The murder of Eugenio DeLeon Vega marked the beginning of a three-decade legal odyssey that exposed flaws in Connecticut’s criminal justice system and raised enduring questions about who really killed the popular grocer. Police initially suspected robbery as the motive and two suspects were arrested, charged, and convicted based on the state’s highly circumstantial case against them despite the glaring inconsistencies at the scene and witnesses who couldn’t stick to their story. This case still has not seen a true ending and it continues to develop as we speak.

On a winter night in 1981, a teenager stepped out of his Essex Junction home and never returned. His disappearance unsettled the quiet Vermont town, leaving his family searching for answers that never came. Years later, a hunter in the woods made a discovery that would finally explain what happened to the missing teen, but not why. Whispers of a stolen check, shifting stories, and a courtroom battle followed, yet the truth is still tangled even to this day. This is the story of a teenager whose life ended far too soon, a family’s years-long fight for justice, and a case that still raises questions about trust, betrayal, and the limits of the system meant to deliver answers.

It should have been a routine school night in Somerville, Massachusetts for 17-year-old Deanna Cremin. Homework, TV, and a walk home with her boyfriend before curfew. But by morning, Deanna was gone. Her body was discovered just a few hundred feet from where she was last seen. The community was stunned: who could do this, and why? For three decades, Deanna’s friends and family have waited for answers, holding onto hope as forensic science evolves. DNA and forensic genetic genealogy is now at the center of the conversation. Could the key to solving this case be hidden in a decades-old sample, waiting for the right technology or the right name to match?

After spending an early Friday evening hunting in the woods behind his home in Vermont, Wilfred “Butch” King III left his home on two crutches, driving off into the fall night never to be seen alive again.  Despite years of investigation, what happened on the night of October 24, 1980 remains a mystery. There are many people, from investigators to family, who say they have strong theories about who is behind Butch’s disappearance, yet decades later, police have never even been close to proving those theories right.

When two women known to spend time in Manchester, New Hampshire’s inner city both dropped out of contact with their families in the late 1990s, it wasn’t entirely out of character from the lives they once led. But for Mindy West’s father, who had watched her working to get her life back on track, he just knew that something was wrong. Rosalie Miller’s brother, too, worried as weeks passed without contact from his sister, despite her history of disappearing. The violent predator on the streets of Manchester and surrounding communities at the time of their murders has never been caught for what they did to Rosalie and Mindy. It’s possible there’s even more than one violent predator still at large, because there’s still no conclusive connection between their cases. Yet the similarities cannot be ignored.

Stefanie Damron’s parents say that their 13-year-old daughter walked out the door and into the woods one September afternoon in 2024, and she hasn’t been seen or heard from since. They have their own suspicions about what happened to her, but so far, a multi-agency effort hasn’t been able to prove what happened to Stefanie more than a year later. Active missing persons cases are some of the most challenging cases to cover. At the same time, active missing persons cases, especially when a child is missing under suspicious or concerning circumstances, are the cases that need the most urgent attention. Uncovering information while leads are still warm is critical. That’s why I’m releasing two episodes today. These two missing persons cases out of Maine need a signal boost in a big way. So please, listen, share, and get their names and faces out there. Investigators need more information to bring them home.

In early 2023, pleas for help reached the small Aroostook County town of Washburn, Maine from across the world in Indonesia. Family members and friends of Attiin Rachmawati Shaw hadn’t heard from her in over a year and the stories they were told about her suspicious disappearance didn’t make any sense. If you look at your feed right now, you’ll see two episodes released on the same day. Both of the Maine missing persons cases I’m covering are in need of some major attention because the investigations are active and ongoing. Getting these names and photos circulating in the public could bring in the leads that investigators need to make progress.

Lena Bruce had a bright future ahead of her. She’d just graduated from a top university and landed a great job, and she was settling into a new apartment in the heart of Boston’s South End neighborhood, already living the life she’d worked for since she was a child. But one night in the summer of 1992, an assailant altered the course of Lena’s dreams and stole that bright future from her. That assailant thought he’d gotten away with it… But there’s no hiding from DNA evidence. It took more than two decades, but justice finally landed, and now there’s one less case left unsolved in New England.

When we first covered the case of Charline Rosemond on Dark Downeast back in January of 2025, her murder was still unsolved. But a few months after the release of the episode, that finally changed. A suspect has since been indicted. So, we’re rereleasing the original episode covering Charline’s case with a new ending and an interview with Charline’s sister Rose, who has been Charline’s fiercest advocate since day one. Rose has heard rumors about the suspect and his friend’s alleged involvement in Charline’s murder for years. She knows the suspect. They all grew up together. They were friends. At least, Charline thought so when she planned to meet up with them on the night her life was stolen. Now, one of those so-called friends is facing charges for her death.

From the moment investigators stepped foot into the home of Leslie and Charlie Buck in the spring of 2002 following a 9-1-1 call, there was something off about the circumstances of Leslie’s untimely death. Leslie had just survived a violent kidnapping two days earlier, and autopsy findings left the manner of her death anything but clear-cut. This episode is a continuation of Leslie’s story. Be sure to listen to The Kidnapping of Leslie Buck (Connecticut) first so you’re caught up on everything that’s happened so far. I’m going to take you through the suspicious death case and all of the evidence that amounted to probable cause for an arrest… As well as the bombshell report and supporting expert testimony that attributed Leslie’s death to something that had nothing to do with the prime suspect.

In the spring of 2002, several urgent 9-1-1 calls came into the Stonington, Connecticut, police department from the same caller just two days apart. First, there was a report of a violent kidnapping, and then, the untimely death of the very same victim. When investigators arrived at the scene of Leslie Buck’s suspicious death fresh off the arrest of the person who kidnapped her, the circumstances didn’t quite add up. In the days ahead, questions about what happened to Leslie would grow more complex and far more unsettling. What began as a shocking crime would soon spiral into a mystery with far more questions than answers.

When Michael Madore vanished almost 30 years ago, the first theories of his disappearance were pulled from letters found at his house: he was supposedly leaving behind his home and belongings and dogs to start a new life in Alaska. That’s the story police in Milo, Maine, first heard when Mike was reported missing. But now, without any sign of life for nearly three decades and no indication that Mike made it to the Last Frontier for a fresh start, his sister and brother-in-law want answers. They want the truth. More than anything, they want to bring Mike home where he can finally rest.

She was out on her usual Sunday night walk when an unknown killer pulled up and shot her, leaving her mortally wounded in the street of what locals considered a safe neighborhood. Why someone would target Denise Robert and take her life still doesn’t make any sense to her family and those who knew her best, even 10 years later. This case is not short on theories. Police have fielded questions about everything from a possible gang initiation to serial killers, but we still don’t know what really happened.

When Christine Grega and her husband, John Grega, set off for a family vacation to Vermont with their young son, it was a trip meant to mend their relationship. Instead, the weekend ended in devastation when Christine was found in their borrowed ski condo, the victim of a violent attack. After two decades filled with investigations, prosecutions, an exoneration, and lawsuits, it still isn’t clear what really happened on the night of September 12, 1994.

Almost 38 years later, the truth about what happened to Kara Laczynski and who is responsible for her death still has yet to be revealed. Two suspects were arrested and charged in the case, but after three trials with three separate juries and weeks upon weeks of testimony, no one has ever been convicted. Here’s what investigators thought—and tried to convince the jury—really happened, based on highly disputed evidence that stirred controversy even before it hit a courtroom. But with the case unsolved, what could be done today with contemporary forensics to figure out once and for all what happened on that October night in 1987?

Starlette Vining disappeared in 1998 and has never been found, yet 15 years after she was last seen in the small town of Presque Isle, Maine, a suspect was convicted of her murder. This is a wide-open look at how a cold missing persons case was successfully investigated and solved despite the fact that the victim’s remains were never recovered prior to trial, or ever. It’s a story about what it takes—and that it is fully possible—to bring a suspicious disappearance investigation to a close and get a violent, diabolical killer out of our communities, even when the only proof a murder occurred is the testimony of questionable witnesses, second-hand stories, and inconclusive physical evidence.

For almost three years, the case of Katharina Reitz Brow languished without information or evidence that could bring a true ending to the search for answers. And then when someone was finally arrested, charged, and convicted of her murder, a hard-fought battle by the suspect’s own sister unearthed evidence in a dusty courthouse basement that changed everything about the case nearly two decades later. Now, just this year, 2025, investigative genetic genealogy has identified the person that investigators believe is actually culpable for Katharina’s death.

For years, the murders of Rhonda Travers and Kathy Perry sat stagnant without any promise of justice, but when an informant surfaced with a story about a suspect who had never before been investigated, it changed everything. “There's always names that come up in every case,” Sgt. Pierce explained. “You know, look at this one, look at that one, whatever. There's always something, though, that just doesn't fit, you know? And these people get ruled out for whatever reason. They had alibis; they had this or what have you. In these two cases, once his name surfaced, everything fit, everything.” This is Part Two of a two-part series.

In a nine-month span between 1986 and 1987, two women were found brutally slain in the same Rhode Island city. Investigators believed that the first was abducted from the side of the road on her way home from work in the middle of the night, while the second appeared to get into an unknown vehicle voluntarily. Both were found a few miles away from the locations they were last seen alive, cruelly discarded in industrial areas. Decades later, thanks to creative contemporary investigative strategies led by a bullish cold case detective, the cases were reenergized, producing new leads, new evidence, and a new suspect who had been right under the noses of law enforcement all along.

Walter Page was a longtime member of the Freemasons in Manchester, New Hampshire. As treasurer of his local lodge, Walter had overseen the philanthropic efforts of their chapter for years, and he had also helped sort out the mess following more than one major financial theft. In the days before his death, Walter was on the verge of exposing yet another. Investigators have been exceptionally vocal about their views of what happened on that snowy night in December of 1995 and have even named a primary suspect in the case. But as the 30-year anniversary approaches, she has not been arrested. No one has, and Walter’s family is still waiting for the day that their father and grandfather gets the justice he deserves. If you have any information relating to the unsolved homicide of Walter Page, please submit a tip to the New Hampshire Department of Justice Cold Case Unit using the tip form. You can also call the Cold Case Unit directly at (603) 271-2663.