0:00

Paper Ghosts is a production of I

0:02

Heart Radio. If

0:08

you lived anywhere near New England in the early

0:10

to mid nineteen seventies, the

0:13

name's Debbie Spickler, Janice

0:15

Pocket, and Lisa Joy White were

0:18

synonymous with a ghost stalking the

0:20

area. Girls walking,

0:23

playing, talking to family

0:25

and friends, one minute, moments

0:27

later gone,

0:32

one after the other. From nineteen six

0:35

to ninety, young

0:37

girls vanished from Tolland County, Connecticut,

0:40

in the quiet farming towns of Ellington,

0:43

Rockville, and Vernon. I

0:45

grew up here and still live here. It's

0:47

a place where people run into one another in

0:49

town, at the lake, in

0:51

the local grocery, we talked

0:54

p t A, sleepovers,

0:56

in town politics. Back

0:59

then. When the abductations began, panic

1:01

ensued. Literally, my

1:04

parents and our neighbors locked our

1:06

doors and closed the shades. We

1:08

weren't allowed to play on supervised in our

1:11

own yards. People

1:13

looked at one another differently, you know,

1:15

with that raised eyebrow. I

1:18

went to school with the families of the missing. I

1:20

can remember walking down the hallway hearing

1:23

the whispers, where is she? That's

1:26

the missing girl's sister over there. You

1:29

think her brother did it.

1:33

It's been over fifty years and

1:35

not one of these cases has been

1:37

solved. My

1:45

name is m William Phelps. I'm

1:47

an investigative journalist in New York

1:49

Times, bestselling author of forty

1:52

three true crime books. My

1:55

passion has always been rooted in the forgotten

1:57

stories of the missing and murdered m

2:01

After growing up around so many disappearing

2:03

children, and later when

2:05

a family member of mine was murdered a

2:08

case still unsolved, I

2:10

decided to dedicate my career to seeking

2:12

justice for crime victims and their families.

2:16

But these missing girls, some

2:18

of whom I knew, it's

2:20

personal cases. I've been

2:23

investigating for the past eleven years.

2:26

I've become close to these families. I've

2:28

experienced their pain, I've

2:31

made promises, and

2:33

I don't feel I can stop until

2:35

I find answers. This

2:38

is paper Ghosts for

2:52

Kennan Patty Wendell. Their involvement

2:54

in the missing cases began in two thousand

2:57

fifteen when they relocated

2:59

to my hometown, Ellington, Connecticut.

3:02

Their middle aged, wholesome, good people

3:04

who have been married about thirty years.

3:07

They only use bookstore in town that their

3:09

son runs. I've

3:12

gotten to know them pretty well over the past few

3:14

years. And visit them from time to time to

3:16

catch up. The windles

3:18

remind me of my neighbors back in the day, growing

3:21

up around here, people who do

3:23

anything for you and expect nothing

3:25

in return. Starts

3:28

at the beginning of Window Road, where through dirty

3:30

Ken is an electrician. He wears glasses

3:33

and reminds me of one of those guys

3:35

who can fix anything behind

3:38

my house. That was his wife. Patty

3:40

looks much younger than her age. She

3:43

speaks with that King of Queen's Long

3:45

Island accent. There's a toughness

3:47

I sense, and Patty, if

3:49

nothing else, she is tenacious,

3:52

unafraid to say exactly how

3:54

she feels. They

3:59

work. I did to move to the country. It

4:01

was a dream, something that always

4:03

wanted to do. Settled down

4:05

in quiet country life, surrounded

4:08

by woods, they spent

4:10

years commuting back and forth from their

4:13

hectic life in Long Island, New York to

4:15

build a house on what is a massive

4:17

plot of land across the street

4:20

from a popular summer destination, Crystal

4:22

Lake. But that excitement

4:25

turned well, very disturbing.

4:27

Just after finishing the home and settling

4:30

in, I moved

4:32

here in October in the summer of

4:34

fifteen, and in October of that year, two

4:37

detectives came to the door. My son was

4:39

home and they wanted to talk to the owner

4:41

of the property. So it

4:43

was a state police cold case detective

4:45

and his partner who recently took

4:47

over the cases of the missing local girls.

4:50

And then he said, well, we have a tip.

4:53

We have a tip.

4:56

That's how cold cases of this nature

4:59

generate action and lead to breakthroughs.

5:03

What is incredible to me is this, after

5:06

fifty years, five decades,

5:08

these cases still produced detectives

5:11

knocking on doors. That alone

5:14

gives me and the families of the

5:16

missing hope somebody

5:18

knows something and they share it. The

5:22

windows allowed the detective and his partner

5:24

to walk to property all forty

5:27

six acres. They

5:29

spent two hours, Promising

5:32

they'd returned. The detectives were back a month

5:34

later, only this time they

5:36

brought along a team of crime scene texts,

5:39

shovels, a bacco and

5:41

began excavating a water well on

5:43

the edge of the windows property.

5:45

They spent the entire day. The dig

5:48

turned up piles of garbage, an

5:50

old oven and refrigerator. But get

5:52

this Inside that water well,

5:54

they recovered five pairs of children's

5:57

saddle shoes alarming,

6:00

yes, but why five

6:02

pairs? Were these at

6:04

all related to the missing girls I've been investigating

6:08

or wasn't an anomaly? More junk

6:10

tossed into the woods. The

6:13

Wendells assumed the police would return and

6:15

continue searching their land, but instead,

6:17

Patty and Ken grew kind of frustrated

6:20

after not hearing anything for quite some

6:22

time. It's as if the state

6:24

police completely gave up. It

6:26

would not even answer text or emails

6:28

in a timely fashion, and when they

6:31

did, the response was generic and

6:33

disappointing. But

6:35

Ken, well, he's a task

6:37

guy. Get in there and get your

6:39

hands dirty. And he refused

6:42

to let this go, so he

6:44

continued to search his land himself.

6:47

So after the cops came by, I started

6:49

to walk around, and then

6:51

that's when I found a

6:53

a fox that doug a debt, and I

6:55

see where he was digging, and he ripped open a bag.

6:58

It was a girl. The buttons. The other

7:01

side, Ken is talking about finding several

7:03

pieces of seventies era clothing

7:05

in a plastic bag. The bag

7:07

was buried in an abandoned artesian

7:09

water well in an area on his property

7:12

where a set of small cabins that Crystal

7:14

Leg visitors could rent for a weekend or summer

7:16

vacation. During the sixties and early seventies

7:19

used to be I think dirty

7:21

dancing, that kind of atmosphere.

7:24

This specific area, an old logging

7:27

road, is overgrown with brush and trees.

7:29

Now then after

7:31

running across that bag of clothes, Ken

7:34

discovered something else. It

7:36

was sneakers that can have the ground. I

7:39

think it over here and find out what you are. I

7:41

mean all that the sneakers that can out. So

7:43

I stopped digging. At that point, Ken called

7:45

the state police, thinking he might

7:47

have just found a body. One

7:51

of those missing girls. Janis

8:01

Pockets certainly has not been forgotten

8:03

in this tight knit community. Check how this bench that

8:05

has been dedicated in her memory.

8:07

You can see forty years ago today

8:09

she went missing and it happened just around

8:12

the corner while she was riding her bike. Janice

8:16

Pocket was only seven years old when she

8:18

went missing in nineteen seventy three.

8:21

She's the youngest of the missing girls I'm focused

8:24

on. The Pocket family lived

8:26

in the town of Talland, Connecticut, about

8:28

twenty miles east of capital City, Hartford

8:31

and just a few miles from Crystal Lake.

8:34

At the time, talland Vernon

8:37

and Ellington, where my cases originate,

8:40

were very rural woodsie

8:43

the country totally Mayberry,

8:45

USA. The road where Janice

8:48

was last seen was dirt and gravel, surrounded

8:51

by woods and a Christmas tree farm.

8:54

Well, it was a three

8:56

bedroom ranch that we lived in, wooded

8:59

on behind us and on

9:01

one side of course where the school was now

9:03

that was all woods. There. That's

9:06

Mary angele Breck, who has become a good

9:08

friend and close confidant over the past

9:11

ten years of my investigation. We

9:13

met online after she realized

9:15

I was looking into Janice's case. Mary

9:18

was six when her older sister went

9:20

missing in She

9:22

has shoulder length brown hair and wears

9:25

glasses. Her cheerful

9:27

demeanor and kindness are indications

9:29

she has not allowed Janice's disappearance

9:31

to destroy her. Today,

9:34

I see a drive in Mary to find

9:36

her older sibling. We're

9:38

sitting on a large rock beside her sister's

9:40

memorial, near the last location Janice

9:43

was seen. It's a hot summer

9:45

morning. Mary has always

9:47

seemed anxious to me whenever we meet,

9:49

but on this day, within this

9:52

space, she is different,

9:54

as if in her element, more

9:57

relaxed, and of course nostalgia.

10:01

There was a lot of kids in that, a lot of kids

10:03

in the neighborhood. Oh yeah, are

10:06

you know my sister's age and my age. We

10:08

were always out in the you

10:10

know, in the yards, playing together. And tell

10:13

me, you know what you remember about

10:15

James, Well, you know, we were both We

10:18

loved to play outside. Our big thing was

10:21

out in the yard or we had a big backyard.

10:24

We would love to go looking

10:26

for bugs, butterflies. We were all

10:28

into that, the nature stuff. Picking

10:30

flowers for mom all the time.

10:33

Um, you know, she was older than me. She was definitely

10:36

my fossy older

10:38

sister. She would tell me what to do all

10:41

the time, and I, you know, pretty much would

10:43

do anything she told me, you know, because she

10:45

was in charge for sure, and

10:47

it was that was okay with me most of the time. You know, we used

10:49

to fight a lot. I

10:52

asked Mary about her mother. She

10:55

was just a h

10:58

My mom was a sweetheart. Everything

11:01

we did was with my mom. Like if my dad worked a lot, you

11:03

know, my mom was a stay at home

11:05

mom. We

11:07

were. My sister was a year

11:09

and a half older than me, so we were very close in age.

11:12

You know, we did everything together and

11:14

my mom was very you know, we were

11:16

not allowed out of her sight. I mean, we would play

11:18

outside all the time, but my mom was always there.

11:21

You know, we weren't allowed to do go out on our own

11:23

in the neighborhood at that age.

11:29

The day she disappeared, do you remember,

11:32

as clear as day. Certain things stick out

11:35

in my mind, like we had um we

11:38

had gone grocery shop. I remember the grocery

11:40

shopping trip, not

11:42

so much the actual trip, but when we got

11:44

home. And I think it's because my sister and I had

11:46

a huge fight when we got

11:48

back from and I can I

11:50

can still picture it in my head. My mom was down

11:53

at the bottom of our basement stairs and she was putting

11:56

stuff away in a pantry like

11:58

cabinet we had there. And I

12:00

when we had been shopping, I

12:03

said, and I both picked out new toothbrushes,

12:05

and we got back in. Somehow

12:08

we were fighting over which who's

12:10

was who's, like, which color was mine, which

12:12

color was hers. It seems so

12:15

silly and ridiculous, but I remember I

12:18

was crying because I was out upset about it, and

12:22

I'm just thinking, my poor mom. I

12:24

think it must have driven her crazy. We were fighting over something

12:26

so silly when you think about it as a mom now I know it's

12:28

like here they're going again, you know. That

12:31

was July seventy

12:34

three, mid afternoon, near three

12:37

pm, sonny perfect

12:39

seventy three degrees. Janice decided

12:41

she needed to do something, and she pleaded

12:44

with her mother to go alone. The

12:46

next thing I remember is my sister she

12:50

had asked if she could go on

12:52

her bike up the road to get the butterfly.

12:55

And and I can tell

12:57

you what that means, because it was

13:00

year in that week, probably a couple of

13:02

days before. We were out for a walk

13:05

with my mom and the dog. I

13:07

was walking, my sister was riding your bike, and

13:10

my mom had the dog, and

13:13

my sister found and it was right

13:15

around the corner. Here she found on the

13:17

side of the road, just butterfly. It was

13:19

dead, but it was perfect, and it

13:21

was one of the yellow and black

13:24

ones. It was perfect. Mary

13:27

and Janice's mother used to take them for walks

13:29

down that dirt road. They'd

13:31

recently gotten a new puppy, so there

13:33

was a good reason to be out a lot during the summer

13:36

of nineteen three. On

13:38

that day, Janice wore navy blue

13:40

shorts with an American flag emblem,

13:43

a striped pull over shirt and blue

13:45

sneakers. She had unmistakable

13:48

strawberry blonde hair shoulder

13:50

length with those seventies eero banks

13:53

covering her forehead. I

13:55

can recall her gap tooth smile from

13:57

her second grade class photo and

14:00

image that is stuck with me since growing

14:02

up in this area. That photo

14:04

on a missing person flyer was

14:07

everywhere, So she tucked it

14:09

behind a rock that was on the side of the

14:11

road, and I think, thinking I'll

14:13

come back, we'll get it the next time we walk

14:15

or whatever. Walking it, Mary and

14:17

I figured out the distance was about

14:19

a third of a mile from her childhood home.

14:22

This was far first seven year old on a bike.

14:25

You left the pocket home, took it right out

14:27

of the driveway, went down the road, and

14:29

came to a stop sign at the beginning of the dirt

14:31

road. Heading straight the dirt

14:34

road took a sharp right hand and

14:36

then a sharp left hand turn. Janice

14:39

had placed the dead butterfly just after

14:41

the second turn on the side of

14:43

the road behind a rock. I

14:46

know it was a Thursday, just only because

14:48

of knowing that now. But and

14:51

I my sister asking could she go get the butterfly,

14:53

and normally my mother would have said no, just wait

14:56

and let's go take a walk. But I think, you know,

14:58

she was trying to but stuff away and

15:00

was probably sick of us fighting. That's what I'm just thinking in

15:02

my head, and I remember her saying go

15:05

quick and come right back. Janice

15:08

was given permission to go to Loone for the first

15:10

time. Her mother gave her a blank

15:12

envelope to put the butterfly in. She

15:15

then hopped on her bike and rode down the driveway,

15:17

hit the street, and headed back to the

15:20

dirt road to get the butterfly. Oh

15:23

my god, what an image, a seven year

15:25

old in July on her

15:27

bike going to get a butterfly.

15:32

This image is something no

15:34

one in this area to this day

15:36

has forgotten. You bring up Janice's

15:39

name and they talk about that butterfly.

15:43

As she hit the dirt road and took that first

15:45

corner, Janice Pocket vanished.

15:48

The last time anybody

15:51

ever saw her picture

16:27

this On the day Janice disappeared,

16:30

one of the Pockets neighbors, Nancy McDonald,

16:33

was at home down the road, approximately

16:35

a quarter mile away. On

16:38

that July afternoon. There three pm.

16:41

Nancy left her house to run to the store.

16:43

She drove up her street, turned

16:46

left, then headed down the road, passing

16:48

the Pocket home before coming to that

16:50

stop sign where the dirt road began. After

16:55

introducing myself, Nancy

16:57

invited me inside for a chat. Sitting

17:00

down in your kitchen, Nancy told

17:02

me a story about the day Janice went missing.

17:04

That quite honestly, it

17:07

was difficult to hear. Is the only

17:09

one that saw anything, and I decided all

17:11

I was doing was going for a gallon a mill.

17:13

When she arrived at the intersection just

17:16

past the Pocket house, Nancy saw something

17:18

that grabbed her attention. It was

17:20

a blue four door station wagon

17:22

parked blocking the road, the

17:25

actual route she was planning to take

17:27

to the store. The car was

17:29

positioned sideways east to west,

17:32

not north to south as the dirt

17:34

road ran back then. This entire

17:37

area was secluded woods

17:39

on both sides, no homes.

17:42

I couldn't get through because roads

17:44

road goes this way. His car

17:47

was like that. I thought, when

17:49

I come back, if

17:51

that car was still, they are blocking the road,

17:54

I'm gonna get out and get his license. Nancy

17:57

could not continue straight. That vehicle

18:00

forced her to take a hard left and

18:02

drive around taking the longer

18:04

back way to the store, and

18:06

no sooner did she begin to take that left.

18:09

Nancy saw something else. It

18:12

was a guy. Nobody was in the car. He

18:15

was walking. I'll show you how. That's

18:18

what made me wonder to him. Nancy

18:20

stood and began mimicking a slow

18:22

walk. The only way I saw his face

18:24

was side to He didn't completely

18:26

turn around, but I think he heard my car and

18:29

he was walking the broken

18:32

ahead very quietly.

18:36

Major wonder what the heck like? He was peering

18:38

looking for something. Yes,

18:42

he turned sideways and

18:46

where you're starting a little bit right

18:48

here, Nancy pointed to my hairline.

18:52

That's how his head was. And he had brown hair, and

18:55

he had a gold watch on his left wrist

18:58

or you remember that vividly. Plus

19:00

the outfit he had on was

19:03

those green shirts and pants

19:06

that work is wear A did back then.

19:09

That's what he was wearing. Yes, because it

19:11

haunted me all this time, I can see it

19:13

as if it just happened. I looked

19:15

for years to find out what kind

19:17

of a car that was, and I think it was a plymouth.

19:27

Nancy described the man as six ft

19:30

six to, brown hair, skinny,

19:32

wearing green khaki pants and a green

19:35

khaki shirt, walking stealthily

19:37

as if lurking or perhaps stalking

19:40

someone. Remember this

19:42

was just after Jane's pocket left

19:44

her driveway and peddled her bike

19:46

down that same road in the same

19:49

direction the man was now walking.

19:54

She definitely described a guy

19:56

in a uniform

19:59

that car place. It too is interesting

20:01

to me. But why was

20:03

he unafraid of being seen and

20:06

Nancy's description of him?

20:09

For years up to this point during

20:11

my investigation, I had been

20:13

hearing about a local guy who fit

20:15

the same description, a guy

20:17

who, within it all, was

20:20

becoming from me much

20:23

more than a person of interest. Something

20:29

about the scene didn't feel right to Nancy.

20:32

She had kids at home waiting for her with a

20:34

teenage babysitter, so she was in

20:36

kind of a hurry. Nancy hesitated

20:39

for a moment, thinking she should write down the

20:41

license plate number, but because

20:44

of the direction the station wagon was parked,

20:47

she would have to stop, get out, and walk

20:49

around the vehicle. So she turned

20:51

left and headed to the store. Still

20:55

that image of the station wagon blocking

20:57

the road nod at her. Her

21:00

gut was speaking something was

21:04

wrong. So

21:11

you come back from the store, the car's

21:13

gone. You go home.

21:16

What happens next? What

21:19

happens nextus we find out that she's been

21:21

taken, and the police and everybody

21:24

is all over the neighborhood. It

21:28

just made me sick. Hundreds

21:32

of volunteers descended upon the neighborhood,

21:35

with the focus on the dirt road and surrounding

21:37

woods in lines holding

21:40

hands. Dozens of people conducted

21:42

grid searches. They combed the land

21:44

slowly, dogs, men, women,

21:47

children, people on horseback,

21:50

even helicopters flying overhead,

21:53

all looking for a seven year old girl

21:55

who could have been anyone's child.

21:58

They put up paper fly fires on telephone

22:01

poles, hand them out at the

22:03

grocery. The town's mayor

22:05

delivered more than a hundred thousand signatures

22:07

to President Richard Nixon, urging

22:09

him to get the FBI involved. The

22:13

town's reaction was already on high alert because

22:15

this wasn't the first child to go missing in the community.

22:19

Some years before, the first of the

22:21

girls I've been investigating had

22:23

also disappeared. Early

22:29

belief, which would actually give Janice as

22:31

abductor a major head start, was

22:34

that Janice Pocket had wandered off

22:36

into the woods and gotten lost. To

22:41

double check, I asked Nancy if Janice

22:43

had left her home on her bicycle that afternoon,

22:45

which we know she did, is

22:47

this the direction she would have gone?

22:51

Okay, so she comes out into the

22:53

road and goes down and this terms

22:55

not too far and they didn't

22:58

find her. Bite to over here. That

23:04

photo of Janice's green bike lying

23:06

on its side on the dirt road is chilling

23:09

and the only piece of evidence in any

23:11

of the abduction cases. The Connecticut

23:13

State Police still have the bike. They

23:15

found no DNA or blood. The

23:18

butterfly and or the envelope were

23:20

never found. Seeing Janice's

23:22

bike with its stripe bananacy, old

23:25

school fenders, and missing middle support

23:27

bar without her on it

23:30

powerfully displays how heart wrenching this

23:32

tragedy and those like it are.

23:35

Here's Janice's sister Mary talking

23:38

about that day. I

23:40

just remember seeing the bike and

23:42

then my mom calling

23:44

for Janice, like she probably thought, oh, she's

23:47

in the woods or something, you know, or whatever.

23:50

Just remember her obviously

23:54

getting more panicked. I

24:00

asked Nancy McDonald, the pocket neighbor going

24:03

off to the store, what small town country

24:05

living turned into after

24:08

Janice disappeared. Oh,

24:10

everybody was just vigilant. They

24:12

really were everybody

24:15

was how

24:17

could you not be I mean some of the family

24:19

said, fortified kids. It

24:21

wasn't like there was a lot of

24:23

traffic ever, except when

24:25

people came home from work. I mean, we kind of

24:27

tucked away. Indeed, that

24:30

old cliche rang true. Everybody

24:33

knew everybody, with all

24:35

of those kids in the neighborhood, a neighborhood

24:37

off the beaten path. If

24:39

you did not live there, there was no reason

24:41

to be there, unless, that

24:44

is, you had other, maybe

24:46

nefarious intentions.

24:50

The search for Janice Pocket and information

24:52

about her abduction continued for decades.

24:55

Investigators dug in, including the

24:57

FBI, but came up with nothing substant

25:00

Chill. It was not until recently,

25:03

after ten years of looking into Janice's

25:05

case myself, that I began to

25:07

piece together some answers and develop

25:09

new leads. And wouldn't

25:12

you know it, that new information

25:14

sends me right back to where I

25:16

started. Crystal Lake.

25:30

Crystal Lake has always been a popular summer

25:32

retreat for area residents in the towns

25:34

of Ellington, Vernon and talent

25:37

boating, swimming, fishing, water

25:40

skiing, lake house barbecues. It's

25:43

a small lake, just under two

25:45

hundred total acres,

25:47

but very deep in some parts. At

25:51

the time of the disappearances late

25:53

sixties early seventies, this

25:55

area was thriving. It

25:57

was the major middle point, stopped for people

26:00

traveling between Hartford and Boston, gas

26:03

up, grab a hot dog. Lemon

26:05

Ice used the restroom.

26:08

Janison, Mary's mother often took the

26:10

kids to the lake during the summer. Living

26:12

so close to Ellington, my

26:21

work on the missing girl cases over the past

26:23

decade has been a slow climb. I

26:26

followed false leads, chased the wrong

26:28

suspects, had sources stop answering

26:31

my calls, and door slammed

26:33

in my face. But I stuck with

26:35

it. Then, in early two

26:37

thousand nineteen, I received

26:39

a call that set my investigation on

26:41

the move. It was from

26:43

Ken and Patty Wendell, the couple I

26:45

mentioned in the beginning of this episode. They

26:49

built their dream home across the street from Crystal

26:51

Lake and all that land they owned where

26:54

a dozen or more water wells are scattered

26:56

about. They initially

26:58

reached out to me several years ago after

27:01

googling the missing girls names and

27:03

running into all the work I've done investigating

27:05

the disappearances. Every

27:08

one of these cases. Debbie Spickler

27:11

N sixty eight. Janice Pocket nineteen

27:13

seventy three Lisa Joy White

27:16

nineteen seventy four got

27:18

a jolt of adrenaline after I wrote an

27:20

article for Connecticut Magazine and

27:22

produced an episode of my former cold

27:25

case television series Dark

27:27

Minds on Investigation Discovery.

27:30

The article dropped in the episode aired

27:32

the same week. In two thousand thirteen,

27:35

people were interested again. Law

27:37

enforcements stepped up. A task

27:40

force was created and a hundred and

27:42

fifty thousand dollars allocated

27:44

for information leading to an

27:46

arrest and conviction. A

27:49

new missing person's flyer featuring

27:51

the three youngest victims was created,

27:54

posted all around town and spread

27:56

on the internet. Hundreds

27:59

of tips came a man. I received emails,

28:02

phone calls, social media messages.

28:04

Through that I was able to develop

28:06

multiple news sources. The Wendells

28:09

included, it's

28:11

April two thousand nineteen and I'm

28:13

paying them another visit. It's

28:15

one of those dreary New England days. Grace

28:17

gies a cold rain coming

28:19

down. Yeah,

28:23

Hi Patty, Yeah, this is

28:25

Mary. This

28:28

is Janice Pockets sister. How

28:33

you but to see you guys

28:35

on this day? Marius come with me

28:37

to meet Ken and Patty Wendell. For

28:39

the past few years, I've been telling Mary about

28:42

the Crystal Lake connection I've developed and

28:44

the Wendells. I thought it was time

28:46

she meet them, and we walked the property,

28:49

all of us together. I

28:52

can tell Mary is nervous. She

28:54

has this funny way of hugging herself as

28:56

if she's cold when she's anxious.

29:00

As Patty and Mary are busy chit chatting,

29:02

Ken tells me about a recent discovery.

29:05

My neighbor found the woods

29:08

off that road. When you come in a

29:10

memorial with flowers

29:13

nailed to a tree, that was it,

29:15

says an all I p and

29:17

uh A recent one. Yeah,

29:20

this is the weird part. It was. It looks

29:22

like it was put in within the least ten years. Flowers

29:25

tacked to a tree with an inscription carved

29:27

in the bark, like young lovers

29:29

might do with a pocket knife. It

29:31

cannot be a roadside cross memorial,

29:34

same as you'd see on the shoulder of the street

29:36

after a deadly accident. This tree

29:38

is in the middle of a wooded area, not

29:41

far from where several of those

29:43

water wells are located. Ken

29:46

continues, making a great point.

29:49

Who would have put this in the middle of the woods. Later

29:52

at a later date, it's like somebody who came

29:54

back and a memorial. It was

29:56

just weird finding it. No that you know,

29:59

that's that's that's something people

30:01

like to come back. People love

30:03

to come back to places where

30:06

they've done stuff. Let's see what's

30:08

going on. Standing

30:11

at that flower memorial with Crystal Lake

30:13

directly in front of you, about two yards

30:16

away. You can see the water glistening

30:18

the lake houses along the water's edge.

30:20

In front of this memorial, however, there

30:23

is a large divot in the ground about

30:25

the size of three compact cars.

30:28

It's as if something underneath

30:30

the ground had given and

30:32

caved in. Before leaving

30:34

the Wendells. I asked Ken if he could

30:36

find out if there were any water wells

30:38

right there where the divot is. Mary

30:43

has never been to this particular location. Just

30:46

across the street from the lake on the east

30:48

side, there's an area of land where

30:50

it's been thought throughout the years, her

30:53

sister Janis's body is buried on

30:56

the Wendell's property. Ken's

30:59

discovery of the fly our memorial isn't

31:01

the only reason we're here. There's

31:04

been some activity up here again recently

31:06

by the Connecticut State Police. They've

31:10

been digging. The

31:17

State Police were finally digging, but

31:19

they were focused on a well at the edge

31:21

of the Wendell property in an area about

31:23

two yards across

31:25

the street from Crystal Lake. It

31:28

was on Pine Street. Just after you make

31:30

the corner from Wendell Road. You

31:33

embark down a slight slope into

31:35

the edge of the woods, and you arrive at

31:37

the well about twenty to thirty yards

31:39

in four State Police

31:41

detectives excavating

31:43

equipment, crime scene text, all

31:46

sifting through more than fifty years

31:49

of earth and garbage and buried

31:51

secrets. The

31:54

State Police are acting on a recent tip

31:56

they'd received stating that a body is buried

31:58

in one of the water well across the street

32:01

from Crystal Lake. That

32:03

immediately makes me think who

32:05

left the tip, If

32:07

it's connected to the Janis Pocket case,

32:10

what kind of person would wait almost five

32:12

decades before telling the police,

32:15

And is it even credible If

32:19

the state police have been digging, this

32:21

tip means something. There

32:26

has always been the suggestion that Janie

32:28

Pockets body is either in the lake or

32:31

buried somewhere nearby. But

32:33

not long after Mary and I arrive at the Wendows

32:36

to look into her sister, Janie's abduction.

32:39

I'm giving information that turns

32:41

all these cases upside down

32:44

and forces me to look in an

32:46

entirely new direction. It

32:50

turns out the state police weren't there looking

32:52

for Janis pockets body. They

32:54

had come out to search for someone else.

32:57

A new name, A name

33:00

I have not heard connected to any of my

33:02

cases in the decade I've been at it. A

33:05

young woman who lived just miles from

33:07

janice pockets home, directly across

33:10

the street from Crystal Lake. A

33:12

young woman I'll soon find out

33:15

who could be related to the

33:17

mysterious man. Janice's neighbor, Nancy

33:20

McDonald allegedly saw the

33:22

day she disappeared and kept

33:25

this She was reported missing

33:27

in two thousand sixteen, and yet, incredibly,

33:30

the last time anyone had seen her forty

33:34

five years before in nine

33:40

and as I continued to investigate Janie

33:42

Pockets case, I stumbled

33:44

onto something that could change

33:46

the entire game from me. Information

33:50

telling me that this new missing

33:52

girl might not actually be

33:54

missing at all. In fact,

33:58

I think she could will

34:00

be alive, and

34:03

if she is well, I'm

34:06

gonna find her. In

34:11

the next episode of Paper Ghosts. I

34:15

remember that, and I didn't want to be, especially right

34:18

after it happened when you would see posters.

34:21

I almost felt embarrassed

34:23

because I didn't want people thinking that my mother

34:25

was a bad mother. We

34:27

always had that cold, never by

34:29

ourselves to so if we're one of

34:31

us is alone too bad you walk it however

34:34

far it is. That was the cold

34:36

hind We had a cold now. So

34:38

I don't know though, because you know, she was upset.

34:40

We were all upset over what happened

34:42

and getting in trouble and thinking we can never

34:45

be friends again. She

34:47

had, you know, a couple of girlfriends her age.

34:50

The males that she was

34:52

hanging with five, six, even

34:54

seven years older, young men

34:57

not the best influences. Paper

35:00

Oakes has written an executive produced

35:02

by me and William Phelps, with

35:04

help from producer Christina Everett

35:07

and sound editing by Pete Cardi

35:09

from back Room Audio special

35:11

thanks to Lauren Paccio along

35:13

with Abu Safar and Will Pearson

35:16

from My Heart Radio. The series

35:19

theme four four two is

35:21

written and performed by Tom Mooney

35:23

and Thomas Phelps. For more

35:25

podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit

35:28

the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

35:31

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows