237 - The Disappearance of Cathy Moulton - Trace Evidence

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This episode is dedicated to the memoryof Jacqueline Zeeman. Sixteen year old Kathy
Malton was excited for the end ofthe school day on September twenty fourth,
nineteen seventy one. Rushing home,she asked her father if he could give

(00:23):
her a ride into town for supplies. There was a dance that night,
and the teen was planning to attend, but she needed to finish the hem
of her dress. Her father watchedas she climbed out of his car and
walked towards the store, never imaginingthat that would be the last time he
would ever see her. Desperate tofind their eldest daughter, the Moultens were

(00:44):
hit with a series of roadblocks.Most notable was that the Portland Police Department
tried to convince them that she wasa runaway and would return in her own
time. Resentfully, they accepted amissing person's report, but no solid investigation
was conducted, and it wouldn't beuntil decades later that new detectives would take
on the case with all of itstwists and turns. Working from behind the

(01:07):
eight ball throughout the nineteen nineties,detectives managed to unlock more information that eventually
led them North of Portland and acrossthe border into Canada. They learned about
the last days of Cathy's life,where she had been taken and by whom.
They also quickly discovered that had policeinitially taken the case seriously, they

(01:30):
might have been able to bring theteenager home alive. Instead, the disappearance
of Kathy Moulton not only remains open, but is the oldest missing person's case
in the state of Maine. However, there is one thing which is known
for certain. There are people outthere who know exactly what happened to Kathy
Moulton, but even more than ahalf a century later, they refused to

(01:53):
speak up. This is Trace EvidenceEpisode two thirty seven, The Disappearance of
Kathymulton. Welcome to Trace Evidence.I'm your host Stephen Pacheco. Today we

(02:14):
dig into the disturbing nineteen seventy onedisappearance of Kathy Moulton. Before jumping into
the case, just a quick reminderthat I will once again be representing Trace
Evidence on podcast row at Crime Conthis year. Crime Con takes place in
Nashville, Tennessee, on the weekendof May thirty first through June second.
As always, I'm excited to meetand chat with all of you there.

(02:37):
So if you're planning to attend andyou haven't yet purchased your pass, use
promo code trace to save ten percent. That's crimecon dot Com promo code trace.
I'm really looking forward to seeing youthere. When sixteen year old Kathy
Moulton vanished from the streets of Portland, her family pleaded for assistance from local

(02:58):
police, but instead they were ignoredand laughed at. More than fifty years
later, the truth of what becameof their daughter remains concealed. This is
episode two thirty seven, The Disappearanceof Kathy Moulton. Maine is the most

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deeply and extensively forested state in thecountry, and houses the largest contiguous block
of undeveloped forest land east of theMississippi. The vast majority of residents live
in the southern half of the state, where cities such as Bangor Lewiston and
Portland thrive and continue to grow.The further north one travels, the thinner

(03:42):
the population becomes, and large citiestransform into small towns, and they transform
and turn to tiny outposts, untilall signs of the modern world are lost
within the beautiful and vast almost endlessstretch of thick, untouched forestry of Maine
are so extensive, in fact,that despite more than two hundred years worth

(04:03):
of harvesting them for wood, thestate maintains the highest ratio of forested lands,
with more than ninety percent of Mainebeing forest This includes some twelve million
acres in the northern part of thestate, where hardly anyone lives. For
the sake of comparison, the entirestate of Massachusetts is but six point seven

(04:26):
million acres. As one would expect, there are areas of this forested land
that have been vastly explored, butthis represents only a small sliver of the
wooded land. Much of it's sodeep and untouched that even the most experienced
of hunters can easily find themselves lostand without any indication of where to turn.

(04:46):
According to the Main Warden Service,there are on average four hundred and
eighteen calls annually for search and rescueto locate and save people who have become
lost or injured. Suffice it tosay there there are large areas within these
forests which have never been mapped,let alone deeply explored, and some areas
have likely not felt the compression ofhuman footprints in hundreds of years. As

(05:12):
one might expect, the sheer depthand breadth of the forest has resulted in
countless stories, myths and legend aboutlost civilizations, cryptids, and other phenomenon
that tease the mind and capture theimagination. Many have wondered what secrets might
lie deep within the forest, tangledup between the mix of deciduous and evergreen
trees. Some have gone to findthose answers, and while many eventually turned

(05:36):
back, others were never seen again, lost somewhere in an area where it's
incredibly difficult to track anyone. Whilesome seek to illuminate the unknown, others
thrive upon its ability to keep asecret. The deeper and darker the better.
In fact, if one were toknow the right area, if they

(05:57):
could find the correct pathway, theymight come upon clues or perhaps even the
answer to a mystery which has haunteda family and the entire state for more
than five decades, that being thefate of a sixteen year old girl who
went out shopping one fall afternoon innineteen seventy one and never made it home.
Kathy Marie Moulton was born on Tuesday, June twenty eighth, nineteen fifty

(06:23):
five in Portland, Cumberland County,Maine, to parents Claire and Lyman Moulton.
Kathy was the Moulton's first born childand would be the eldest sibling amongst
three daughters, as Kimberly and Pamelawould follow. Lyman, or Roy,
as he was more frequently known,was the owner and proprietor of Roy Moulton's

(06:43):
used cars. While Claire, priorto the arrival of the children, had
worked as an er nurse, buteventually decided to stay home and commit herself
to raising their three girls. Kathywould be raised alongside her sisters in a
white clapboard house located at once oneo two Clinton Street in northwest Portland,
less than a mile east of DeeringHigh School. Friends and family have described

(07:06):
Kathy as quiet and thoughtful, caringand intelligent. She was a good student,
loved to laugh and dance, andhad strong desires to help others.
She was often known to spend hourschatting with lonely elderly neighbors or offering up
her services as a babysitter to others. Her mother, Claire, later explained

(07:28):
quote she seemed to be interested inhelping people. She was down the street
all the time sitting with a friendof the family who was paralyzed. It
was amazing how well they could communicate, considering he had a speech impairment.
She felt if you were nice toother people, they would be nice to
you. End quote. Kathy wasdescribed as having several close friends, and

(07:48):
when her time wasn't spent taking careof others or attending school, she loved
attending dances held by the local sevento eleven club in the YWCA. Swing
was her preference, but she dancedregardless of the theme. Not only did
she frequently attend these dances, butshe often made her own dresses and outfits,
and showed a talent and flair forboth the design and manufacture of clothing,

(08:11):
the skills she had learned from hermother. Kathy's talents, however,
were not limited to this realm,as much like her father and siblings,
she had a gift for writing poetry. Specifically, this was a love and
passion she would continue throughout her life, and when she was exposed to the
influence of modern poets and beat Nicksthrough a teacher, one her father described

(08:33):
as in tune with the hippie generation, She was drawn into the world of
creative expression by way of the writtenand spoken word. Growing into her teens,
Kathy would often attend poetry readings atThe Gate coffee House, located less
than three miles from her home atsix fifty four Congress Street near Longfellow Square.

(08:54):
When she had an afternoon free,the young woman would drop in to
listen, be inspired, or justhang out with friends who shared similar interests.
Opened in November of nineteen sixty five, the Gate advertised itself as featuring
pop art, poetry, and guitars. It would become a landmark in the
area as much of Portland's youth wouldfind their way in making friends and hanging

(09:16):
out in a space. One articledescribed as quote likely to prove real cool
for coffeehouse addicts. Outside of dancesand poetry, Kathy was close with her
parents and siblings, pitching into helpwhen it was necessary and looking after her
sisters as time might demand. Accordingto her sister Kim, Kathy was a

(09:37):
caring and older sister with whom shecould share anything and often did under what
they playfully referred to as sister secrets. Arriving home from school, the team
would often flop down beside her motherand they would talk for hours about life,
school, and everything in between.While Kathy was well behaved, didn't
cause many problems for her parents.As she grew older, she started to

(10:01):
express a little more of her rebelliousside. She started wearing more makeup despite
complaints from her folks. She'd sneakcigarettes here and there, and she kept
secrets about who she was spending timewith. When she went out to the
coffee house, she and a friendcaught the eye of a local photographer and
posed for portraits in his studio,something her parents weren't all that thrilled to

(10:22):
learn. While the coffee house washome to a lot of teenagers, with
whom Kathy either attended school or knewthrough friends and acquaintances, at fifteen she
started drawing attention from an older crowd. College aged and sometimes older men would
flirt with the teenager, often shockedto learn her real age. But as

(10:43):
is always the case, there werethose who found that more appealing for whatever
their twisted interests might have been.Kathy, through the aid of friends and
her own powerful expression, managed towade through the minefield and refused to allow
the behaviors of others to impact whereshe felt comfort going. Following the last
days of school in the summer ofnineteen seventy one, Kathy's parents planned a

(11:05):
major road trip vacation for the wholefamily. Loading all the kids up into
a new, big Cadillac, theMoltens set off on an eighty one day
adventure which would take them around theUnited States and down into parts of Mexico.
Kathy kept a detailed journal discussing thetrip, which involves seeing as much
of the country as they could andstopping to stay at roadside motels along the

(11:28):
way. According to her younger sister, Kim, it was a fun and
exciting trip, and she felt thewhole family grew a little bit closer during
that time. On Monday, Junetwenty eighth, the family celebrated Kathy's sixteenth
birthday in Williams Bird, Virginia.They shared a pizza and cut pieces of
a delicious cake for the celebration,where Kathy's parents explained that as they continued

(11:52):
on the trip, should she seeanything she wanted as a birthday gift,
they'd make sure to get it forher. When the family later arrived in
Texas, Kathy was drawn to aMexican maid, tan and brown reversible tooled
leather handbag, and her parents kepttheir word, purchasing it as a belated
birthday gift. Kathy loved the bagand would carry it with her everywhere,

(12:15):
including on the day she was lastseen. The Multens returned home that summer,
just two days before the start ofschool, and according to both friends
and family, Kathy had enjoyed thefamily vacation and was excited to get back
into the swing of school and hangingwith her friends. That year, she'd
be a junior at Deering High School, and she was looking forward to what

(12:37):
the world might have to offer.Nancy Barlow, Kathy's then best friend,
would later explain that she'd never seenKathy happier than she had seen her that
September. Tragically, the sixteen yearold would mysteriously disappear just a few weeks
into the school year, before shecould even get a month into her junior
year. The nightmare would begin onFriday, September twenty fourth. The Friday

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began normally and without any indication ofwhat would happen. Later, after getting
ready and enjoying breakfast, Kathy headedoff for school. Being Friday, the
sixteen year old was excited to finishup for the day, but it was
really the night that she was lookingforward to. There was a seven to
eleven club dance that night, andKathy had been working on putting the finishing

(13:22):
touches on a pants skirt she'd puttogether for it. Her afternoon ended with
a study haul, and upon exitingthe school, she made the quick half
mile walk back to the family homeon Clinton Street. Rushing inside, she
asked her father if he could giveher a ride into town so she could
pick up some last minute supplies.She had a run in the pantyhose she'd

(13:43):
plan to wear to the dance andneeded a new pair. She also needed
some thread to finish up the hemof the pants skirt. Hearing of her
plans to go to the store,Kathy's mother, Claire handed her some money
and asked if she could also pickup toothpaste because they were running low.
Aition to money for that purchase,Claire gave Kathy change so she could take

(14:03):
the bus home, something she haddone many times before. In total,
it was stated that Kathy had nomore than three dollars in her favorite birthday
gift handbag when she left the familyhome that afternoon. Roy would later state
that he dropped Kathy off in frontof the old New England Telephone and Telegraph
office at the corner of Cumberland andForest Avenue at approximately one fifteen pm.

(14:28):
Other articles would report this time beingcloser to four fifteen PM, and there
doesn't seem to be any specificity.This intersection is located approximately two and a
half miles southeast from their home,and according to Roy, he kissed his
daughter and told her that he'd seeher at home for dinner that night.
He proceeded on towards his used carlot on Forest Avenue, and would later

(14:52):
state that Kathy exited the vehicle ontoCumberland Avenue and then turned south, heading
towards Congress Street, which runs parallelLle to Cumberland one block south. She
was on her way to the formerPortius, Mitchell and Braun's store at five
twenty two Congress, less than twotenths of a mile from where her father
had dropped her off. Roy watchedfor a moment and then turned his attention

(15:16):
back to the road, driving off, without ever imagining that that would be
the last time he'd ever see hisfirstborn child. Over the course of the
next few hours, no one hadany idea that anything had gone wrong,
nor did they have anything to indicatethat they should be worried. It wouldn't
be until six pm that Kathy's absencewas reported with a note of concern.

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The Multens always sat down for dinnertogether at six sharp, and when Kathy
didn't arrive in time, her parentswere both annoyed and somewhat worried. It
wasn't like Kathy to be late,especially without first calling to explain why.
Thirty minutes later, when Cathy stillhadn't shown up and hadn't called, Roy

(15:58):
decided something happened had to be wrong. He picked up the phone and placed
calls to Portland's three hospitals, wonderingif his daughter had been involved in some
kind of an accident, but noneof the hospitals had any record of her
being admitted. Next, the familystarted calling around to all of Kathy's friends,
but none of them had any ideawhere she might be either. As

(16:19):
Claire continued making calls, Roy climbedinto his car. The sun had begun
setting moments earlier, and he headedtowards downtown, watching as street lights and
storefronts began to glow beneath the approachof dusk. In addition to the evening
growing darker, temperatures had begun droppingfrom the low sixties to the low fifties,

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and he knew Kathy wasn't properly dressedfor the chill. Arriving downtown,
Roy drove around the area as heknew his daughter was familiar with. He
passed slowly by side streets, staringdown them intently seeking any sign of Kathy.
He stopped next to groups of childrenand had asked if they'd seen his
daughter her appearance in what she hadbeen wearing, but again no one had

(17:03):
seen her. Finally, Roy andClaire decided they needed to get the authorities
involved. Claire would later explain toPortland Monthly that she called the Portland Police
Department, and after explaining the situation, the officer on the other end of
the line laughed at her, suggestingthat a teenager being thirty minutes late was
hardly an emergency situation. The officerthen explained that the family would need to

(17:27):
wait seventy two hours before reporting Kathymissing. Angry with this, Roy drove
down to the station himself and arguedwith the death sergeant, who Roy would
later describe as needlessly difficult and condescending. Finally, when Roy refused to accept
no for an answer, he wasallowed to fill out a missing person's report,

(17:48):
though he was very much under theimpression the police did this only to
shut him up and get him toleave. It wasn't as though they suddenly
were taking the situation seriously. Formore than the decade, this slim little
report would be the only paperwork addedto Kathy's missing persons file. Roy spent

(18:08):
hours searching for his daughter that night, since there didn't appear to be any
police officers jumping into help. Thenext morning, he returned to speak with
the Portland Police, who finally agreedto send out a be on the lookout
report to all of their cruisers andto notify the main state police of the
missing persons report. Still, though, they tried to convince the family that

(18:29):
Kathy had likely gotten together with friendsand chose not to come home, or,
worse yet, that she might haveelected to run away. Aside from
the fact that at the time thePortland Police Department had absolutely none of its
budget allocated towards missing persons investigations.They had seen a large amount of teenagers
running away from home throughout the previousyears, with that number being totalled at

(18:52):
two hundred runaways each year. Accordingto multiple reports of the time, it
appears that the Portland Police did thebare minimum. They took the report,
interviewed the family and spoke with someof Kathy's friends. They then placed her
file into a large cabinet, whichwas filled with hundreds of similar cases that
hadn't been followed up on and likelynever would be. Despite the family's urgent

(19:17):
insistence that Kathy wasn't a runaway,their pleas fell on deaf ears. The
sixteen year old had been excited forthe dance but had never arrived. She
had left behind all of her clothing, her poetry, her makeup, and
the money she had saved from babysitting. It didn't make sense that she would
have run away. Not one ofher friends felt there was anything to suggest

(19:38):
she would have ever run away,and according to everyone who had seen her
that Friday, she was super excitedfor the dance and said she wouldn't have
missed it for the world. Sadly, as is too often the case,
Kathy's parents found out that if theywanted anything to be done, they were
going to have to make it happenthemselves. The Portland police wouldn't even do

(19:59):
so much contact the papers to runher photo or a small article about her
disappearance. They were utterly useless,and their choice not to assist a desperate
family would later be reported to verylikely be one of the key reasons that
Kathy never made at home. Hersister Kim would later explain saying, quote,
the attitudes of the era was thatshe was probably just rebelling or protesting,

(20:26):
or ran off with her boyfriend ifhe had gotten drafted. It was
not taken with the seriousness that itwas to our family end quote. Ultimately,
it was determined that Kathy did makeit to the store that day and
purchased the items she needed. Sometimeafter five pm, the teenager arrived at
Starbird Music located at five point twentyfive Forest Avenue, placing her just over

(20:52):
a mile north from where her fatherdropped her earlier. The music store,
owned by the family of a friend, was just eight tenths of a mile
southeast from Kathy's home. Carol Starbird, who worked at her family's business,
chatted with Kathy for a short periodof time after her arrival. Carol would
later report that Kathy explained she hadspent the money her mother had given her

(21:15):
for bus fare and was in arush to get home so she could shower
and get ready for the dance thatnight. According to Carol, Kathy left
at approximately five point thirty pm,continuing north along Forest Avenue. Today,
that is a distance which Google Mapstipulates would take no more than twenty minutes
to walk, meaning that unless somethinghad gone wrong, Kathy should have arrived

(21:37):
home between five point fifty and herfamily six PM dinner time. For the
most part, this is where theinitial investigation, at least from the perspective
of law enforcement, mostly came toa conclusion. Desperate for help, the
family turned to the local community andbegged newspapers to cover the story. On
Tuesday, October fifth, eleven daysafter Kathy was reported missing, local papers

(22:02):
touched on the story, but barely. The Portland Press Herald in the Evening
Express, printed statements from the Moultensasking for anyone with information on their daughter's
whereabouts to contact them or police.These statements were published beneath a photo of
the missing girl. The so calledarticles were no more than three sentences apiece.

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Five days later, on Sunday,October tenth, the Main Sunday Telegram
ran an article entitled police hunt inVane for missing girls. The article addressed
both Kathy's disappearance as well as thatof eleven year old Barbara an Ripley,
and how there didn't appear to beany clues or information to what might have
happened. Tragically, Barbara's body wouldbe found in a box in a barn

(22:48):
a decade later, leaving many morequestions than answers have ever been provided.
Speaking to the Telegram, then YouthAid Bureau officer Russell Norris stated that the
search for Kathy was quote at astandstill. We've checked out every clue but
nothing. We just don't know whathappened. She just dropped from sight end

(23:10):
quote. Hoping to get more assistancewith their search and to increase awareness of
the case, the Multens reached outto the director of Portland's FBI office at
the time. The director explained thatthe bureau did not have jurisdiction to get
involved and couldn't open an investigation withoutsolid evidence of abduction, but he did

(23:30):
manage to convince the producers of thepopular television series FBI to show Kathy's photo
at the end of several episodes.It was certainly more than the local police
had done, and the Multens hopedthat someone somewhere might recognize Kathy. Unfortunately,
this move did little to illuminate themystery, and the Multens found themselves

(23:52):
back to square one, trying tobalance raising their two daughters with running their
own investigations into Kathy's disappearance. Tipscame in, but they almost always were
too vague to rely upon, orthey led to solid dead ends. There
were rumors circulating at Deering High Schoolthat Kathy had run off south to Boston,
but it was little more than thedebate and speculation you'd expect to hear

(24:15):
among high school students. Alvin Drake, who was often Kathy's dance partner,
reported the general talk of the time, said she had probably gone to Boston,
while Kathy's best friend Nancy Barlow statedthat when a friend in study all
had talked about visiting Boston, Kathyhad quote appeared interested. These are the

(24:36):
leads the family was trying to trackdown Two months later, in early November,
while cleaning out Kathy's locker, schoolofficials discovered a torn piece of paper
with a phone number scrawled on it, assuming it might lead to potential clues.
Police called the number and reported thatit ended up ringing one of the
phones that her father's used car dealership. In desperation, Roy accepted the assistance

(25:00):
of Alex Tannis, a man famousthroughout New England for his alleged psychic powers.
Together the two drove around Portland untilAlex claimed to have felt vibrations telling
him that Kathy had climbed into acar and the car had continued down Forest
Avenue. He thought the vehicle mighthave turned left at either Coil or Lincoln

(25:22):
Streets, respectively, five hundred andeighty four and eight hundred and twenty seven
feet north of Starbird Music. Hethen lost his vibrations. Of course,
he couldn't figure out which street itwas or where they had gone beyond that,
Expressing his tremendous psychic abilities, healso failed to determine the make,
model, or color of the vehicle. He could not give a description of

(25:45):
the driver. He could not sayif anyone else was in the car.
He couldn't say if Kathy had beenforced or if she had got in willingly.
You know, I'm always amazed byhow these psychics are only able to
provide vague details, almost as iftheir entire profession is a lie, and
their little more than vultures preying onthose who have suffered great tragedies. But

(26:06):
I digress. Not long after Thanksgivingthat year, a holiday which had felt
empty and painful for the Molten family, they finally received some information that fed
their desperate hope of bringing Kathy home. The main State police contacted the family
and notified them that they had receivedinformation that a young woman fitting Kathy's description

(26:27):
was known to be living in thearea of presque Isle, nearly three hundred
miles northeast of Portland and not farfrom the Canadian border. The tip had
apparently come in from an employee ata local gas station. As soon as
they were informed, Roy and Clairedecided to make the drive north and to
hopefully find their daughter. Sadly,upon arriving in presque Isle, they quickly

(26:52):
realized that law enforcement had once againfailed them. Speaking to officials at the
local sheriff's department, they were thatnot only did investigators know nothing of Kathy's
disappearance, They were also unaware ofthe alleged sighting. As was often the
case back in the day, andeven still to this day, different jurisdictions
were simply not communicating with one another. Roy managed to organize a meeting with

(27:18):
local police and sheriff's deputies, duringwhich time he broke down the case of
his missing daughter and passed out photosof the sixteen year old along with a
detailed description. Seeing that Presguyle lawenforcement had reacted with much the same nonchalance
as the Portland police had, Royand Claire once again took it upon themselves
to try and spread the word andtrack down their daughter. They took their

(27:41):
flyers and went to town, goingstore to store and putting up flyers on
doors and in windows, on lightpoles and street corners. When they felt
they'd covered the area, they movedoutwards towards the residents of the town,
going door to door and asking ifthey had seen Kathy and whether or not
they'd be willing to take some flyersand spread them around. They even went

(28:02):
so far as to cross the borderinto Canada, putting up flyers and speaking
to residents of New Brunswick. Sadly, while they were doing everything in their
power to try and find Kathy,the girl who had initially been reported as
possibly being the missing sixteen year oldreturned home. She had run away from
Connecticut, and while she was happilyreunited with her family, there didn't appear

(28:25):
to be any trace of Kathy outsideof some local rumors. There was a
story going around about a young womanwho had been taken up with a native
across the border and was living onthe Tobic First Nation just north of Perth
andover in New Brunswick. The familyfollowed up on these rumors, but they
never found anything solid to convince themthat it was Kathy, or whether or

(28:48):
not it was true at all.Heartbroken and without any new information to assist
their searches, the Moultons returned southto Portland, left behind in Kathy's bed
room, where all of her belongings, including the outfit she'd planned to finish
hemming, and where to the danceto night she vanished. Since the Moultens
were in possession of Kathy's SOSA Securitycard, they thought that might be a

(29:11):
method by which they could track downtheir daughter if she had run away or
perhaps identify someone else using her number. The couple reached out to Senator Margaret
Chase Smith and asked her if itwould be possible for them to be notified
should anyone out there attempt to usetheir daughter's Social Security number. To their
surprise, they were informed that thatcould not be done. If Kathy had

(29:36):
run away, it would violate herprivacy. The best they could be done
was that the Moltens were asked towrite a letter, and the senator assured
them that should someone use Kathy's SocialSecurity number, that person would be given
a copy of the letter. Theywere flabbergasted that they weren't even allowed to
try and track their missing daughter.Asked about this, Roy vented his frustration,

(30:00):
saying, quote, I understand familiesfight and so on, but when
there is a legitimate reason, someoneshould know. That's what gets me.
A person is an important thing.You are, I am, and Kathy
is. If the government wanted to, they turn hell and high water over
to locate somebody just not paying theirtaxes. But when it comes to missing

(30:22):
persons, the doors are closed.We just want to know what happened to
our daughter. End quote. TheMultens continued doing everything they could to try
and find their daughter. They spoketo the police, often did interviews for
local papers, and hired private investigators, but they couldn't seem to get anywhere.
Meanwhile, investigators had allowed Kathy's caseto fall by the wayside. Nineteen

(30:48):
seventy one would come to a conclusionwithout any new developments or advances in the
case, and in fact, soat seventy two and seventy three and so
on wouldn't be any new information ormovement on Kathy's case for more than twelve
years. When a hunter would relaya disturbing experience to local investigators. It

(31:11):
was the fall of nineteen eighty three, and the Moltens had been searching for
their daughter for more than a decade. The sixteen year old who'd gone missing
from the streets of Portland Wood bythat point have been twenty eight years old.
She'd been missing for nearly as longas the family were lucky enough to
have been graced by her presence.While they maintained hope that someday their daughter

(31:33):
would return home, the passage ofmore than a decade had truly put their
faith to the test. However,they continued to search for Kathy lived in
the same home and refused to changetheir phone number on the off chance that
she might reach out. Then,one day, a hunter walked out of
the woods in Smyrna, a smalltown in Aroostook County, approximately sixty miles

(31:57):
south from presque Isle, where theMoltens had previously pursued alleged sightings of a
girl matching Kathy's description. The huntercontacted authorities and explained that while deep within
the forest, he had come uponskeletal remains. He theorized the remains had
belonged to a female, as hereported the body was surrounded by women's clothing

(32:20):
and that the skeleton still wore theshredded remnants of a bra across its exposed
rib cage. Asked if he coulddescribe the area, the hunter stated that
the body, which he added wasintact other than the skull which seemed to
be missing, had been found inan area close to a triangular shaped pile
made up of six empty maple syrupbarrels. The barrels, he reported,

(32:44):
were in close proximity to an oldstove. The area the hunter described actually
made sense to the main Warden Service, as that area of the woods had
been home to many maple sugar campsthroughout the nineteen seventies. The hunter told
police that he thought he'd be ableto lead them back to that location,
and so they set forth on anexpedition to find the body. Unfortunately,

(33:06):
due to the density of the forestand the great expanse it covered, the
hunter was unable to retrace his steps. Investigators reached out to locals who knew
the forest well, and many ofthem confirmed a familiarity with the site described
by the hunter, but the policewere never able to locate it. As
a result, the hunter's tip wasfiled away, but nothing more was done

(33:28):
at the time. With the passageof time and the half assed investigation that
had been conducted into Kathy's disappearance,no one in law enforcement even made the
connection that the remains might be Kathy. It wouldn't be until two decades later
that investigators began to analyze that possibility. From this point forward, Kathy's disappearance

(33:49):
will pop up on the radar oflaw enforcement multiple times, and there will
be these little stutter steps start andstop investigations. The next time anyone in
the Land Police department examined Kathy's casewould be five years after the hunter had
come forward in nineteen eighty eight,seventeen years after the sixteen year old was
last seen alive as she hopped downthe steps of Starbird Music, less than

(34:15):
a mile from the Clinton Street homeshe never got back to. It was
New Year's Day when detective William Diechenstumbled across Kathy's missing persons case file and
a cabinet jammed full of similar casesthat had never been truly followed up.
On opening the folder, he cameupon case number sixty Dash one forty one,

(34:36):
but there was little information inside ofthe file to offer up any helpful
answers. Inside he found just onesheet of paper, the missing person's report
the Moltens had filed back in nineteenseventy one. Deechin asked around the office
and found an older officer who recalledshowing a photograph of a missing woman to
the family to ask if it resembledtheir daughter. A father of four daughters

(34:59):
himself, Deechen decided to reopen thecase and to see what answers he might
be able to find for the family. Looking over the information presented and speaking
to former investigators, he was overwhelmedby the sense that his predecessors had dramatically
failed the Moultens, and he wantedto try and make up for their callous
carelessness. Detective Diechen made the shortthree mile drive from the department to the

(35:23):
old clapboard house on Clinton Street.He climbed the five steps up onto the
front porch and knocked on the door, which was opened by Roy. Deechen
introduced himself and had to ask whatwas likely one of the most difficult questions
of his career. Had Kathy everbeen found or had she returned home.

(35:44):
The Moultens were shocked, informing thedetective that this was the first time anyone
with the Portland Police Department had followedup with them over the previous seventeen years.
Roy and Claire explained that Kathy hadnever returned home and they felt that
the police had abandoned them and longforgotten about their plight. Deichen did the
best he could to apologize for howthe case had been handled, and while

(36:07):
acknowledging that it might be too little, too late, he wanted to try
and find some answers. The Multensinvited Diechen in and explain the case to
him, going over all the knowninformation and painstaking detail They discussed the last
day they had seen Kathy, theirtrip up north to try and track down
sightings the private investigators. They'd cycledthrough, the rumors, the vibrations of

(36:30):
a psychic, and everything they hadkept in an accounting of for nearly two
decades. Deechen asked if the Multenswere still in possession of Kathy's belongings,
and they walked him to her bedroom, opening the door to reveal a space
frozen in time. They had keptKathy's room exactly as it had been left
that Friday in nineteen seventy one.Dejen went through the room was allowed to

(36:53):
read through Kathy's journal and Oliver poetryin search of potential tips or clues.
During the course of his investigation,Deechin spoke with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,
at which time he was informed thatthey were in possession of an unidentified
body of a young murder victim whohad been found in Surrey, British Columbia.

(37:15):
While that placed the body on theother side of the continent, more
than three thousand miles west from Maine, Deechin decided to ask the Moltens for
copies of Kathy's dental records so thata comparison could be drawn up. While
he wasn't sure there would be amatch, it figured at least they could
eliminate the possibility, and when therecords were compared, that's exactly what happened,

(37:37):
As the medical examiner stated, theunidentified woman was definitely not Kathy Moulten.
Kathy has a very distinct dental profile, as she had two eye teeth
or canines as they're commonly called,removed before she had gotten braces. It
had been a dead end and afruitless pursuit, but it had also been
the first major investigative work done onthe mat missing teen's case in nearly twenty

(38:00):
years. The Maltons were grateful thatanything was being done, and Diechen grew
close to the family, overwhelmed bya feeling that he and his department owed
it to them to make sure somethingmore was done. Roy would later comment
about how impactful Diechen's actions had been, telling Portland magazine, quote, you
don't know how important it is tohave anyone try to do something after all

(38:23):
these years. It's more than weever hoped. What happened end quote.
Unfortunately, Diechen's investigation quickly grew cold, but he did manage to get the
case some attention in the media,and had added his own notes and reports
to the paltry case file. Hiswork would become the basis for a much
more thorough investigation, but once again, it wouldn't come quickly. In fact,

(38:47):
after January of nineteen eighty eight,it wouldn't be until the mid nineties
that another detective picked up where Deechenhad left off. Seven years later,
in nineteen ninety, twenty four yearsafter Cathy went missing, newly promoted Portland
Police detective Kevin Katy is handed afile by his boss, Sergeant Thomas Joyce.

(39:09):
Flipping the folder open, Katie findsonly two documents inside, the original
missing person's report dated September twenty fifth, nineteen seventy one, and Detective William
Deechen's investigative supplement dated January fifteenth,nineteen eighty eight, the last time any
work was logged on the case.Sergeant Joyce asked Katie to see what he

(39:30):
could figure out, and for reasonshe couldn't fully understand, Katie was drawn
into the case. He would laterexplain, quote Joyce and I wanted to
find an answer for this family whohad been waiting so long. We felt
the Portland police had let them downyears and years ago. It was our
mission to give them an answer aboutwhat happened. She didn't just disappear from

(39:52):
Forest Avenue into thin air. Somethinghappened to her end quote. Detective Katie
decided that the best way to handlethe case was to behave as though it
was brand new and to start fromsquare one, which, given the lack
of an original investigation, isn't allthat far from the truth. He wanted
to speak with those who were closeto Kathy in seventy one, and the

(40:15):
first person he managed to track downwas Nancy Barlow, the missing teen's best
friend. In discussions with Barlow,he learned about an older man who was
allegedly spending a lot of time withthe teen around the time of her disappearance.
He was also put into contact withChris Church, the photographer whose studio

(40:36):
Kathy had attended for portraits. Separately, both of them named the man who
had been hanging around as Lester Everett, twenty two years old in nineteen seventy
one, and he is furthermore identifiedby Barlow as Kathy's older boyfriend. Katie
was then put into contact with aman who, back in nineteen seventy one,

(40:58):
was local to Portland and was friendswith Lester Everett. This witness told
Katie that on the day of herdisappearance, Lester picked up Kathy as she
was walking home and had also pickedup another mail. According to the witness,
he never saw Lester Everett in townafter that fateful Friday. Working off
this information, Katie came upon otherwitnesses who were able to independently confirm the

(41:22):
story. Reportedly, these witnesses toldKatie that they saw Kathy getting into a
blue car along with Lester Everett andan unknown man. Katie later learned that
the other man in the car wasa Canadian national who lived on the Tobic
Reservation outside of Perth Andover in NewBrunswick, three hundred miles north of Portland.

(41:45):
Allegedly, Everett agreed to give thisguy a ride home that Friday,
and while Kathy had gotten into thecar. Katie does not believe she was
made aware of the plan until itwas already too late. Digging in to
Lester Everett, Katie learned some disturbingdetails about the weekend Kathy went missing,

(42:05):
a woman identified only as Miss Daviscontacted the police to report the theft of
her vehicle. She was the ownerof the Davis Motel in Falmouth, a
small town eight miles north of Portland, and she stated that a former employee
of the motel, Lester Everett,stole her blue four door nineteen sixty three
Cadillac just prior to Kathy's disappearance.Included in the police report was a note

(42:31):
that Miss Davis's credit card was insideof the Cadillac when it was taken,
and a month later she had receiveda bill showing that her card had been
used in Fort Fairfield, two hundredand eighty eight miles north from Foulmouth and
just ten miles northeast of presque Isle, where there had been stories about a
young girl matching Kathy's description being takento a reservation in the area, a

(42:55):
tip the Moltens had tried to trackdown on their own twenty five four years
earlier. An examination of the creditbill showed that the person using Miss Davis's
card, presumed to be Lester Everett, had stopped at Dorsey's garage, at
which time they purchased four brand newtires for the nineteen sixty three Cadillac.

(43:15):
Don Logan, an employee of thegarage, was able to tell police specific
details about that day as he waspresent and remembered it well. According to
Logan, the vehicle was occupied bythree people, two men and a younger
woman who he identified as Kathy.Logan explained that he remembered the encounter so

(43:36):
well because it had left a disturbingimpression on him. According to Logan,
the woman believed to be Kathy didn'tappear happy to be there, and the
unknown man traveling with her and Everettseemed to have a strange control over her.
Logan noted that when Kathy got outof the car to go to the
bathroom, the unknown man placed hishand on the back of her neck and

(43:58):
walked her to the door and waitedoutside, and when she exited, he
placed his hand on the back ofher neck again and walked her back to
the car. Logan felt the manwas controlling Kathy, perhaps in an attempt
to stop her from leaving. Forthe first time in more than two decades.
There was an active investigation into Kathy'sdisappearance, and it was bearing fruit

(44:21):
left and right. While Detective Katiefelt excited to be breaking things open,
he couldn't help but wonder how manyanswers might have been found in nineteen seventy
one if only the Portland Police Departmenthad actually chosen to give the case an
investigation. Multiple people who had livedon the reservation in nineteen seventy one confirmed

(44:42):
to Katie that they remember both Kathyand Everett being there over the course of
a few days that September. Reportedly, after being on the reservation, they
had traveled to the mars Hill area, fifteen miles southeast of presque Isle.
There they would proceed on to McBride'sfarm to harvest potatoes. Detective Katie managed

(45:05):
to track down and speak with awoman named Millie Augustine, who stated that
she had been working the potato harvestin mars Hill that year, and she
distinctly remembered Kathy Malton. Augustine wasaround Kathy's age at the time, and
the two struck up a friendship,although Augustine told investigators that Kathy was using
a fake name at the time,being referred to as Candy. According to

(45:29):
Augustine, Kathy didn't seem happy tobe there, appeared frightened of the men
working the farm, frequently broke downcrying, and was often heard pleading that
she just wanted to go home.While the others worked the fields and socialized,
Kathy apparently spent the vast majority ofher time sitting in the back seat
of the Cadillac, and others presentat the farm were so concerned about her

(45:52):
that they would frequently check in.Augustine's father used to make dinner for Kathy,
which he hand delivered to her inthe backseat of that car. Augustine
went on to note that Kathy haddisappeared just as rapidly as she had arrived.
One night, Everett told the groupthat he and Kathy were going to
take a short drive around and wouldlater return. Everett came back the next

(46:14):
morning alone, and when Augustine questionedhim about Kathy's whereabouts, he allegedly replied
that he had brought her back tothe Tobic reservation and left a sixteen year
old with the other person he hadtraveled north with. This story would change
slightly over time, as other peopleat the harvest also had questions, and

(46:34):
Everett would state that he had droppedKathy off at another camp where they were
also harvesting. Katie continued digging intothe case. The deeper he went,
the more information he found. Itwas almost as if these witnesses had been
waiting decades for someone, anyone,to come and ask them about this bizarre
series of events. According to whatDetective Katie was able to learn, it

(46:57):
is believed that on the night ofWednesday twenty ninth, nineteen seventy one,
five days after Cathy was reported missing, Lester Everett drove her back across the
Canadian border into New Brunswick. Allegedly, he utilized a dirt road that allowed
him to bypass custom inspections points,a pathway allegedly shown to him by the

(47:19):
Canadian man he'd given a ride to. At approximately ten pm, Everett took
Kathy across the border and pulled ontothe Tobeek Reservation. Here, Everett apparently
convinced the Canadian man to take Kathyfrom him, and after an hour,
he drove off the reservation alone.When later asked about why he had done

(47:40):
this, Everett told at least oneperson that he had been glad to get
rid of quote that nagging bitch.After more digging and prodding, Katie eventually
got the name of the Canadian man, who was identified as Ronald Red Purley,
a Canadian national in his twenties atthe time. While an interesting story,

(48:02):
investigators initially theorized that Everett had madeit up, and they believed it
was more likely that he had takenthe sixteen year old into the woods somewhere,
killed her, and left her behind. Detective Katie explained, quote,
we know she was up on apotato farm up in Easton Center. The
information we have is she was droppedoff at a camp nearby. At this

(48:24):
point, this is still a missingperson's case. We don't have a clear
indication of what happened to her.She may have gotten lost and died of
exposure, or she might have beenkilled and left in the woods end quote.
However, they were able to getin contact with people who have only
ever been identified as relatives of Pearls, and they confirmed the original story.

(48:50):
According to them, Cathy had beenin their home in September of nineteen seventy
one. Asked what had become ofthe young woman. They reportedly told a
authorities that a member of the familyhad harmed her, but they wouldn't give
any additional information and refused to speakto detectives again. With them living on
the reservation, neither the Portland Policenor the RCMP had any jurisdiction to dig

(49:15):
deeper or compel them to discuss thecase. With the assistance of the US
Marshalls Service, reservation authorities agreed toassist by finding potential witnesses to interview.
However, they ran into a deadend when Ronald Reid Purley himself refused to
discuss the case or anything about it. Not only did he deny knowledge of

(49:36):
Everett, he claimed he'd never laideyes on Kathy either. Their next hope
was to track down Lester Everett,but unfortunately for detectives, time had already
taken him off the board, ashe died of cancer in nineteen eighty six
at the age of thirty five.Local records indicate that Everett died on December
tenth of that year in Newly,Florida, and was buried to two days

(50:00):
later in Green Pine Cemetery. Accordingto his obituary, Everett had permanently moved
to Florida in nineteen seventy one.Everett's previous main address was listed as being
forty seven Lincoln Street, six tenthsof a mile from Cathy's home and directly
along her pathway from Starboard Music threetenths of a mile away. Everett being

(50:23):
in Florida further confirmed statements from MillieAugustine, who noted that after the potato
harvest, many of those who participated, including Everett, had driven south to
Florida to harvest oranges. Apparently,Everett had explained to the group that he
had some big plan and organized theorange harvest, but when they arrived in

(50:44):
the state, they quickly learned thatnot only did Everett have no plans,
he didn't know anyone who lived inFlorida either. However, he allegedly drove
south in the very nineteen sixty threeblue Cadillac that Kathy had been taken north
in. The stolen car was neverrecovered by law enforcement, though witnesses in

(51:05):
the area claimed the old Cadillac hadsat up on blocks in Everett's yard for
years until it was eventually sold offfor scrap. While detectives thought this might
be a dead end the end ofLester Everett's story, they actually came upon
an interesting tale alleged to have occurredtwo years later in nineteen seventy three,

(51:27):
Reportedly, Lester learned nick Cathy hadnever returned home and hadn't been seen since
he dropped her off with Pearley,and this bothered him. Perhaps because his
wife was pregnant and with fatherhood loomingon the horizon, he found himself thinking
of the sixteen year old he'd abandonedyears earlier. Investigators have confirmed that Everett

(51:47):
got together with a friend, JohnWayne Acito, and together they traveled to
North Maine, crossing into New Brunswick. The two arrived at the Tobic Reservation
confronted Ronald Reid Pearly. Reportedly,they asked where the girl was and what
had happened to her, but ratherthan being given answers, they were violently

(52:09):
beaten by several members of Pearley's family. When the two men managed to get
up, they were told, reportedlyby Parley's brothers that if they ever came
back, they wouldn't leave the reservationalive. At that point, Everett returned
to Florida and never discussed the situationwith anyone, not with his wife,

(52:30):
not with his son. They neverknew anything about Kathy Moulton. While they
had run into a dead end whenit came to Lester Everett. Investigators believed
they had uncovered enough information that thecase was no longer cold, and they
weren't planning on letting go so.Confronted by the fact that the only person
they had left to dig into wasRonald Reid Pearly, that's exactly what they

(52:52):
did. They quickly learned that he'dbeen in trouble with the law multiple times
in the past, and had actuallybeen a person of interest in a still
unsolved murder in nineteen seventy eight,seven years after Cathy had vanished, twenty
three year old Julie Campbell was lastseen alive just after one am on the

(53:13):
morning of Sunday, February twenty sixth, nineteen seventy eight, as she exited
the Plow and Stars Bar at nineto twelve Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. She
had left with two friends, buthad split off on her own to walk
the less than half a mile fromthe bar to her home at fifty seven
Ellery Street. Twelve minutes after leavingthe bar, Cambridge police received a call

(53:37):
about a woman screaming in the areaof twenty five Ellery Street. When officers
arrived on the scene, they foundCampbell bleeding profusely from her neck. Tragically,
she passed away at one forty fiveam in the emergency room of Cambridge
Hospital. An autopsy later showed Campbellhad died as a result of massive hemorrhages

(53:59):
resulting from four stab wounds. Theweapon was believed to be a large hunting
knife, and Campbell was stabbed inthe neck, back and chest. Reportedly,
Pearly was detained and questioned at thetime, but he was never charged
with the murder. This is acase I will absolutely be digging into in
a future episode, so maybe we'lluncover more links when I get to it.

(54:22):
Police later spoke with a man identifiedonly as Brent, who claimed that
during a conversation with Pearly, thelatter had stated that he'd previously murdered a
girl from Maine and buried her onsome property, though whether or not that
area has ever been searched is unknown. Armed with all of the witness statements

(54:44):
and evidence they could gather, aninvestigative grand jury was convened in Cumberland County
in nineteen ninety six. Pearly wasthe focus of the investigation, but the
grand jury ultimately ruled there was notenough evidence to issue warrants or to even
name Pearly as a suspect. Despitethis, Detective Katie and Sergeant Joyce found

(55:04):
enough evidence for them to be convincedthat Kathy Moulton died on the Tobic Reservation
sometime prior to Thanksgiving nineteen seventy one. They received multiple tips that her body
was either buried in the basement ofPurley's family home or in the woods near
the intersection of two trails. Unfortunately, there is not enough evidence to obtain

(55:28):
warrants or to conduct searches of theseareas. Investigators tried again to get Pearly
to speak to them about Kathy,but he rejected all invitations. At one
point, he was offered full immunityfrom prosecution and all he had to do
was provide investigators with details about whathad happened so they might recover her body

(55:50):
and bring her home. Even thisextremely generous offer was rejected, and to
date, Purley has never spoken tolaw enforcement about what might have become of
Kathy that November in nineteen seventy one. Later that same year, of nineteen
ninety six, Parley was arrested,charged and convicted of breaking into his neighbor's

(56:13):
home and raping her. He hadbroken in through a window and was sentenced
to serve eight to ten years inprison. To detectives, this only felt
like more confirmation that Pearley likely wasdirectly involved in Kathy's murder, or at
a minimum, had more information thatcould aid their investigation and was choosing not
to share it. For the nextfew years, Katie and investigators continued to

(56:37):
work the case, but everything they'dfound, all the evidence they'd uncovered,
really only led to one place.Ronald read Pearley. Without something more powerful
to compel him to speak, theyknew they'd never find answers. More than
twenty years after her disappearance, theymanaged to piece the timeline together. They

(56:58):
found witnesses who could confirm that LesterEverett and Ronald Purley had picked up Kathy
in the stolen nineteen sixty three BlueCadillac. They took her north and Everett
dropped Pearly off across the Canadian border. He and Kathy worked on a potato
farm for a few days until hehanded her over to Pearley, and from
there it appears she was kept againsther will until Pearley likely murdered her,

(57:22):
burying her in a basement or possiblyin the woods. With all of this
information, in the summer of nineteenninety nine, Detective Katie made the incredibly
difficult decision to go to the Moltenhouse and to lay out everything he could
prove and furthermore, what he andinvestigators believed happened to their beloved daughter.

(57:44):
By then, it had been twentyeight years since they had seen their sixteen
year old daughter, who by thattime should have been forty four years old.
Katie laid out everything. He explainedall the connections, discussed statements from
witnesses, and expressed his heartfelt sorrowthat Kathy had likely been the victim of
a murder. Compounding complications was therealization that if Kathy had been killed and

(58:09):
the lead up to Thanksgiving in nineteenseventy one, if an actual investigation had
been done, they might have actuallytracked her down before she was killed.
How one accepts the reality that thosecharged with protecting and finding their daughter may
very well have led to her murderby their disinterest in inaction, I can't

(58:30):
begin to fathom. The Moultens knewthe police had failed them they just didn't
know to what extent. It wasmore difficult information to process, and at
least for Kim, she felt angryknowing that something more could have been done
and that maybe her sister might havestill been alive. She explained, quote,

(58:51):
More and more has been learned overthe years that show that Kathy might
have been able to be saved andfound if different actions were taken in that
moment. We went through our stagesof feeling let down, disappointment, frustration,
anger, sorrow, and then there'salways the question if any of us
had pushed harder, if we haddone more, would it have made a

(59:14):
difference. End quote. Claire wasquiet as the detective spoke, not willing
to acknowledge outwardly what she had feltfor so long inside of herself that the
light of hope was fading away morewith each passing year. For his part,
Roy wasn't ready to accept the harshnessof Katie's truth. Detective Katie explained,

(59:36):
quote the father didn't want to believeit, He said, I always
want to keep my mind open.I'm going to hope you're wrong, and
she's going to show up and comethrough that door. End quote. The
impact of Kathy's loss continued to resoundthrough the entire family. Claire explained to
Katie that, starting from the dayher daughter went missing and still nearly three

(59:58):
decades later, she would sit inthe window every night, watching and waiting
for Kathy to come walking up thedriveway. Kim, Kathy's younger sister,
confided that she had been afraid tohave children for most of her life,
believing she would never be able tohandle it if one of her children went
missing like her sister had. Kimlater explained to the Portland Daily Sun,

(01:00:22):
saying quote, it was just sohard on our whole family. It imprinted
us each with an individual, deeplyemotional dose of reality. I was convinced
for years that I would never havechildren because after feeling how losing a child
destroyed our casual comfort of family life. When my sister disappeared, I thought

(01:00:42):
I would never be willing to allowmyself to be vulnerable to the worldly risks
of potentially losing a child of myown. At age twenty five, I
birthed our daughter, finally coming toterms with not living my life in fear
of the worst. But I swearwhen our daughter turned six, it was
the most difficult emotional year of heryouth for all of us. Any time

(01:01:06):
our daughter was just ten minutes lategetting home, my emotions reeled, My
heart raced, sank, feared,mourned all over again for my sister,
for what my parents must have feltwhen my sister never came home that night.
End quote. Five years later,in two thousand and four, law
enforcement managed to track down the hunterwho had come forward in nineteen eighty three

(01:01:30):
with the story about seeing a youngwoman's skeleton in the woods of Smyrna,
though this time they were wondering ifperhaps the body could be Kathy's, even
though it didn't fit in with whatinvestigators had learned of her likely murder at
the reservation. Together, the mainState Police and Maine Warden Service decided to
conduct a massive search of the areain hopes of finding those remains. Even

(01:01:54):
if they weren't Kathy's, that wassomeone's child, someone's sister, and they
wanted to bring her home. Thesearch was scheduled for late October, as
they hoped the dying leaves might makethe forest more manageable in a search somewhat
easier. They set up a commandpost at the brook side Inn and conducted
searches by foot and by air,but even with the assistance of knowledgeable locals,

(01:02:17):
they could not find the place wherethe hunter claimed to have seen the
body. Cathy's sister Kim, cameup north for the search to represent the
family and to hope, against hopethat something would finally be found. Unfortunately,
the weather turned harsh and additional searcheshad to be delayed until later in

(01:02:37):
November. When they were able tosearch. They utilized cadaver dogs, but
they were never able to pick upanything to guide the search along. The
weather continued getting worse than all searcheswere called off. Sergeant Patrick Dorian of
the Warden Service explained, quote,Unfortunately the ground is frozen, so we're

(01:02:58):
going to have to come back inthe spring. We had to cancel our
last attempt a few weeks ago becauseit snowed end quote. The next year,
in two thousand and five, DetectiveKatie retired from the Portland Police Department
and opened his own private investigation firm. He continues to work the case and
has written an extensive and powerful novelabout the case, entitled Kathy Moulton Missing

(01:03:23):
and Endangered, A cold Case missingperson investigation. The last major piece of
information in this case came to thesurface in the spring of twenty fifteen,
forty four years after Kathy's disappearance.On Friday May fifteenth, investigators were contacted

(01:03:43):
by a woman who stated that sherecalled seeing Ronald Red Purley dragging a sobbing
young woman through the weeds near herhome in the fall of nineteen seventy one.
The witness claimed that Pearley dragged theyoung woman into the woods and laid
emerged alone. While this witness cannotconfirm that the woman she saw was Kathy,

(01:04:05):
law enforcement think there's a high probabilitythat it was. This witness stated
that years later their dog returned fromthe woods with a human skull, which
they described as small and possibly belongingto a teenager or child. At the
time, they apparently didn't make theconnection between this skull and the young woman

(01:04:26):
dragged into the woods. Instead,they assumed the dog had retrieved the skull
from a tribal burial ground, andso they later disposed of it in a
communal dump, from which it hasnever been recovered. Unfortunately, like so
much of this case, it's anothertantalizing lead with no possible way to find
the truth unless someone is willing tospeak up for Kathy, who can no

(01:04:50):
longer speak up for herself. Whenlast scene, Kathy Marie Moulton was described
as being a sixteen year old whitefemale with brown hair and blue eyes,
standing five feet four inches tall andweighing approximately ninety eight pounds. She was

(01:05:10):
last seen dressed in a navy shortsleeve wool dress, a navy gabardine double
breasted box coat with brass buttons,and brown shoes. She was carrying her
reversible leather Mexican handbag, two tubesof toothpaste, a pair of pantyhose thread,
and the key to her family's home. Kathy's eye teeth had been removed,

(01:05:34):
and she wore braces as well asthick eyeglasses with dark plastic frames.
She has scars on both of herfeet from wart removal, a white spot
on her elbow, and flat molesscattered across her back. Her father last
saw her walking south from Cumberland Avenuetowards Congress Street in Portland, Maine.

(01:05:57):
She is confirmed to have picked upher items and then stopped at Starboard Music
at five twenty five Forest Avenue.There she spoke with Carol Starboard before saying
she was heading straight home and leavingat approximately five thirty pm. Following this,
witnesses alleged to have seen her climbinginto a blue four door nineteen sixty

(01:06:17):
three Cadillac driven by Lester Everett,with Ronald reed Purley as a passenger.
It is believed she was taken northagainst her will, was present at a
potato harvest in the Mars Hill area, and may have been taken into New
Brunswick, where she was left withPearley on the Tobic Reservation. Cathy was

(01:06:38):
sixteen years old when she vanished fromthe streets of Portland, and if alive
today, she would be turning sixtynine this June. Asked about his daughter
so many years later, Roy Moltonconfessed that his sincerest fear was to be
left in the dark. He explained, quote one of my greatest, greatest,

(01:07:00):
greatest sadnesses is that I may dieand never know what happened to Kathy,
and yet I'm helpless to change it. End quote. Tragically, this
horrible fate came true, as Roypassed away in twenty seventeen at the age
of ninety two, never learning whatbecame of Kathy, never being able to

(01:07:21):
bring her home. Kathy's mother istoday in her nineties and still hopes that
one day her daughter will be found. But it is Kathy's sister Kim who
has taken up the family cause asthe search for Kathy becomes a generational calling.
More than thirty years after Kathy's disappearance, the Portland Press Herald sat down

(01:07:45):
for an interview with the family.Roy carried most of the discussion, continuing
to state that he was hopeful thatsomeday they would find the truth, noting
the likelihood that Kathy was gone thatshe would never be found. Joy was
asked, at what point you couldconsider giving up? He replied, quote,
do you still love her? Thendon't stop. You have no reason

(01:08:10):
at this point to think she doesn'tlove you too. I'll tell you something,
I honestly don't believe there's been oneday gone by that I haven't said
a prayer for Kathy. It's humannature to hope. That's what love is.
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(01:10:42):
September will mark fifty three years sinceKathy Moulton disappeared from the streets of Portland.
Despite their desperate pleas and calls foraid, the Molten family were largely
ignored by investigators and the Portland PoliceDepartment for decades. A real investigation kicked
off twenty four years later, wouldreveal many startling details about what had likely

(01:11:03):
happened to Kathy, where she hadbeen taken, who had been involved,
and the fact that she had probablybeen murdered. Now we've seen cases where
police didn't do much of anything,and decades later, new investigators are left
to try and piece it together.Witnesses die, they forget, they move,
evidence gets destroyed, suspects die.There's nothing simple or easy about working

(01:11:28):
a cold case. And a lotof times, unless there's some DNA or
a vital piece of evidence, theinvestigation will grow cold again. Yet,
when Detective Katie dug into the casein nineteen ninety five, he uncovered a
wealth of information. He found witnesseswho saw Kathy getting into the blue Cadillac,
people who knew she left the areain the company of Lester Everett and

(01:11:49):
Ronald Purley. They found witnesses upnorth who saw Katie at the potato harvest.
They found witnesses in the Tobic Reservationwho not only remember Kathy but stated
she had been harmed by a memberof their own family. All of the
information gathered led detectives to believe thatKathy had been murdered sometime in the days

(01:12:11):
leading up to Thanksgiving, two monthsafter she disappeared. Essentially, it was
learned that while no one can saywith any certainty that Kathy would have been
safely recovered if police had actually donewell anything, it certainly seems like the
chances were high. This sixteen yearold was held against her will for months,
subjected to who knows what and whatkinds of horrors, and all the

(01:12:34):
while the Portland Police Department were sittingon their asses, acting like this was
just a completely normal runaway situation.They didn't lift a finger to help the
Moltens throughout the nineteen seventies, andit wasn't until nineteen eighty eight that any
detective actually got out there and startedasking questions and following leads. You know,

(01:12:56):
doing this podcast so often, I'verun into situations like this where we
always pull out the old sayings.Well, you know, things were different
back then. They just assumed runawaybecause most missing persons return home of their
own volition, They had no reasonto assume the worst, and blah blah
blah. It doesn't matter what theexcuse is. I'm so fucking tired of

(01:13:18):
it. If you're a police officerand a family comes to you to report
their daughter missing and your response isto laugh it off and give them a
lecture, you're just a complete pieceof garbage. You're not a human,
you're a heartless scumbag, and youare everything wrong with law enforcement. I
don't generally make broad statements about anygroups of people or organizations. When I

(01:13:41):
cover a case. I praise thepolice if they did a good job,
and I challenged them if they dida poor job. What the hell do
you say in a case like thiswhere they just didn't do their job at
all? I don't care about itbeing nineteen seventy one. I'm so tired
of this rose colored retrospect through whichwe view the past as if somehow there
weren't horrible monsters, murderers, childmolesters, abductors, rapists, and worse

(01:14:04):
roaming the streets back then. Weact like the police didn't know better,
that the world was such a kinderand gentler place that how could we hold
them responsible for being utter trash.Well, in nineteen seventy one, they
knew about the Boston Strangler, theIpsilani ripper, Richard Speck, the Zodiac,

(01:14:25):
and the Manson family, to namea few. Where the hell does
this idea come from? That policeback in the nineteen seventies were all working
in Maybury and nothing bad ever happened, So how could we possibly hold them
responsible for not using their fucking brains? As far as I'm concerned, Kathy's
likely death puts as much blood onthe hands of those officers at the Portland

(01:14:46):
Police Department as it does on potentialsuspects like Lester Everett and Ronald Purley.
She likely died at the hands ofone of those men, with most evidence
pointing towards Pearley, but it wasthe radic indifference and casual carelessness of the
Portland police that opened the door.I can't begin to imagine what it was
like for her alone and frightened,being held against her will and hoping against

(01:15:12):
all hope that some super cop wasgoing to kick the door down and rescue
her. Hopefully she didn't spend herlast days and hours fully aware that the
police didn't give a damn and hadn'ttried to find her at all. It
seems clear from the investigation in ninetyfive that had they actually done the work,
they could have found her. Normally, at this point in an episode,

(01:15:35):
we dig down into all the differenttheories, but we can't really do
that here. There aren't a bunchof different theories. There's not an endless
amount of avenues we could explore.The investigative work done by Detective Katie does
a fantastic job of laying out exactlywhat probably happened here. If you follow
witness statements and evidence, you canpretty much track Kathy North out of Portland

(01:15:59):
into the Hill area, and eventuallyto the Tobic reservation, from which she
never returns. Not all of thatcan be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,
which is the reason charges have neverbeen brought, but it certainly seems to
fill in a lot of the gapsleft by random theories that popped up over
the years. You can get boggeddown in the minutia of every different possibility,

(01:16:20):
from those who think Kathy went toBoston but could never produce any evidence,
to those who believe she was thevictim of some burgeoning serial killer whose
only evidence is that the serial killerwas alive and within five hundred miles,
so surely he must have done it. It's like all these emails I constantly
get about Israel Keys because apparently thatguy was a super genius and killed everyone.

(01:16:43):
Ever, look, if the evidenceis there, if a link can
be established, then establish it andI'll follow you. But to claim that
someone was killed by this person orthat person because well, they were in
the area, he's just lazy andextremely disrespectful to the families of these victyctims.
There are vastly more cases of peoplebeing killed with no connection to serial

(01:17:05):
killers, but that isn't quite astantalizing, so you've got to find a
way to try and connect it.But I digress. I'm not going to
spend time digging into all the possibilitiesbecause according to the detectives who actually worked
this case, everything points to oneplace, one person, one likely crime
scene, and I've seen no evidenceto the contrary. Lester Everett was apparently

(01:17:28):
involved in some kind of a predatoryrelationship with Kathy when he was twenty two
and she was sixteen. She getsinto the car with him that day,
and along with Purley, there whisksthree hundred miles north. Now we don't
know if Kathy knew the plan whenshe got into the car that day,
but it seems unlikely since she'd toldeveryone she couldn't wait to go to the
big dance. That night. She'sseen at the Potato Harvest, unhappy and

(01:17:53):
begging to go home. Everett drivesoff with her and returns alone, later
claiming he dropped her at another camp, and also that he left her with
Pearly family. Members of Pearley's confirmnessand say that a member of their family
harmed her, but they won't saymore than that. Can you imagine knowing
that your relative murdered and likely sexuallyassaulted a sixteen year old, and you're

(01:18:15):
not going to speak up about it. Growing up around emotionless monsters like that,
it's no wonder Pearly turned out tobe a piece of garbage. Now,
I should note law enforcement is nevernamed either Pearly or ever it is
suspects in the case. There arecertain rules that apply to what is necessary
before you can name someone as asuspect, and we know that most of

(01:18:35):
the investigation uncovered evidence from witness reportsrather than anything physical. That being said,
it sounds pretty damn convincing that Kathywas killed somewhere on the reservation prior
to Thanksgiving of nineteen seventy one.Pearly, for his part, has a
hell of a rap sheet, whichincludes breaking into his neighbor's home and forcibly

(01:18:57):
raping her seven years after Cathy vanished. He was found guilty and had the
audacity to try and get an appealarguing that he shouldn't be held accountable because
he didn't know the victim hadn't consented. Yeah, I'm not kidding. You
can read through his appeal filings andit's as appalling as I imagine the scumbag

(01:19:17):
is himself. So I imagine someof you are gonna contact me and ask
me why I chose to cover thiscase. It's hardly the first time I've
been asked about why I cover acase, where I often get the response
that it's so obvious what happened.Well, that's a big part of why
I do it. I don't coverunsolved cases to spin you an interesting yarn,

(01:19:40):
to capture your imagination with a lotof different theories and stories and possibilities
and sensationalism. I do it becausethe answers haven't been found. And while
it might be easy to say,well, she was obviously killed, I
don't think it's that easy for thefamily. Would you accept that if it
were your sister or brother, mother, or father, with the suggestion of

(01:20:00):
what probably happened suffice to answer allof your questions and set your heart and
mind at peace. I know itwouldn't be enough for me. This isn't
a case where the pursuit of justiceremains at the forefront. There will unlikely
ever be any justice here, anda killer will continue to live his life
as he sees fit. A manwho stole the future of not just a

(01:20:24):
sixteen year old teenager, but thoseof her parents and her sisters. He
robbed them of what might have been, what the future could have held,
and instead he left them with thehaunting trauma of loss and grief, something
that can never be truly assuaged.Cathy's family managed to continue on to live

(01:20:44):
their lives, but her loss radiatedthrough their family and continues to reflect upon
them today. It doesn't get anyeasier with the passage of time. Old
wounds may heal, but they neverfade away. Roy and Claire saw their
daughter only through photographs, memories,and in the faces of their grandchildren.

(01:21:05):
Roy went to his grave forty sixyears after his daughter was seen for the
last time, and he never learnedfor certain what happened. Claire is in
her nineties and Kim is still carryingthe banner of her sister's disappearance. They
know they're not going to see ina rest, and they know that nothing

(01:21:25):
they can ever do could bring Kathyback. What they want and what they
need, is to bring her home, to lay her to rest, to
be able to confront that grief whichhas always haunted them but can never be
fully realized without the body Claire andRoy both made statements that it was the
not knowing that was the hardest.No matter what you're faced with, you're

(01:21:48):
never going to accept that your childis truly gone until it can be proven
to you. And that just hasn'thappened yet. Regardless of what detectives have
uncovered, what facts and evidence theystand on, there are no words that
can convince a mother or father tostop hoping for something oscillating between a hopeful

(01:22:10):
fantasy and a flat out miracle.However, the book isn't entirely closed either.
There remain people who have information aboutKathy's abduction, about her last days
and hours, and about what happenedto her. They know what the crime
was, they know where she wastaken, and they know where her body
is likely concealed today. How theycan live with themselves is a question I

(01:22:33):
can't begin to answer, because bykeeping their mouths shut, they're protecting a
child murderer, a man who hadno qualms about murdering a sixteen year old
girl who made the great offense ofwanting to go home. He could have
dropped her at a bus station oron a town corner where she could have

(01:22:54):
walked to the local police and askfor help. No, instead, she
had to be killed because fragile,weak people empower themselves by harming others.
Lester Everett's was, by all accountsa scumbag. He was twenty two years
old and manipulating a sixteen year oldso that they could get what he wanted
out of her. And I don'tthink we have to stretch our imaginations too

(01:23:16):
far to know exactly what he wanted. Yet two years later, he took
a friend back into New Brunswick,went to the home of Ronald Purley and
demanded to know what happened to Kathy. He and his friend got their asses
beat. They were threatened that ifthey ever came back, they'd be killed,
and so Lester slunk back down toFlorida and never said another word about

(01:23:39):
Kathy. It certainly doesn't redeem him, but I'd say it puts him on
a higher pedestal than anyone today whocontinues to keep information to themselves about this
case. Those people are literal scum, lower than Everett and on the same
level as the man who likely killedKathy. By your silence, you allow

(01:23:59):
this horror to continue, and youplay a first hand role in the painful
torture of the Molten family that theyhave lived through for more than half a
century. Detective Katie noted that everytime there's coverage of this case, they
get a few more calls, afew new tips or leads. We can
only hope that by covering this casethis week that someone somewhere will pick up

(01:24:21):
the phone and call the police.Hell, you don't even have to go
that far if you're such a coward. There are plenty of anonymous options.
You can report tips to crime stopperswithout giving your name or information. If
you don't trust that type a note, stick it in an envelope and send
it to the police. Create anew email address and send what you know

(01:24:43):
to investigators to the Portland Police,the main state Police, the RCNP,
or even tribal authorities. The knowledgeyou possess is a burden you will carry
the rest of your life. Sowhy continue to protect a child killer because
you were raid of an elderly man? That just makes you as bad as
him, except maybe a little worsebecause it's by your own silence that he's

(01:25:08):
allowed to one day do something likethis again, or has he already.
Kathy Marie Moulton vanished from the streetsof Portland nearly fifty three years ago and
never made it home. Her fatherhas gone to his grave without ever knowing
the truth, and her mother iswell into her nineties. Kim carries on

(01:25:29):
the fight to bring her sister home, an older sister who is forever sixteen,
younger than Kim's children, younger thanthe Multen's grandchildren. The Multens were
able to share in Kathy's wonderful companyfor a mere sixteen years, and now
they have to confront their pain formore than fifty years. So many things

(01:25:53):
are stolen by time, memories ofa voice, the sound of a laugh,
the warmth of an embrace. Witheach passing year, more is stolen
away by aging memories and the inevitabilityof time. Someone out there knows the
truth, Someone has the ability toput an end to this horrible nightmare.

(01:26:14):
And if they do not, ifthey choose to remain silent still, then
the disappearance of Kathy Moulton will onlyremain open, unsolved, and growing cold
again. If you're looking for moreinformation about the disappearance of Kathy Moulton,

(01:26:42):
there are many newspapers and websites discussingher case. For this episode, the
Portland Press Herald and the Bangor DailyNews were the most helpful. However,
I would also highly recommend reading DetectiveKatie's book Kathy Moulton, Missing and in
Danger, a cold case Missing person'sInvestigation. You can find that on Amazon

(01:27:04):
as well as anywhere major books aresold. If you have any information about
the disappearance of Kathy Moulton, pleasecontact the Portland Police Department at two zero
seven eight seven four eight four sevennine. She is case number seven one

(01:27:24):
six zero one four one. Youcan also leave a message on their anonymous
tip line at two zero seven eightseven four eight five seven five. You
can also contact the Main State Policeat two zero seven six two four seven

(01:27:45):
zero seven six. You can alsotext anonymously by sending pp D ME plus
your tip to tip four one one. That's send p E D M E
and your tip to eight four sevenfour one one. What do you believe

(01:28:06):
happened? Tweet me at Tracevpod,email me at trace Evidencepod at gmail dot
com, or comment in the Facebookgroup. Just a quick reminder if you're
planning to attend Crime Con this yearin Nashville from May thirty first through June
second. Use promo code trace atcrimecon dot com to save ten percent on

(01:28:29):
your past that's promo code trace atcrimecon dot com. Now, I'd like
to take a moment to thank ouramazing Patreon producers, without whom Trace Evidence
would not be possible. A massivethank you to Andrew Guarino and m Bertram
Camellia Tyler, Christine Greco, DannyRenee, Denise Dingsdale, Desiree Laaro,

(01:28:59):
Donna Buttram, Deanni Dyson, JenniferWinkler, Justin Snyder, Caro Morland,
Ky Lars Jensen, Fangel, leslieB, Lisa Hopson, Madison Lehulier,
Melissa Brakhuisen, Nick Mohar, Sheers, Roberta Jansen, Ruth Stacy Finnegan,

(01:29:27):
Stephanie Joyner, Tom Radford, andwend Oregon. I want to thank you
all so much for your support.It means the world to me and you
are truly the lifeblood of this podcast. If you're interested in supporting the show
and listening to your episode's ad free, please visit Patreon dot com slash trace

(01:29:47):
Evidence, or click the support optionon the official website at trace dashevidence dot
com. This concludes our look intothe nineteen seventy one disappearance of Kathy.
A truly heartbreaking case, but weknow there are people out there with information,
and at this point we can onlyhope one of them finds some sense

(01:30:10):
of decency and finally tells investigators whatthey need to know. No one needs
to go to jail, they justwant to bring Kathy home. Thank you
all again for listening, and onelast quick note, I'm going to be
taking this week off, so I'llbe back with episode two thirty eight on
Thursday, February twenty ninth. Thankyou all again, and I hope you'll

(01:30:32):
join me two weeks from today foranother unsolved case on the next episode of Trace Evidence

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237 - The Disappearance of Cathy Moulton

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