The Bennington Triangle Unexplained Disappearances

[Music] in southern Vermont northeast of Bennington lies a vast beautiful yet mysterious area of backcountry is approximately 36 square miles of unbroken wilderness with 12 peaks over 3,000 feet in its mountain range the area is encapsulated by the Green Mountain National Forest the forest itself is incredibly dense and supports a variety of wildlife including beavers moose coyotes black burr white-tailed deer wild turkeys unruffled grouse the forest has also been referred to as the state's granite backbone due to the sheer amount presence it is this area where we can find the Bennington Triangle [Applause] on the outskirts of the Bennington triangle lies the town of Glastonbury Glastonbury was originally charted in 1761 by Benning Wentworth who was the governor of New Hampshire the town didn't officially settle until the eighteen hundred's but it was doomed from the start the dense and rough terrain made the area dangerous and difficult to develop the short growing season didn't ease the settlers struggle either and the town would later become officially disorganized by the state of Vermont in 1937 but as the years went by the obscure small town whose population peaked at 241 came to the forefront when the inexplicable events that happened on its doorstep began to circulate and in 1992 the legend of the Bennington triangle was born author and folklorist Joseph Citro first coined the term and stated that the area was the most haunted area of Vermont but the strangeness didn't start with Joseph nor the town the Native Americans spoke at the land being cursed and refused to travel anywhere near the mountains within the now known Green Mountain National Forest the Native Americans would speak of those who went before them who would vanish in the area and never returned they also speak of a completely bizarre legend an enchanted stone that wanders the mountain range which opens up and swallows a person whole if they venture too close the strangeness and the tales didn't stop even many years into the future when the town of Glastonbury was formed early accounts would report hearing odd noises and odors thus would resonate from the mountains outside of the Native American accounts of strangeness in the early 19th century saw possibly the earliest reports of something else of the ordinary in the area - horses we're guiding a stagecoach full of passengers down a very remote dirt path near the mountains the night was very dark and brief lightning strikes were illuminating the sky every so often but the darkness coupled with the heavy downpour of rain made visibility very poor and the driver was forced to stop he said thus he hopped down from his perch and tried to assess the route forwards by illuminating the area with his lantern but while doing so notes his massive footprints across the mud that led up into the mountains it said that the horses became very upset and were behaving wildly as if they were fearful of something nearby the driver was afraid that whatever caused the tracks may be nearby the rest of the group huddled together in the darkness and saw the storm past this would begin the legend of the Bennington monster later in 1867 there was an alleged now famous Wildman sighting whereby the locals would state that the mountains had driven him mad as his behavior was said to be erratic twenty-five years later in early April of 1892 would see the mill worker Henry McDowell end the life of drunk Raleigh with the use of a large rock when found Henry kept repeating that the voices in his head wouldn't leave him alone five years later residents heard the screams of faults year-old John Harbor coming from a remote area just south of Glastonbury the locals mounted a search but wasn't able to locate him until 11:00 a.m. the following morning they said that when he was found its appeared that he had been moved they also said that he had his hunting gear on him and had been moved up against a tree they never found who was responsible that is not where the strangeness ends the first disappearance took place in November of 1945 MIDI rivers a 74 year old highly experienced unser went missing whilst out on a hunting trip with a group of four companions at the time the group were in the mountain wilderness near gosta Murray mountain and after a successful hunts the men retreated to their camp as the group were heading back they made use of the Trail Road area near the US Route 9 MIDI who is the most experienced of all the hunters presidents and who knew the area better than anyone else always led the group at the time MIDI hit straight just a bit past the group and he was never seen again one of his companions said us it was like he just vanished after trying to catch up to MIDI and realizing that he had gone the men started to call out for him but they never got a response they began searching the area and were left Buffalo because they couldn't find any trace of him and they couldn't even figure out in which direction he'd gone the authorities were brought on scene and they conducted their investigation and the area was scoured as a result this search would find a single shell that belonged to MIDI next to a small stream it said that the authorities volunteer hunters and searches alike were all f perplexed after the search concluded and they found no further trace of M MIDI was an incredibly gifted outdoorsman and he was very familiar with the area in question one theory speculated as he may have fallen into the stream and perhaps a lone shell file to his pockets and next to the stream the group he was with didn't believe that this was the case but admitted that they didn't have a better explanation MIDI rivers not any of his belongings were ever found the second disappearance would take place exactly one year on one month afterwards this is the bennington triangles most infamous unsolved disappearance and one that is still written and spoken about today the date was December the 1st 1946 and began like most others for Paula Weldon who was 18 years old when she disappeared Paula was in her second year of college at the time Paula was said to be a very friendly enthusiastic a motivated person and would often take more shifts at the school Standing Hall to earn some more money this is precisely what she did on the day of her disappearance after her second shift in the dining hall indeed she returned to her room on campus and spoke with her roommates Elizabeth Johnson the pair was said to be very good friends and while Elizabeth remains studying in their room Paula said that she was finished with her studies and that she was going to go for a long walk at the time according to Elizabeth Paula changed into a distinctive red coat with a fur collar jeans and some lightweight sneakers she left in this gear at 2:45 p.m. and it was perhaps not ideal for the cold weather outside it wasn't snowing that day but the temperatures were set to be below freezing by nights as said and as many have pointed out she seemed and addressed some speculates that perhaps she was only planning to be out for a short time but she did tell Elizabeth that she was going for a long walk shortly after Paula had set off she was seen by Danny Fager who owned a local gas station just across the street from the college gates Danny recalled some odd behavior that Paula displayed on her way out near the college entrance was a gravel pit and Paula climbed up it and then run back down before going out of view I'm not entirely sure where the gravel swirl bleeds but I get the feeling it led onto a field perhaps she climbed up to gets a better view of the area for some reason or wanted to see what was beyond the gravel it's not clear at 3 p.m. 15 minutes after setting off she was seen again this time by a Louis Knapp will picks up a hitchhiking Paula on route 67 which was also not far away from the college entrance it's worth mentioning that this may not have been Paula was his description fits her perfectly so the authorities strongly believed that he had picked her up she told Lewis that she wanted to go to the long trail on Route 9 so Lewis parked on his driveway which was in the direction of the start of the trail but was still a good walk away apart from asking to go to the long trail the only other words spoken between the purr was Louis telling her to be careful she thanks him for the ride and went on away she was seen again at 3:45 p.m. by Ernie Whitman and some of the residents of the Bickford Hollow area who said that she was traveling in the direction of the trail Ernie told her that she shouldn't be traveling into the mountains with her clothing and that it was going to get dark soon but she ignored the advice and went on into the woods and was never seen again as it started to get dark Elizabeth was worrying back at college but felt too nervous to tell the college authorities as she felt that she might be causing a scene for no reason however when she still hadn't heard from Paula the following morning she alerted the college who then contacted her parents Paula's parents made them aware that she simply hadn't come home to visit them and immediately began to panic in fact it stated that Paula's mother collapsed from shock and was bed bound as a results of the fall her father on the other hand Archibald was heading 160 miles from his home in Stamford Connecticut to Bennington at the time the state of Vermont students have its own State Police Force so it was up to her father to assemble a search force he arrived and quickly did just that the community came together and many volunteered to join the search the college shut down so that all students could participate in the search for Paula after searching all day on the 2nd of December the students said that the search was being led incompetently by some of the community members and told Archie this Archie was an influential engineer at the time in Connecticut and had contacts in the police force and used his influence to call in the State Police from New York and Connecticut Vermont state investigator Alma Franz Oni took charge of the investigation and was now organizing the search efforts with the help of the outside state police the area was scoured volunteers and police scoured on and off the trail and they never found a trace of Paula some leads did come up for instance one young woman said that she had served someone matching Polish description in Fall River Massachusetts but nothing ever came of this Archie quickly sped off to follow up on this lead without telling anyone which some found suspicious ultimately though on the 16th of December the search was called off Archie gathered his daughter's belongings from the college and returned home to Connecticut he heavily criticized the disorganized search efforts and after lots of bad press the states created its own police force in 1947 almost 73 years later now and no trace of Paula has ever been found this is not whether mysteries of the triangle end three years after Paula's disappearance 68 year-old James tedford often referred to as the man who seemingly vanished into thin air seemed to do just that James was born in 1884 informants and not much is known about his early life but in 1940 he lived in Fletcher town located in Vermont it's not clear when he married was in 1940 James was 55 while his wife pearl was 28 James was also an active service during the events of the 1940s and after the war had ended he returned home however upon arrival he learned that pearl had vanished and no trace of her was ever found it's unclear if pearl had simply up and left him but she didn't leave any signs of that and as far as I can tell her belongings were still at the property it's worth mentioning that Vermont State Police Force still didn't exist until 1947 so it's unclear what kind of effort was put into locating her but James his family said that the last time they saw her was made the Amaka starring franklin butts unfortunately I couldn't find a date James never really got over the loss of his wife and in 1947 because of loneliness he checked himself into a soldier's home in Bennington where he spent much of his time fast forward two years and this is where reports of James's disappearance kept bizarre towards the end of November in 1949 James was finishing up with a trip to see his family in Saito Burns in Vermont afterwards he boarded a bus to return home to Bennington this is a trip that would normally take approximately eight hours but weather conditions on the day caused a substantial delay as heavy snow hit the area this particular route pass through the Green Mountain National Forest on that day 14 passengers including the driver all testified to seeing James on the bus sitting at the back by himself sleeping in his seats but when the bus reached Bennington James was no longer on the bus and not a single passenger saw him get off a few days after on the first of December James's family reported him missing thankfully the police force in Vermont did exist at this time and an investigation was conducted all presents on the bus were questioned by police and it was stated that the general consensus was that he was still on the bus during the final stop before Bennington because of this police came to the conclusion that James had gone missing somewhere between Bennington and the prize stop but weren't sure how what was even stranger about this was that's all of James's belongings were still on the luggage rack and his bus timetable was still on the seats like all prior disappearances James never came back and he was never found 10 months later in October of 1950 an 8 year old boy by the name of Paul Jepsen went missing Paul and his family lived on a farm located at the base of Glastonbury mountain his mother last saw him playing by himself nearby the home while she left to attend to their pigs but when she returned Paul was nowhere to be seen the police were notified and they converged on the area with bloodhounds in an effort to track him down authorities were very confident that they would find the lost boy as he was wearing a highly visible bright red jacket but the search still failed at some point during the search the bloodhounds did pick up Paul scent and followed it to a nearby highway close to the mountain but that's where the trail ended hundreds of volunteers join the search but Paul was never found police theorized that he must have been taken by someone passing on the highway but while the search was ongoing they were optimistic that he might have just lost his way when questioned as to why Paul might have wandered off in that direction alone his father said that Paul was always very fond of the mountains and was drawn to them and because pollak to go there he would take him for trips there but ultimately Paul was never seen again and as far as I can tell there were never any suspected sightings this was also around the area where Paul was suspected of vanishing those four years prior it was only 16 days before the next disappearance which took place on the 28th of October 1950 three days after the fact the Berkshire Eagle reported this in Somerset Vermont's searches Weston today in their hunt for mrs. Freda Langer fifty-three of North Adams Massachusetts mrs. Langer disappeared Saturday while hunting with her husband and a cousin no trace of the woman has been found since she vanished in the wilderness near Lake Somerset it's worth pointing out at this stage that Lake Somerset is well within the borders of the Green Mountain National Forest they continue to helicopters and a plane from Westover Air Force Base took part in the search yesterday the army plane landed on Somerset reservoir to allow its crew to search the shore the reservoir area was checked on speculation that mrs. Langer might have toppled into the water 150 feet from her camp occupied by her cousin and a 58 year old husband max some 50 men including state troopers and game wardens discontinued the search at dusk last nights they plan to resume today mrs. langos husband offered a 100 dollar reward today to anyone who finds her he also appealed for new volunteer searches in the belief that the time is running out for a successful search maurice leonard the cur taker of a reservoir near the scene of the woman's disappearance said after a flight in a helicopter that he was certain mrs. Longo was not in the hardwoods area interestingly the Berkshire Eagle did miss some details which perhaps makes the disappearance even stranger at the time of her disappearance Freda max and her cousin Herbert were actually with a small group of friends I'm not sure how many were presidents on this particular hike but Herbert and some of the friends were as the group were walking through the wilderness Frida slipped and fell into a stream she wasn't injured and she had a good laugh about it but she was soaked and decided to reach to the cap to change herbert said as he would wait for her at the stream and their friends went on this was still fairly close to the campsites an hour had passed and Frieda hadn't returned to Herbert which made him grow worried so he made the trip back to the camp he asked the group where Frieda was but they hadn't seen her meaning that she can't have made it back to the camp the group gathered together and began to search the area but there was no sign of her at all it was after this failed search that they contacted the authorities who arrived and conducted five extensive searches over the following two weeks they brought in helicopters dogs military support was even together with many volunteers they never found anything they couldn't even determine which way she might have gone searches presidents understood that this was unusual Frieda disappeared in broad daylight with a clear path back to the camp Frieda's outdoor experience was unquestionable and she was considered an experienced outdoors woman who spent much of her life camping and hiking through many wilderness areas including this one this case was somehow different to those that occurred before it's however as something very unusual happened just shot of several months later so let's get bizarre on the 12th of May 1951 Frida's body was discovered in full view in an open clearing near the Somerset reservoir which was an area that had been extensively searched during the initial disappearance the cause of her passing could not be ascertained which was also not helped because of the decomposition this posed a very strange and serious question how did the body get there was it placed there did she somehow manage to reach that spot after evading the searchers it's worth mentioning that the dog searched this area and never once found a scent there or in the surrounding areas this was the only disappearance in which her body was ever found so what's happened did she simply get lost despite being very close to the camp with a clear path there were no signs of a struggle no one heard any screams or anything of that nature this was one of those completely bizarre disappearances that left everyone involved before and no one knew what truly took place that day there were a couple of other disappearances that took place around the time - though not as much information exists as compared with those discussed so far Martha Jones disappeared on the 6th of November 1950 her parents thought that she had run off with her boyfriend but the boyfriend said that he hadn't seen her a massive search was conducted or on the Glastonbury area and nothing ever turned up just shy of a month afterwards Frances Chrisman went missing on December the 3rd locals were still tense about all of the disappearances that took place prior and this one didn't help to ease the panic that was setting in at the time Frances was on her way to visit a friend who lived approximately half a mile away from her however she never made it to her destination another search was organized by authorities and nothing was ever found many theories have been discussed over the years some believe that there may have either been a person or a group of persons out in the wilderness that were doing this to people while others including author Joseph Citro believed that there was some sort of strange energy that inhabits the Bennington Triangle area that may have something to do with the disappearances I found an interesting post on Reddit by someone with the username Cosmo 7 who said this for years I lived in the area and Heights are on Glastonbury quite a bit doing nature photography often I would go off trail to get a good photo there was a uniqueness to the area that I liked and the history of the abandoned town made the area feel out of place somehow there were a few old meheecan mounds in the area too I was not too aware of the Bennigsen triangle stories though so did not feel creeped out by that I did feel creeped out by the men that lived on the mountains in little shacks or in the winter elaborate snow houses they lived off the grid self-sufficient no bills to pay etc and you have two brothers that would come down the mountain to visit the bar every month or two and to stock up on supplies they will vague as they didn't want to be found but said that they would hike between 10 to 20 miles to a car parked at a French garage on the road near the hills they'd come to town visit the bar get what they needed and would head back up they would point out areas not to hike as there were other people like them on the mountain only they would rarely come down and are best avoided though they said that they would only be found if they wanted to be found the post-event said that she only counts a few nights in those hills but the fear that she had set up camp 50 yards from one of these guys prevented her from sleeping well in the end no one really knows what took place in that area was it down to not so well intentioned individuals living off the land or perhaps someone very opportunistic who was doing this or was it something else entirely after all the native people did believe it to be a cursed place and spoke of their own disappearances and a mysterious rock that would take people who ventured too close what do you think please do leave a like if you liked the video or a dislike if you did it feel free to share your honest opinion like to hear your thoughts and I'd just like to take a moment to thank all of you that have subscribed to the channel and will share these videos I appreciate it too lot and I can't thank you enough I'd also like to say a massive thank you to my patrons your support is massively appreciated so thank you very much to those who have signed up anyway do let me know what you thought of this one and you'll find all of the links in the description below as always thank you very much for watching I hope that you enjoyed this video and if you did remember to like and subscribe if you haven't already it helps me a lot I hope that you have a great day or evening depending on where you are be safe guys and I'll catch you soon peace you [Music]

Channel: Top Mysteries

Views: 335,085

Rating: 4.8420768 out of 5

Keywords: The Bennington Triangle Unexplained Disappearances, bennington triangle, glastenbury mountain, unexplained disappearances, the mysterious disappearances of the bennington triangle, mysterious bennington triangle disappearances, Paula Weldon Disappearance, James Tetford Disappearance, Frieda Langer Disappearance, missing persons, unsolved mysteries, bennington triangle documentary, bennington triangle vermont, bennington triangle disappearances, Paul Jepson

Id: HrJAePFo8C0

Length: 26min 14sec (1574 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 08 2019