Dark Downeast

When Christine Grega and her husband, John Grega, set off for a family vacation to Vermont with their young son, it was a trip meant to mend their relationship. Instead, the weekend ended in devastation when Christine was found in their borrowed ski condo, the victim of a violent attack. After two decades filled with investigations, prosecutions, an exoneration, and lawsuits, it still isn’t clear...

Almost 38 years later, the truth about what happened to Kara Laczynski and who is responsible for her death still has yet to be revealed. Two suspects were arrested and charged in the case, but after three trials with three separate juries and weeks upon weeks of testimony, no one has ever been convicted.  Here’s what investigators thought —and tried to convince the jury —really happened, based on...

Starlette Vining disappeared in 1998 and has never been found, yet 15 years after she was last seen in the small town of Presque Isle, Maine, a suspect was convicted of her murder.  This is a wide-open look at how a cold missing persons case was successfully investigated and solved despite the fact that the victim’s remains were never recovered prior to trial, or ever. It’s a story about what it t...

For almost three years, the case of Katharina Reitz Brow languished without information or evidence that could bring a true ending to the search for answers. And then when someone was finally arrested, charged, and convicted of her murder, a hard-fought battle by the suspect’s own sister unearthed evidence in a dusty courthouse basement that changed everything about the case nearly two decades lat...

For years, the murders of Rhonda Travers and Kathy Perry sat stagnant without any promise of justice, but when an informant surfaced with a story about a suspect who had never before been investigated, it changed everything. “There's always names that come up in every case,” Sgt. Pierce explained. “You know, look at this one, look at that one, whatever. There's always something, though, that just...

In a nine-month span between 1986 and 1987, two women were found brutally slain in the same Rhode Island city. Investigators believed that the first was abducted from the side of the road on her way home from work in the middle of the night, while the second appeared to get into an unknown vehicle voluntarily. Both were found a few miles away from the locations they were last seen alive, cruelly d...

Walter Page was a longtime member of the Freemasons in Manchester, New Hampshire. As treasurer of his local lodge, Walter had overseen the philanthropic efforts of their chapter for years, and he had also helped sort out the mess following more than one major financial theft. In the days before his death, Walter was on the verge of exposing yet another. Investigators have been exceptionally vocal...

On this date two years ago, I released an episode about the disappearance of Kristopher Bryan Lewis. Kris was just 13 years old when he seemingly vanished after school one day. In February of 2025, marking the 11-year anniversary of his disappearance, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created a new age progression photo and missing poster depicting what he might look like now...

Kenneth Jerome got up that summer morning in 2005 and said goodbye to his girlfriend and children, just like he did every day. He set about his usual chores on the farm, just like he always did, and he expected to feed the cows, like he had for years. But July 7th was not like every other day. Kenny’s routine was pierced by a single gunshot wound that stole him from the family, friends, and commun...

It was a Saturday night, and she’d just clocked out of work to join a group of friends down the street for drinks at a favorite local watering hole. Later, when Holly Jean Cote left that bar in the early hours of March 4, 1984, she was expected to meet at a friend’s house for a nightcap, but Holly never made it.  Since the earliest days of her disappearance, investigators have had a leading theory...

When Pamela Webb left her home in Winthrop, Maine, on the first Saturday of July in 1989, her dog and Bible beside her, she could not have anticipated that her road trip would be interrupted by a still unknown predator. There was no shortage of potential connections to explore following her presumed abduction and murder, but so far, the perceived similarities have not developed into any publicly n...

From the very beginning of the investigation into the disappearance of Iris Brown, everyone suspected the same person had something to do with it. She left home with the suspect on the night she was last seen alive, the suspect’s behavior in the days following her disappearance raised countless red flags, and forensic evidence pointed to something bad happening inside the suspect’s car, but provin...

The mother and son had just gotten home from a trip to the store and had no sooner brought their bags into their Bridgeport, Connecticut home when they heard the doorbell ring. As Karen Clarke turned the doorknob to see who was on the other side, she and her son, B.J. Brown Jr., were ambushed and gunned down in their own home.  This case has eyewitnesses, it has clear and critical evidence, it has...

Jane Boroski was seven months pregnant when she was stabbed 27 times by an unknown man. Miraculously, she survived. But Jane later finds out she is the only survivor of a serial killer who prowled the Connecticut River Valley in the 1980s and killed at least 8 women before her. Now, she's here to speak for the dead. Dark Valley is an investigation into the Connecticut River Valley Killer (CRVK) an...

Just before midnight on May 10, 1986, 17-year-old Kimberly Moreau walked out the door of her home in Jay, Maine, never to be seen again.  If you have information relating to the 1986 disappearance of Kimberly Moreau, we encourage you to reach out in the following ways: Send a letter to Kim’s Justice at P.O. Box #2 Jay, Maine 04239 Send an email to justwanttofindher@gmail.com Call the Maine State P...

She moved from Florida to New Hampshire on the promise of a job and a place to live, but just a few months later, Eddy Segall disappeared without a trace. When the vehicle Eddy was driving on the day she was last seen alive turned up abandoned in the woods of a neighboring town, investigators missed opportunities to uncover potentially critical evidence… Evidence that still eludes the case to this...

Since the moment her death was discovered in April of 1993, the family of Valarie Fiorenza has doubted that she got a fair and thorough investigation. Her boyfriend was a cop, their relationship was tumultuous, and Valarie had even made claims of abuse in court, but when her body was found in that boyfriend’s basement, investigators decided that the circumstances could only point to one conclusion...

What started with a call to police for a domestic disturbance ended with a four-day manhunt in search of a suspected killer. When that suspect, the victim’s husband, was finally apprehended, it seemed on the surface like an open-and-shut case. All signs pointed to a domestic violence homicide triggered by the dissolution of an already tumultuous and violent marriage. But then the case went to tria...

When a wealthy socialite was found face down and unresponsive on her bathroom floor, she soon slipped into her second coma in a year. This time, she would never wake up. Suspicion surrounded the cause of the woman’s condition from the very beginning, and that suspicion eventually led to an arrest.  Two trials and endless speculation from the public and media later, the question still stands: did s...

For more than two years, the family of Brittany Tee along with the Brookfield, Massachusetts, community and multiple law enforcement agencies have been searching for answers to her unexplained disappearance. It’s as if she simply vanished that January night, leaving no semblance of a trail to follow. Looking back now, Brittany’s sister Bethany feels something was going on in the days before Britta...

She was ready to reinvent her life and just one flight stood between her and a new beginning… But when that plane took off, the 19-year-old expectant mother wasn’t on board. Three months later, her family learned the devastating truth. A suspect confessed to the killing soon after, but his defense raised eyebrows. View source material and photos for this episode at: darkdowneast.com/melodystarrder...

It wasn’t unusual for months or even years to pass without contact between Marilyn Lehan and her family, but when her brother decided to make a spontaneous visit to Marilyn’s home in Maine one summer, it set off alarm bells. The stories about her last known whereabouts don’t make sense to her family, and at this point, no one knows for sure the last time she was seen alive. Marilyn Lehan would be...

When 38-year-old Ralph “Rizz” Jean-Marie was reported missing from a motel where he was living in Barre, Vermont, the story was that he up and left after an argument, leaving behind his personal belongings and everything you’d think someone might take if they were going to start a new life for themselves somewhere, or even just taking off to get some space for a few days. But from day one of the i...

When a 17-year-old girl left work one night in March of 2004, it began what would become one of the most well-known missing persons cases in New England. Her father and a duo of private investigators have dedicated years in their own pursuit of answers. More than anything, they just want to find her. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or the Vermont State Poli...

When a new manager was gunned down at work during a narrow window of time when most of the staff should have been on lunch break, investigators honed in on two possible suspects among the victim’s employees. To this day, the convicted killer and his supporters are convinced police picked the wrong one, but a key piece of evidence led the jury to a different conclusion. View source material and pho...