#Paula Jean Welden
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The Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden
Paula Jean Welden, 18, was a sophomore at Bennington College on December 1, 1946, the day she told her roommate, Elizabeth Parker, she was going for a long walk but failed to return. A search focused primarily on Vermont’s Long Trail (a 270-mile trail that cut through Vermont to the Canadian border), where local witnesses reported having seen her.
The trail yielded no clues, however, and soon, what the Bennington Banner refers to as “tantalizing and unquestionably strange leads” began to materialize. These include claims by a Massachusetts waitress that she’d served an agitated young woman matching Paula’s description. Upon learning of this particular lead, Paula’s father disappeared for 36 hours, supposedly in pursuit of the lead, but it was nevertheless a strange move that led to his becoming a prime suspect in Paula’s disappearance. Soon stories began circulating that Paula’s home life was not nearly as idyllic as her parents had told the police. Apparently, Paula had not returned home for Thanksgiving the week prior, and she may have been distraught about a disagreement with her father. For his part, Paula’s father posited a theory that Paula was distraught about a boy she liked and that perhaps the boy should have been a suspect.
Over the next decade, a local Bennington man twice bragged to friends that he knew where Paula’s body was buried. He was unable to lead the police to any body, however, let alone Paula’s, and with no evidence of a crime, no body, and no forensic clues, the case grew colder, and the theories grew stranger, including those linked to the paranormal. New England author and occult researcher Joseph Citro came up with the “Bennington Triangle” theory, which explained the disappearance as linked to a special “energy” that attracts outer space visitors, who would have taken Paula with them back to their world.
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Book Review: A Conundrum...
Shirley — Susan Scarf Merrell
Whilst working on my Murder By Mail series, I ran across a short story penned by Shirley Jackson called The Possibility of Evil. Which gives a fictional first-hand account of how the missives of a poison pen writer affect the community in which they live. A mere six pages, it takes no time at all to finish, and it’s one of the best short stories I’ve ever…
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#agatha Christie#Bennington triangle#book#book cover#book photo#book review#last seen wearing#my 52 weeks with christie#mystery#paula jean welden#shirley#shirley jackson#susan scarf merrell
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📌New Podcast Episode
Paula Jean Welden lived in Bennington, Vermont. The 18-year-old went for a hike on the afternoon of December 1, 1946. No one is sure what in the world happened after she left Bennington College campus that day. Eyewitnesses became unreliable. Police started to question if any of them even saw, gave a ride to, or talked to Paula Jean after she left her dorm, or if it was only someone who matched Paula’s description. With zero clues and investigating every tip, all that was left were many questions that people are still asking today.
#true crime#crime#true crime podcast#crimes#missing#missingwomen#missing girl#disappearance#disappeared#vanished#gone#bennington#bennington Vermont#vermont#1940s#decade: 1940s#history#Paula Jean Welden#40s#storyteller#storytelling#true crime community#apple podcasts#spotify#true crime post#unsolvedmysteries#unsolved#unsolved case#unsolved mystery#unsolved mysteries
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The small village of Bennington, Vermont, is an unlikely scene for a missing person mystery. Nevertheless, between 1945 and 1950, five people inexplicably vanished. The disappearances involves a variety of victims including an 8-year-old and a 74-year-old. Arguably, one of the most infamous missing person from the area was Paula Jean Welden; her disappearance led to the formation of the Vermont State Police.
18-year-old Paula was an art student at Bennington College. On the afternoon of the 1st of December, 1946, Paula told a friend she was going for a stroll along the “Long Trail” which was a woodland hiking trail. It runs for more than 270 miles until it reaches the Canadian border. The Long Trail was an extremely popular walking spot but Paula hadn’t yet got a chance to check it out. On the aforementioned afternoon, she tried to get some friends to join her; unfortunately, they all declined. Nevertheless, Paula got dressed and made her way to the trail. She didn’t bring a backpack or a change of clothes - she was only going to be gone a short while, she planned. The last time she was ever seen was when she stopped to ask another hiker a few questions about the trail.
When Paula didn’t return home that night when her roommate went to bed, she just assumed that she was out studying. Her nonchalant attitude turned to worry when she woke up the next morning and Paula still hadn’t returned. A search party was assembled and the hikers who had spotted her along the Long Trail came forward after seeing her photograph in the paper. The search party then focused along the Long Trail, assuming she had got lost but to no avail. While there were hundreds of volunteers, the search was hampered due to the fact that there was no statewide law enforcement agency in Vermont.
A suspect came to light when a man who claimed he saw Paula hiking changed his story several times. He was said to have had an argument with his girlfriend before storming off into the Long Trail. He was a suspect once again several years later when he told a couple of people he knew where Paula was buried. He fobbed this off as a joke, though, and no evidence against him could be found. Eventually the case went cold and the whereabouts of Paula still remains unknown. A couple of months after her disappearance, the Vermont State Police was assembled.
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Misterio sin resolver 42: La desaparición de Paula Jean Welden http://dlvr.it/T59HhW
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Paula Jean Welden The Vanishing That Haunts Vermont's Green Mountains
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The Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden
April 15, 2022
Paula Jean Welden was born on October 19, 1928 in Stamford, Connecticut and was the oldest of four daughters to William Archibald Welden and Jean Douglas. Paula graduated from Stamford High School in 1945.
Paula was a sophomore at Bennington College in North Bennington, Vermont in 1946. On December 1, 1946, at the age of 18, Paula decided to go for a walk on a portion of the Long Trail, only a few miles from the campus. The trail was quite famous and Paula had never been on it. She asked some of her fellow schoolmates to go with her, but they were busy.
Paula worked a shift in the Bennington College dining hall, and returned home to change into her walking clothes. She dressed appropriately for the day walk, but was not wearing clothes that would be adequate enough for colder weather at night. Paula did not pack a bag, had no extra money on her and took no other clothing. It is clear that she was planning to come back.
Paula got a ride from State Route 67A near the entrance to the college in North Bennington to an area on State Route 9 near the Furnace Bridge between downtown Bennington and Woodford Hollow. She hitchhiked and got a ride from a man named Louis Knapp, who drove her as far as his house on Route 9, about 2.5 miles from the Long Trail. It is unclear if Paula hitchhiked after this or walked the rest of the way to the trail.
There was a group of hikers who were walking down the trail as Paula was walking up. Paula asked the hikers a few questions about the trail and then continued to walk north on the trail known now as Harbour Road. It would of began to get dark while Paula was reaching the end of Harbour Road, and it is assumed she was continuing along the Bolles Brook valley, however the last confirmed sightings of her were by the Fay Fuller Camp.
Paula never returned back to the campus. Her roommate believed she had gone to the library to study for her exams, but the morning after, on December 2, she still had not turned up. College administrators were notified and a campus wide search began.
The county sheriff was brought in to aid in the search. In the next few days, it was found out that Paula’s last whereabouts were on the Long Trail, as one of the hikers she had asked questions that day recognized her photo from the newspaper.
The search for Paula Jean Welden continued for weeks. The college closed for a few days and many students and faculty helped search for the missing 18 year old. There were hundreds of volunteers, and even the National Guard troops aided in finding the girl, but no one found a trace of her. Ground and air searches were conducted on the Long Trail, as far as Glastenbury Mountain and along Route 9.
Many believed that Paula had just gotten lost in the woods. However, other theories suggested that she had decided to run away and start a new life, going to meet a secret lover and elope with him. Others said she might have been injured on the trail and been suffering from amnesia. Some even thought Paula was depressed and had gone in the woods to end her life, been kidnapped or murdered.
Paula’s father pressed investigators and the governor to bring in additional help to look for his daughter. Eventually, Connecticut State Police detective Robert Rundle and police Dorothy Scoville interviewed every person who saw or thought that they had seen Paula. They also interviewed every person who lived along the route she took, or were in the vicinity of the Long Trail on December 1, 1946.
At one point, supposedly a Massachusetts waitress claimed to have served a woman who matched Paula’s description. The waitress claimed this woman appeared to be agitated. Following this lead, Paula’s father apparently went to check it out for himself and disappeared for 36 hours in pursuit of the lead. This led to him becoming a suspect.
Stories began to be told that Paula’s home life and relationship with her parents might not have been the greatest. Apparently Paula had not shown up to Thanksgiving dinner the week before and some think she was distraught over an argument she had had with her father. Paula’s father put forth the idea that maybe Paula was upset over a boy and that he should be a person of interest.
It was discovered that one of the last people to ever see Paula alive was a lumberjack named Fred Gadette, who lived along Harbour Road. During the time Paula walked by, Fred had gotten in an argument with his girlfriend. Fred then walked off in a jealous rage afterwards, and he claimed different during times that he spent the night by himself in his shack or drove his truck to the portion of the trail that Paula was heading towards.
Fred had lied to the police many different times, and was both a person of interest in 1946, and again in 1952. Fred had supposedly told at least two people that he knew where Paula was buried, but later claimed it was just talk.
No body or evidence has ever been found to suggest that Paula met with foul play that December afternoon, and the case remains unsolved after 75 years.
Around the general area where Paula is thought to have disappeared there have been at least four other unexplained disappearances of people between 1945 and 1950. This area is known as “the Bennington Triangle” due to these unexplained disappearances and the similarities between disappearances that have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle.
#unsolved#UNSOLVED MYSTERIES#unsolved murder#unsolved case#unsolved true crime#true crime#Crime#missing person#missing#vanished#disappearance#mystery
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Organization XIII - Their Favorite Unsolved Mysteries
Suggested by: someone who accidentally sent in a public ask but wanted to remain anonymous. I hope you enjoy!
These are all worth a read if you don’t already know about them, especially ‘the man from Taured’
Honorable Mentions: JonBenet Ramsey, the Boy in the Box, the Black Dahlia, the Somerton Man, the Zodiac Killer, Jack the Ripper, Natalie Wood, etc.
WARNING: Some of these cases contain death, violence, gore, and unsavory conditions. Be careful when scrolling and researching.
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Xemnas - Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - On March 8, 2014, while flying from Malaysia to China, a Boeing 777 carrying 239 passengers and crew members vanished into thin air.
Xigbar - The Leatherman - a particular vagabond who was famous for wearing his handmade leather clothes and traveled an annual route between the Connecticut River and the Hudson River, roughly from 1857 to 1889.
Xaldin - Bizarre Deaths at Dyatlov Pass - On the first night of February in 1959, nine hikers died mysteriously in the mountains of what is now Russia. On the night of the incident, the group had set up camp on a slope, enjoyed dinner, and got ready for bed —but never returned home.
Vexen - The Oakville Blobs - In 1994, there were six rainstorms in Oakville, Washington. Except it didn’t rain water, it rained gelatinous blobs. When tests were run on the mystery “rain” they found that it contained human white blood cells, but to this day, no one knows exactly how or why it came about.
Lexaeus - The Man from Taured - A man from another dimension bearing a passport from the nonexistent country of Taured showed up at a Japanese airport in the 1950s and then mysteriously vanished.
Zexion - The Voynich Manuscript - a roughly 250-page book written in an entirely unknown language/writing system. It’s been carbon-dated back to the 1400s and includes illustrations of plants that don’t resemble any known species.
Saix - Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden - On December 1, 1946, a sophomore at Bennington College, 18-year-old Paula Jean Welden, told her roommate, Elizabeth Parker, she was going for a long walk but failed to return back to the shared space.
Axel - Mary Reeser - a woman whose death was purported to be a case of spontaneous human combustion.
Demyx - Flannan Isles Lighthouse Keepers - When nearing the island, Captain James Harvey found it odd that the Scottish flag had been removed from the flagpole. He then sounded the horn to get the attention of the three lighthouse keepers but there was no response. The bodies of the three men were never found and their disappearance still remains a mystery to this day.
Luxord - The Max Headroom Signal Hijacking - In November 1987, two TV stations in Chicago were hijacked by someone wearing a Max Headroom mask.
Marluxia - Audrey Santo - The Santos family of Worchester, Massachusetts had their lives turned upside down when their young daughter, Audrey, fell into their pool and nearly drowned. Audrey was saved but suffered horrible brain damage that left her braindead. However, Audrey’s story took an unusual turn when religious objects in the family’s home began to excrete oil.
Larxene - Elisa Lam - On January 26, 2013, 21-year-old Canadian tourist Elisa Lam checked into the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. On February 19, eighteen days from the last time she was seen, Elisa Lam’s body was found floating and naked in a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel.
Roxas - Chicago Tylenol Murders - On September 29, 1982, 7 people in the Chicago area ingested poisoned Tylenol pills, consequently collapsing and dying shortly after.
Xion - Vanishing Of Cynthia Anderson - On August 4, 1981, Cindy arrived at the legal office where she worked as a secretary. During the mornings, she normally worked alone, so she always kept the door locked. At 12PM, two of her coworkers arrived to find the office empty.
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The Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden
Paula Jean Welden, 18, was a sophomore at Bennington College on December 1, 1946, the day she told her roommate, Elizabeth Parker, she was going for a long walk but failed to return. A search focused primarily on Vermont’s Long Trail (a 270-mile trail that cut through Vermont to the Canadian border), where local witnesses reported having seen her.
The trail yielded no clues, however, and soon, what the Bennington Banner refers to as “tantalizing and unquestionably strange leads” began to materialize. These include claims by a Massachusetts waitress that she’d served an agitated young woman matching Paula’s description. Upon learning of this particular lead, Paula’s father disappeared for 36 hours, supposedly in pursuit of the lead, but it was nevertheless a strange move that led to his becoming a prime suspect in Paula’s disappearance. Soon stories began circulating that Paula’s home life was not nearly as idyllic as her parents had told the police. Apparently, Paula had not returned home for Thanksgiving the week prior, and she may have been distraught about a disagreement with her father. For his part, Paula’s father posited a theory that Paula was distraught about a boy she liked and that perhaps the boy should have been a suspect.
Over the next decade, a local Bennington man twice bragged to friends that he knew where Paula’s body was buried. He was unable to lead the police to any body, however, let alone Paula’s, and with no evidence of a crime, no body, and no forensic clues, the case grew colder, and the theories grew stranger, including those linked to the paranormal. New England author and occult researcher Joseph Citro came up with the “Bennington Triangle” theory, which explained the disappearance as linked to a special “energy” that attracts outer space visitors, who would have taken Paula with them back to their world.
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❀ possibly, maybe, surely ❀
Almost the exact second that the band returned from their retreat and Piper placed her cellphone back in her hands, Shosh was texting Clem. It had been a beneficial trip—to be sure—but an intense one and Shoshana was looking forward to a return to relative normalcy, before things with the upcoming Cthulhu ‘The Census Tour’ of the UK made life crazy again.
Plus, while she was away, she’d read Clem’s letter.
Shosh had been worried, a little, that the whirlwind of drama right before graduation had turned the Hufflepuff off the idea of hanging out casually, seeing where things go. She wouldn’t have blamed Clem if that was the case, really; not everyone was interested in keeping in touch with friends-and-flames from school, and that’s just how things went.
But the words in Clem’s letter suggested otherwise. It had made Shoshana’s stomach flutter excitedly (and no, not just because of the mushroom tea), enough to cause her to think of little else for the latter half of the retreat. And when Shosh was back in possession of her phone and had inquired as to how Clem’s summer was going, and what she was up to, Clem had casually mentioned that Annie was on a ‘weekend away thing with Ewan (gross),’ and that she had the house to herself.
Which was close enough to an invite for Shosh.
Shosh had been to Annie Priddy’s house a handful of times, and the walk from the abandoned lot Shosh apparated to was familiar. She came armed with boxed wine, and following a brief cordial debate over recently-released films and Clem microwaving a massive bowl of popcorn, they decided on Shirley. Shosh tried (sorta) to just shut up and watch the damn film, but unable to contain herself, she ended up expounding at length in animated whispers on Stanley Edgar Hyman and Paula Jean Welden and Hangsaman, eventually inching so close to Clem on the couch that when Shosh turned to offer further commentary, their elbows brushed. Clem looked her way, her face closer than Shosh had realized, and there was a moment between them…
Then Shosh shifted an inch, and the popcorn bowl tipped and spilled.
She laughed, a dorky sound through her nose. “Sorry—do you want me to shut up now?”
@clem-priddy
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Shirley (2020)
Up until the last few minutes, I didn’t know what to think of Shirley. I was annoyed by the characters, frequently bored by the story while remaining impressed by the performances. Now that I know where it went, all of director Josephine Decker’s decisions make sense, and I like it a lot.
Newlyweds Fred and Rose Nemser (Logan Lerman and Odessa Young) move in with Stanley Hyman and Shirley Jackson (Michael Stuhlbarg and Elisabeth Moss). A huge admirer of Stanley's, Fred hopes he will give him an insight on his upcoming job as a lecturer at Bennington College. While the men are away, Rose finds herself tending to all of the household's cooking and cleaning. Shirley would help but her husband insists her time be dedicated to the novel she's just started.
Early in the film, Shirley brings up the unexplained disappearance of Paula Jean Welden. Is shady, womanizing Stanley responsible for her disappearance? The answer is no. This movie is not about some big mystery. No murders take place. It’s only about the characters, their interactions, and always-changing relationships. Shirley beats Rose down so viciously it seems strange for them to eventually become friends but it makes so much sense once you’ve looked at their personalities and how they clash/compliment each other. You wonder where everyone is headed next.
Since Shirley is all about the characters, we get great performances from an enthusiastic cast. Elisabeth Moss is easily the standout. She overpowers her co-stars even when she's languishing in bed but everyone is good in their roles. It's just that some of these characters are pathetic, or weak and in need of a shock to the system.
For most of its running time, I didn't care for Shirley. Although now that I see how everything fits together, I look at it back fondly, I'm not sure I can enthusiastically recommend it. I think if I encourage you to see it with reservations, you'll be pleasantly surprised, as I was. (May 4, 2021)
#Shirley#movies#films#movieReviews#FilmReviews#JosephineDecker#ElisabethMoss#MichaelStuhlbarg#OdessaYoung#LoganLerman#2020movies#2020 films
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Quantum Girl Theory by Erin Kate Ryan
Quantum Girl Theory by Erin Kate Ryan
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Random House, Random House
Date of publication: March 8th 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction
Purchase Links: Amazon | Audible | B&N | WorldCat
Goodreads Synopsis:
On December 1, 1946, Paula Jean Welden put on a bright red parka, left her Bennington college dorm for a hike, and vanished. Eighteen, white, blonde,…
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True crime sunday: the Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden
True crime sunday: the Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden
This week, I came across one of those nifty internet lists that we’re never quite sure about. If we click the link, will we find good information or will the page will be full of clickbait nonsense? This list promised history’s most baffling unsolved cases. How could I possibly pass that up? I’m glad I threw caution to the wind and clicked the link. I found something fascinating for you…
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QUANTUM GIRL THEORY
“Every space was haunted by something,” muses Mary, the protagonist of Ryan’s inventive debut. It is Bladen County, North Carolina, in 1961, and Mary, a White New Englander, has arrived clutching a MISSING poster of Polly Starking, a local White girl who has disappeared. Mary is there to work: She has “the Sight,” and her particular psychic ability manifests in visions of missing girls. But her desire to help is only partly based on altruism. Alone, unmarried, and running from her former life, she desperately needs the reward money from cases like Polly’s. The townspeople blow hot and cold about Mary’s presence: They desire her help at the same time they deeply mistrust her. As the sheriff attempts to get Mary to leave, Mary encounters Martha, a Black motel maid who is willing to help Mary navigate her day-to-day needs for food and shelter (as well as the nuances of the Jim Crow South) if Mary will use her abilities to find two other missing girls the town isn’t talking about—two Black girls, Evie and Jack, who are in a romantic relationship. Based on the real-life disappearance of Bennington student Paula Jean Welden in 1946, Ryan’s novel takes up what true-crime aficionados would call the “less dead”: victims of violence or missing people from marginalized communities who fail to garner the same attention as idealized victims—namely, straight young White women. Ryan takes a meta approach here; the novel is as much about the way we mythologize this type of missing and murdered victim as it is a twisty mystery about Mary’s hunt for Polly, Evie, and Jack.
from Kirkus Reviews https://ift.tt/PziKRf1
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The small village of Bennington, Vermont, is an unlikely scene for a missing person mystery. Nevertheless, between 1945 and 1950, five people inexplicably vanished. The disappearances involves a variety of victims including an 8-year-old and a 74-year-old. Arguably, one of the most infamous missing person from the area was Paula Jean Welden; her disappearance led to the formation of the Vermont State Police.
18-year-old Paula was an art student at Bennington College. On the afternoon of the 1st of December, 1946, Paula told a friend she was going for a stroll along the “Long Trail” which was a woodland hiking trail. It runs for more than 270 miles until it reaches the Canadian border. The Long Trail was an extremely popular walking spot but Paula hadn’t yet got a chance to check it out. On the aforementioned afternoon, she tried to get some friends to join her; unfortunately, they all declined. Nevertheless, Paula got dressed and made her way to the trail. She didn’t bring a backpack or a change of clothes - she was only going to be gone a short while, she planned. The last time she was ever seen was when she stopped to ask another hiker a few questions about the trail.
When Paula didn’t return home that night when her roommate went to bed, she just assumed that she was out studying. Her nonchalant attitude turned to worry when she woke up the next morning and Paula still hadn’t returned. A search party was assembled and the hikers who had spotted her along the Long Trail came forward after seeing her photograph in the paper. The search party then focused along the Long Trail, assuming she had got lost but to no avail. While there were hundreds of volunteers, the search was hampered due to the fact that there was no statewide law enforcement agency in Vermont.
A suspect came to light when a man who claimed he saw Paula hiking changed his story several times. He was said to have had an argument with his girlfriend before storming off into the Long Trail. He was a suspect once again several years later when he told a couple of people he knew where Paula was buried. He fobbed this off as a joke, though, and no evidence against him could be found. Eventually the case went cold and the whereabouts of Paula still remains unknown. A couple of months after her disappearance, the Vermont State Police was assembled.
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