38] refused to declare her dead, holding out hope that the truth
[15:42] will be discovered one day. When examining what might have
[15:47] happened to Cindy, 2 main theories stand out, each telling
[15:51] a very different story. Personally, I find myself torn
[15:55] between them, trying to weigh the evidence on each side.
[16:01] One possibility is that Cindy left on her own that night,
[16:05] essentially running away. This was the initial assumption
[16:09] by law enforcement. Indeed, Cindy was a teenager in
[16:13] a rebellious phase, chafing under strict rules and hanging
[16:17] out with a new crowd. Perhaps she wanted a taste of
[16:20] freedom, as so many people around that age do.
[16:24] Supporters of this theory note that there were reported
[16:26] sightings of her after she disappeared as evidence in favor
[16:30] of her survival. Maybe she felt she couldn't come
[16:33] back and chose to start over elsewhere in secret.
[16:36] However, it must be noted that all these so-called sightings
[16:40] remain completely unconfirmed and could honestly be wishful
[16:44] thinking on the part of her friends and family.
[16:48] Personally, I find the runaway theory hard to fully buy unless
[16:52] there was a much more sinister force pulling her away from
[16:55] home. Cindy left without taking any
[16:58] belongings or money, which is unusual for someone planning to
[17:02] be gone long. And would she really cut off all
[17:05] contact for decades? It's hard to imagine her
[17:09] watching her family suffer all this time without ever letting
[17:12] them know she was OK. Moreover, the sinister phone
[17:17] calls that targeted her both before and after she vanished
[17:21] don't fit with a simple runaway scenario.
[17:25] Those calls strongly imply that she was in some kind of danger,
[17:29] not just a teen quietly slipping away.
[17:32] So yeah, I have serious doubts that Cindy simply ran off to
[17:36] start a new life by choice. If this theory is accurate at
[17:42] all, I believe there's the possibility that she may have
[17:45] been trafficked, though there's no real evidence for it.
[17:49] She may have believed that she was running off to start a new
[17:51] life with an older, quote UN quote, boyfriend.
[17:55] This scenario is all too common, and she may have met someone
[17:59] participating in this disturbing trade when she started falling
[18:03] in with the wrong crowd. Traffickers directly prey on
[18:07] vulnerable young people and trick them into believing
[18:10] there's someone that can be trusted and has their best
[18:13] interest in mind instead of their family.
[18:17] But let's put this theory aside for a second.
[18:22] The other theory is that Cindy met with foul play, that she
[18:26] intended only a short outing but fell victim to someone who meant
[18:29] her harm. The menacing calls to the family
[18:32] home before Cindy disappeared suggest that someone was
[18:36] threatening or stalking her. Then the anonymous caller who
[18:40] claimed she was dead in the river could well have been the
[18:43] perpetrator taunting her family with a confession.
[18:47] The fact that he knew an unlisted number hints that this
[18:49] person was likely someone acquainted with Cindy or her
[18:52] family. All of these points indicate
[18:55] that Cindy may have been targeted by someone she knew or
[18:58] encountered rather than choosing to disappear.
[19:03] To me, the foul play theory is unfortunately the more
[19:06] convincing one. Perhaps Cindy went to meet a
[19:09] friend or acquaintance that night and something went
[19:12] terribly wrong. If she was harmed, the guilty
[19:15] party may have panicked and disposed of her body, and that
[19:19] disturbing phone call might have been a twisted attempt to
[19:21] confess. Given the evidence of direct
[19:24] threats and the complete silence from Cindy after that night,
[19:28] foul play by someone in her orbit seems the most plausible
[19:31] explanation. But back to the trafficking
[19:36] theory once more. Since it potentially intersects
[19:39] with this theory, it's entirely possible that Cindy wasn't
[19:43] willing to do what a trafficker wanted her to do.
[19:46] Rather than let her go and leave evidence of the crime that was
[19:49] already committed. The perpetrator may have slain
[19:53] Cindy. Nearly half a century has passed
[19:57] since Cindy Weingar walked out of her Burlington home and
[20:00] vanished. Yet her case remains as
[20:03] perplexing as ever. She's still listed as a missing
[20:06] person, and the investigation is still open to this day.
[20:11] That said, this is an investigation that was likely
[20:13] botched from the start by the common assumption that every
[20:17] teenager is simply a runaway. Her siblings haven't given up
[20:21] hope that they might one day learn what really happened on
[20:24] that March night in 1979. It was a damp, foggy August
[20:30] morning in 1975 when a father and son set out early for a
[20:34] simple fishing trip on Sherman Lake in Newcastle, ME.
[20:39] The serenity of the water was shattered by a gruesome
[20:41] discovery. At about 8:00, as they prepared
[20:45] to cast their lines, the two fishermen noticed something
[20:49] floating near a bridge. Upon further investigation, they
[20:53] discovered the body of a young woman.
[20:56] The horrified pair ran to a nearby farmhouse to call the
[20:59] police, initially reporting what they assumed was a drowning.
[21:03] But as officers arrived, it became clear this was no
[21:07] accident, but rather the beginning of a mystery that
[21:10] would haunt Maine for decades. A Lincoln County Deputy Sheriff
[21:17] was first on the scene on that August 16th, 1975 morning.
[21:21] He noticed potential signs of foul play and secured the area,
[21:26] then called in The Maine State Police from Augusta.
[21:29] By the time state detectives arrived, a small crowd of
[21:32] onlookers had gathered in shock along the road.
[21:36] The victim's body was found face down by the water's edge, arms
[21:40] outstretched and hair fanned across the shallow lake.
[21:44] She was mostly clothed, and she still wore some jewelry,
[21:48] including a silver bracelet and a small pendant.
[21:51] However, despite these identifying features, no ID was
[21:55] found with her, so her name remained a mystery at the time.
[22:01] As officers pulled the body from the water, the cause of death
[22:04] became grimly apparent. A dark ligature mark encircled
[22:08] her neck, and bruises were visible all over her body.
[22:13] The state medical examiner determined she had been in the
[22:15] water less than 24 hours, suggesting the slaying likely
[22:19] occurred the night before. The perp had made little effort
[22:23] to conceal the crime scene, and the young woman had simply been
[22:26] dumped in the lake. In the days after the discovery,
[22:31] the victim still had no name. Investigators canvassed the
[22:35] area, interviewing locals and checking with hotels, campsites
[22:40] and police agencies for any missing person matching her
[22:43] description. Some even theorized she might
[22:47] have been a seasonal waitress or other summer worker passing
[22:50] through. Despite these efforts, no one
[22:53] could identify the young woman. Growing desperate, authorities
[22:57] took a very rare step. They released a post mortem
[23:01] photograph of her face to the media and asked them to
[23:04] broadcast it on the local news and put it in papers.
[23:08] Remarkably, this gamble paid off very quickly.
[23:13] This photograph was published in a Boston newspaper and caught
[23:17] the attention of a family in Massachusetts who immediately
[23:20] recognized the woman. 10 days after the body was found, the
[23:25] young woman was finally identified as 19 year old
[23:28] Florence Lowe's of Brockton, MA. Investigators confirmed the
[23:34] identification through photographs, dental records, and
[23:38] jewelry she had been wearing. Florence's family hadn't even
[23:42] realized she was missing at the time.
[23:45] Her mother had spoken with her only about a week before the
[23:47] tragedy, so no missing person report had ever been filed.
[23:53] Florence was recently divorced from her marriage to Richard
[23:55] Paul Lowe's and had moved back to Brockton, where she was
[23:59] living with a roommate. She had worked as a nurse's
[24:04] aide, but by that summer she was between jobs.
[24:08] Importantly, Florence had strong ties to Maine, and her father
[24:11] lived in the area near where her body was found.
[24:15] Investigators learned that on August 15th, 1975, Florence left
[24:20] Brockton intending to travel N to visit him.
[24:25] With no car, she likely hitchhiked the roughly 150 mile
[24:29] journey. Sherman Lake lies just off US
[24:32] Route One, a major coastal highway, so the hitchhiking
[24:36] theory neatly explained how a Massachusetts traveller could
[24:40] end up there. Tragically, Florence never made
[24:44] it to her father's house. At some point on her journey,
[24:48] she crossed paths with the perpetrator.
[24:52] Once Florence's identity was known, law enforcement in both
[24:56] Maine and Massachusetts retraced her steps and searched for
[25:00] suspects. Maine State Police detectives
[25:03] teamed up with Brockton police and Massachusetts State Police,
[25:07] following leads in both states. Investigators interviewed people
[25:11] in Brockton who had seen Florence before she left, hoping
[25:14] to learn if she mentioned any travel plans or companions.
[25:18] They looked at everyone in her life, including her estranged
[25:21] husband, for anyone with a possible motive.
[25:25] Initial news reports even indicated that detectives had a
[25:28] few promising leads in Massachusetts.
[25:33] Despite this early momentum, no perpetrator was ever identified.
[25:38] By September 1975, officials acknowledged that the
[25:42] investigation had stalled, with no new developments.
[25:46] By 1977, two years after the crime, police admitted they were
[25:51] still no closer to an explanation than on the day
[25:54] Florence's body was found. Over the years, several theories
[26:01] have surfaced about what happened to Florence Lowe's.
[26:04] The most widely held belief is that she fell prey to a
[26:07] dangerous stranger while hitch hiking.
[26:10] Accepting a ride from the wrong person carried obvious risks,
[26:14] and many suspect that Florence was picked up by someone who
[26:17] then turned violent. Her state of undress suggested a
[26:21] possible indecent assault, though the autopsy couldn't
[26:24] prove it one way or the other. Perhaps a passing motorist or
[26:28] truck driver offered her a ride, then assaulted her before
[26:31] dumping her body. If Florence was slain by a
[26:34] random predator, possibly even a serial offender, solving the
[26:39] case would be incredibly difficult.
[26:43] Further, there's no indication that there was any biological
[26:46] evidence of any kind from the offender left at the scene.
[26:50] Given that this was well before the era of the forensic usage of
[26:53] DNA, it's possible that such evidence simply wasn't even
[26:57] collected. While the very obvious and
[27:01] blatant forms of biological evidence did tend to be
[27:04] collected at this time, less obvious forms often didn't.
[27:09] For instance, if there were skin cells from the perpetrator under
[27:12] Florence's nails, this likely would have gone unnoticed at the
[27:16] time. Another theory is that the
[27:21] attacker wasn't an out of towner at all, but someone who knew the
[27:24] local area or even knew Florence personally.
[27:28] Locals noted that a stranger unfamiliar with Newcastle might
[27:32] not easily find the desolate location where she was dumped,
[27:36] especially in the dark. This fuels suspicion that
[27:40] whoever left her body there knew the area well.
[27:44] Indeed, rumors in Newcastle have long speculated that a local
[27:47] person was responsible. Perhaps Florence accepted a ride
[27:51] from someone she thought she could trust, maybe even an
[27:54] acquaintance, who then betrayed her in the worst way.
[27:59] Investigators have never publicly identified a suspect,
[28:02] and no evidence has confirmed this local perpetrator theory.
[28:07] Still, the idea lingers, leaving many to wonder if the perp was
[28:11] closer to home than anyone realized.
[28:16] Decades later, Florence's slaying remains unsolved.
[28:19] With seemingly little to go on, the case remains open and
[28:24] Maine's Cold Case Unit continues to review it periodically in
[28:28] hopes of a breakthrough. Unfortunately, we're now 50
[28:32] years out from this horrific tragedy, and as time ticks by,
[28:36] it becomes less and less likely that the perpetrator will ever
[28:40] face justice.

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