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Connie Smith Pt. One · The Path Went Chilly

0:30
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Path Went Chili. I'm Robin, I'm Jules.
0:35
Speaker 2: And I'm Ashley. Let's dive right into this week's case.
0:40
Speaker 3: July sixteenth, nineteen fifty two, Salisbury, Connecticut, while attending summer camp,
0:46
Speaker 3: ten year old Connie Smith skips breakfast and leaves a campground.
0:50
Speaker 3: Numerous witnesses see Connie walking down the road and attempting
0:54
Speaker 3: to hitchhike, but before she reaches the nearest town, she
0:57
Speaker 3: vanishes without a trace. Over the years, there are a
1:01
Speaker 3: number of promising leads, including an anonymous letter stating that
1:05
Speaker 3: Connie is an unidentified murder victim from Arizona named little
1:08
Speaker 3: Miss X, but the investigation fails to turn up any
1:12
Speaker 3: trace of her.
1:13
Speaker 1: After that, the Path Went Chiley. So today we're going
1:17
Speaker 1: to be chronicling an older missing children's case which took
1:20
Speaker 1: place over seventy years ago, the nineteen fifty two disappearance
1:24
Speaker 1: of ten year old Connie Smith. This is the tragic
1:27
Speaker 1: story of a girl who was attending summer camp but
1:30
Speaker 1: then made the inexplicable decision to walk away from the campground,
1:33
Speaker 1: possibly after an altercation with our fellow campers, and she
1:37
Speaker 1: was never seen again. At the time, this case was
1:40
Speaker 1: a pretty big deal because Connie hailed from a wealthy,
1:43
Speaker 1: affluent family and her paternal grandfather just happened to be
1:47
Speaker 1: the former governor of Wyoming, so no expense was spared
1:50
Speaker 1: in the search efforts. For What adds an extra level
1:53
Speaker 1: of intrigue to this case is that it also contains
1:56
Speaker 1: an unusual mystery within a mystery. A decade after Connie
2:00
Speaker 1: went missing, police received an anonymous letter claiming that Connie
2:04
Speaker 1: was an unidentified murder victim known as Little Miss X,
2:07
Speaker 1: whose Skelton remains were found in Arizona in nineteen fifty eight.
2:11
Speaker 1: You'd bethink that proving or disproving that Connie and Little
2:14
Speaker 1: Miss X were the same person would be relatively simple,
2:18
Speaker 1: but there have been numerous complications, and even if the
2:21
Speaker 1: two cases aren't connected, the story of Little Miss X
2:24
Speaker 1: is quite a rabbit hole on its own. So on
2:27
Speaker 1: today's episode, we're going to explore Connie's misths, disappearance and
2:30
Speaker 1: the numerous twists and turns which have ensued from it.
2:34
Speaker 2: What a heartbreaking case from the start. This is really
2:38
Speaker 2: really fascinating because it is one of the older cases
2:40
Speaker 2: that we've talked about but here you have little Connie
2:43
Speaker 2: whose parents drop her off at summer camp and she
2:47
Speaker 2: ends up just going missing, and no one.
2:49
Speaker 4: Knows what happens, and what's so sad?
2:51
Speaker 2: This is like, you know, the same concept as when
2:54
Speaker 2: parents drop their kids off at college or a parent
2:56
Speaker 2: drops their kiddo off at daycare. You're taking your child
2:59
Speaker 2: to a place where they're supposed to have an experience.
3:02
Speaker 2: They're supposed to be learning, making new friends, all of
3:05
Speaker 2: these life skills that you're anticipating that your child's going
3:09
Speaker 2: to get as a benefit and so giving them opportunities.
3:13
Speaker 2: And then the very people who are supposed to be
3:17
Speaker 2: taking care of her are unable to find Connie. And
3:20
Speaker 2: so my heart absolutely shatters because I'm a mom and
3:23
Speaker 2: I drop my babies off of people every single day,
3:26
Speaker 2: knowing that I'm going to go and pick them up
3:28
Speaker 2: after school or after daycare after summer camp gets out,
3:32
Speaker 2: and here Connie is nowhere to be found. Like you said,
3:36
Speaker 2: it's very very possible that she got in an altercation
3:39
Speaker 2: with somebody, that she's homesick, that she got her feelings hurt, right,
3:44
Speaker 2: I didn't feel like she fit in.
3:45
Speaker 4: And then you see reports that maybe she.
3:48
Speaker 2: Was even trying to hitchhike. Was she trying to get
3:50
Speaker 2: home to her parents?
3:51
Speaker 4: It makes it so sad.
3:53
Speaker 2: I want to know more, particularly about this idea that
3:57
Speaker 2: it really should be easy at this point to if
4:00
Speaker 2: I have Connie and little miss X are the same,
4:02
Speaker 2: but I would love.
4:04
Speaker 4: To know more.
4:05
Speaker 3: Our central figure is ten year old Connie Smith, who
4:09
Speaker 3: hails from an affluent family and lives on a sizeable
4:12
Speaker 3: horse ranch in Sundance, Wyoming. Connie's parents are Peter Smith
4:16
Speaker 3: and Helen Jensen, and she is a thirteen year old
4:19
Speaker 3: brother named Nels, who was named after their paternal grandfather, NELLS.
4:23
Speaker 3: Hanson Smith, who served as governor of Wyoming from nineteen
4:27
Speaker 3: thirty nine until nineteen forty three. Peter and Helen have
4:31
Speaker 3: been divorced since nineteen forty nine, but the separation was
4:34
Speaker 3: a pretty amicable one, as Helen was allowed to live
4:37
Speaker 3: in a separate home on the Smith's family ranch, and
4:40
Speaker 3: while Helen had primary custody of Connie, both parents played
4:44
Speaker 3: a significant role in her life. During the summers, Helen
4:48
Speaker 3: usually took Connie to visit her maternal grandmother in Greenwich, Connecticut,
4:52
Speaker 3: but on this particular year, Connie would instead be attending
4:55
Speaker 3: summer camp for the first time. The location in question
4:59
Speaker 3: was Camp's Law, a two hundred and fifty acre YMCA
5:03
Speaker 3: camp located in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, just
5:06
Speaker 3: over three miles outside the town of Salisbury. Connie would
5:10
Speaker 3: spend her time there inside a platform tent with bunk beds,
5:13
Speaker 3: alongside seven other girls. By the morning of Wednesday, July sixteenth,
5:18
Speaker 3: Connie had been at the camp for three weeks. At
5:21
Speaker 3: around seven fifty am, the campers were ready to go
5:24
Speaker 3: to the mess hall for breakfast, but Connie told her
5:27
Speaker 3: tent mates that she was going to the infirmary to
5:29
Speaker 3: return an ice pack. She had been using the ice
5:32
Speaker 3: pack on her bruised hip, which was supposedly caused by
5:36
Speaker 3: a fall off the elevated tent platform the previous evening.
5:39
Speaker 3: The other campers went to breakfast as planned, but Connie
5:43
Speaker 3: never showed up. When they returned to the tent at
5:46
Speaker 3: around eight forty five, they discovered that the ice pack
5:49
Speaker 3: was still on Connie's bunk, but Connie herself was nowhere
5:52
Speaker 3: to be found. The camp director, Ernest Roberts, was soon
5:56
Speaker 3: informed about Connie's absence and in search of the camp
6:00
Speaker 3: ground was performed for her. By eleven thirty, she'd still
6:03
Speaker 3: not been found, so the Connecticut State Police were notified
6:07
Speaker 3: and Connie was officially reported missing. Once word reached Connie's grandfather,
6:12
Speaker 3: former Governor Nel Smith, he used his influence to ensure
6:16
Speaker 3: that a full scale search operation, both on the ground
6:19
Speaker 3: and in the air, would be conducted. This turned out
6:22
Speaker 3: to be one of the very first missing persons cases
6:25
Speaker 3: in which posters of the victim were circulated offering a
6:29
Speaker 3: reward for information, this time for three thousand dollars.
6:34
Speaker 2: And remember this is back in nineteen fifty two, so
6:36
Speaker 2: I had to quickly look this up of how much
6:39
Speaker 2: money that would be today, that three thousand dollars would
6:42
Speaker 2: be about thirty seven thousand dollars. And you know, when
6:46
Speaker 2: you think about it and you look at reward posters
6:48
Speaker 2: even today, even today, you'll see things that say, you know,
6:51
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars, seventy five hundred dollars, and back in
6:55
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty two, they're offering, you know, the today's equivalent
6:59
Speaker 2: of thirty seven thousand dollars from the start.
7:03
Speaker 4: To find this child.
7:04
Speaker 2: And it's fascinating, as just a side fact that one
7:07
Speaker 2: of the very first times you're sitting there with these
7:10
Speaker 2: posters coming out with a reward. Is there any chance
7:14
Speaker 2: that her grandfather, being the governor would have drawn attention
7:19
Speaker 2: to her specifically? I don't feel like it would because
7:22
Speaker 2: of the fact that she just so oddly was at
7:24
Speaker 2: this camp for the first time. It's not as if
7:27
Speaker 2: this was a routine that someone could follow and know.
7:30
Speaker 2: But is it possible Have they ever looked into if
7:32
Speaker 2: grandfather's roots had something to do with her being targeted?
7:36
Speaker 1: I don't think so, because he was governor of Wyoming,
7:39
Speaker 1: and this camp was in Connecticut, and he had not
7:41
Speaker 1: been governor for nearly a decade at that point, and
7:45
Speaker 1: so I don't even know how many people there knew
7:47
Speaker 1: that her grandfather had been the governor of an entirely
7:50
Speaker 1: different estate, and also the fact that she had been
7:53
Speaker 1: in the camp for a couple weeks at that point.
7:55
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking that if someone was targeting her, figuring
7:58
Speaker 1: that she's alone, that they would have gone after her
8:00
Speaker 1: much earlier. But no, it seems like something happened to
8:03
Speaker 1: her because she made the decision to walk away from
8:06
Speaker 1: the camp on that particular morning. And I've always had
8:09
Speaker 1: the feeling it was just kind of a wrong time,
8:11
Speaker 1: wrong place thing where she just crossed paths with the
8:13
Speaker 1: wrong person.
8:15
Speaker 2: And you often see that with children who go missing.
8:17
Speaker 2: It's either someone incredibly close to them, like an estranged
8:21
Speaker 2: parent or uncle or something like that, and or more commonly,
8:25
Speaker 2: it's an opportunistic type of crime, and that was where
8:28
Speaker 2: my default went. Here, you have a camp where if
8:31
Speaker 2: someone's looking for a child, they know that a camp
8:34
Speaker 2: area has potential to have children, and or there's going
8:38
Speaker 2: to be very little supervision of a child hitchhiking, and
8:41
Speaker 2: so someone drives by and sees a young child all
8:43
Speaker 2: by themselves and they think, wow, no one else is
8:46
Speaker 2: even around here, right, and they pull over and take her.
8:49
Speaker 2: So I'm leaning towards this as an opportunistic crime, and
8:53
Speaker 2: this is just a very vulnerable child who is desperate
8:58
Speaker 2: to get out of there for some reason, makes this
9:00
Speaker 2: decision to try to hitchhike home.
9:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the Asia degree case,
9:05
Speaker 3: where she is this young girl unprotected walking on this highway,
9:11
Speaker 3: and there's a parallel there with Connie's case, where she's
9:15
Speaker 3: this ten year old girl who is walking along the
9:18
Speaker 3: side of the road, potentially hitchhiking, which is like inconceivable
9:23
Speaker 3: for a ten year old child. We know that she's
9:25
Speaker 3: taller and appears more mature, which just adds more layers
9:30
Speaker 3: and more complexity to it because somebody who is wanting
9:34
Speaker 3: to approach her or predate on her may assume that
9:38
Speaker 3: she is older than she actually is.
9:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've always felt thought of the Asia degree case
9:44
Speaker 1: while I was researching this episode, and I'll be making
9:46
Speaker 1: a direct reference to it later on in our series
9:49
Speaker 1: of episodes. But it's essentially two mysteries rolled into one,
9:52
Speaker 1: where you wonder what happened to the victim and why
9:56
Speaker 1: did they feel compelled to leave the comfort of their
9:58
Speaker 1: own space to go walking a lot and could they
10:01
Speaker 1: have been meeting someone and what was their ultimate destination.
10:06
Speaker 1: So it soon became a parent that Connie had willingly
10:08
Speaker 1: left the campground on her own and walked a half
10:11
Speaker 1: mile down the driveway to Indian Mountain Road, as no
10:14
Speaker 1: fewer than nine witnesses reported seeing her shortly after she
10:17
Speaker 1: separated from her tentmates. The first of these witnesses was
10:21
Speaker 1: the camp's caretaker, who claimed he saw Connie emerging from
10:24
Speaker 1: the driveway and turning right on Indian Mountain Road and
10:27
Speaker 1: stopping to pick some daisies at eight fifteen am. Now
10:31
Speaker 1: it should be mentioned that Connie was already five feet
10:33
Speaker 1: tall and had developed earlier than normal, so she looked
10:36
Speaker 1: older than the age of ten. The caretaker would state
10:39
Speaker 1: that since Conye looked tall enough and old enough to
10:42
Speaker 1: be one of the camp counselors, he did not have
10:44
Speaker 1: any concern about her leaving the camp and walking down
10:47
Speaker 1: the road alone. After this, a couple out for a
10:50
Speaker 1: morning walk claimed they passed Connie about a quarter mile
10:53
Speaker 1: from the camp's entrance, but they didn't speak to her.
10:56
Speaker 1: It wasn't long before Connie knocked on the door of
10:59
Speaker 1: a nearby house, which was answered by a woman named
11:01
Speaker 1: Alice Walsh. She claimed that Kanye asked for directions to Lakeville,
11:06
Speaker 1: a small village which was part of the town of
11:08
Speaker 1: Salisbury and located just under two miles northeast of the camp.
11:12
Speaker 1: Walsh provided the directions, but said that Conie looked like
11:15
Speaker 1: she had recently been crying. A few minutes later, a
11:19
Speaker 1: pair of maids sitting outside of servant's cottage at another
11:22
Speaker 1: residence on Indian Mountain Road also said that Kanye approached
11:25
Speaker 1: them and asked for directions to Lakeville. The maids told
11:29
Speaker 1: her to keep walking and turn right on Route forty four.
11:32
Speaker 1: The next sighting of Conyie took place on Route forty
11:35
Speaker 1: four when a couple drove past her. They said she
11:37
Speaker 1: appeared to be sticking out her thumb and attempting to hitchhike,
11:40
Speaker 1: but they did not stop for at around eight forty
11:43
Speaker 1: five am, a neither motorists would see Conye walking along
11:47
Speaker 1: Route forty four near the intersection of Belgo Road, but
11:50
Speaker 1: this would turn out to be the last time she
11:52
Speaker 1: was confirmed to be alive. The location was about a
11:56
Speaker 1: half mile outside of Lakeville, but even though residents and
11:59
Speaker 1: business owners from the village were extensively questioned, none of
12:02
Speaker 1: them are called seeing Connie that morning. It seemed a
12:06
Speaker 1: parent that something happened to Connie before she made it
12:08
Speaker 1: to Lakeville, but even though Route forty four usually at
12:11
Speaker 1: heavy traffic, no one saw anything.
12:14
Speaker 2: Okay, A couple of things that I want to ask about.
12:16
Speaker 2: The first just a statement. Miss Reagan is eleven and
12:20
Speaker 2: she's five three, and so when you just started describing Connie,
12:25
Speaker 2: you know, I forget when I hear about a ten
12:27
Speaker 2: year old.
12:27
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, that's a little girl.
12:28
Speaker 2: And then I got to remember, I have one who
12:30
Speaker 2: looks like a sixteen seventeen year old and she's only
12:34
Speaker 2: eleven years old, and so I'm trying to put Connie
12:36
Speaker 2: into that perspective where I go, wait, I have one
12:39
Speaker 2: of those types of kids, and so people treat her
12:42
Speaker 2: like they're talking to a high schooler. Right, They're like, Okay,
12:45
Speaker 2: she's going to go walk to a friend's house, or oh, okay,
12:47
Speaker 2: she's going to go into town.
12:49
Speaker 4: It is what it is. But this is a baby.
12:51
Speaker 2: Connie's ten years old and she's running into person after
12:54
Speaker 2: person asking for directions to the town of Lakeville. We
12:59
Speaker 2: talk about it all the time about eyewitnesses and witnesses
13:02
Speaker 2: to these kinds of things are not always reliable. But
13:05
Speaker 2: when we have so many consistent stories of her appearance,
13:11
Speaker 2: of where she's asking directions to that it looks like
13:14
Speaker 2: she had been crying, you have many people who are
13:17
Speaker 2: telling the police the same story. Back then, their media
13:20
Speaker 2: wouldn't have been as significant as it is now, and
13:23
Speaker 2: so I think that's pretty reliable, which means Connie had
13:27
Speaker 2: her mind made up to go to this place called Lakeville.
13:31
Speaker 2: Did she have familiarity with it? Does someone live there?
13:35
Speaker 2: Is it possible that camp took fild trips into Lakeville?
13:38
Speaker 2: How does a ten year old remember that I want
13:42
Speaker 2: to get to this city if there's nothing significant in it.
13:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, we still don't know if Connie had been to
13:48
Speaker 1: Lakeville on any previous occasions, or how much familiarity she
13:51
Speaker 1: had with the town. As we're going to talk about.
13:54
Speaker 1: One of the prominent theories is that maybe she was
13:56
Speaker 1: just looking for a payphone somewhere in order to call
13:58
Speaker 1: her family. But you mentioned Connie being tall for her age.
14:02
Speaker 1: If you look at photographs of her that are available online,
14:05
Speaker 1: she definitely looks older than ten years old. So you
14:08
Speaker 1: can understand why the caretaker and all these other witnesses
14:11
Speaker 1: were not concerned about the idea for walking down the
14:13
Speaker 1: road alone, because they figured she was just a teenager
14:16
Speaker 1: and knew where she was going. And like you said,
14:19
Speaker 1: this is one case where I completely believe all the
14:22
Speaker 1: eyewitness accounts, even though, as we've talked about, in a
14:25
Speaker 1: lot of other missing persons cases, eyewitnesses can often be mistaken,
14:29
Speaker 1: but here they could tell such consistent stories that each corroborate,
14:32
Speaker 1: each other that I can totally believe that all of
14:35
Speaker 1: them really did see Connie on the road that morning,
14:38
Speaker 1: and that's how we're able to pinpoint a specific point
14:41
Speaker 1: where she just happened to go missing before she reached Lakevil.
14:45
Speaker 3: It can be a weird experience when you're young and
14:49
Speaker 3: people think you're a lot older. Like when I was ten,
14:52
Speaker 3: I was probably about five four. I stopped growing by
14:55
Speaker 3: the time I was thirteen and a hit five nine,
14:58
Speaker 3: but people always assumed that I was older than I
15:01
Speaker 3: was when I was a kid because I.
15:03
Speaker 4: Was so tall.
15:04
Speaker 3: And I remember being even like seven or eight and
15:07
Speaker 3: going trigger treating and having people think that I was
15:09
Speaker 3: like too old to be trigger treating because I was tall.
15:12
Speaker 3: It's a very odd feeling having adults assume a certain
15:17
Speaker 3: thing about you because of your appearance, but your maturity
15:20
Speaker 3: isn't there yet. So I can only imagine what type
15:24
Speaker 3: of experience Connie could have had with any of the
15:27
Speaker 3: adults that she interacted with if she wasn't volunteering her
15:31
Speaker 3: age upfront and being like, Hey, I'm a ten year
15:33
Speaker 3: old kid and I need help. They're just looking at
15:36
Speaker 3: her and they're assuming like she's a teenager. She's got
15:38
Speaker 3: this and they're not really thinking about the danger that
15:41
Speaker 3: could be out there lurking.
15:44
Speaker 1: And pretty much and if she was abducted by a predator,
15:46
Speaker 1: it could have been someone who decided to target her
15:49
Speaker 1: because they assumed she was a teenager and didn't even
15:51
Speaker 1: realize that she was ten years old until after they
15:54
Speaker 1: took her.
15:57
Speaker 3: So upon learning of Connie's disappearance, her parents, Peter Smith
16:01
Speaker 3: and Helen Jensen, immediately traveled to Salisbury and were actively
16:05
Speaker 3: involved in the search efforts for her. In spite of
16:09
Speaker 3: their divorce. There was no reason to suspect that either
16:12
Speaker 3: parent had any knowledge or involvement in their daughter's disappearance.
16:17
Speaker 3: Given the family's wealth, there was some speculation that Connie's
16:21
Speaker 3: disappearance may have been around some kidnapping, but no ransom
16:24
Speaker 3: demand ever arrived. Peter personally chartered and flew a plane
16:29
Speaker 3: over the area to search for Connie, and the locals
16:32
Speaker 3: often called him the Marlborough Man since he was a
16:35
Speaker 3: six foot seven cowboy with a ten gallon hat who
16:38
Speaker 3: also rode horses through the forest to look for his daughter.
16:42
Speaker 3: The one thing which no one could understand is why
16:46
Speaker 3: Connie walked away from camp sloane to begin with, as
16:49
Speaker 3: she was not carrying any money and had left behind
16:52
Speaker 3: her extra clothing and belongings. Since July eleventh happened to
16:57
Speaker 3: be Connie's tenth birthday, her mother in matun Cornal grandmother
17:00
Speaker 3: had gone to visit her at the camp two days later.
17:03
Speaker 3: According to Helen, Connie appeared to be in good spirits
17:06
Speaker 3: and was looking forward to the upcoming weekend because there
17:10
Speaker 3: was a square dance in horse show that she wanted
17:12
Speaker 3: to attend. Connie even asked her mother if she could
17:15
Speaker 3: stay at the camp a little longer than planned. Helen
17:18
Speaker 3: said no because she had already arranged Connie's trip back
17:21
Speaker 3: home to Wyoming, and Connie didn't seem to mind. Since
17:25
Speaker 3: the children at camp were not allowed to carry money,
17:28
Speaker 3: Helen deposited five dollars in Connie's camp account, which could
17:31
Speaker 3: be used for future purchases. A half written letter was
17:35
Speaker 3: also found in Connie's belongings, where she described what was
17:38
Speaker 3: a wonderful time she was having at camp, but it
17:41
Speaker 3: was unfinished. However, one camp official would recall seeing Connie
17:45
Speaker 3: crying right after her mother and grandmother left, and there
17:49
Speaker 3: were hints that she was very homesick and things were
17:52
Speaker 3: not as good for her at the camp as she
17:54
Speaker 3: let on.
17:55
Speaker 2: Well, that's incredibly sad. I feel like a ten year old.
17:58
Speaker 2: Why would she hide it? Why would she ad ask
18:00
Speaker 2: for more time at the camp if she wasn't enjoying herself.
18:04
Speaker 2: I wonder if there could have been somebody coercing her
18:07
Speaker 2: or manipulating her at the camp that was also a
18:11
Speaker 2: predator and then ends up apprehending her away from camp.
18:14
Speaker 2: But I just don't see a ten year old who
18:17
Speaker 2: has access to their grandmother saying oh, I'm loving it,
18:22
Speaker 2: Oh I need to stay here longer, all of these
18:24
Speaker 2: other things, because in any grandma even superseding a mom's expectations,
18:29
Speaker 2: if a grandmother thought their baby was struggling, right, they
18:32
Speaker 2: would say, oh, I'm taking my grandbaby home. And so
18:35
Speaker 2: wouldn't you think that she just closed that if she
18:37
Speaker 2: wasn't happy.
18:39
Speaker 1: I guess it's possible that she was genuinely enjoying her
18:42
Speaker 1: time at the camp at that moment, but then something
18:45
Speaker 1: happened in the next few days which suddenly changed her
18:48
Speaker 1: whole outlook, and that's why she decided to leave. So,
18:52
Speaker 1: in addition to her bruised hit from the night before.
18:55
Speaker 1: Connie suffered another injury on the morning of her disappearance,
18:58
Speaker 1: which left her with a bloody noe and broke her eyeglasses.
19:02
Speaker 1: Since Connie was very nearsighted, she really could not see
19:04
Speaker 1: much at all without her glasses. The official story was
19:08
Speaker 1: that Connie's bloody nose and broken glasses were a cos
19:11
Speaker 1: when one of her tentmates accidentally kicked her in the
19:13
Speaker 1: face while climbing out of her bunk. However, there were
19:16
Speaker 1: rumors that this may have actually been the result of
19:18
Speaker 1: a violent altercation, and that Connie did not get along
19:21
Speaker 1: well with most of her tentmates. Since Connie was raised
19:25
Speaker 1: on a horse ranch and was known for being a tomboy,
19:27
Speaker 1: and many of the other girls hailed from New York City,
19:30
Speaker 1: there could have been a cultural divide which caused them
19:33
Speaker 1: to clash. Camp Sloan did have a telephone, but officials
19:36
Speaker 1: discouraged the children from using it, so this created speculation
19:40
Speaker 1: that a violent altercation may have prompted Kannie to decide
19:44
Speaker 1: she wanted to go home. She then decided to walk
19:46
Speaker 1: away from the camp and was heading towards Lakeville in
19:49
Speaker 1: order to find a payphone to call her mother to
19:51
Speaker 1: come pick her up.
19:53
Speaker 2: Okay, it's definitely possible. She's clearly presenting with physical harm
19:57
Speaker 2: to her body.
19:58
Speaker 4: But if these are these city.
20:00
Speaker 2: Slicker girls from New York City and she's a country girl,
20:04
Speaker 2: isn't it possible too that those New York girls would
20:07
Speaker 2: be like.
20:08
Speaker 4: Oh, Connie hit me. Connie's rough housing with me.
20:12
Speaker 2: I wonder if they would really allow themselves to just be,
20:16
Speaker 2: you know, in a violent altercation and then not then
20:18
Speaker 2: go tattle on Connie, right, or people wouldn't tell that
20:22
Speaker 2: something was going on if they're not used to this
20:25
Speaker 2: rough housing and tomboy attitude. So it's almost like Connie
20:28
Speaker 2: would be someone who was like, I don't care that
20:30
Speaker 2: there was a fight, versus these city type girls who
20:33
Speaker 2: might be like, what the heck there's violence at summer camp.
20:36
Speaker 2: But I'm wondering, is there any potential that someone older,
20:39
Speaker 2: even like an older counselor but not an adult, could
20:42
Speaker 2: have been maybe trying to do something to Connie, you know,
20:46
Speaker 2: take advantage of her. She does present as an older girl,
20:50
Speaker 2: and you have these you know, you have predators, even
20:55
Speaker 2: teenage predators, who are looking for someone who's vulnerable. Is
20:59
Speaker 2: it possible that some of the physical injuries could have
21:02
Speaker 2: come from maybe her getting into an altercation where she
21:05
Speaker 2: was about to be assaulted or being abused, and then
21:08
Speaker 2: once that happened, she says, I got to get out
21:10
Speaker 2: of here somehow.
21:12
Speaker 1: That is a possibility, but investigators never found any evidence
21:15
Speaker 1: to support it. I do think it could be plausible
21:18
Speaker 1: that even if Conye decided to leave, that if there
21:21
Speaker 1: was some other counselor at the camp who had access
21:23
Speaker 1: to a vehicle or something, they could have followed her
21:26
Speaker 1: and picked her up, and that's why she vanished without
21:28
Speaker 1: a trace. I mean, I know that they never found
21:31
Speaker 1: any evidence that anything like this was going on at
21:34
Speaker 1: the camp, but I do have to add the disclaimer
21:35
Speaker 1: that this was nineteen fifty two and there just wasn't
21:38
Speaker 1: as much general public knowledge about child abuse and predators.
21:42
Speaker 1: So it does make me wonder, because people were more
21:45
Speaker 1: trusting back than that if there was a counselor or
21:48
Speaker 1: anyone affiliated with the camp who was manipulative and abusive,
21:51
Speaker 1: that they could have fooled the authorities and that they
21:55
Speaker 1: just slipped under the radar and nobody looked at them
21:58
Speaker 1: as a potential suspect.
22:00
Speaker 2: And remember, even if it was identified this idea that
22:03
Speaker 2: Connie would have known you keep your mouth shut, that
22:05
Speaker 2: it's just quote something that happens, and that men do
22:09
Speaker 2: that girls keep their mouth shut. It was very very
22:14
Speaker 2: much led by just a lack of knowledge and ignorance,
22:17
Speaker 2: that little boys don't get hurt, that it's just something
22:21
Speaker 2: you men can't control themselves, and all of these these
22:24
Speaker 2: myths that were so deeply believed, really, I mean still
22:29
Speaker 2: are believed.
22:29
Speaker 4: By some, you know, some people.
22:31
Speaker 2: But back in the fifties, I think even if something
22:33
Speaker 2: was happening to Connie, it's not like that's something you
22:36
Speaker 2: just go up to another counselor and you say, I
22:37
Speaker 2: need help. Now today, I think children are being taught
22:41
Speaker 2: and children see examples of using your voice to fight
22:45
Speaker 2: for yourself. But back then, I don't know that she
22:48
Speaker 2: could have done that, and leaving could have been the
22:49
Speaker 2: next best thing.
22:51
Speaker 3: It can take children, like you know, twenty something years
22:54
Speaker 3: to talk about abuse that they've suffered when they were little.
22:57
Speaker 3: They don't always come forward and they don't always say something.
23:01
Speaker 3: It's not a guarantee even now, But in the nineteen fifties,
23:05
Speaker 3: I think that the amount of shame that would have
23:07
Speaker 3: been attached, and probably the lack of dialogue around sex
23:13
Speaker 3: and around what to do in a situation where an
23:16
Speaker 3: adult touches you inappropriately, it just wouldn't have been there.
23:20
Speaker 3: And so while she's in the actual summer camp with
23:25
Speaker 3: if that scenario is correct that you're proposing ash, then
23:28
Speaker 3: she may have been very scared to say something. She
23:30
Speaker 3: knows she can't leave right away, and what would the
23:33
Speaker 3: ramifications be, what type of punishment could she receive, And
23:37
Speaker 3: so she might have just been weighing her options and
23:40
Speaker 3: she thought that like the best option was to leave.
23:43
Speaker 3: And then if that is the case, then you've got
23:46
Speaker 3: two potential scenarios that the person who could have done
23:50
Speaker 3: that to her then follows her out and disposes of
23:54
Speaker 3: her in some way or ends her life, or you
23:57
Speaker 3: have an opportunistic abduction that happens after she suffered some
24:02
Speaker 3: type of abuse, if that theory is indeed correct. But
24:05
Speaker 3: to me, it would ring really true that that would
24:08
Speaker 3: be a real catalyst for wanting to leave and wanting
24:12
Speaker 3: to get out of there and potentially putting yourself at
24:15
Speaker 3: risk being a ten year old child going out into
24:18
Speaker 3: the world and hitchhiking and relying on the kindness of
24:21
Speaker 3: strangers to get you from point A to point B.
24:25
Speaker 4: And it could be just as easy as you know.
24:28
Speaker 2: Remember I got a eleven year old and twelve year
24:30
Speaker 2: old little girl, and so it could also be the opposite,
24:34
Speaker 2: where they come home and they tell me the nightmare
24:36
Speaker 2: stories from school, and I wait for it to get bad,
24:39
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, that's that's the bad thing that
24:41
Speaker 2: happened to day at school. Okay, Well, you know, we
24:44
Speaker 2: talk through it, and I'm thinking, man, what a blessed day,
24:46
Speaker 2: you know, like, Okay, so she told you she hated
24:49
Speaker 2: your haircut, or she told you that no one wants
24:51
Speaker 2: you to sit at the lunch table, which at the
24:52
Speaker 2: time is devastating, But you know, it's possible too that
24:56
Speaker 2: in Connie's mind, something simple like children being mean bullies
25:01
Speaker 2: is also what triggered her. So there's so many options,
25:04
Speaker 2: and so far we really don't know anything about even
25:07
Speaker 2: the circumstances at camp.
25:10
Speaker 3: Anyway, Investigators pursued quite a few leads in the search
25:13
Speaker 3: for Connie, and some of them were quite ridiculous. For example,
25:18
Speaker 3: there was a traveler encampment located near camp's loan, so
25:22
Speaker 3: officers from the Connecticut State police would hide in the
25:25
Speaker 3: forest for several days to watch over the encampment to
25:28
Speaker 3: see if Connie was being held there against her will,
25:31
Speaker 3: but there was no sign of her. However, one ridiculous
25:35
Speaker 3: lead took the cake. And we'll say this right up front.
25:39
Speaker 3: What we're about to say might be the goofiest thing
25:41
Speaker 3: that we've ever shared of this podcast, so believe it
25:44
Speaker 3: or not, is so called telepathic psychic chorus named Lady
25:48
Speaker 3: Wonder was brought in to assist the investigation. You see,
25:52
Speaker 3: whenever Lady Wonder was asked a question, she would answer
25:55
Speaker 3: it by using her snout on a lever to flip
25:58
Speaker 3: up alphabet cards on a giant keyboard. No seriously, Lady
26:03
Speaker 3: Wonder was a popular attraction during this time period, and
26:06
Speaker 3: in the months prior to Connie's disappearance, she apparently once
26:10
Speaker 3: provided information which helped police find the body of a
26:13
Speaker 3: missing Massachusetts boy. At the very least, this meant that
26:16
Speaker 3: Lady Wonder had better success rates than Sylvia Brown.
26:20
Speaker 4: So the horse was.
26:21
Speaker 3: Asked questions about what happened to Connie Smith, and she
26:24
Speaker 3: apparently spelled out Los Angeles well. Since Peter Smith was
26:28
Speaker 3: desperate to try anything, he traveled the Los Angeles to
26:31
Speaker 3: search for Connie, but this lead went nowhere. Regardless, Peter
26:36
Speaker 3: used his time in LA to book an appearance on
26:38
Speaker 3: the popular TV show ar at Link Ladder's House Party,
26:41
Speaker 3: which gave his missing daughter's case national exposure.
26:46
Speaker 4: This has mixed emotions. What I mean, there are anything
26:51
Speaker 4: almost that they used.
26:53
Speaker 2: To predict the Super Bowl, you know, or I don't know,
26:57
Speaker 2: to predict the election or things like that, which always
26:59
Speaker 2: makes me giggle, like the puppy.
27:01
Speaker 4: Super bowlid and things like that.
27:03
Speaker 2: But the poor horse, and I'm so sorry that I
27:07
Speaker 2: couldn't hold back my laughter when you said better success
27:09
Speaker 2: rates than Sylvia Brown, because man, what a interesting bird
27:13
Speaker 2: that lady is. But yeah, pack it, peck it out, kiddo.
27:18
Speaker 2: Flip those alphabet cards as best you can. What's sad
27:21
Speaker 2: is that when you actually think about the implications of
27:25
Speaker 2: a tool like that, where like you said, the poor
27:27
Speaker 2: dad is so incredibly desperate that he's like, Okay, what
27:31
Speaker 2: information did you get? You have this incredibly successful animal
27:36
Speaker 2: being used as a tool to help in these cases,
27:38
Speaker 2: and he and it spelled out something in my case
27:41
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, and he not only puts his resources there,
27:45
Speaker 2: but his time and his hope in that lead in
27:48
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, and now I'm grateful he was able to also
27:50
Speaker 2: pair it with something that hopefully did provide a sound
27:54
Speaker 2: launchboard for information about Connie to be shared. But you
27:57
Speaker 2: know it's it's hilarious.
27:59
Speaker 4: I couldn't hold in my aughter. But then you step back.
28:02
Speaker 2: And you think about the dad, and this dad said like,
28:05
Speaker 2: I'll take it, Like that's the best information he had
28:07
Speaker 2: at the time. To say I'll take it and I'll
28:10
Speaker 2: go how incredibly heartbreaking.
28:13
Speaker 1: And if you want a major rabbit hole, just do
28:15
Speaker 1: a Google search on Lady Wonder, because she was famous
28:18
Speaker 1: enough back in the fifties that she has her own
28:20
Speaker 1: Wikipedia page like that. This was not the only case
28:22
Speaker 1: that she worked on involving missing children. And while it
28:25
Speaker 1: seems hilarious now, it's crazy to think that back in
28:27
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties people took this seriously and at that
28:30
Speaker 1: if your child goes missing and you have no other leads,
28:33
Speaker 1: you're going to think, while this horse found at least
28:35
Speaker 1: one missing child, so I guess we'll go to her
28:37
Speaker 1: because we're desperate.
28:39
Speaker 3: Didn't they used to have all of those segments on
28:43
Speaker 3: was it on unsolved mysteries where they would have like
28:45
Speaker 3: the cat that was at like palliative care or or
28:50
Speaker 3: like a retirement home, and the cat would always know
28:52
Speaker 3: when people were going to die.
28:54
Speaker 1: Yes, they had quite a few segments like that where
28:56
Speaker 1: they would barker something or react and then their owner
28:59
Speaker 1: had a seize and stuff and they would say that
29:01
Speaker 1: my pet like sensed that I was going to have
29:04
Speaker 1: this medical issue and pretty much saved my life. So
29:07
Speaker 1: I do think there is something to that, but it's
29:09
Speaker 1: much more likelyhearted when you see these so called psychic
29:12
Speaker 1: animals working on stories involving medical issues and saving lives
29:16
Speaker 1: rather than dealing with missing children and grief stricken parents. However,
29:22
Speaker 1: because of the extensive publicity surrounding the case, there would
29:25
Speaker 1: be a number of false tips, sidings, and confessions over
29:28
Speaker 1: the years. One of the most infamous false confessions was
29:31
Speaker 1: made by a death row inmate named George Davies, who
29:34
Speaker 1: was incarcerated at Connecticut's Weathersfield State Prison for the murders
29:38
Speaker 1: of two girls in nineteen fifty nine. Davies confessed that
29:42
Speaker 1: he had been responsible for the murder of Connie Smith
29:45
Speaker 1: and offered to lead investigators to a spot near the
29:48
Speaker 1: Naugatuck River, where he claimed he had buried her remains.
29:51
Speaker 1: When police took Davies to the location, they did not
29:54
Speaker 1: find anything, but right before he was executed in the
29:57
Speaker 1: electric chair, Davies finally admitted that he had lied about
30:00
Speaker 1: murdering Connie and only made up the story so that
30:03
Speaker 1: he would have an opportunity to leave his prison cell
30:06
Speaker 1: and spend some time outdoors in the sunshine. Another unusual
30:10
Speaker 1: tip took place in nineteen fifty five when a Connecticut
30:13
Speaker 1: state trooper named Leo Turcott received a phone call from
30:16
Speaker 1: a man calling himself William Dugan, who claimed he was
30:19
Speaker 1: a former carnival worker and had information about the disappearance
30:23
Speaker 1: of Connie Smith. Dugan said he was calling from Montreal
30:27
Speaker 1: and wanted to arrange a meeting with Turcott to share
30:29
Speaker 1: everything he knew well. Turcott's commanding officer ultimately decided that
30:34
Speaker 1: he wanted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to pursue this
30:37
Speaker 1: tip instead and turn it over to them. After that,
30:40
Speaker 1: Turcott had no idea what became of this lead and
30:43
Speaker 1: pretty much forgot about it. But a lightbulb suddenly went
30:46
Speaker 1: on over his head thirty three years later, when he
30:49
Speaker 1: learned about the arrest of a man named William Henry Redmond.
30:53
Speaker 2: Okay, are you going to tell me more about William
30:56
Speaker 2: Henry Redmond in a minette? Yeah, momentarily Okay, I was like,
30:59
Speaker 2: who is this man? Okay, because they got the trooper
31:03
Speaker 2: gets a call from a man named William Dugan who
31:06
Speaker 2: says he's a former carnival worker and has some information,
31:09
Speaker 2: and then there's going to be this other William. I
31:11
Speaker 2: assume that sparks some kind of interest there. But you know,
31:15
Speaker 2: God bless George Davies confesses to this, right, And it's
31:20
Speaker 2: incredibly infuriating when you think about this idea that if
31:23
Speaker 2: the family is aware that he confesses, they are going
31:28
Speaker 2: to believe that this is this is solved.
31:30
Speaker 4: Do we know that the parents had this information?
31:34
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, she they definitely would have heard about this.
31:36
Speaker 2: Oh man, Okay, So at that point, right, they're thinking, Okay,
31:40
Speaker 2: after a couple of years, we have this information, we
31:43
Speaker 2: know that something happened to her.
31:45
Speaker 4: She is deceased.
31:46
Speaker 2: Because again, if you don't have a body and you're
31:48
Speaker 2: not sure what happened, there's so many things that go
31:51
Speaker 2: on in your head, like maybe she's blossomwhere maybe she
31:54
Speaker 2: has amnesia and a family founder and they raised her
31:57
Speaker 2: as their own because she didn't know who she was,
31:58
Speaker 2: and maybe she's in, you know, being hurt by somebody
32:01
Speaker 2: and being held captive. So all those things would be
32:04
Speaker 2: going through your head, but not now, because now someone
32:06
Speaker 2: has confessed.
32:07
Speaker 4: Now you have peace.
32:08
Speaker 2: You know that he is about to be executed, so
32:12
Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about him hurting anybody else
32:14
Speaker 2: these kinds of things because you have some answers, and
32:16
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden you find out, oh my gosh,
32:18
Speaker 2: he falsely confesses just so he can get out of
32:21
Speaker 2: his cell and get some attention for himself, which is
32:24
Speaker 2: not unheard of. You see that very commonly. Hey, you
32:28
Speaker 2: come talk to me, and I have this information. And
32:30
Speaker 2: all they've been doing is playing with a deck of
32:31
Speaker 2: cold case playing cards. You know they don't have any information.
32:34
Speaker 2: But it's heartbreaking because there was a hint of promise
32:40
Speaker 2: and an idea that we know what happened to her,
32:43
Speaker 2: and then all that was ripped away until dun dundum.
32:47
Speaker 2: This other man's name comes up, tell me more about him.
32:50
Speaker 3: So in April of nineteen fifty one, an eight year
32:53
Speaker 3: old girl named Jane Marie Altof was strangled to death
32:57
Speaker 3: while attending a carnival in Trainer, Pennsylvania. Fingerprints from the
33:01
Speaker 3: murder scene were eventually matched to William Henry Redmond. Why
33:05
Speaker 3: do they always have three names?
33:06
Speaker 1: I guess just so that the innocent William Redmans don't
33:09
Speaker 1: get falsely implicated in the tribes.
33:11
Speaker 3: Yes, a Ferrisville operator with a record for child molestation.
33:16
Speaker 3: A warrant was issued for his arrest, but for over
33:19
Speaker 3: three decades police could not find him until Redmond was
33:23
Speaker 3: eventually tracked down to Nebraska and charged with the murder
33:26
Speaker 3: in January of nineteen eighty eight. After hearing about this
33:30
Speaker 3: in the news, Leo Turcott suddenly remembered the phone call
33:33
Speaker 3: he'd received in nineteen fifty five and whatdered if perhaps
33:37
Speaker 3: William Dugan might have been Redmond, so he notified the authorities.
33:42
Speaker 3: While in a prison hospital awaiting trial, Redmond allegedly told
33:46
Speaker 3: a fellow inmate that he was responsible for the murders
33:48
Speaker 3: of three girls besides Jane Marie Altoff. Redmond was questioned
33:53
Speaker 3: about the disappearance of Connie Smith, but denied being responsible and.
33:56
Speaker 5: Passed a polygraph.
33:59
Speaker 3: Since Redmond was sixty six years old by this point
34:01
Speaker 3: and suffering from heart disease and emphysema. It was ultimately
34:05
Speaker 3: decided that he was too ill to stand trial for
34:08
Speaker 3: Jane Marie's murder. He died in nineteen ninety two, but
34:11
Speaker 3: investigators were unable to find any link between him and
34:15
Speaker 3: Connie or place him in the Connecticut area at the
34:18
Speaker 3: times she went missing.
34:20
Speaker 2: Okay, so when you look at this case of the
34:22
Speaker 2: child in nineteen fifty one strangled to death while attending
34:26
Speaker 2: this carnival, we find out that that case gets solved,
34:31
Speaker 2: and they're thinking that this is a direct tie to Connie,
34:34
Speaker 2: or at least shows some kind of semblance to this
34:38
Speaker 2: idea that there's already a little girl who's been hurt
34:40
Speaker 2: not to you know, and then all of a sudden,
34:42
Speaker 2: Connie's is unsolved. Do you guys, do you guys feel
34:46
Speaker 2: that there's a link here?
34:48
Speaker 1: Well, the link is pretty tenuous because the only reason
34:51
Speaker 1: that Turcott thought about it decades after the fact is
34:54
Speaker 1: because this William Dugan claimed that he was a carnival
34:56
Speaker 1: worker and had information about Connie's misdisappearance. And then he
35:00
Speaker 1: hears about this carnival worker William Henry Redmond, who has
35:03
Speaker 1: been arrested for the murder of another girl, and he
35:06
Speaker 1: starts thinking, Hm, could this have been the mysterious William
35:09
Speaker 1: Dugan and was he trying to confess to Connie's murder.
35:12
Speaker 1: But of course, by this point Redman was in a
35:14
Speaker 1: prison hospital and he was directly questioned about Connie's disappearance.
35:18
Speaker 1: But even though he allegedly said that he had killed
35:21
Speaker 1: other girls, he said that he had nothing to do
35:23
Speaker 1: with Connie's disappearance. So it's a very tentative connection. But
35:26
Speaker 1: I am glad that Turcotte still had it in the
35:29
Speaker 1: back of his mind three decades after the fact, in
35:32
Speaker 1: order to check it. But even though Redmond, because he
35:35
Speaker 1: was a carnival worker, would have traveled around the United
35:37
Speaker 1: States quite a bit during the nineteen fifties, they just
35:40
Speaker 1: couldnot fight anything to prove that he was in Connecticut
35:43
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty two.
35:45
Speaker 2: He did pass a polygraph in the eighties, and so
35:48
Speaker 2: you know, those cannot be admissible in corpor they do
35:50
Speaker 2: provide a tool for law enforcement.
35:52
Speaker 4: And so for someone who's so open.
35:54
Speaker 2: About, look, I've killed multiple girls, anyone who's comfortable saying
35:58
Speaker 2: that and this point, he's already sick and you know
36:02
Speaker 2: there's issues going on. Why would he deny it at
36:05
Speaker 2: that point. I mean, this is three decades later, so
36:08
Speaker 2: he doesn't really have much longer to live, and he's
36:10
Speaker 2: very open about the crimes he's committed. So in my
36:13
Speaker 2: mind when I heard this, it's like, it's interesting because
36:16
Speaker 2: there are these.
36:16
Speaker 4: Kind of loose connections.
36:18
Speaker 2: But I feel like he would have just said, like,
36:20
Speaker 2: you know what, she is possibly one of the ones.
36:23
Speaker 2: Maybe she's one of the ones I don't remember, But
36:25
Speaker 2: he flat out says no, Ann passes a polygraph.
36:30
Speaker 1: Another individual who popped up in the radar as a
36:33
Speaker 1: suspect was a traveling jewelry salesman from Indianapolis named Frederick Pope.
36:37
Speaker 1: In April of nineteen fifty three, Pope walked into an
36:40
Speaker 1: Ohio police station and confess to being involved in the
36:43
Speaker 1: murder of Connie Smith. According to Pope, he had been
36:46
Speaker 1: driving along Route forty four with an accomplice named Jack
36:49
Speaker 1: Walker when they picked up Connie hitchhiking and promised her
36:53
Speaker 1: a ride all the way to her home in Wyoming.
36:56
Speaker 1: Later on, when Connie complained they weren't taking the right route,
36:59
Speaker 1: Walker responded by murdering her. POPEA Walker subsequently buried Connie's
37:04
Speaker 1: body near highway in Arizona, but the two men later
37:07
Speaker 1: got into an argument, which led the Pope beating Walker
37:10
Speaker 1: to death with a tire iron and burying his body. Well.
37:13
Speaker 1: Upon closer scrutiny, Pope's story completely fell apart. It turned
37:18
Speaker 1: out that four years earlier, Pope confessed to killing and
37:21
Speaker 1: bearing another man in Los Angeles, but this story turned
37:24
Speaker 1: out not to be true, and the authorities began to
37:27
Speaker 1: suspect that Jack Walker did not actually exist. Pope finally
37:31
Speaker 1: admitted that the entire story about Connie's murder was a
37:34
Speaker 1: hoax and that he only made it up because he
37:36
Speaker 1: had a history of mental issues and wanted to be
37:38
Speaker 1: committed to a hospital. But oddly enough, there would eventually
37:42
Speaker 1: be another intriguing lead in this case, which linked Kannie
37:45
Speaker 1: to Arizona.
37:47
Speaker 2: Okay, well, before you get there, what is up with
37:49
Speaker 2: people just wanting to claim this, you know, claim to
37:52
Speaker 2: fame with Connie's disappearance.
37:54
Speaker 4: This one's bizarre.
37:57
Speaker 2: He goes into depth, not only and it would have
37:59
Speaker 2: made sense, like Okay, my friend and I were riding
38:02
Speaker 2: down the road, we see this young girl, and again
38:05
Speaker 2: they're probably assuming she's like fourteen fifteen because of the
38:07
Speaker 2: way she looks, and they pick her up, let's say
38:10
Speaker 2: they assault her, and then they decide to kill her
38:13
Speaker 2: to get away, get away with it, and then two
38:17
Speaker 2: people know information.
38:19
Speaker 4: It's not a good thing when.
38:20
Speaker 2: You're a criminal to have somebody who knows information, especially
38:24
Speaker 2: if you get into a quarrel with them, or if
38:26
Speaker 2: you think that they're going to turn on you. So
38:28
Speaker 2: the story actually had me quite excited at first, so
38:31
Speaker 2: this could be a lead.
38:33
Speaker 4: And then you.
38:34
Speaker 2: Realize I was waiting for you to say Jack's alive,
38:37
Speaker 2: but there isn't even a Jack.
38:38
Speaker 4: And so this man.
38:40
Speaker 2: Has so many disturbing stories he can weave multiple deaths.
38:45
Speaker 4: He's weaving into it.
38:46
Speaker 2: I pray to god he actually got committed to a hospital,
38:49
Speaker 2: because this is beyond just a storyteller who wants attention.
38:53
Speaker 2: This is someone who really has a mind that's quite
38:55
Speaker 2: quite dark.
38:57
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's not uncommon for people to
38:59
Speaker 1: falsely can fast to murders that they did commit in
39:01
Speaker 1: order to receive attention, but I think it's especially bizarre
39:04
Speaker 1: when people falsely confess to murdering children. Because that's an
39:07
Speaker 1: act where you're considered to be the ultimate evil and
39:10
Speaker 1: everyone will hate you. So why even if you get attention,
39:13
Speaker 1: why would you like claim that you murdered a ten
39:15
Speaker 1: year old girl when this didn't actually happen.
39:19
Speaker 3: On October thirty first, nineteen fifty eight, a pair of
39:23
Speaker 3: deer hunters found the skeletal remains of a young girl
39:26
Speaker 3: on Skinner Ridge, a hillside off a dirt road in
39:29
Speaker 3: Cocanino County, Arizona. The location was near the town of
39:33
Speaker 3: Williams and about ten miles southeast of the Grand Canyon.
39:37
Speaker 3: The victim was believed to have been either white or Hispanic,
39:40
Speaker 3: and between eleven and seventeen years old, and it was
39:44
Speaker 3: estimated that she had been deceased for around nine to
39:47
Speaker 3: eighteen months. Since the victim could not be identified, she
39:51
Speaker 3: was given the nickname little Miss X. Little Miss X
39:55
Speaker 3: was unclothed when she was found, but when the area
39:58
Speaker 3: was searched again a short time later, some articles of
40:01
Speaker 3: clothing suddenly appeared. This clothing included a white wool cardigan
40:05
Speaker 3: and brown capri pants, but oddly enough, these articles appeared
40:09
Speaker 3: to be too big to belong to the victim. Other
40:12
Speaker 3: items were found near the scene, including a comb, a
40:15
Speaker 3: jar of Pond's cold cream, and a blue plastic nail
40:18
Speaker 3: filecase which had the letters P and R engraved on them.
40:22
Speaker 3: While there was speculation that this nail file case might
40:25
Speaker 3: have belonged to Donnis Redman, a fourteen year old girl
40:28
Speaker 3: from San Pedro, California who went by the nickname Pinky.
40:32
Speaker 3: Earlier that year, Pinky and her eighteen year old boyfriend,
40:35
Speaker 3: Michael Griffin had traveled to Las Vegas to a lope
40:38
Speaker 3: and were last seen on March first. They both vanished
40:42
Speaker 3: without a trace, and Michael's car would be found abandoned
40:45
Speaker 3: in Williams, not too far from where Little Miss X's
40:48
Speaker 3: remains were discovered. Since Pinky was last seen wearing a
40:51
Speaker 3: yellow sweater and brown capri pants, there was speculation that
40:55
Speaker 3: she might have been Little Miss X, who was eventually
40:58
Speaker 3: excluded well. The case took an interesting turn in nineteen
41:02
Speaker 3: sixty two when the Connecticut State Police received an anonymous
41:06
Speaker 3: letter from Colorado claiming that Connie Smith was Little Miss X.
41:11
Speaker 3: As a result, the victim's remains were exhumed and her
41:13
Speaker 3: skull was taken to the Smith Ranch in Wyoming, so
41:17
Speaker 3: that her family dentist could compare her teeth with Connie's
41:20
Speaker 3: dental records. The results were inconclusive, so the skull was
41:24
Speaker 3: subsequently taken to Denver to be examined by a team
41:27
Speaker 3: of forensic experts. A dental surgeon and a pathologist. Both
41:31
Speaker 3: concluded that the skull probably did not belong to Connie,
41:35
Speaker 3: and it was subsequently reburied. However, given the technology has
41:39
Speaker 3: advanced so much over the past six decades, there's been
41:42
Speaker 3: speculation that the conclusion may have been a mistake.
41:46
Speaker 2: Oh man, I would love to know where that skull
41:48
Speaker 2: is at this point. Was it still retained in evidence,
41:51
Speaker 2: and could they do anything with it, because, like you said,
41:54
Speaker 2: it's been over six decades, and that's a big difference
41:57
Speaker 2: in technology from the fifties, you know. Anyway, so when
42:01
Speaker 2: we're looking at this and we see that initially.
42:06
Speaker 4: They're thinking it's this fourteen year old girl.
42:08
Speaker 2: The P and R on this case little bit bizarre
42:12
Speaker 2: because Connie doesn't have either of those initials. But you
42:16
Speaker 2: also have to remember how odd this would be if
42:18
Speaker 2: they think this this person had been left nine to
42:21
Speaker 2: eighteen months prior. What animals and elements and things like
42:27
Speaker 2: that could have done to this body. And again, when
42:29
Speaker 2: you're looking at technology at the time, I'm wondering how
42:32
Speaker 2: much was missed at the scene, how much was changed
42:35
Speaker 2: at the scene, given scavengers and the weather, all kinds
42:39
Speaker 2: of stuff. So even finding that body and assuming it's
42:44
Speaker 2: been nine to eighteen months, you've lost significant information already,
42:48
Speaker 2: And then how limited technology was I also would say, hey,
42:52
Speaker 2: I know you had experts at the time analyze these things,
42:56
Speaker 2: but what if we use today's technology, what would we find?
43:00
Speaker 1: And the bizarre thing is Connie went missing in nineteen
43:02
Speaker 1: fifty two, and if they believed that the remains were
43:05
Speaker 1: only out there for nine to eighteen months, that would
43:07
Speaker 1: imply that if the victim was Connie, then she would
43:10
Speaker 1: have been alive for a couple years after she went missing,
43:13
Speaker 1: until about nineteen fifty seven or so. So that only
43:16
Speaker 1: opens up more questions. If she was alive, then where
43:19
Speaker 1: was she? Why was she hiding out in Arizona all
43:21
Speaker 1: these years in what ultimately led to her being killed?
43:25
Speaker 1: But right about now, I'm going to explain why there
43:27
Speaker 1: has been complications trying to conclusively prove or disprove that
43:31
Speaker 1: Kanyie and Little Miss X are the same person. So
43:34
Speaker 1: a little Miss X had four fillings in her teeth,
43:37
Speaker 1: and according to Connie's dentist, three of them were pretty
43:39
Speaker 1: much identical to fillings he had given her. There has
43:43
Speaker 1: been a lot of debate about a small indentation found
43:46
Speaker 1: in little Miss X's palette. The experts from Denver seemed
43:49
Speaker 1: to believe the indentation was naturally occurring, but Connie's dentist
43:53
Speaker 1: thought it may have been the result of the surgical
43:55
Speaker 1: removal of an extra tooth known as a super numerary tooth,
43:59
Speaker 1: as Connie did have one removed before she went missing.
44:03
Speaker 1: In recent years, dental experts have taken a fresh look
44:06
Speaker 1: at little Miss x's dental charts and compared them to
44:08
Speaker 1: Connie's records, but cannot say with one hundred percent certainty
44:12
Speaker 1: whether or not they belong to the same person. Well,
44:15
Speaker 1: the Smith family wanted a more conclusive answer to this,
44:18
Speaker 1: so in two thousand and four, Connie's surviving relatives agreed
44:22
Speaker 1: to submit DNA samples to the Connecticut State Police in
44:25
Speaker 1: order to compare them to little Miss X. But there
44:28
Speaker 1: turned out to be a problem. Little Mess x's remains
44:31
Speaker 1: could no longer be found. She was buried in the
44:33
Speaker 1: County Section of Citizens Cemetery in Flagstaff, Arizona. But the
44:38
Speaker 1: issue is that the section has no gravestones or markers
44:41
Speaker 1: and is nothing but a wide open field. A number
44:44
Speaker 1: of deceased victims are buried there, but after all these years,
44:47
Speaker 1: there are no longer any records to determine the exact
44:50
Speaker 1: spot where little Miss X is buried, making it impossible
44:53
Speaker 1: to exumer remains for DNA testing.
44:56
Speaker 4: I'm officially depressed. That makes me real, really depressed.
45:02
Speaker 2: You know, they have graves like this all over the
45:06
Speaker 2: United States where unidentified bodies are placed where they're not
45:10
Speaker 2: sitting there, you know, making sure each body has its
45:13
Speaker 2: own perfect They're definitely not put in a real nice
45:16
Speaker 2: casket and things like that. They are buried with other
45:20
Speaker 2: remains that haven't been claimed or identified. And so I
45:24
Speaker 2: get it. But man, in a case like this, they're
45:27
Speaker 2: thinking it's a child, they're thinking there's potential links to
45:30
Speaker 2: other cases, and now there's just no way to know
45:34
Speaker 2: if that one's true. I don't see it as as
45:37
Speaker 2: incredibly promising, except for the fact that you said the
45:39
Speaker 2: family did confirm that supernumerary tooth that looks like it
45:44
Speaker 2: might have been missed Connie had actually had that same
45:47
Speaker 2: procedure pretty much.
45:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the wow, that's why. Like back in the
45:52
Speaker 1: fifties they thought, Okay, there's not enough a conclusive match.
45:55
Speaker 1: I don't think this is the same person. But having
45:58
Speaker 1: a fresh look at it decades later, they're thinking, hmm,
46:01
Speaker 1: this is a compelling link here. But of course it
46:03
Speaker 1: only opens up a whole bunch of unanswered questions about
46:06
Speaker 1: why Connie would be in Arizona and could she have
46:08
Speaker 1: been alive for a couple of years after she originally
46:11
Speaker 1: went missing. I mean, I'm inclined to believe that little
46:14
Speaker 1: Miss X and Connie are not the same person, but
46:16
Speaker 1: I can still understand the frustration about being unable to
46:19
Speaker 1: find the remains. Because little Miss X with somebody and
46:23
Speaker 1: without being getting the possibility of obtaining her DNA, it
46:26
Speaker 1: seems unlikely she will ever be identified.
46:30
Speaker 3: Anyway. Connie's family never stopped hoping that they would receive
46:34
Speaker 3: answers someday. Her mother, Helen, believed the best case scenario
46:38
Speaker 3: was that Connie's injuries from the camp were much worse
46:41
Speaker 3: than expected, causing her to develop amnesia and wander off.
46:46
Speaker 3: She clung to the hope that Connie might still be
46:48
Speaker 3: alive somewhere, But tragically, Helen's succumbed to a heart attack
46:52
Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty two at the age of forty seven,
46:55
Speaker 3: and many would say that she died from a broken heart.
46:59
Speaker 3: On the other hand, and Peter Smith was relentless in
47:02
Speaker 3: his pursuit of his daughter and continued returning to the
47:05
Speaker 3: Salisbury area to search for her as late as the
47:07
Speaker 3: nineteen eighties. He once stated in an interview that as
47:11
Speaker 3: the years went on, he imagined his daughter in the
47:14
Speaker 3: face of every woman he passed by who would have
47:17
Speaker 3: been her age. Peter managed to live until the age
47:20
Speaker 3: of ninety seven before he passed away in twenty twelve.
47:24
Speaker 3: Much like his paternal grandfather, Connie's older brother, Nels Jensen
47:28
Speaker 3: Smith had a successful political career which included serving as
47:31
Speaker 3: Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives. In August of
47:35
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen, Nells was interviewed in an extensive two part
47:39
Speaker 3: article in the Connecticut based newspaper The Registered Citizen, and
47:43
Speaker 3: he expressed his belief that Connie might be little Miss X.
47:48
Speaker 3: In that same article, the Cocadino County Sheriff's Office announced
47:52
Speaker 3: that they believed that they might have figured out the
47:54
Speaker 3: exact spot in Citizens Cemetery where little Miss X is buried.
47:58
Speaker 3: They hoped that once they peece everything together and made
48:01
Speaker 3: a conclusive determination, they could exhume little Miss X's remains
48:05
Speaker 3: and finally extract your DNA. However, this has never occurred,
48:09
Speaker 3: and in September of twenty twenty three, another major tragedy
48:13
Speaker 3: occurred when Nels and his wife were both killed in
48:16
Speaker 3: a car accident. So, for the moment, little Miss X
48:20
Speaker 3: is still an unidentified Jane Doe and the disappearance of
48:23
Speaker 3: Connie Smith continues to remain unsolved.
48:27
Speaker 1: So I guess you could say the path went chili.
48:31
Speaker 2: Okay, So when you guys look at that tooth that
48:34
Speaker 2: little Miss Ex's skull was you know, had it had
48:37
Speaker 2: surgically removed or it wasn't you know, it had been
48:41
Speaker 2: actually a procedure performed, and you could see it in
48:43
Speaker 2: the dental records. Only four percent max. It says one
48:47
Speaker 2: to four percent of people have this supernumerary tooth or teeth,
48:53
Speaker 2: and so that's actually quite rare. I mean, the fact
48:57
Speaker 2: that these two skulls might be aged around the same. Again,
49:01
Speaker 2: the location makes it a little problematic, but people can
49:04
Speaker 2: take victims and travel with them or unless especially you know,
49:07
Speaker 2: deceased bodies, to dispose of them.
49:10
Speaker 4: But I thought that was pretty interesting.
49:11
Speaker 2: I was expecting, oh, you know, like twenty percent of
49:14
Speaker 2: people have one you just never know, or something like that,
49:16
Speaker 2: on one to four percent. And so that is quite
49:19
Speaker 2: an interesting little tidbit. And when you back up and
49:22
Speaker 2: you look at the fate of her mother dying at
49:26
Speaker 2: age forty seven, I cannot imagine the grief and trauma
49:31
Speaker 2: and the physical toll that it takes on someone's body
49:35
Speaker 2: to lose a child, and to lose a child in
49:39
Speaker 2: the way that she did. You know she I know
49:41
Speaker 2: that she blamed herself daily, which is so not you know,
49:45
Speaker 2: the actual earthly truth, but any mother and any parent
49:48
Speaker 2: would do it. I took her to summer camp. I
49:51
Speaker 2: changed the plans. I'm the one who was responsible for her,
49:55
Speaker 2: and I took her to this camp and I never
49:57
Speaker 2: got her back. Right, what if I had picked up
49:59
Speaker 2: on the the fact that she was unhappy, What if
50:01
Speaker 2: I had been able to communicate with her? And so,
50:05
Speaker 2: even though I would think that would lessen over time,
50:09
Speaker 2: the grief stays in your body it's heavy, and so
50:13
Speaker 2: the fact that at forty seven years old, she dies
50:16
Speaker 2: of a heart attack, it's I.
50:19
Speaker 4: Do not think that that's kind of a coincidence.
50:22
Speaker 2: I think it could very much be tied to the
50:23
Speaker 2: actual emotional heartbreak that she suffered from losing her child.
50:29
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, and you look at the timeline. This was
50:31
Speaker 1: only about three years removed from when George Davies made
50:34
Speaker 1: that false confession claiming that he murdered Connie and buried
50:37
Speaker 1: her remains and then just admitted, oh, I made that
50:40
Speaker 1: up because I just wanted to get out of the prison.
50:43
Speaker 1: And you can only imagine that hearing that at first
50:46
Speaker 1: Helen bleeding that it was real and that this man
50:49
Speaker 1: killed her child, only to find out this was nothing
50:51
Speaker 1: more than a false lead that would have caused like
50:54
Speaker 1: a measurable bound of additional stress on her and may
50:57
Speaker 1: have played a role in her dying. I have a
50:59
Speaker 1: heart attack only three years later. So it's just so
51:02
Speaker 1: sad because I covered this story on the Trail Went
51:04
Speaker 1: Cold back in twenty nineteen, and I was reading that
51:07
Speaker 1: Connie's brother, Nells was still alive and holding out hope
51:10
Speaker 1: that they could recover little Miss X, and then maybe
51:13
Speaker 1: make a DNA comparison to determine if it's Connie. And
51:16
Speaker 1: then when I'm doing the script for this episode, I
51:18
Speaker 1: found out that oh Nells was killed in a car
51:21
Speaker 1: accident in September of twenty twenty three, even though he
51:24
Speaker 1: was eighty four years old. So that's two children from
51:27
Speaker 1: the same family who went missing or died under tragic circumstances.
51:31
Speaker 1: So this whole story is just a big ball of
51:33
Speaker 1: tragedy for the entire family. So I think that about
51:36
Speaker 1: brings an end to Part one. Joining us next week
51:38
Speaker 1: as we present part two of our series about the
51:40
Speaker 1: disappearance of Connie Smith.
51:44
Speaker 5: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
51:45
Speaker 5: about the Trail Went Cold Patreon.
51:47
Speaker 1: Yes, the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
51:50
Speaker 1: years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
51:54
Speaker 1: early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
51:57
Speaker 1: and signed thank you cards to anyone who's up with
52:00
Speaker 1: us on Patreon if you join our five dollars tier
52:03
Speaker 1: Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus episodes in which
52:07
Speaker 1: I talk about cases which are not featured on the
52:10
Speaker 1: Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon,
52:13
Speaker 1: and if you join our highest tier, Tier three, the
52:16
Speaker 1: ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer is
52:19
Speaker 1: a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsolved Mysteries,
52:24
Speaker 1: where you can download an audio file and then boot
52:27
Speaker 1: up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
52:30
Speaker 1: YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
52:33
Speaker 1: the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
52:36
Speaker 1: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
52:40
Speaker 1: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
52:43
Speaker 1: the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
52:46
Speaker 1: download a commentary track in which I make more smart
52:48
Speaker 1: ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
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Speaker 1: Tier three.
52:52
Speaker 6: So I want to let you know a little bit
52:54
Speaker 6: about the Jeweles and Nashty Patreon, so there's early ad
52:57
Speaker 6: free episodes of The Path Went Chilly, Our Pathwent Chili mini's,
53:01
Speaker 6: which are always over an hour, so they're not very mini,
53:04
Speaker 6: but they're just too short to turn into a series,
53:06
Speaker 6: and we're really enjoying doing those, so we hope you'll
53:09
Speaker 6: check out those Patreons.
53:10
Speaker 5: We'll link them in the show notes.
53:12
Speaker 1: So I want to thank you all for listening and
53:14
Speaker 1: any chance you have to share us on social media
53:17
Speaker 1: with a friend or to rate and review. Is greatly
53:19
Speaker 1: appreciate it. You can email us at the Pathwentchili at
53:22
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter at
53:25
Speaker 1: the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to bundle
53:27
Speaker 1: up because cold trails and chili pass call for warm clothing.
53:31
Speaker 5: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy