0:00

Paper Ghosts is a production of I

0:02

Heart Radio. As

0:08

far as I had come with these five cases,

0:11

it still felt like a major piece of this fifty

0:13

year old puzzle was missing. Because

0:16

it's always bothered me that throughout

0:18

all of this, the Connecticut State Police had never

0:20

done the obvious bring canines

0:23

out to search the biggest areas of interest,

0:25

the Wendell property, the old

0:27

LaRosa Land, and that Flower

0:30

Memorial area. They've been

0:32

asked by many of the victims families

0:34

and the windows to do so, but

0:36

they've never made an effort. Time,

0:39

money, a variety of excuses

0:41

have been to blame, but Kennan

0:43

Patty Wendell, they need to know if

0:45

their bodies buried on their property, and

0:48

most importantly, the victims

0:50

families deserve answers. This

0:54

has gone on for far too long.

1:08

Previously on Paper Ghosts,

1:11

he said, well, you know they're not gonna find anything. He

1:14

said, I didn't do anything wrong to hurt your mother.

1:17

Do you think Bob Larros is a guy who was

1:19

capable of killing his wife? Oh

1:22

yeah, It's easy

1:24

to point the finger and say he did it, or

1:28

she did it, or they did it. Yeah,

1:31

But to go down and prove me at something else and

1:34

uh, like I said, I didn't

1:36

hurt nobody, I didn't kill anybody, and

1:39

I didn't kidnap anybody. My

1:42

name is and William Phelps.

1:45

This is Paper Ghosts.

1:59

I began this po podcasting journey in two

2:01

thousand nineteen on Ken and Patty

2:03

Wendell's forty six acre property near

2:05

Crystal Lake. An indirect

2:07

tip from the witness and a bag of seventies

2:10

Eero clothing set things in motion.

2:12

After years and years of false leads

2:14

and dead ends, and now

2:17

in I'm back at

2:19

the Wendell's. Only this time

2:21

I have some help with me. Hello,

2:28

how you doing. It was a cold day

2:31

in May, at the height of the coronavirus

2:33

pandemic, and I had somehow convinced

2:36

canine team to meet me at Patty

2:38

and Ken Wendell's house. Hi,

2:41

Marian, how are you? Marian?

2:43

Baland and Don Minor are my field

2:46

support from Connecticut Canine Search

2:48

and Rescue, one of the most renowned

2:50

condaver search teams in the country.

2:53

I reached out to the organization in late

2:55

two thousand nineteen, and after several

2:58

meetings in further discussion, they agreed to

3:00

help these families seek some sort

3:02

of resolution, at least within this

3:04

latest thread of the witness stirring things

3:06

up after all these decades. How

3:09

the conditions you think? One

3:12

issue that bothered me immediately was the weather,

3:14

cold, wet, windy.

3:17

Would it play a role in how effective the

3:19

dogs are going to be? Well,

3:22

it's warming up, so it's

3:25

not real moist in the air right now,

3:27

so so I'm hoping that that's going to give

3:30

some kind of lath right now. It's been told

3:33

we had a lot of rain over the past couple

3:35

of times. Left to see how the dogs do. There

3:38

are so many variables at play, Mary

3:40

and explained, and most are not what

3:43

many would think. For example,

3:45

a lot of rain, she says, can be

3:47

helpful bringing up the water table disperses

3:49

the scent of decomposition. She's

3:52

learned this by training her dogs on burial

3:54

grounds. Jane's pockets

3:56

sister, Mary angle Brick, was also there.

3:59

It felt appropriate it she be included since

4:01

she was there when we toured the Wendell property

4:03

one year earlier. Mary,

4:05

how are you feeling about today? I'm

4:08

kind of nervous, like feeling

4:10

a lot of things. I think nervous.

4:12

I'm scared, I guess I'm I'm

4:14

scared that they'll find something, and then

4:17

I'm scared that they won't find something, so you

4:19

know, I'm all over the place kind

4:22

of. So we

4:27

were joined by their colleague Liz Burne,

4:30

who was the handler for the day, and it brought

4:32

two English Springers Orva

4:35

and Heiress, the springer of

4:37

favorite breed for Scotland. Yard is traditionally

4:39

a hunting dog used to flush out

4:42

game for the shooter. Their ears

4:44

are long, floppy and furry.

4:47

They are full of boundless energy.

4:49

That much was clear as soon as I

4:51

met them.

4:53

That's

4:53

Horri ready

5:00

to work. Or of a We

5:03

all stood massed up socially

5:05

distanced about a hundred yards away from

5:07

Liz as she brought one dog at a time

5:09

into the areas. The idea

5:12

behind this strategy is for Don and Marian

5:14

to watch the dog for signs of alerting on

5:16

a scent. Canine searched

5:18

the air. Mostly they scurry

5:20

around trying to pick up on an airborne

5:22

scent that spring foliage growing up

5:25

from the ground might project into the air,

5:28

or they can hit on water. They

5:30

do all this while wearing a GPS tracking

5:33

device, so every step the raw data

5:36

is recorded. As

5:38

they search. The dogs give tells

5:41

which Marian and Don are there

5:43

to pick up on and take note of Heiress.

5:47

The first dog heading into the window woods

5:49

was hyper focused. She wore

5:52

a bell around her collar so the handler

5:54

could find her easily if she picked up on something,

5:56

and kind of moved swiftly through

5:58

the woods. We

6:02

headed towards the spot where Ken Wendell found that

6:04

bag of clothes. Procedure sent

6:06

Liz and Arress well beyond

6:08

the target area. The idea

6:10

is not to bring the dog into the direct location.

6:12

Instead allow that dog to seek

6:14

out herself whatever it is of

6:17

interest. So that's

6:19

the well where UM the clothing

6:21

was found. There's a carpet

6:23

in there that I was curious about. Blue

6:25

carpet. Marion explained

6:28

what an alert on an area would look like, and

6:30

she whispers, because we didn't want to disturb

6:32

the focus of Liz or Heiress.

6:35

We're looking for UM.

6:38

Possibly the dogs pacing to slow

6:40

down on head hooks one

6:42

way or the other. UM.

6:45

Usually they slow, they slow down and get

6:47

more intense. The dogs are

6:49

trained on decomposing placentas

6:52

and actual dirt samples from the colonial

6:54

period, civil war, and known slave

6:56

grave sites. They are often

6:59

brought to archaeologist digs and support

7:01

as well. She's

7:04

down inside that well now, hairis

7:09

actually dove into the well and

7:11

swam around in the water. This

7:15

is the exact location where the clothes

7:17

and that blue carpet were found. The well

7:19

being full of water was actually helpful

7:21

in bringing the potential scent of remains

7:24

out of whatever might have been down there

7:27

as quickly as area seemed interested in it.

7:29

However, out she came, shaking

7:31

off excess water before moving

7:33

on. Doesn't

7:35

seem interested in anything in there? Huh

7:38

Yeah. There she went in twice and she

7:40

actually tasted the water, but she didn't.

7:43

I mean, this is her saying, there's no set. I'm

7:45

just being a goofy dog right now because there's nothing.

7:48

The dog worked this section of the woods for

7:50

about twenty five minutes, covering it in

7:53

a grid like fashion, nose to ground

7:55

at times, nose in the air at others.

7:57

The green roof well is towards

8:00

that way. It's far, but it

8:02

is that way, so maybe that

8:05

area all

8:07

nice, nicely fool now. The

8:11

witnesses tip included the words green

8:13

roofed well. There's only one of

8:15

those anywhere on the property. So

8:18

yeah, Liz, there's the green roofed well right

8:20

there.

8:23

Yeah, and then

8:25

in about twenty ft

8:27

in back of that is

8:29

another well. Right then

8:32

you want both of them checked, yeah, I thought, but

8:35

that has the green roof which the witness described.

8:38

Liz took the dog a hundred yards and more

8:40

up past both wells and unleashed.

8:43

As we looked on, my gut was telling

8:45

me there was nothing there yet.

8:48

Investigation requires elimination.

8:51

If I could eliminate the window property,

8:54

the windows and the victims families

8:56

could move on from this and go back to their

8:58

lives. Oh, look

9:00

at that. We

9:03

were in the vicinity the witness had specifically

9:06

described, and there was a noticeable

9:08

change in Herriss's behavior

9:10

as soon as she started searching this area.

9:13

You think she's just interested in that the

9:16

dog picked up on something. She's

9:20

back at that green roof well. The

9:24

well is square about ten by ten

9:26

with an upside down V shaped roof

9:28

over it. Both ends are covered one

9:30

side with a hatch door to look inside.

9:33

Ken Wendell, if you recall, put an underwater

9:36

camera down this well and found

9:38

nothing but water on

9:40

one side of the well. As a pool of water deep

9:43

part of the well runoff as it fills

9:45

during a rainstorm. Harris

9:47

dove into that pool of water, tasted

9:50

it, jumped out, sniffed around

9:52

the well, then made her way over to the hatch

9:54

door. Fiddled with it a bit, trying

9:57

to get in, just curiosity,

9:59

not thing more. Harris

10:03

actually found more interest in a

10:05

second well nearby. See

10:09

um, where that other sort of arcas in a

10:12

well where there's the metal

10:14

posts over the top around there,

10:17

really yeah, where there was the deep.

10:19

She's the deep sniffing and here she was scared. She stuck

10:21

her head and she actually stammed through that water. Um,

10:26

but I heard more of the breathing changes,

10:29

like if I'm working up

10:32

there. Eiris went from

10:34

the green roof well to an area about thirty

10:36

yards behind it, up a hill in

10:38

front of a large section of bedrock sticking

10:40

out of the ground. Luz, can

10:42

you work or above that rock in the woods

10:45

behind? She's

10:50

interested in that area. Huh,

10:57

she's digging there. She's interested in that.

11:04

Talking back, I'm really three times

11:06

three times later I

11:08

got three times in yeah, um

11:12

yeah. She went over

11:16

there to back over there, laid down

11:19

and started digging. She went back on her

11:21

own. Yeah, laying

11:23

down is Harris's trained indication

11:25

that she has locked onto decomposition.

11:28

Don and Marian, when they saw it, became

11:31

incredibly focused. I had not seen

11:33

them all day long look as serious as

11:35

they were. If they come back, do

11:38

it on your own. I

11:40

mean she actually started pawn at it. She

11:43

was digging to do out of frustration

11:45

or CONSI something there and you're not moving fast

11:47

enough. I

11:50

was trying to listen for her breathing, because

11:52

if you're going to get a fossil lert, so I'll just they might go

11:54

and give you their behaviors, but you don't hear that deep

11:56

stacking beforehand. Like I'm working.

11:59

I'm working on her breathing, drink breathing.

12:03

Aara settled in on one spot in front

12:05

of a large piece of bedrock protruding

12:07

from the ground. She dug, vigorously,

12:11

laid down over the spot she had dug,

12:13

and waited for Liz to come over. After

12:16

Liz took Ariss away and allowed her to go where

12:18

she wanted, the dog came back to the same

12:20

location. The team all agreed

12:23

there could be something there. What

12:25

that something is would be to

12:27

speculate a bone decomposition

12:30

in the soil run off from a nearby

12:33

cemetery or perhaps

12:36

one of the missing girls. After

12:55

Arius hit on that particular location, the

12:57

handlers brought out the second dog, Orva,

13:00

and she showed interests there as well. The

13:02

team then arraided the area probed

13:05

as they call it, by spending a half hour

13:07

poking the ground with skinny metal rods,

13:10

then brought the dogs back. So

13:12

how did the probeing go good? A lot

13:14

of holes? He made good. She

13:17

seemed that she saw the area. Yeah, it's above

13:19

there, in

13:22

front of that piece of lege.

13:23

Yeah. Yeah. Seeing

13:26

the two dogs show more interest in a well

13:28

behind the one the witness had been talking

13:30

about came as no surprise. It's

13:33

been decades since the girls went missing.

13:36

Memories naturally fade over time, and

13:38

sometimes they can even change.

13:41

It's like a game of telephone, where

13:43

a detail you once remembered make

13:45

it slightly altered as the years go by.

13:48

Dates maybe off colors

13:51

can be different. So if you wanted

13:53

to work the dogs more, we could go over here. I

13:55

pointed to the area near the flower memorial

13:58

Tina LaRosa and her family members

14:00

put on the birch tree in back of the old LaRosa

14:02

property, and also where the state police

14:05

once dug and came up with those five pairs

14:07

of saddle shoes I mentioned in episode

14:09

one, Yes through

14:12

here and the rope

14:15

stuff some time to

14:17

ye, I think it's I

14:19

think it's best if we walk them down the street and

14:21

come in from the street on the side or

14:25

it didn't show any indication whatsoever

14:27

near the LaRosa property or the flower

14:30

memorial safe for her pawing

14:32

at a tree close by.

14:34

Sometimes canines will act as though

14:36

they want to climb a tree, indicating

14:38

perhaps there is something under the

14:40

tree or even in the tree itself

14:43

kind of sucked in or absorbed

14:46

by the roots system.

14:48

That second go around after probing, turned

14:50

in the same results. It

14:52

had been a long cold day. The

14:55

dogs were tired, same as we

14:57

were

15:09

in the weeks after we all met up at the

15:11

Wendells, the Connecticut Canine Search and

15:13

Rescue Team sent me its report for the day

15:16

regarding the location around the artesian water

15:18

well as well as the flower memorial

15:21

near the LaRosa property. Canines

15:23

arison or of a quote showed no behavior

15:25

changes indicative of the

15:27

odor of decomposed human remains

15:30

being present. As for the

15:32

area surrounding the green roofed well. Both

15:35

dogs exhibited deep sniffing

15:37

and digging with airis, returning to the

15:39

location three times before lying down

15:42

her trained indication. This

15:44

certainly adds more credibility to the witnesses

15:46

supposed tip about bodies being buried

15:49

somewhere in that area. Now

15:51

knowing this, it's hard not to

15:53

imagine the frustration felt by the victims

15:55

families after the request for state

15:58

police to bring out search dogs has and

16:00

ignored. More so when

16:02

you learned that during the summer the

16:04

state police actually acted on a psychics

16:06

tip and brought canines out to a home

16:08

in Tolland to search for Janic's pocket.

16:11

They turned up with nothing. I

16:14

just don't get it. A seemingly credible

16:16

tip from the witness leads to new breakthroughs

16:19

at Crystal Lake, and the state police are

16:21

searching a home six miles away

16:23

based on a psychics tip. We

16:31

had also gone to the location where Susan Larrossa

16:34

was found, but the wind picked up and it was nearly

16:36

impossible to search. I will

16:38

say this, however, when we got there,

16:40

the dogs were unleashed and ran straight

16:43

toward the exact location where Susan's

16:45

body had been dumped. According

16:51

to the report, both dogs showed changes

16:53

in body carriage indicative of attempts

16:55

to locate the odor of decomposed remains,

16:58

deep sniffing and pasting in circles.

17:01

The report ends with the Connecticut Canine

17:04

Search and Rescue Team's recommendation to

17:06

follow up with a search further

17:08

into the woods west of Wendell Road,

17:10

northwest of the Green Roof covered

17:12

well area, and additional areas

17:14

near where Susan LaRosa was found. What

17:17

I do with this information becomes the question.

17:30

The state police had made it clear they were uninterested

17:32

in sharing information, but I had Connecticut

17:35

Canine send them my Canine

17:37

Search Info Report. I've

17:39

been providing the State Police in Tallan County

17:42

States Attorney's Office with information at tips

17:44

I have received and vetted for

17:46

over ten years. I'm not

17:48

about to stop now. Armed

17:51

with the info I had, I went over to speak with

17:53

Bill Meyer, the Vernon Police Department

17:55

lieutenant, see what he thought.

17:58

We made some progress. You know, generations

18:01

of detectives have worked on this case, going

18:03

back before I was even born. But

18:06

these are the types of cases to stick with you, and

18:09

we know that someone knows something.

18:12

Someone out there across the United States,

18:14

across the world, knows the answers

18:16

that we're looking for. Which out

18:18

of the case is Debbie Spickler, Lisa

18:21

White, I mean, you know, the Janis

18:23

Pocket case, Susan LaRosa,

18:27

Irene Larrosa. I mean, which which one

18:29

you think is most solvable? Certainly

18:32

the ones where we've recovered the remains

18:35

have more solvability to them.

18:39

And with with her husband,

18:41

Bob Lerosa being dead, what do you

18:43

think the chances are solving that

18:45

case. It's a challenge with any

18:48

of these cases, you know, the amount of time becomes

18:50

a challenge because memories fade,

18:53

people die, people move away.

18:56

But we don't give up, you know, we're still

18:58

hoping for that breakthrough.

19:01

It's going to give us the answers we've been looking forward for

19:03

many, many years. It's very important

19:05

if you have some information to bring

19:08

it forward, even if you think it's something we've already

19:10

investigated. Part of the fallout

19:12

from taking a cold case investigation public

19:14

is the urgency for answers and expected

19:17

resolution to have everything tied

19:19

up in a nice little bow with papers

19:21

filed away. Trust me, I'd

19:24

love that too. But the best we

19:26

can hope for is that the needle has

19:28

been moved a bit more. What's

19:31

important is the facts are out there

19:33

that so many more people are now aware

19:35

of these cases. We have a cold

19:37

Cake hotline um that that people

19:40

can reach out to with that information that will get

19:42

back to investigators so that they can be followed

19:44

up. By

19:50

early October, the podcast have been out

19:52

for nearly a month and people

19:54

were talking. More importantly,

19:56

the state police were moving. Ken

19:59

Wendell gave me a call. He told me the police

20:01

now want to come up to his property and survey

20:03

the areas where I had brought the canine

20:06

team, and they want to bring their own

20:08

dogs out right away.

20:10

All small town politics aside. The

20:13

good news is that the state police is

20:15

paying attention. I've since

20:17

learned that their dogs hit on two areas, one

20:20

not too far away from the spot Arras had

20:23

laid down, and another where

20:25

that flower memorial is located. Next

20:29

steps include ground penetrating

20:31

radar in those areas of interest, and

20:33

also possibly more digging.

20:36

That's on the Connecticut State Police. All

20:39

we can do now is wait and hope

20:42

they follow up. I

20:45

promised the families of the missing girls that I

20:47

would tell them about my latest findings

20:49

with the Canine team, their strength

20:51

and candor, and sharing with me one of the most

20:53

traumatic moments of their lives,

20:56

something for which I am forever grateful. Mary

20:59

angele Breck, the sister of Jane's Pocket,

21:01

April White Filetti, the sister of Lisa

21:03

White. Terry Shanks, the

21:06

sister of Susan Rosa. These

21:09

three women share a bond that very few

21:11

people can understand. We

21:14

all met up at a campsite one night, sat

21:16

around a fire and just talked. You

21:21

know, we all grew up with our experience, isn't

21:23

I And I'm thinking each

21:26

of us, did you ever think that

21:28

you would find someone else that

21:31

actually understands what you went through

21:33

and how you grew up, in how

21:35

losing a sister and the way

21:38

we did. No one understands.

21:40

No one understands. And it's

21:43

it's so funny because when

21:46

I talked about Lisa and

21:48

it sets me. Um.

21:50

It's it's hard to do because it

21:52

just takes you to such a dark place,

21:55

but um,

21:57

I always know that I have you guys it,

22:00

and it makes it so much easier. And

22:02

even April makes a good point that

22:05

dark place all of this brings

22:07

up. It's a daily reality

22:10

for these families. We suffer

22:13

the same, the three of us,

22:16

like we are sisters. Forever we

22:18

are, the three of us, we will

22:21

always be connected. I

22:23

feel so blessed and lucky that

22:25

we found my sister, but

22:30

my bond still remains

22:32

with the women who have not, because

22:35

even though I we found my sister's

22:37

body, we still don't

22:39

know the particulars

22:41

of what happened. And there's no

22:44

justice, no justice,

22:47

bottom line. Really, in the end, five

22:50

females for missing, one confirmed

22:52

murder, and those responsible

22:55

walk free. Mary

22:59

goes on to say what many of us might

23:02

forget about the day her sister disappeared,

23:04

and that echo chamber of pain and

23:07

what a tragedy like this does

23:10

family and friends. It's

23:12

crazy, And I think, you know, I think April and

23:15

Terry can identify with this. But I think in

23:17

a lot of ways, you know, here we are all

23:20

women are fifties now, but I

23:22

still feel like a part of me is still six

23:25

years old, a part of April

23:27

is still ten years old, and a part of Terry is

23:30

twelve years old, because that's when our life ended,

23:34

our life as we knew it. Paper

23:50

Ghosts has written an executive produced

23:52

by me and William Phelps. I

23:55

want to extend my gratitude to I Heart

23:57

Radio and will Pearson for

23:59

allowing me to do what I do.

24:02

Likewise, I could not have done

24:04

this podcast without the great work of

24:06

Christina Everett, who really shaped

24:08

these episodes and stepped in co wrote

24:11

an executive produced with me, and

24:13

a big thank you to Pete Cardi from back

24:15

Room Audio for sound editing and

24:18

a booze afar from My Heart for sound

24:20

editing and mixing. The series

24:22

theme number four four two

24:25

is written and performed by Tom Mooney

24:27

and Thomas Phelps. That

24:30

cold case hotline number the Vernon

24:32

Police Department set up is eight six

24:34

oh three

24:37

two to eight. It

24:39

will be posted in the show notes of this episode

24:41

along with my contact in phone. If

24:44

tiplines and cops aren't your thing, you

24:46

can send me a direct message on Facebook

24:49

or email me personally. Any

24:51

tip or a bit of information can

24:53

be helpful, and all of it is kept

24:55

completely confidential. To

24:58

stay updated on any new development on

25:00

the cases, check out the Paper ghost podcast

25:02

page on Facebook and be sure

25:04

to stay subscribed to Paper Ghosts.

25:07

But lots more to come for

25:09

more podcasts from My Heart Radio visit

25:12

the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

25:15

or wherever you listen to your favorite

25:17

shows.