VT VT - Paula Jean Welden, 18, Glastenbury Mountain, 1 Dec 1946

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This December will mark 75 years since she went missing...

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Paula Jean Welden
Missing since 1 December 1946
 
BEWARE: These 50 Strangest Unsolved Mysteries of All Time Are Seriously Spooky!

42. The Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden

On December 1, 1946, a sophomore at Bennington College, 18-year-old Paula Jean Welden, told her roommate, Elizabeth Parker, she was going for a long walk but failed to return back to the shared space. Local witnesses reported having seen her on the 270-mile trail called Vermont’s Long Trail that cuts through Vermont to the Canadian border. A search party was immediately formed but no clues were found on the trail.

Soon after, the newspaper, the Bennington Banner said that “tantalizing and unquestionably strange leads” began to materialize and reported. There was one in particular made by a Massachusetts waitress that she’d served an agitated young woman matching Paula’s description. Upon learning of this lead, Paula’s father disappeared for 36 hours, supposedly in pursuit of the lead. Nevertheless, the authorities thought it was strange and it led to him becoming a prime suspect in Paula’s disappearance. Stories began circulating that Paula’s home life was not nearly as idyllic and picturesque as her parents had initially reported to the police. Apparently, Paula had not returned home for Thanksgiving the week prior, and she may have been upset about a disagreement with her father. While claiming his innocence, Paula’s father posited a theory that Paula was distraught about a boy she liked at school and that perhaps the boy should have been a suspect.

Over the next decade after Paula’s disappearance, a local Bennington man twice bragged to friends that he knew where Paula’s body was buried. However, he was unable to lead the police to any body. With no evidence of a crime, no body, and no forensic clues, the case grew cold and the fate of Paula Jean Welden was never discovered.
 
30Anne said:
This post gave me chills.... I am leaning towards foul play now
Click to expand...
It also produced the same for me ... but I think she escaped somewhere life change I have the impression that she was very depressed and women in that state are very vulnerable .. poor girl was very pretty I hope she has not been murdered viciously
 
A previous post mentions the last confirmed sighting of Paula being at 4.00pm that day and the fact that the sun set around 5.00pm and the weather got worse. It all sounds a bit ominous.

I wonder was Paula still heading away from where she lived at this point or heading back home ?

If she was still heading away, I guess getting lost in the woods becomes more likely as it gets darker and the weather worsens. One thing for sure is that there seems to have been a lot of disappearances in that area back then !!
 
I lean toward Paula getting lost in the woods and being overcome by the elements. If you have ever been lost in the woods it's very easy to lose your sense of direction and if it's getting dark panic can set in and that's when things go bad.
 
I found Harbour Road in Google Maps, where she was last seen.

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
 
Laughing said:
The Strange Disappearance of Paula Jean Weldon in the Bennington Triangle — StrangeOutdoors.com

Bumped into this story reading about author Shirley Jackson, who apparently was obsessed with this disappearance.

JMHO YMMV LRR
Click to expand...
I also want to share some local folklore and history about this area.

"Bennington Triangle" is a phrase coined by American author Joseph A. Citro to denote an area of southwestern Vermont within which a number of people went missing between 1945 and 1950. This was further popularized in two books, including Shadow Child, in which Citro devoted chapters to discussion of these disappearances and various items of folklore surrounding the area. Native Americans in the region believed Glastenbury Mountain was cursed in the oldest legends about the Bennington Triangle and Native American tribes also held the belief that a curse overshadowed the surrounding woods. They believed angry spirits that dwelled in the forest and therefore the tribes stayed away. The region around Glastenbury Mountain was home to the Abenaki tribe, which was part of the Algonquin nation. Glastenbury mountain was believed to be the home of the Abenaki god Tabaldak and The Abenaki people believe that the mountain is dangerous as a result of the four winds meeting at the peak, and often changing directions erratically, the Abenaki believed the mountain was cursed. An Algonquin legend warned of a "man-eating stone" was also believed to be on the mountain, opening up and swallowing anyone who stepped on it, according to Revelator Network. There were also stories about large, hairy, half-man, half-animal creatures living throughout the Abenaki region and threatening its residents. Although the Abenaki avoided Glastenbury Mountain, they buried their dead at its base. In later legends, their spirits are believed to haunt the area.According to Citro, the area shares characteristics with the Bridgewater Triangle in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Precisely what area is encompassed in this hypothetical "mystery triangle" is not clear, but it is purportedly centered on Glastenbury Mountain and would include some or most of the area of the towns immediately surrounding it, especially Bennington, Woodford, Shaftsbury, and Somerset. Glastenbury and its neighboring township Somerset were both once moderately thriving logging and industrial towns, but began declining toward the late 19th century and are now essentially ghost towns, unincorporated by an act of the Vermont General Assembly in 1937.Glastenbury was primarily unoccupied by European settlers before the 1700s. The town was incorporated by the governor of New Hampshire in 1761, and six families were residing there in 1791. In 1870, it developed into a logging community, with as many as 240 residents living there.The municipality filed for bankruptcy in 1897, which led to the closure of the lumber mill. The following year, Glastenbury changed its image from a mill town to a summer resort in a last-ditch effort to remain popular. The former workers' housing had been converted into a hotel, and the mill offices had been turned into a casino. Given that the resort was only operational for one summer, it is debatable whether or not this was sufficient to preserve the town. A flood that struck the mountain in the fall of 1898 destroyed the village. According to experts, if it weren't for the clear cutting required to keep the lumber industry afloat, the severity of the flood could not have been quite as catastrophic.Despite the town's valiant efforts, the loss of the trees ultimately proved to be its downfall. With only three residents by 1934, Glastenbury and Somerset were the only towns in Vermont's history to be dissolved, securing their status as the state's only resident ghost town.Unfortunately, the mountain had been overlogged by the 1880s, which caused the trees to die and contributed to the town's demise.
 
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Another reported disappearances in Bennington Triangle​

Carl Herrick (1943)​

Ten miles northeast of Glastenbury town, in 1943, Carl Herrick was out hunting with his cousin Henry. The two split up, and Carl never came back. Three days later, in a strange setting, Henry discovered Carl's body. Carl had been crushed to death, according to the autopsy, and his ribs had pierced his lungs. Large bear prints could be seen all around the deceased, according to Henry. Experts disagree, claiming that a bear would not have suffocated a man to death.

Middie Rivers (1945)​

Between 1945 and 1950, five people disappeared in the area surrounding Bennington, Vermont. The first disappearance occurred on November 12, 1945, when 74-year-old Middie Rivers disappeared while out hunting, in the vicinity of Long Trail Road and Vermont Route 9. Rivers was on a weekend hunting trip with four other hunters up the mountains. The morning of November 12, 1945, Rivers and his son-in-law, Joe Lauzon, were walking together before reaching a fork. Rivers and Lauzon would separate here with Rivers telling Lauzon he'd "only be going a short distance" before he would join them at camp for lunch. As 3pm had come and gone, the rest of the hunting party would begin searching before getting authorities. An extensive search was conducted, but the only evidence discovered was a single rifle cartridge that was found in a stream.The speculation was that Rivers had leaned over and the cartridge had dropped out of his pocket into the water. Rivers was an experienced outdoorsman who was familiar with the local area.

James Tedford (1949)​

James E. Tedford, a veteran, allegedly went missing on December 1, 1949, three years to the day after Welden was last seen. Tedford, a resident of the Bennington Soldiers' Home, had been in St. Albans visiting relatives and was accompanied to a local bus station, which was the last location where he was seen. According to witnesses, Tedford got on the bus and was still aboard at the last stop before arriving in Bennington. Somewhere between the last stop and Bennington, he vanished. His belongings were still in the luggage rack and an open bus timetable was on his vacant seat. Tony Jinks discusses this claim, saying that "The popular conception is that he vanished into thin air while on the bus, but like many missing person stories there's a gap between when he was last seen and when he was reported missing a week or so later. Regarding Tedford's disappearance, there's enough evidence to suggest he didn’t "dematerialize,” even though no trace of him was ever found." When Tedford return to Vermount the end of his second spell of military service at the end of WW2 his wife Pearl also had vanished, no trace of her could be found. The property they rented in Fletcher Town had been left abandoned when Tedford returned to Vermount. No one in Tedford's family claimed to be aware of his wife's location. They claimed to have last seen her while she was making her way to the Franklin Amoco shop.

Paul Jepson (1950)​

On October 12, 1950, Paul Jepson, aged 8, had accompanied his mother in a truck. She left her son unattended for about an hour while she fed some pigs. When she returned, her son was nowhere in sight. Search parties were formed to look for the child. Nothing was ever found, though Jepson was wearing a bright red jacket that should have made him more visible. According to one story, bloodhounds tracked the boy to a local highway where, according to local legend, Welden had disappeared four years earlier.

Frieda Langer (1950)​

On October 28, 1950, sixteen days after Jepson had vanished, Frieda Langer, aged 53, and her cousin, Herbert Elsner, left their family campsite near the Somerset Reservoir to go on a hike. During the journey, Langer slipped and fell into a stream. She told Elsner if he would wait, she would go back to the campsite, change clothes and catch up to him. When she did not return, Elsner made his way back to the campsite and discovered that Frieda Langer had not returned, and that nobody had seen her since they had left. Over the next two weeks, five searches were conducted, involving aircraft, helicopters, and up to 300 searchers. No trace of Langer was found during the search.

On May 12, 1951, Frieda Langer's body was found three and a half miles from the campsite in the eastern branch of the Deerfield River, an area that had been only lightly searched seven months previously.No cause of death could be determined because of the condition of her remains. No direct connections have been identified that tie these cases together, other than the general geographic area and time period.
 
Artemur said:

Another reported disappearances in Bennington Triangle​

Carl Herrick (1943)​

Ten miles northeast of Glastenbury town, in 1943, Carl Herrick was out hunting with his cousin Henry. The two split up, and Carl never came back. Three days later, in a strange setting, Henry discovered Carl's body. Carl had been crushed to death, according to the autopsy, and his ribs had pierced his lungs. Large bear prints could be seen all around the deceased, according to Henry. Experts disagree, claiming that a bear would not have suffocated a man to death.

Middie Rivers (1945)​

Between 1945 and 1950, five people disappeared in the area surrounding Bennington, Vermont. The first disappearance occurred on November 12, 1945, when 74-year-old Middie Rivers disappeared while out hunting, in the vicinity of Long Trail Road and Vermont Route 9. Rivers was on a weekend hunting trip with four other hunters up the mountains. The morning of November 12, 1945, Rivers and his son-in-law, Joe Lauzon, were walking together before reaching a fork. Rivers and Lauzon would separate here with Rivers telling Lauzon he'd "only be going a short distance" before he would join them at camp for lunch. As 3pm had come and gone, the rest of the hunting party would begin searching before getting authorities. An extensive search was conducted, but the only evidence discovered was a single rifle cartridge that was found in a stream.The speculation was that Rivers had leaned over and the cartridge had dropped out of his pocket into the water. Rivers was an experienced outdoorsman who was familiar with the local area.

James Tedford (1949)​

James E. Tedford, a veteran, allegedly went missing on December 1, 1949, three years to the day after Welden was last seen. Tedford, a resident of the Bennington Soldiers' Home, had been in St. Albans visiting relatives and was accompanied to a local bus station, which was the last location where he was seen. According to witnesses, Tedford got on the bus and was still aboard at the last stop before arriving in Bennington. Somewhere between the last stop and Bennington, he vanished. His belongings were still in the luggage rack and an open bus timetable was on his vacant seat. Tony Jinks discusses this claim, saying that "The popular conception is that he vanished into thin air while on the bus, but like many missing person stories there's a gap between when he was last seen and when he was reported missing a week or so later. Regarding Tedford's disappearance, there's enough evidence to suggest he didn’t "dematerialize,” even though no trace of him was ever found." When Tedford return to Vermount the end of his second spell of military service at the end of WW2 his wife Pearl also had vanished, no trace of her could be found. The property they rented in Fletcher Town had been left abandoned when Tedford returned to Vermount. No one in Tedford's family claimed to be aware of his wife's location. They claimed to have last seen her while she was making her way to the Franklin Amoco shop.

Paul Jepson (1950)​

On October 12, 1950, Paul Jepson, aged 8, had accompanied his mother in a truck. She left her son unattended for about an hour while she fed some pigs. When she returned, her son was nowhere in sight. Search parties were formed to look for the child. Nothing was ever found, though Jepson was wearing a bright red jacket that should have made him more visible. According to one story, bloodhounds tracked the boy to a local highway where, according to local legend, Welden had disappeared four years earlier.

Frieda Langer (1950)​

On October 28, 1950, sixteen days after Jepson had vanished, Frieda Langer, aged 53, and her cousin, Herbert Elsner, left their family campsite near the Somerset Reservoir to go on a hike. During the journey, Langer slipped and fell into a stream. She told Elsner if he would wait, she would go back to the campsite, change clothes and catch up to him. When she did not return, Elsner made his way back to the campsite and discovered that Frieda Langer had not returned, and that nobody had seen her since they had left. Over the next two weeks, five searches were conducted, involving aircraft, helicopters, and up to 300 searchers. No trace of Langer was found during the search.

On May 12, 1951, Frieda Langer's body was found three and a half miles from the campsite in the eastern branch of the Deerfield River, an area that had been only lightly searched seven months previously.No cause of death could be determined because of the condition of her remains. No direct connections have been identified that tie these cases together, other than the general geographic area and time period.
Click to expand...
Martha Jones (1950)

She vanished on November 6th, 1950. The report did not go out initially because it is said that her parents believed she had run off with her boyfriend to Virginia. However when the parents got in contact with the young man, he assured them that it wasn’t the case. A massive search effort was made near the Glastenbury area within the next few days. However like the rest of the disappeared, nothing turned up. Sixteen year-old Martha Jones had joined the others, apparently vanishing into oblivion.

Francis Christman (1950)

On December 3rd, 1950 Frances Christman disappeared from the face of the Earth while on her way to visit a friend who lived half a mile from her. It had only been a few weeks since Mrs. Langer vanished on October 28th and the townsfolk were already on edge. When the news of Frances Christman’s disappearance hit the newspaper, many were already speculating that a serial killer was lose in the wilderness of Vermont.it was believed that she too had vanished on the Long Trail. It is also speculated that she may have accepted a ride with the wrong person, as the night was bitterly cold.
 
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Artemur said:
I also want to share some local folklore and history about this area.

"Bennington Triangle" is a phrase coined by American author Joseph A. Citro to denote an area of southwestern Vermont within which a number of people went missing between 1945 and 1950. This was further popularized in two books, including Shadow Child, in which Citro devoted chapters to discussion of these disappearances and various items of folklore surrounding the area. Native Americans in the region believed Glastenbury Mountain was cursed in the oldest legends about the Bennington Triangle and Native American tribes also held the belief that a curse overshadowed the surrounding woods. They believed angry spirits that dwelled in the forest and therefore the tribes stayed away. The region around Glastenbury Mountain was home to the Abenaki tribe, which was part of the Algonquin nation. Glastenbury mountain was believed to be the home of the Abenaki god Tabaldak and The Abenaki people believe that the mountain is dangerous as a result of the four winds meeting at the peak, and often changing directions erratically, the Abenaki believed the mountain was cursed. An Algonquin legend warned of a "man-eating stone" was also believed to be on the mountain, opening up and swallowing anyone who stepped on it, according to Revelator Network. There were also stories about large, hairy, half-man, half-animal creatures living throughout the Abenaki region and threatening its residents. Although the Abenaki avoided Glastenbury Mountain, they buried their dead at its base. In later legends, their spirits are believed to haunt the area.According to Citro, the area shares characteristics with the Bridgewater Triangle in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Precisely what area is encompassed in this hypothetical "mystery triangle" is not clear, but it is purportedly centered on Glastenbury Mountain and would include some or most of the area of the towns immediately surrounding it, especially Bennington, Woodford, Shaftsbury, and Somerset. Glastenbury and its neighboring township Somerset were both once moderately thriving logging and industrial towns, but began declining toward the late 19th century and are now essentially ghost towns, unincorporated by an act of the Vermont General Assembly in 1937.Glastenbury was primarily unoccupied by European settlers before the 1700s. The town was incorporated by the governor of New Hampshire in 1761, and six families were residing there in 1791. In 1870, it developed into a logging community, with as many as 240 residents living there.The municipality filed for bankruptcy in 1897, which led to the closure of the lumber mill. The following year, Glastenbury changed its image from a mill town to a summer resort in a last-ditch effort to remain popular. The former workers' housing had been converted into a hotel, and the mill offices had been turned into a casino. Given that the resort was only operational for one summer, it is debatable whether or not this was sufficient to preserve the town. A flood that struck the mountain in the fall of 1898 destroyed the village. According to experts, if it weren't for the clear cutting required to keep the lumber industry afloat, the severity of the flood could not have been quite as catastrophic.Despite the town's valiant efforts, the loss of the trees ultimately proved to be its downfall. With only three residents by 1934, Glastenbury and Somerset were the only towns in Vermont's history to be dissolved, securing their status as the state's only resident ghost town.Unfortunately, the mountain had been overlogged by the 1880s, which caused the trees to die and contributed to the town's demise.
Click to expand...

Wow... re-reviewing the Glastonbury stories has been fun. I have travelled the roads of Glastonbury, tried to buy one of the 9 houses in the town just last year, but we were overbid by others.

You really can feel the mysteries when you travel the dirt roads in this village of no people. It is very special and beautiful.

This is a good book, written by the Curator at the Bennington Museum. It is thorough and a fun read.........

 
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Richard said:
Image result for paula welden


LINK::

mordagrant.wordpress.com

The Bennington Triangle: Efterspel.

Hej på er! Bra kämpat med de fem senaste inläggen om Middie Rivers, Paula Welden, James Tedford, Paul Jepson och Frieda Langer! Helt ärligt, jag menar det. Som utlovat så skulle jag diskutera lite …
mordagrant.wordpress.com mordagrant.wordpress.com
Click to expand...

I wonder if there’s a record of where the person they found was buried. @othram A case for you—unless the remains were later identified as someone else?

Everyone note that the difference between 5’5” and 5’3” is so trivial as to hardly be worth mentioning. (My opinion only, based on the cases I’ve read about where unidentified remains are finally identified.)

MOO
 
I don't know the exact date of the posted article, but it was probably sometime around April 1948 - some 75 years ago.

It is interesting that the article states many factors seemed to match between the unidentified remains and Paula Jean Welden. But then there is that massive two inch height discrepancy!? And keep in mind that these were only partial remains, so any height would only be a rough estimate anyway.

I do not know what the disposition of the remains were, but that would be something to research. Likely the Vermont state medical examiner's office might be the place to start.
 
Louis Knapp saw the girl in the red parka and decided to stop. It was roughly 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 1, 1946, and Knapp was driving along Route 67A in Bennington, Vermont. A building contractor by trade, he was headed for home a few miles away. He asked the girl where she was going.

The girl’s name was Paula Welden, and for the next several weeks, she was the biggest story to hit Bennington in a long time. Her fate would lend credence to the growing belief that this part of the Long Trail was home to an area that seemed to harbor one story after another of people who simply vanished. So many, in fact, that it came to be called the Bennington Triangle.

Though hers was arguably the most prominent vanishing, Welden wasn’t the first person to disappear. On November 12, 1945, a 74-year-old hunting guide named Middie Rivers told his son-in-law, Joe, that he was going to go off by himself but that he’d be back in time for lunch. The group was in Bickford Hollow, near Glastenbury Mountain. The region is near the Long Trail, a more than 270-mile-long hiking path that runs along Vermont’s Green Mountains from Massachusetts toward the Canadian border.
www.mentalfloss.com

The Lost Girl of Vermont's 'Bennington Triangle'

In 1946, college student Paula Welden went for a hike on a local path known as the Long Trail. Her fate has become part of Vermont's folklore.
www.mentalfloss.com www.mentalfloss.com
 
30Anne said:
This post gave me chills.... I am leaning towards foul play now
Click to expand...
It seems highly possible because, if you look at the information, I don't think she ran away and intentionally disappeared. According to the Charley Project, she was probably carrying little or no money at the time, and she left behind an uncashed check her parents had sent her for living expenses. She was also underdressed for the cold weather. Although there were reports that she was somewhat depressed at the time of her disappearance, her family and friends said she only had normal problems for a girl her age and was not unhappy enough to commit suicide or run away from home. She left all her belongings behind, and her family stated that she was not the type of person to leave without warning. If she wanted to run away, she would have prepared very well for her journey. She probably just wanted to hike to the long trail and back to campus, so there are two possibilities. She was murdered by someone and buried somewhere, or she went to the deep forest, lost her track, and died of exposure.
 
Glastonbury is truly filled with mystery... It is in my back yard, and even driving through (the town only has 9 residents) it always gives me chills, with it's history and it's stories....
 
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