Paper Ghosts: The Ozarks

Four girls go missing, all within miles from one another in neighboring New England towns. And not one arrest is made. Fifty years later, the search for answers is reignited when a call reveals new information that sets the investigation in motion.

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It’s been more than a year since season one aired, but the scores of tips regarding Janice Pockett, Lisa White, Debbie Spickler, Susan LaRosa, and Irene LaRosa have only continued. The Connecticut State Police have once again gone radio silent so we return to Crystal Lake with some new experts and equipment to search for more answers.

For more true crime stories, listen to M. William Phelps' other podcast Crossing the Line and visit the CTL website...

Janice Pockett was only 7 years old when she went missing during the summer of 1973. She had been given permission for the first time to ride her bike alone, so she made her way down the dirt road near her family’s home. As she turned the corner, it was the last time anybody ever saw her again. For decades, the case has remained unsolved. It was not until recently, when a new piece of information turns the case upside down and shifts the investigation in an entirely new direction...

One year after Janice Pockett went missing in Tolland, CT, another young girl was abducted just a few miles from where Janice was last seen. Lisa Joy White was 13 when she suddenly vanished on her way home from a friend's house in 1974. Early belief was that Lisa ran away. Police believed her friend knew what happened. Now, for the first time, Lisa's friend is telling her side of the story.

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Susan LaRosa was 20 years old and already a mom to three young children when she disappeared in 1975. She had dark black hair, cut just above her shoulders. She was petite, 95 pounds. Her husband said she left their apartment one evening to get diapers and baby formula and never returned. That’s the extent of what you’d know about Susan LaRosa if you read about her case in the newspapers...

WARNING: This episode contains material that may be unsuitable and difficult for some to hear.

The story has always been that Susan LaRosa left her apartment to pick up baby supplies and call her mother the night she disappeared. She did this just about every night at the same time at a nearby drug store. Her husband was considered a suspect immediately. More than 40 years later, an eyewitness has come forward with details about what happened the night Susan was murdered...

All of the missing cases have become like the five points of a star—no matter how you draw it, each point shoots a dotted line back to one person of interest: Bob LaRosa. However, there are far more nefarious secrets buried deep within his family that could lead to another suspect and new answers—starting with yet another missing young woman Bob knew very well. 

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A frantic call brings forward a new lead, with new clues and a new person of interest with connections to Bob LaRosa. As local authorities have been focused on a group of violent, sexually perverted men exploiting and violating young women in the area, a surprising connection links this new person of interest back to the water walls where police have been looking.

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The faces of Janice Pockett, Lisa White, and Debbie Spickler appear side by side on one missing persons flier that continues to be posted around town to this day. The public and media have always grouped these cases together. Three young girls, suddenly gone. Yet that is where the similarities stop...

For just a moment in 2013, there was a glint of hope that the remains of one of the missing girls had been discovered. For their families, it was a discovery that finally felt like there would be answers. As the investigation heats up, a new source comes forward and flips the entire investigation upside down.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.