Murder, She Told

2011 - Waterville, Maine. Ayla Reynolds was just shy of 2-years-old when her father, Justin DiPietro, called 911 on the morning of December 17th, 2011 in Waterville, Maine to report her missing. His story was that she'd been abducted from her crib in the middle of the night by an unknown intruder while the three adults in the house were sleeping. Ayla Reynolds never came back home. Ayla's disappea...

1966 -Andover, New Hampshire. In September of 1966, 45-year-old Everett Delano was shot in cold blood at the gas station in Andover, New Hampshire where he worked as an attendant. Everett was a husband, a father, and a veteran with so much life left to live, senselessly murdered in a random act of violence. As 1966 came to a close without an arrest, the family wondered if their case would be solve...

1983 - Kittery, Maine. Reeves Johnson has been missing since February 1983.  In the days following his disappearance, 31-year-old Reeves quit his job, drained his bank account past the last dollar, tried to sell his car, and cleaned out his cabin, leaving behind some curious items. But was it Reeves? His parents thought so… until they showed up at the post office, hoping to catch their son picking...

2018 - Rome, Maine. In August of 2018 in Rome, Maine, Shane Cheetham confronted his wife about poisoning his dog, and in the heat of an argument (according to her), put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Later that evening, Shane passed away at a hospital in Portland, Maine. According to the people at the scene, this is an open and shut case of suicide. According to police reports, this cas...

Happy Halloween! Here's a listener submitted treat for your final weekend of spooky season that includes stories about a grim reaper in Belgium, a retro ghostly hallucination, a man haunted by his ex, a woman who survived almost being murdered, ghosts at the UMO campus, and a creepy discovery in a University of Maine document from 1966 that might have a connection to a missing man from my hometown...

1977 - Biddeford, Maine. By the time Nancy Fredette was able to get to the bedroom where shots rang out on the morning of May 26th, 1977, it was too late. The armed intruder had left through the back door, and her husband, Fred Fredette, lay dying on the bed in their Biddeford, Maine home. He passed away at the hospital later that night, and an investigation for his murder ensued. Weeks later, Nan...

1987 - Westbrook, Maine. "We were doomed from the very start." In October 1987, 23-year-old Alice Ann Hawkes was brutally murdered in the safety of her own apartment in Westbrook, Maine. Alice's killer locked the door behind them, leaving her to die alone on the bathroom floor... and to this day, her case remains unsolved. Alice was bright and full of life. She had a special way of touching the li...

1987 - Westbrook, Maine. In October 1987, 23-year-old Alice Ann Hawkes was brutally murdered in the safety of her own apartment in Westbrook, Maine. Alice's killer locked the door behind them, leaving her to die alone on the bathroom floor... and to this day, her case remains unsolved. But Alice Hawkes is so much more than a name on an unsolved homicide case list. Alice was a friend, and a sister,...

1958 - Lewiston, Maine. In July of 1958, ten police officers in Lewiston, Maine found themselves in a 30-minute standoff with an armed shooter in the woods just off a road in nearby Sabattus. Trying to de-escalate the situation, Police Officer Paul J. Simard stepped forward, talking with the shooter to drop their weapon. But the shooter didn't back down. A shot rang out, hitting Officer Simard and...

1970 - Smyrna Mills, Maine. In the early morning hours of July 10th, 1970, a freight train struck and killed three Canadian boys on the Bangor and Aroostook Railway Line in the wilderness of Smyrna Mils, Maine. Within hours, the Sheriff determined the incident was a tragic accident—that they were sleeping on the train tracks, for reasons that can't be explained—and completely dismissed the possibi...

2018 - Grafton, New Hampshire. The family of a New Hampshire missing person, Trish Haynes, was asked to keep a large secret. 25-year-old Trish was no longer missing. They'd found her... months ago. But New Hampshire police wanted them to keep this under wraps. They weren't allowed to tell anyone their beloved Trishie's remains had been found. To the public, she was still a missing person... Six mo...

1998 - Portland, Maine. On the night of April 4th, 1998, 18-year-old Robert Joyal was stabbed to death in front of 50 people in the Denny's parking lot in Portland, Maine. A month after the murder the police made an arrest... but over the course of the next two years, the state's case would slowly unravel, leaving a potential killer to walk free. How is a case that had up to 100 potential witnesse...

1998 - Portland, Maine. Moving to Maine in 1997 was supposed to be 18-year-old Robert Joyal's fresh start. But instead of becoming the football star he was in Texas, he found himself on the outside looking in, unable to carve a path in Gorham High School's social circles. When his rebellious behavior came to a head at home, it was agreed that he would move out while finishing his senior year. Anot...

1984 - Stockton Springs, Maine After celebrating her 63rd birthday at her favorite local dive bar and spending the day at a family wedding, Dorothea Burke went missing. Five days later, her body was found on the side on a country back road—she's been a victim of blunt force trauma. For years her case sat on Maine's unsolved homicide list with no updates to family or media. And then in September of...

1936 - Mount Wantastiquet, New Hampshire. In May of 1936 firefighters responded to a fire on top of Mount Wantastiquet in New Hampshire, right across the river from Brattleboro, Vermont. The next day, when sifting through the rubble for the source of the fire, they made a horrifying discovery: The broken and burned body of a woman, blunt force trauma to the back of her head, with a gun and an oil...

1986 - Norwalk, Connecticut. When Kathleen Marie Flynn left for school the morning of September 23rd, 1986 in Norwalk, Connecticut it was just a normal day. But when 3:30 rolled around and punctual Kathleen still wasn't home from school, her mother started panicking. Later that night Kathleen's body is found in the woods. She'd been killed on her way home from school. Police quickly add 23-year-ol...

1991 - Waterville, Maine. In November of 1991, police in Waterville, Maine arrived on the scene of a suspicious fire that was ablaze at a home in the middle of town. After the fire was controlled, two bodies were found inside, charred beyond recognition. They were later identified as 25-year-old Lorna Labbe Brackett, and 46-year-old Maynard Vincent White. Tests to the house confirmed that accelera...

2004 - Downeast, Maine. When 17-year-old Krystal Lee Higgins went missing after a night with friends in 2004, the entire Downeast, Maine community rallied together to search for her. But the search came to a devastating end when Krystal's car was found in the river. Two days later, Krystal's body was found close to the same spot. The police ultimately ruled it an unfortunate accident, but for the...

2000 - Seabrook, New Hampshire. In 2000, while working the Fourth of July graveyard shift as a security guard in Seabrook, New Hampshire, Curtis Pishon disappeared without a trace. Earlier that evening Curtis's car has been mysteriously set on fire, and though the insurance company later ruled it an arson, it is still unknown who set the fire, and why it was set. After that, Curtis disappeared. Th...

1990 - Pittsfield, Maine. Shirley McAvoy had been missing for over a month when her estranged husband showed up to winterize her mobile home in Pittsfield, Maine in October of 1990. When he opened the door, he had no idea of the horrifying crime scene awaiting him inside. Shirley was last seen with a mystery man who called himself "Jerry", and the day she went missing, this mystery man was seen dr...

1991 - Pittsfield, Maine. 14-year-old Christopher Rines wasn't a bad kid. He skipped school a lot and snuck out at night, but he wasn't a bad kid. In April of 1991, after a night out with friends gone wrong, Christopher disappeared. And the local police department in Pittsfield, Maine wrote him off as a teenage runaway. But the weeks passed with no sign of Christopher... until his jacket showed up...

1806 - Bowdoinham, Maine. On a hot July night in 1806, in a frontier town near Augusta, Maine (before the state had its name), Captain James Scales Purrington took an axe and a straight edge razor, and murdered his wife and 7 of their children before killing himself. This horrifying act shocked the town. What kind of man would slaughter his children? Did James Purrington have a psychotic break? Or...

1965 - Bangor, Maine. In March of 1965, 54-year-old Effie MacDonald went to her job as a chambermaid at the Bangor House Hotel, a prominent luxury hotel in downtown Bangor, Maine. At 1:15pm, she was seen speaking with a man in the hotel's corridor, and she wasn't seen again... until 2:45pm, when her body was found in a vacant 3rd floor room. She'd been strangled, beaten, and raped. Around this tim...

1980 - East Millinocket, Maine. In 1980, 16-year-old Joyce McLain went out for a jog one hot summer day and never came back. Two days later, her body was behind her East Millinocket high school bludgeoned to death. Who would do this to such a well loved young woman? Over the years her mother fought like hell to keep this case in the interest of the public, and even successfully petitioned Unsolved...

2014 - Fortuna, California. In 2014, Danielle Bertolini went missing in Humboldt County, California. She was a childhood friend of mine from Maine, and her case has never been solved. But there is a person of interest... and Danielle isn't the only woman who was last seen alive with him. Joining me this week is Detective Brian Taylor of the Fortuna Police Department to talk about his involvement o...