The Alice Parsons disappearance

Hello, campers, and welcome to our mid-season episode. 

Once again, Jess has an old-timey crime for us to delve into. This episode contains information from author Steven C. Drielak’s book, Long Island’s Vanished Heiress: The Unsolved Alice Parsons Kidnapping.

On June 9, 1937, Alice McDonell Parsons disappeared from the farm she and her husband ran in Long Island, with the help of their housekeeper, Anna Kupryanova. While not social darlings, both Alice and William Parsons were connected to wealthy families. Alice had recently been left with money and investments that would secure her future. Still, a change in her will made less than 30 days before her disappearance would indicate an interesting dynamic within the Parsons household.

Sadly, neither the local agencies nor the FBI were able to outsmart the responsible persons. Although there is a consensus on how the events went down, almost 90 years later Alice Parsons disappearance remains unsolved.
 
Information from this episode:

Long Island’s Vanished Heiress: The Unsolved Alice Parsons Kidnapping:
Drielak, Steven C. The History Press, August 3, 2020.

https://crimecapsule.com/long-islands-vanished-heiress-and-the-kidnapper-that-didnt-exist/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175717087/alice-parsons

https://www.nydailynews.com/2020/09/05/the-mystery-of-the-missing-heiress-and-her-two-timing-husband/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What Happens in the Woods is a true crime podcast.
We discuss events that are often violent in nature.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Listeners discretion is advised.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello, Hello, and welcome to What Happens in the Woods.
Happy Friday. Brice has got the giggles. Yeah, yeah, all right,
so here we are. Here, we are in February, February.
We just had a very yeah behind the scenes moments.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yes, yes, this is like our tenth time redoing. Yeah,
but it's like the first time we've done this.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
We got it. We're good. We're good, Right, you're good.
We'll see Yeah, we'll see how the update goes. All right, Well,
we hope everybody is safe and doing well, happy healthy.
The flu or whatever has made it to our house,
so we hope it bypassed yours. But if not, you

(01:23):
have some listening material while you're recuperating.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Unless you have an ear infection.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Unless you have an ear infection or you yeah, you
can't hear. All right, Well, do you have any updates
for us? I'm afraid to fucking ask.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Uh one?

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, yeah, okay, lay it on me.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Oh, you let me tell you.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
I mean, maybe that's why.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
We just we're featured on the I just got an
email there like hey, we're putting you on this list,
the top top Pacific Northwest podcast I was like, what
I didn't. I don't want to be on this list.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
We don't want to be on this. That's okay. I
don't just counterproductive to what we're doing here do this.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I didn't ask for all this, yeah, which is funny
because like we weren't active in a year. Yeah, and
so when I looked at our listing, uh, they were
like they only put out two episodes a year.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
I was like, oh shit, but we still made the
top of this.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
And this isn't this isn't a true crime list. This
is podcast list.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Oh I thought it was true crime.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
This is just podcasts. And there there are some there
are other true crime podcasts on there, like oh Hanson
Homicides was on there. Yeah, but they're very active.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
They're very active, yes.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, and then of course.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Murder in the Ring yeah yeah. And then well they're
syndicated too, and they've they've been like they collaborate with
the local stations up here.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well, they were on the news.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I'm not surprised.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
We don't get into that, huh said, I won't get
into that.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
What did I miss something. No no, no, oh okay, okay,
it's just.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
They've already had those connections.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I don't yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, so all right, well
I'm yes, so we are on this list. I think
we're like number thirty.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, we haven't been active.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
We have not been active, not active.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
We could be doing a lot more.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
We definitely could be doing a lot more. And there's
no excuse. I just wanted to say, don't look like
We'll link the list, but don't look for our logo
because it's not there.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah. I put a code on our logo. If someone
tries to copy our logo, it's you'll see what happens
when it happens, because I didn't want anyone using our logo.
So it's like you can't download it is basically what
it is.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah. So, uh so they they don't have our logo,
but you know, give us a comment after you check
out the list of what you actually see in that picture.
I'm I'm kind of curious. It's kind of like a
horse shack thing. Yeah, we're uh, what do you see

(04:29):
in the picture? You know, Yeah, the little things that
could look like vampires or a butterfly or whatever. So
tell us, tell us what you guys think. We'll link
that list in the show notes. All right, any other updates?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
No, no, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Are you sure?

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (04:56):
All right? Well are you ready to get into this episode?
It's this is our mid season episode, around five.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Is it.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah? It's going fast, baby, going fast. Okay, I'm ready. Well,
here we go if you listen to us. A couple
of episodes ago, I had mentioned that I was reading
a book on Uh it was an old timing crime.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Sure wasn't on X Storm.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
No, it wasn't on X Storm. Although I did read that,
Yes I did. If anybody knows you know, you know,
don't don't give me shit about my smut romanticy readings.
You have no room to talk. I'll call you out
right now.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
How did you get into that?

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Oh? This little book called a Fourth Wing that my
husband was listening to on audible. I get in the
car one day and it's very interesting. Yeah, part that
I got to listen to it was good.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Like I was. I commute a lot, so I listened
to like a lot of books. I listened to books,
and then I was just in this rut and I
was like I need something else. Like I had just
finished Stephen King his book, and I was trying to

(06:27):
find another fantasy series to like to start, you know,
like if it had multiple books, and Audible suggested this
to me and I was like, oh, dragons okay. I
was like, and magic okay, let's try it. And then
it was good. It had great storytelling. And then it
got to this part that I was uncomfortable with. I'm

(06:50):
not uncomfortable with that. I was just yeah, it was
just I was like, Oh, what the hell is going
on here? And so I heard it and then I
was like, hey, honey, could listen to listen to this?
Just listen to this book. And she's like, what are
you listening to? These are like one of my novels.
I was like, yeah, that's what I thought. It was
like it has I don't if you know, you know,
like it has sex scenes and and.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
You know, yeah, it's it's definitely not just a it's romantic. Yeah, no,
there's there's a storyline that's romantic to it. It's it
just I thought it was hilarious because for years I
have been reading. I read a lot, but romance is
a genre that is a quick read. For me, it's

(07:34):
a very like a palette cleanser kind of reading in
between other series that I read or like, you know,
non fiction and fiction that are heavy hitters, some of them.
You know, a lot of history books. I like to
read history, the historical things. Obviously we're talking about an
old crime, old timing crime. Yeah, but romance is a

(07:59):
quick you know, smut is just a paleque cleanser for
me and for you to for me to get in
the car and then be listening to what you were
listening to. It's just I was, yeah, it was caught
me off guard. You married for a long time, and
I didn't think you could really surprise me much longer
with things, and hey, that was a surprise.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I liked the book. I didn't like those parts. I
was like, okay, come on, man, But like I said,
I wanted something different. I had just listened to two
Stephen King books, Holly and a couple of his short stories,
and then like there was nothing on the like the

(08:42):
The Fantasy Front that I liked. I got into some
books and just couldn't finish them, and so this one
was suggested to me. I was like, oh man, this
is really good and it's really good.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
It is. It is a good story, and that don't
let the like if you have not read them, which
I mean there's a lot of people who haven't or
aren't interested. There's a lot of story that is not sex.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, no, no, And I got it, like I was
sucked into the story. I was like, okay, like you know,
it's a military family. You know, they have powers, they
have dragon writers. I was like, okay, but then it
was just like you're halfway almost halfway through the book,
and then the sex scene. I was like, I need
an adult. I need adult It's just it's not mine, Like,

(09:31):
it's not it's not me, it's not Yeah, like I
if I could skip over some of those, I would.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know, But I mean you can, you totally can.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
No. I have OCD, and I think I'd miss something.
There's that small detail in the sex.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Scene, and you know that honestly, she's Rebecca Yarrow's like,
not to keep talking about this because it's not what
we're here for. I know, but honestly her, I do
you like the way she tells a story because there
are details, and this is why she has such a
strong following. There are details in her plot that are

(10:10):
so embedded that you don't notice them until she wants
you to. And that's that to me. Is a very
good storyteller, you know, so it is. It does have
moments of that. So yeah, I guess you couldn't really
skip over it because there might be some things you miss,

(10:30):
even during a sex scene.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Anyway, I just oh goodness.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
But yes, while I did read the book, I also
read this book completely different type of story.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, I hope. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Oh, you don't know, you have no idea, I don't know,
all right. So the book in question is titled Long
Island's Vanished Heiress The Unsolved Alice Parsons Kidnapping and this
is written by Stephen C. Diarlek and it's available on
the Kindle Unlimited app. You can also purchase it on

(11:05):
Amazon other places and read it. It isn't a very
long read, but there are a lot of names and
information that's thrown around, so me warned of that if
you are interested in reading it. He is like his

(11:26):
way of relaying this story was very factual. He has
a lot of data, He has a lot of I mean,
he lists all of the names of all of the
involved FBI Police all of it. And it's very much
a retelling accurately in a story type way. So it

(11:48):
was a long read just because there's names that you
won't even I don't mention, because you would have no
need to know their names to know what they did.
But he named them, and good for you. But we
for this purpose don't need to get into all that.
And this is a primary source that I used. There
are other places where information can be found. There's definitely

(12:12):
a lot of old newspaper clippings that of course, you know,
the media frenzy was very very front and present in
this case. So I will be taking us back today
to Long Island, New York. And yes, Christy make in

(12:33):
front of my accent. Last time I said that I'm
not trying again. So this is the nineteen thirties. So
let's talk about the key players involved. At the center
of our story is, of course, Heiris and socialite Alice
McDonald Parsons. Alice was born to parents Frank and Alice
Williams McDonald, and it's a little bit con confusing. Her

(12:57):
mom's name is also Alice, just as there would be
a junior it was. It was actually quite common for
women to name their children after them, their daughters after
themselves as well, up until I think you kind of
stopped hearing about it. Maybe like in the fifties sixties,

(13:17):
they don't they didn't do that so much, But before
it was it was pretty common. She was born on
May third, nineteen ninety eight, in Bay City, Michigan. The
couple also had two sons, so Frank Junior and I
s eight eighteen ninety eight.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Eighteen ninety Yes, but you said nineteen ninety eight, although
this is very old timey.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
I apologize if I did. I thought I said eighteen
ninety eight. When Alice was six years old, her mother
passed away from complications of a miscarriage, and so her
father decided to send her to live with an uncle
instead of to raise her with her brothers. So Alice
McDonald was sent off to live with her uncle. This

(14:02):
is her mother's brother, Colonel Timothy S. Williams.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Colonel Yes, this dude with the sideburns and the biggest mustache.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Of course, Williams is credited for adoring his family and
gladly assumed guardianship of his sister's daughter. He loved and
cared for Alice and became a very important figure in
her life. Colonel Williams was a very influential man of
the times. His circle included the then US President Cleveland,

(14:33):
Governor David B. Hill of New York, as well as
his successor, Roswell P. Flower. These names are crazy. This
led to the colonel to have a stake in the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company and eventually to his becoming president
of said company. Needless to say, Colonel Williams was powerful

(14:55):
as well as wealthy. His sole priority was to ensure
his family's comfort, but he was not a fool. The
third William's sibling Bess, so this would be Alice. Alice's
aunt would also prove to be as shrewd in the future.

(15:17):
Bess would step in as the surrogate mother for Alice
MacDonell when the colonel assumed her guardianship. Alice did not
have a very familiar or close relationship with her father
after this, nor with her brothers, so they were very
much separated, raised separately. Although Colonel Williams did have he

(15:40):
kept tabs on what was going on with her brothers,
he just didn't step in. It was said that Alice
was a very sweet natured girl and a very bright
young woman. She wasn't necessarily said to be a beauty,
but photos of her, I think she's beautiful. Maybe not
the stand of the time, but I think she's a

(16:02):
beautiful woman. She was very well liked, but possibly influenced,
like easily influenced. She seemed to not really have her
own opinions. So there's it's noted that when she was
around company of certain people, she would agree with them,
but then when she was in the company of a

(16:23):
different group of people she would agree with them. Could
be completely contradictory opinions. Alice grew up in the best circles.
She had a very well rounded education. It was ahead
of the times for a young woman. And during this
time period she went to a elite school that was

(16:44):
for young ladies that was founded by a woman who
believed that women should have a not just a education
that taught them, you know, how to do the beautiful
things in life, but also to use their mind. And
so she learned, you know, other languages, she learned chemistry,

(17:05):
she learned biology. It was typically what an education would
be for a young man. She was also very privileged,
of course, to travel extensively as a young woman, Parsons,
so the man that she would later marry was William Parsons.

(17:29):
He has a bit of a history and a reputation
as a playboy, and I can't imagine that Alice's family
was thrilled with her choice and husbands. But the two
were married on November first, nineteen twenty five, on one
hundred acre family estate that Colonel Williams owned in Long Island.
Parsons is also from a well off family, although he

(17:50):
himself was not particularly hard working or affluent. He had
worked for his father's paper manufacturing company abroad as the
representative for the company in London for two years prior
to being introduced to Alice.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
So this wasn't arranged.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
It was not arranged.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
No.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
In nineteen twenty seven, William left the company in order
to pursue his interest in agriculture. Three years after marrying,
with the help of Colonel Williams, the couple purchased what
was called Long Meadow Farm, So this is going to
be their family home. It was a twenty two acre
farm in Stonybrook, Long Island. It was purchased, like I said,

(18:33):
with the help of Colonel Williams. The mortgage was held
by the colonel and later after his passing, would be
held in trust by Aunt Bess while they were paying
on the loan. It's reported that Alice wanted nothing more
than to settle into domestic life and begin a family
with her new husband. Parsons had the goal to become

(18:54):
a quote unquote gentleman farmer. The two were what you
might call influential. So they both had family that were
very wealthy, and they were well connected. They had received,
you know, very expensive educations. Parsons was a Yale educated man,
but they did little in society. They themselves had very

(19:17):
little money, that is until Uncle Timothy passed away, and
this was about five years after Alice and William had married.
Their colonel made sure that Alice would be well taken
care of, and of course she indeed became the heiress
to a decent amount of money that was held in
trust and not available to her until she would reach

(19:37):
the age of thirty five.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Honestly, then that's that's dangerous.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah, But it was held in trust for her, not
for William. Together with the trust and the sale of
some of the property from the shoreland estate that went
to Alice. It is estimated that at the time of
her disappearance, she would be worth roughly one point five
million dollars in today's money. Today, in today's money, yeah

(20:07):
it was. It was just short of about one hundred
thousand dollars. So let's do a quick recap before I
introduce the next main character. First we have Alice McDonald Parsons,
who's the heiress that vanishes. Then her husband, William Parsons.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
She vanishes is rue.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
It's in the name. It's in the name of the book.
I've already said it, so William Parsons, her husband, the
gentleman farmer. We know her mother has passed away. Her
father sent her off to live with her uncle, Colonel
Williams at the age of six. We know she has
two brothers, Frank Junior and Howard, that she really isn't
close to, as well as not being close to her father.

(20:46):
And we also know that she has aunt Bess and
that's the sibling to Colonel Williams and Alice Williams her
mother Alice Williams. In nineteen thirty one, a Russian woman
by the name of Anya Koupriyinova entered the picture she
would come to live at Long Meadow Farm as the housekeeper,

(21:08):
along with her six year old son Roy. Anya was
thought to she was thinking of how she can better
her position in life, so through some connections, it was
a deal that was struck. Basically, she was brought in
to help with the running of the farm, as it
was thought that Alice was being overworked and thus why

(21:31):
she was unable to conceive a child. As I had mentioned,
Alice desperately wanted a family, but she seemed unable to
have a child, even after consulting several physicians and receiving
some treatment. Anya had been recommended to the Parsons by
William's sister Laura. When it was discussed that Alice should

(21:51):
step back from the daily running of the farm duties,
William and she shared. So that is all the key
players at the moment, and now we're going to go
through the events leading up to Alice's disappearance. The day
prior to her seemingly vanishing was June eighth, nineteen thirty seven.
She ran multiple errands that day. She was seen by

(22:12):
people all around the small town of Stonybrook, and as
was their custom, Alice and William as well as Anya
and Roy all sat down to breakfast that morning. Later
on in the morning, Alice was at the farm when
there was a delivery made of pigeon feed. She then
left to run around the town on her errands. There

(22:33):
was a stop for gas, a drop off of goods
for sale, as well as eating lunch at the local teahouse.
While there, she spoke to a few ladies regarding a
meeting of the Three Village Garden Club that would take
place the next day. Alice had secured the keynote speaker
who was going to be speaking at that club, so
she was very excited about that, and she had promised

(22:55):
another member that she would see at that meeting that
she would dever a plant to her at that time.
She then went on to visit the local library to
request and pick up some books for herself and for
roy and then afterwards she headed home. Later that day,
Alice and William drove out to the Shoreland estate where
there was a small house that was held in the

(23:17):
trust that Alice was going to rent out. So they
were meeting a man by the name of Frank Hobbs
to obtain a quote for having it painted before the
renter would take over the residence. Alice then told mister
Hobbs that she would be in contact if they decided
to use the services, and then she and William returned
back to the to the home and to settle in

(23:40):
for the night. The next day was to be another
very busy day for their household, on June ninth. The
events that unfold are primarily told through the lens of William,
Parsons and Anya, as well as young Roy. Every bit
of the timeline and events have come to be known

(24:01):
through investigation and questioning done by the involved authorities of
these people. The first description of events is based off
of the statements made to local police Lieutenant Stacy Wilson
of Brookhaven Township. That morning, as usual, the four members
of the household ate breakfast together. Roy was soon off

(24:23):
to school, while Alice and William would leave so that
Alice could drop William off at the train station. William
was headed into New York City for a meeting that
had been set up to try and expand on a
poultry business that the farm was endeavoring to make a
go at. The meeting was to take place at eleven
thirty am at the Grand Central Palace now this was

(24:46):
set up with contacts that were people that Anya knew.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Whether this was a legitimate business meeting or not still debatable.
I will just leave that there, okay. The plan was
that Alice would pick William up from the train station
in Huntington, which is where the Shoreland estate was that evening,

(25:14):
and although that isn't where they lived, it was a
few miles away. He claimed that they chose to do
this because he liked the evening drive from the Huntington
station to their home and being a gentleman farmer, it's
all about the leisure loop things that you can do.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
After dropping William off to the train, Alice came home. Notably,
it was said that she parked the car on the
side of the farmhouse near the back entrance of the kitchen.
Anya and Alice began the task of their household chores.
At some point in the morning, the garbage company came
to pick up the refuse, as well as some feathers

(25:53):
from the poultry that were brought to the door in
two boxes by Alice. The two also looked after one
of their goslings who had an injured leg. They were
doctoring the bird up in the kitchen. It was at
this time Anya states that a quote shiny black car
that looked like a Buick entered the driveway down to

(26:14):
the house. While Alice greeted the visitors, Anya went out
the same doors of the kitchen door to the Pigeon
house that was behind the home. She was doing some
chores in there. She states that there was a man
and a woman in the car. The man was driving
and the woman was in the passenger seat, and that
Alice was leaning against the car speaking to the couple.

(26:37):
After some time, Alice appeared in the Pigeon House in
a different outfit than before, having changed out of her
serviceable clothing for chores into a blue polka dot dress
with red buttons, a soft blue felt hat, and matching
beaded purse. Alice informed her that the two people were
going to take her to the rental property in Huntington

(27:00):
to show the property to an elderly lady. She said
this occurred around eleven AM, and she said that Alice
relayed that she would be home for lunch. I'm not
sure what time they would consider lunch.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
Would say he left at eleven. How long does it
take to drive there?

Speaker 1 (27:19):
It's a good drive. It's a good substantial drive, so
I'm not sure what time they considered they were going
to have Anya watch As the car left the farm,
the man still driving and the women were now both
in the backseat. The car turned left, going south down
the main road, and this was the last contact Anya

(27:41):
claimed to have with Alice Parsons.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
He's lying, okay.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
William claimed his last contact was when she dropped him
off at the train station earlier that morning. Roy's lost
contact with Alice would be stated to be breakfast before
he left for These initial statements would change and be
expanded upon several times as more investigation and questioning by

(28:07):
authorities happened. According to William, when Alice failed to meet
him in Huntington to pick him up, he phoned the
farmhouse to ask where she was, only to have Anya
tell him that she was not there and she was
supposed to be in Huntington. When he heard that, he
took the next train to Stonybrook and he hired a

(28:29):
ride home, only to learn that Alice had left before
lunch with an unknown cleuvel to supposedly look at the
rental property. It was then that William Parsons called Lieutenant
Stacy Wilson, asking for the officer to come to the farmhouse.
At approximately seven to forty five pm, Lieutenant Wilson and

(28:51):
Officer Fitzpatrick arrived at the Long Meadow farm and this
would be the first of numerous local and federal authorities
to be on scene over the next few hours, and
every time more authority showed up, more inquests were made
of William and Anya and more stories were told. While

(29:12):
being questioned, initially by Lieutenant Wilson, William introduced Anya as
his sister and claimed that her name was Missus Parsons.
As events were being laid out and the police were
walking the home, it was noted that the gosling whose
leg Alice and Anya had supposedly been tending to, was
actually dead. It was also noted that there was a

(29:35):
two ounce bottle of chloroform that was seen in the kitchen,
half filled with a label that read Caine's drug Store
Port Jefferson. That bottle would soon disappear while the lieutenant
was taking Roy's statement, and it would not be seen again.
Lieutenant Wilson then set about calling other agencies to see

(29:55):
if Alice had been found, maybe passed out, maybe she'd
had a car accident, and this would lead to several
of these agencies sending over men to also investigate. So
they had state troopers, they had police from about three
different towns, local area towns, and at some point it

(30:21):
was soon a theory that Alice Parsons had been kidnapped,
and thus the FBI became involved. The next interview with
William and Anya will be done by John Harding of
the Brookhaven Police Department, and as it had with the first,
the two were interviewed together. Much of the information was
the same. However, in it, Anya stated that the Parsons

(30:42):
had adopted Roy because her husband was deceased. When asked
their theories on where Alice could be, Anya immediately stated
she must have been kidnapped because she was coming into
a fortune, and William quickly argued it's not a fortune.
That Anya insisted it was. From here, you can imagine

(31:07):
the obvious line of questioning for William, are you faithful
to your wife? Where it does Anya fit into all
of this? William is adamant that he and Alice have
a wonderful marriage. It's very respectful and he would never
dare think of cheating on her. It is noted by
another investigator who was listening and observing during this questioning,

(31:30):
that Anya was very disruptive. She interrupted William a lot,
and she had a smirk pretty much glued to her
face the entire time. But a good deal of what
I relate to you is in fact a lie, bullshit.

(31:52):
I want to backtrack just a little bit, just to
give you some background on the Parsons housekeeper. So Anya
immigrated to the US by way of Great Britain from Yalta,
Crimea in Russian they're Russia. She was born February fourth,
nineteen oh one, the parents Stanislaw and Emily Wolf Shishov.

(32:13):
Life during that time, of course, as we know in
Russia was very turbulent. There was the revolution that had happened, Yeah,
the Bolshevik Revolution. It really rocked the entire country. Anya
was reportedly married at seventeen to a man who was filled.

(32:34):
He was killed a few months after, and at the
age of nineteen she was married again to a soldier
in the Russian Army by the name of Alexander Kopranova.
The couple fled to Constantinople Constantinople, Turkey as refugees and
then they later moved on to Yugoslavia, where they had

(32:55):
a daughter. The little girl was named Melchoka, and she
unfortunately passed away when she was a year old. That's right,
that is that is actually true. Bullshit, this is all true.
That same year, Alexander left Anya to go to America.

(33:15):
Anya attempted to follow him the following year, and after
making the trip to from Croatia, she was denied entry
into the US and then deported on March twenty, nineteen
twenty four, to England. Why that's where they were sending people.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Bullshit.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
She was placed in a refugee camp there, where she
resided for a year. But between nineteen twenty five and
nineteen twenty six there are several addresses where she was
known to live in England. She just really I get
the sense that she was always looking for the next
best thing. Of course, it is here that she met

(33:53):
an Indian man by the name of I believe it's
Hans Sony, whom she would go on to have an
affair with and eventually live with Indian as in from India,
not natively, I know, Okay.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
It was like I was trying to place the Hans.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Like, yeah, it's h A N S. So I don't
know if it's Hans or Hans okay, I couldn't hear
anything that I mean, of course, like Hans would be
like a European yeah pronunciation of it, but I couldn't
find anything that pronounces it.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Because it's just like because everyone knew that India was
definitely a column Yeah of England.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
So she was still technically married to Alexander, who was
in residing in the US, and there is a document
letter sent to him from Anya where she tells him
that she's been unfaithful and he soon petitioned for divorce
and it was granted in May of nineteen twenty six,
and this is just weeks before she gave birth to Roy.

(34:56):
On the merth certificate, she lists Hans roy Sony as
the child's father. However, he emphatically denies that he's the father,
although he did seem to support her and Roy for
a couple of years before he returned to India in
nineteen twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Oh really.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Furthermore, listed as the mother on the birth certificate for
Roy Chandra was the name Aina Sony formerly Cuprian Nov
So she didn't even put her real name on the
kid's birth certificate.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Maybe they didn't understand how to spell it.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
I mean, I guess it would be like cuprian off
because the v's are r F sounding right for Russian.
I might be wrong, but it is not spelled like
her her actual name, and it's Aina I n a.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
I mean, the way that they pronounce it, they probably.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
They might have screwed it up. I don't know. At
the birth certificate Anya oh, I A, yeah, maybe it's
it's I am leaning. I guess maybe I should give
her the benefit of the doubt. I don't pronounce names
very well, so I can't really fault somebody else for
doing for like spelling it wrong on a document. But
given her history, I am more inclined to say she

(36:20):
gave a false name because she also goes on to
say that her and Sony were married in Indian temple,
which at the time there were none in England. So
she goes on to say that the two were married
and there's no temple, there's no place where she could

(36:41):
have been married to this man in an Indian ceremony.
She says that they gave her a certificate, but she
lost it when she came back to America, any of
course they did so. In nineteen thirty, Anya reached out
to Sony in India for financial help to get her
enroyd to the US. She was able to be issued
a visa, but on the application she listed her husband

(37:03):
as Alexander Cooprianova residing in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and that Alexander
was the father of Roy Chandra Cooprianova. So Anya and
Roy made it to you New York on June fifth,
nineteen thirty. We're in an odd circumstance turn of events.

(37:23):
I don't know. Alexander meets them at the port when
they are released, and he allows them to live with him.
Mind you, they've been divorced for years at this point.
I don't know how she keeps getting these men to
financially support her time and time again.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
It's crazy. So it's while she's in New York that
Anya would connect with the Parsons through a connection between
her then employer and William Parson's sister, Laura Pratt. After
moving to the farm, Anya changed her name to Anna Cooper.
It was due to the difficult pronunciation of her last name,
and it was close enough so in her official paperwork

(38:06):
to become a US citizen. This is the name she
used for her and Roy's documents. However, at the last moment,
the paperwork was amended around the time of her becoming
a citizen to use the Parsons last name instead. Nowadays,
you can't just do that. Back in the day when

(38:27):
there were so many immigrants coming into the country, and
again it's the same kind of thing. Couldn't understand how
to spell what some people were pronouncing. In our ignorance,
The people who, you know, the powers that be, were
just changing the spelling of these names to whatever it
sounded like to them. So, I mean, we know that

(38:50):
that happened. It's documented. So it's not uncommon for somebody
becoming a US citizen during this time to change the
name completely to a very American English sounding name. What
is odd is for her to use the Parsons last name,

(39:10):
and it's it's almost like assuming another identity. It's very
weird to me. Now at this point, we've covered a lot. Yes,
there is still so much to go, So go get
a snack, get a drink, do whatever you got to do,
get cozy, but meet us back here after this break.

(39:31):
Welcome back from the break. I hope everybody this cozy,
cozy den. Maybe maybe I'll let Bryce get a word in.
Edge was an episode, so I just spent the first
half of the episode going over the background and what
led up to the events of missus Alice McDonald Parsons

(39:52):
disappearing on June ninth, nineteen thirty seven. As I mentioned,
a good amount of the information relayed by William Park
and Anya Kopernova AKA and A Parsons was eventually found
to have been contradictory or even outright lies. As you
can imagine, as more authorities began to show up, they

(40:16):
all began to search the farmhouse and the outlining buildings
for anything that might lead them in the direction of
what happened to Alice. There was no sign of Alice
and any of the other towns nearby. Local authorities had
no reports of missing women that had turned up or

(40:36):
unidentified women. There was no report of a car accident anywhere,
and it was late at night, so they weren't able
to do much other than search the house and continue
to question Anya and William. At eleven forty five pm,

(40:59):
a missing person since alarm was sent out to agencies
while the search at the home resumed. There were two
axes that were found in the basement, one that had
spots on it that looked like blood. They sent these
off to be analyzed. One place of particular interest was
the Parsons car, which would be searched several times, and

(41:22):
it was on the third search that they found a
ransom letter that would be found on the floor in
the back row. Now, the two other times that it
had been searched previously, there was no sign of this letter.
And when it was searched the third time, it was

(41:43):
in such a placed so in the car that it
would have not been missed if it had been there before.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
This wasn't a well thought out plan.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Well, we'll see about that on it because.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Even twice she's like really, and you've told me two
times where she's fucked up.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
So yeah, and it just keeps going.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Maybe if we get squirrel, all right, anyone under thirty
won't get that.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
No, and yet another questioning of Anya by an investigator
with the DA's office, Anya claimed that her husband had
been killed in nineteen thirty six in Serbia. After that
she moved to England and remarried an Englishman. She claimed
that Alice quote didn't seem to know how to run

(42:40):
a home, so she was guided by my ideas at
all times, and so was mister Parsons well. It was
also asked if her relationship with William was anything other
than that of employer and employee, to which she denied
the accusation. So they are doubling down on that. William,

(43:03):
when questioned by the same investigator and this time separated
from Anya, stated that he and Alice were not in
fact living the perfect marriage. Big surprise no. He claimed
that they were barely speaking due to his questionable relationship
with Anya, and that he believed Anya was a quote

(43:23):
brighter woman than his wife.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
One of the most important questions asked of William during
his questioning at this time was did Anya know how
to drive a car? His answer was quote no, she
is just beginning to learn. End quote. And yet another
later interview with William, he admits that Anya favored him

(43:48):
and Alice definitely felt some type of way about it.
It was in fact a source of contention between the couple,
and is during this time that William and Alice, we
learn had just a few short days prior changed Alice's
will really yeah. In the will, Anya as well as Roy,

(44:14):
would be named to receive money from Alice if she
were to die. Anya was again interviewed, where she again
had yet another story about her mysterious past. In this version,
she stated she was quote last married in nineteen twenty
and that her husband died in an auto automobile accident

(44:36):
in April twenty fourth, nineteen thirty four. She also volunteered
more information on the garbage pick up that morning, stating
that both Alice and Anya spoke with the garbage man
that morning. Well, he came in the kitchen and took
the things we gave him, feathers. We plucked the squabs
and put the feathers in the box and put it
outside for him end quote. Anya states Alice held the

(45:01):
door open while she handed the boxes to the garbage man.
She also does acknowledge that there is money that would
come to her and Roy if something were to happen
to Alice. It's at this point the reporters begin to
show up at the home, which would further complicate the investigation.

(45:25):
While trying to keep Alice's disappearance or kidnapping out of
the public eye, the attention of all the agencies involved
and the authorities that would still become involved, quickly led
to a shit show. A reporter, as if it wasn't
already Yeah, a reporter with the New York Daily News
would actually call a local special agent at the New

(45:46):
York office of the FBI to inquire if a kidnapping
had incurred. This was odd as the ransom note had
only been found in the parsons dodge their car an
hour prior. So with the reporter calling the FBI asking
is this a kidnapping having knowledge of the ransom note,

(46:10):
in effect, the FBI became involved real They yes, So
they made some calls and inquiries to the local Stonybrook
authorities and were soon found out that yes, there was
indeed a ransom note that had been delivered just an
hour prior, and nobody was supposed to know this. They

(46:31):
hadn't even gotten to the point where they had reviewed
it enough to be able to call the FBI. So,
in case you're curious, the ransom letter goes as follows.
There are many errors spelling, grammatical errors, so I'm going
to read it as it was written. It's basically one
run on sentence. There are no periods, So here it

(46:53):
says will Parson, not Parsons Parson. I have your wife
for twenty five thousand ransom. I calculate you could get
that money in twenty four hours. I have no place
to keep her longer. Meet bus terminal in Jamaica. Hem
nine o'clock, bring money in box. My man will call

(47:15):
you by name, and you go with him. He will
take you to your wife. But mind if any cop abroad,
you'll pay for it and she will never speak again.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Makes sense, sure?

Speaker 1 (47:29):
I mean they want twenty five thousand dollars. I'm assuming
because it doesn't say there's no dollar mark or the
word dollar. It just says twenty five thousand. Jamaica is
termed like a town in New York. There's really no
other demands other than be here. But it doesn't say

(47:53):
what day. It doesn't say like it says twenty four hours.
But how can they assume when the note would be found.
There's no actual date anywhere on it. So nine o'clock
on a day to be at the best terminal and
bring the money, and somebody's gonna call William's name. And

(48:16):
that's that. I mean, it's just not very well thought out. Now,
all of this had taken place over the night of
the ninth and into the early morning of the tenth.
Alice's family had been notified and the first to show
up was her brother, Frank. William's family would also begin
to show up throughout the day. Statements were made to

(48:39):
the press asking for the safe return of Alice and
stating that the family would cooperate with the kidnappers. William's
brother was able to coordinate the ransom money, and with
the FBI involvement, a plan was made to get Alice
back from the kidnappers. None of this happened, really, Yeah,
the FBI started to show up agents special agents were

(49:02):
again requestioning everyone involved, and of course, as you may suspect,
Anya had yet another story regarding her quote unquote husband
and Roy's father. She also had more details regarding the
couple with whom Alice had driven away with on the ninth.
She couldn't describe them per se, However, the man she
swore was wearing some type of sailor type straw hat.

(49:26):
I don't know what the fuck a sailor type straw
hat would look like. Maybe maybe I need to do
some further research. On that, but that was her sole
description out of all of that. That's what she saw.
An yet another search of the home, some key evidence

(49:48):
was discovered in Roy's room. So paper was the exact
match of the paper that was used for the ransom
note was found in his room, several sheets of it,
some of which he had used. So he was an artist.
He liked to draw. So there was a picture that
they found that he had drawn of a crop dusting airplane,

(50:12):
and then there was a couple of other things that
were you know, he doodled on. And this paper had
a unique watermark from the manufacturer that was Chronicon, so
it said on the paper in a watermark, which was
pretty common. I don't think they really kept doing that

(50:35):
with mass produced paper past like the sixties or seventies,
but I do remember when I was in school you
could still buy watermarked paper. So Chronicon USA was on
this paper. It was very distinct. And this paper would
later be traced to a pad of paper that had
been sold only in Woolworth stores, and it had been

(50:56):
available locally at thirteen stores in New York, one of
which was not that far away, just down the street
from Stony Yeah, from where they lived in Stonybrook. When
Roy was questioned by the FBI agents, he claimed to
have waived goodbye to Alice as she was returning home

(51:17):
from the train station and he was off to school.
This was a new detail from his previous interview with
Lieutenant Wilson the beginning of the evening. Over the next
several days, the media frenzy was out of control, which
resulted in a request for all reporters and most of
the local agency investigators to remove themselves from the farmhouse.

(51:39):
It was agreed upon that the FBI would take over
the case. Since it was an apparent kidnapping, they would
take over jurisdiction. There was still some behind the scenes
things that were like happening between the local agencies. They
didn't quite want to ask the reins to the FBI.

(52:00):
They felt that if they could solve the case before
the FBI solved it, that it would look good for
their agency. But all statements and evidence were handed over
to the special agents for review. What is notable and
something that later would be dissected after the fact was
no one, not one agency had taken photos of any

(52:24):
of the evidence or any of the searched areas, so
there are no photos of where they found the ransom
note prior or after. There are no photos of where
they found the axes in the basement prior or after
them being removed. There are no photos of the kitchen
area where they found the dead gossling. There's no photos

(52:49):
of the car period. There's no photos photos. They handled
this evidence with no procedure. The ransom note was handled
by several, if not more than two dozen authorities from
the local agencies, fingerprints all over it. They at one

(53:12):
point it was just in somebody's jacket pocket for hours
until the FBI showed.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Oh, I was going to say, this wasn't the FBI.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
No, this wasn't the FBI.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
The local guys.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
Yeah. On Monday, June fourteenth, an assembled group of one
hundred and fifteen law enforcement officers and volunteer searchers conducted
a search of an eight square mile area around the farm.
There was absolutely nothing found that led to Alice, and
the search disappointedly ended on the eighteenth. However, during one

(53:44):
of their own searches, FBI agents found in one of
the property cesspools a disturbingly huge number of used condoms
that had been discarded and covered up a huge number.
They described it as hundreds. This would be information that
they sit on in hopes that it's useful in the future.

(54:07):
On June twenty first, at two forty five pm, William
Parsons released a statement to a gathering a number of
press outside of his home. It was a plea for
contact from the kidnappers and the safe return of Alice.
He asked at this point for proof of life to
be given and more communication for a drop off for
the money. There was no further communication from anybody after

(54:32):
the initial ransom letter, and when they tried to make
the drop there was nobody there to meet them. So
since the initial ransom note, there was no way to
know that this communication was even verifiable, that it was authentic.
They began to think that Alice maybe just disappeared and
her family knew where she was. They emphatically denied that

(54:56):
her brother, Howard also showed up, and then Amt Bess
came and they were very, very sure that Anya and
William were behind everything. As the FBI began to collect
and review all of the statements made, they began to
see the discrepancies. So it's days, it's weeks later and

(55:21):
they're reading through all of these handwritten interrogations. The lead agent,
Inspector E. J. Connolly, was well known as this up
and coming hotshot. He was a tap man to J.
Edgar Hoover, who was the director of the FBI. I
think everybody knows that name. Hoover had a very noted

(55:42):
interest in this case as his agency was still making
a name for itself with the rash of kidnappings that
occurred in the nineteen thirties, and we've talked about that
in previous episodes. It became the new crime, you know,
bank robbers and kidnappings, mob affiliate crimes. This was how

(56:02):
people were going to make it, you know, make big money.
Some of these discrepancies found when they were going through
these statements were in William's, you know, accounts of things. However,
most of the time it was Anya who opened up
her mouth with a lie. The inspector very quickly focused

(56:25):
his attention to the two of them, believing they knew
more than they were claiming to know, and he believed
the methods of the FBI would be proven useful in
sorting out the whereabouts of Alice Parsons. Inspector Connolly would
soon be given an opportunity to try and catch Anna
in her lies. During interviews of people outside the family,

(56:45):
it was learned from the garbage man that he never
saw Alice the day of her disappearance. It was customary
for the two men to come into the home and
empty the bins in the kitchen and wait for any
other garbage the house had. On this day, he commented
that when they arrived, Anya was at the back door
waiting for them with boxes of feathers, and the other

(57:07):
garbage was in the large dumpster outside ready for pickup.
She would not let him in the door. In her
account earlier given, she said that Alice held the door
for her while she handed the two boxes of feathers
to the garbagemen, and that there was no issue with
them coming into the house as they normally would have done. Furthermore,

(57:30):
the Parsons Dodge was indeed not parked alongside of the
house at it, as it had been found by the investigators.
The garbage man claimed that he would not have been
able to get past the car to exit the driveway
without having to make several turns if that car was
parked there. However, He states the car was in the

(57:50):
garage that he could clearly see when they drove up
to the house. The garage was located behind the home,
kind of out of the way, but he would not
have had to turn the truck around. He would have
just backed out. He also claimed that it was earlier
in the morning than the time that on Anya had given.

(58:14):
She had claimed that the garbage men had showed up
just maybe five to ten minutes before the couple in
the black car came and Alice left with them, or
now she left with them. Yes, so he is stating
that they were at the house at the usual time

(58:36):
because they were on a schedule. It was nine thirty
in the morning. In her timeline it would have been
about ten fifty ten fifty five. He was very certain
their schedule was never deviated from They came three days
a week nine thirty am. The next interview was with
William's sister, who stated Anya could indeed drive. She was

(58:59):
there when Anya had taken her first driving test and
failed it, and then the second test where she passed
and she became a licensed driver. Another bit of information
that was verified was the purchase of the chloroform from
the Kent Pharmacy by William Parsons. Back in the day,
they used a logbook where all types of medications or

(59:25):
anything poisonous, anything that could be harmful to a person
was logged, and it was required that it be logged
when sold by the pharmacist. In the log book for
Kent Pharmacy is a line that states that two ounces

(59:45):
of chloroform was sold to a mister William Parson of
long Meadow Farm. One last bit of evidence that Connolly
requested was to have analysis done of the handwriting that
was on the ransom note compared to all the members
of the family, so the Ellis's brothers, William, Anya, everybody,

(01:00:10):
even Roy. The FBI deemed that all the data was inconclusive.
They were not able to without a doubt say that
any of these people were a match. Their handwriting was
a match to the ransom letter. However, this is where
interference from an outside agency came in to play. The
DA's office also had was able to somehow get the

(01:00:35):
letter and sent it out to a New York company
that did handwriting analysis, and they reviewed the same samples
that the FBI had, stating that Anya's writing was definitely
a match for the notes for the ransom note. They
had something like fourteen different samples of writing to go

(01:00:58):
off of. At this point, with all of this circumstantial evidence,
do they not arrest these people? You might be asking, Yeah,
I wish I knew, because there's still more what there is?
Yet another round of questioning done. This time, both Anya
and William are separated. They're taken to the FBI New

(01:01:20):
York headquarters, where they were kept and interrogated overnight. It's
about fourteen fifteen hours they're kept. They were given polygraph tests,
which hinted to both parties being untruthful. We know that
those are not very reliable, however, and in this case,
the FBI did seem to agree. They didn't really go

(01:01:40):
on that. They're using it here more as a means
to try to get them to further implicate themselves in
the crime. So the FBI decided to see what might
happen if they are you know, they let Anya and
William talk. At this point, they put them in a
room that is seemingly just you know, a room like

(01:02:03):
a waiting room. It is wired. Snippets of conversation that
solidified that Anya and William were in cahoot so to speak,
are heard, but they seemed to be whispering throughout their conversation,
so the agents that were listening were having a hard
time following the conversation, so they must have suspected that

(01:02:25):
this was being recorded or that people were able to
listen in on them. What they could verify was that
Anya had William by the balls, so to speak. What
came out of all of this was a confession from William.
He wrote out his statement claiming full responsibility of the
disappearance of his wife. But when Anya learned of this,

(01:02:49):
she was livid. She claimed there was nobody, so no
murder and shut your damn mouth. Two days after being
returned home, William recanted his statement and wrote a new
statement under the watchful eyes of Anya. He even called
her in after the FBI agent rewrote this statement the

(01:03:14):
new statement, and had her look it over and say
is this acceptable? And the FBI allowed it?

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Really, yeah, they're probably like these two idiots.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Really, it would be very soon after all of this
that the two of them lawyered up. And then there
were statements that were given to the press. Anya seemed
to love to be popular with the press. She loved
giving statements. She loved to talk. She very much did

(01:03:49):
not like the FBI being involved, and she made that
known in her statements, garnering sympathy about how they were
treated When they were being questioned overnight in New York.
She claimed that it was the worst way to be questioned,
as anyone might assume, hinting that they were physically abused

(01:04:11):
in some way, which was not the case. It was
clear that the two of them needed to be separated.
This investigation was not going to go anywhere as long
as Anya had William's ear FBI agents told William that
he needed to look at separate living quarters, that the

(01:04:35):
ongoing investigation was not looking too well for him. There
was also the matter of Alice's family. Aunt Bess was
living at the farmhouse. She was not going anywhere and
she did not like Anya being there, and she made
that very well known. No, no't wasn't a fan. So

(01:04:58):
at one point William was still living at the farmhouse
and Anya was sent to go live at the y
WCA in New York. She did not like this. She
did not have contact with William, and also Roy had
been sent to a boys' school, so he was no

(01:05:19):
longer with her. At this time, William seemed to almost
get to the point where he would give a statement
again claiming responsibility agent or inspector. Connolly seemed to think
that he was cracking, so to speak. But then Anya
got back into the picture, and she claimed that she

(01:05:45):
was being pursued by men in New York who wanted
to date her, wanted to marry her, offered her all
sorts of money and a place to live and all
of these things, and William just couldn't have that. He
couldn't let her go, you know, he wasn't okay with that. No,

(01:06:07):
so he decided that he was going to find them
an apartment and that they would live together. This was
very inadvisable. The FBI had warned them against living together,
and respectively their lawyers strictly forbid it. But at every

(01:06:28):
turn the FBI was being thwarted by Anya when it
came to William, and he didn't care. So they began
living together in an apartment in New York, and when
agents would show up there, he would say he was
just visiting and that he was going to go stay
with his brother, or he would say that he was
dropping off something that was from the farmhouse. Nobody bought

(01:06:51):
the lie. No no, oh. Wait then, in alternative events,
one day a letter arrives addressed to mister Paul or
mister Parsons. This is from a man named Paul Jones.
And mind you, there had been weeks now with no

(01:07:13):
further attempt from anyone claiming to have kidnapped Alice. This
was a month later. There was also no longer any
demand for the twenty five thousand dollars in ransom money.
On July eighth, a special delivery letter arrived to William
addressed to William. It was typed all in capital letters
and again very poor grammar. It was just basically run

(01:07:36):
on sentences. Again, the short and long of it is,
this letter claimed that Alice was quote at death's door
for the last twenty four days, but the writer has
secured her medical care and saved her life. The price
of this medical care made the ransom go up to
forty thousand dollars. There were instructions on how to get
her back. Oddly enough, with this letter there were several

(01:07:58):
blank pages sent for seemingly no reason, of the same
type of paper. But then another letter appeared July fourteenth.
This one was sent and addressed to Anya. It was
handwritten in green ink and was signed Mary. It seems

(01:08:19):
that Mary was Paul's sister and she was just beside
herself as Alice was indeed dead. She stated in the
letter that she would try to send notice of the
exact location of the body. She asked that no one
tried to trap her, as she was just trying to help.
In the days to come, more letters would come from Mary,

(01:08:40):
as well as one more from Paul, and Anya had
a field day. She claimed that she believed Mary and
that she sounded like a very remorseful woman who was
trying to help. She claimed this must be the man
and woman who had come and taken Alice from the
farmhouse that day in June.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
It must be.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
It just had to be, and now they had confirmation
that Alice was gone. The last correspondence from Mary consisted
of two letters. One stated as before that she wanted
to help give them the location of Alice's body, but
she just wasn't very good with maps. You know, these
location things are just they're not my thing. So in

(01:09:21):
the last letter she actually gave details of where that
location was, but she did remind them. I don't know
if this is accurate or not. Don't blame me if
this is bad information. The location was searched and nothing
was found. Of course, what Anya didn't realize or failed

(01:09:42):
to see, was that she was being fucked with. Inspector
Connolly was behind these letters. Oh, he led her to
a trap by sending the blank pages with the first
letter from Paul and Anya I couldn't see that it
was a setup, or she was so sure that she

(01:10:03):
wouldn't get found that she used these pages to write
the letters from Mary.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
Sneaky.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
Yeah, it was confirmed that the paper for all the
letters was the same the initial ones from Mary and Frank.
So the very first set of letters was sent by
the inspector. The rest were sent by Anya. But still,
even after this, they did not find that this was

(01:10:33):
enough to get them to confess, and the couple was
not arrested. Sadly, While Inspector Connolly was I believe incredibly
cunning and coming up with this scheme of these letters,
it went nowhere. Anya simply waited it out. At one point,
William told the FBI that he was going to go

(01:10:57):
to California, and while out the FBI did trail him.
They attempted to see what he was doing. They did
follow him up and down the coast, but eventually William, Anya,
and along with Roy, all moved to California. This was

(01:11:18):
the year following Alice's disappearance. At one point, the FBI
tried to intervene and see if they could remove Roy
from Anya's care legally, as maybe like a threat to hey,
if you want to retain guardianship of your son, you
better tell us what happened to Alice. But unfortunately in California,

(01:11:42):
that type of thing wouldn't fly. Nor is that right.
I mean, at this point, he's like twelve, thirteen years old.
That's not appropriate to remove a child from the care
of their parent just because you aren't doing your job
and can't get them to confess to a crime. William
and Anya would be married in nineteen forty. Eventually, the

(01:12:03):
FBI could no longer dedicate any more manpower to the investigation,
and Jay Edgar Hoover demanded it be closed up and
handed back to the local authorities in Stonybrook. None of
the local agencies felt confident in trying to arrest or
charge the two without a body or evidence of a
body or evidence of felt play. The two axes that

(01:12:24):
had been sent off for you know, inspection, came back
as nothing. The blood was not human. They never did
find the bottle of chloroform, and there seemed to be
no evidence that could definitively link the disappearance of Alice
to either William or Anya.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
Really, yep, that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
That's basically it. So thankfully, due to the shrewdness of
the McDonnell family and their finances, they were able to
have the last will that Alice and William had drawn
up nullified. Basically they contested that. So there was a
small settlement that was given to William. I think it
amounted to about ten thousand dollars. The bulk of Alice's

(01:13:12):
estate would be kept in the family. Anya and Roy
did not see any of it. And that's that's it.
We arrived at the end of this long and twisty
tail with no resolution. Alice McDonald Parsons just simply vanished.
And while it's safe to assume we know what happened,
there has never been any substantial proof that could be

(01:13:35):
acted upon. William and Anya purchased land and a home
in Carmel California, and they lived there with until William
died in nineteen sixty two. Anya lived there after that
for some time, but moved and sold the house in
nineteen seventy one and she moved in with Roy and
his wife in Texas. And what I found interesting was

(01:13:59):
Roy I actually went on to be a very noted
and accomplished artist and sculptor and gallery owner in Beverly Hills.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
In Beverly Hills, Yeah, oh wow.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
He passed away in two thousand and seven. Really yeah, yep,
so you can long ago, not that long ago. He
served in the Navy after high school, and then he
made this huge career out of being an artist, very

(01:14:31):
like successfully from what I understand.

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
Yeah, But whatever happened to Alice, they took to the
grave and it's never been solved. There's never been any
anything that could reopen the case or find her.

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
Very long, twisty road.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
I just found it very interesting reading and trying to
sort through all of the interrogations, how many lies they
caught her in. Because at some point they find Hans
or Hans Sony and he gives a sworn statement that
they were never married and that he is not Roy's father.

(01:15:12):
He gives that and it's delivered to the FBI. They
also at one point arrest Alexander Kopriyanova because they believe
that he's probably involved in this, and he's not. He's like,
I've been divorced from that woman for years. Don't tie
me to her. But he can't explain why she keeps

(01:15:34):
lying about their marriage or about who she's been married to.
He says, I have no idea, I have no idea
what she's talking about. And they go through and they're
able to find, you know, her records from trying to
gain entry into the country the first time, what she said,
all of the records from when she was in England

(01:15:55):
and then when she did gain entry again and become
a citizen the second time. They find all this paperwork.
It takes months. It's not a database, you know, like
it is now, but they find all of it, and
there's more and more discrepancies that nobody knows why she's
lying about it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
But I honestly, that was a time where people could
just get away with it because it took the amount
of time to research things.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Yeah, you know, even the FBI, with their their might
behind them, could not take the discrepancies and turn it
into an arrest because she was lying about her husband.
She was lying about you know, her children, her marital status,
her whatever, her name, for Christ's sake, But they couldn't

(01:16:41):
prove she was lying about Alice.

Speaker 2 (01:16:42):
All circumstantial at best.

Speaker 1 (01:16:44):
Yeah, so very very unsatisfying into that read.

Speaker 2 (01:16:52):
I will tell you say, that's a long winending book.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
Yeah it really was. I mean, the the policy and
procedures of how they were going was interesting, but the
ending was very dissatisfying to know that they just wound
up in California and started a new life and he
went back to working for his father's paper company, and
she got to stay home and be a housewife. And

(01:17:16):
Roy became Whether he was involved in the in the
first place of anything, I doubt it, But you know,
his life he was able to turn into something great.
I guess that's that's good for him. Yeah, but I mean,
I hate to like deafamate a name. After people have died,
they can't speak for themselves, But you can't tell me

(01:17:39):
they didn't do something like you can't tell me.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Yeah, you know, but walks like a duck, talks like
a duck.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Yeah, probably a duck very much. Yeah, now that's out
of my head. Thank you for listening. Well, thank you
for coming to my ted talk. It was a lot,
It was a lot of details, and I just kept
thinking of more and more stuff. So thanks for coming
along on that ride with me, whether you liked it

(01:18:08):
or not. All right, guys, Well we have come to
the end. We are so thankful for you guys being
with us, and look for the for the next episode
to come. Until then we will, you know, keep doing
what we're doing. Everybody, stay safe, be nice to one
each other, to each other, and stay out of the

(01:18:31):
damn woods. See you later, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:18:35):
Bye bye,