Under the Pines: Stories From New England & Beyond

Marlon Devine Santos: The Missing Worcester Foster Baby Who Vanished in 1998

Five-month-old Marlon Devine Santos vanished from a Worcester foster home in 1998 and was not reported missing for two days. What began as a missing-child investigation became a suspected homicide case, a grand-jury review, and a lasting question about how a baby placed under state protection could disappear without a trace. This episode of Under the Pines follows Marlon’s short life, his parents’ struggle over custody, the foster home on Eastern Avenue, the lost forty-eight hours, the Wachusett Reservoir searches, the unconfirmed suffocation theory, and the separate criminal cases that later changed how the home was understood. The evidence never produced an indictment, no remains were found, and no one has ever been charged in Marlon’s disappearance. Marlon was five months old. He was more than a missing-person file, more than a foster-care failure, and more than the questions adults left behind. He was a child who should have had birthdays, school pictures, friendships, and a life beyond one photograph. If you have information: Send an anonymous text to 274637 beginning with TIPWPD, use the Worcester Police anonymous online tip system, or call the Unresolved Homicide Unit at 508-799-8688. Sources Santos, Marlon | City of Worcester [https://www.worcesterma.gov/police/investigations/unresolved-cases/santos-marlon] https://www.worcesterma.gov/police/investigations/unresolved-cases/santos-marlon Marlon Devine Santos | The Charley Project [https://charleyproject.org/case/marlon-devine-santos] https://charleyproject.org/case/marlon-devine-santos Missing: Marlon Santos | Worcester, Massachusetts [https://uncovered.com/cases/marlon-santos-worcester-ma] https://uncovered.com/cases/marlon-santos-worcester-ma 48 Hours After Baby Marlon Went Missing | Unsolved: Worcester [https://thisweekinworcester.com/episode-9-of-unsolved-worcester-season-3/] https://thisweekinworcester.com/episode-9-of-unsolved-worcester-season-3/ Bay State Woman Enriching Lives of Foster Kids [https://www.fiftyplusadvocate.com/2013/02/25/bay-state-woman-enriching-lives-of-foster-kids/] https://www.fiftyplusadvocate.com/2013/02/25/bay-state-woman-enriching-lives-of-foster-kids/ Marlon Devine Santos, 5 Months, Worcester, 5 Nov 1998 | Websleuths [https://websleuths.com/threads/ma-marlon-devine-santos-5-months-worcester-5-nov-1998.59354/] https://websleuths.com/threads/ma-marlon-devine-santos-5-months-worcester-5-nov-1998.59354/ The Boston Globe [https://www.bostonglobe.com/] https://www.bostonglobe.com/ Telegram & Gazette [https://www.telegram.com/] https://www.telegram.com/ The Republican [https://www.masslive.com/republican/] https://www.masslive.com/republican/ Daily Hampshire Gazette [https://www.gazettenet.com/] https://www.gazettenet.com/ The Recorder [https://www.recorder.com/] https://www.recorder.com/ The Daily Item [https://www.itemlive.com/] https://www.itemlive.com/ #MarlonDevineSantos #WorcesterTrueCrime #MassachusettsTrueCrime #MissingChildren #UnsolvedMysteries

Paul J. Costanza: Room 54 at the Tudor Motor Inn | Unsolved Shrewsbury MA Homicide | 032

In 1982, 22-year-old Paul J. Costanza was found dead inside Room 54 at the Tudor Motor Inn on Route 9 in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. At first, his death was viewed through the shadow of addiction. But his mother, Lana McKinney, believed something was wrong from the beginning. This episode of Under the Pines follows the unresolved homicide of Paul Costanza, a young man whose life had become tangled in drugs, fear, cash, and dangerous people, but whose humanity never disappeared. He was a son. He was a brother. And he was someone his mother never stopped fighting for. Paul had been spending time around Green Hill Park in Worcester before his death. He was known to carry cash, a wallet attached by a metal chain, and a red toolbox. When he was found in the motel room, the room was trashed, his wallet was gone, heroin was missing, and yet more than $1,000 in cash remained behind in the toolbox. A judicial inquest later ruled that Paul had been robbed and murdered. This story is not about pretending Paul lived a clean or simple life. He did not. It is about refusing to let addiction become the only thing people remember. Lana knew the hard parts of her son’s life. She knew the fear. She knew the trouble. But she also knew Paul wanted to live. More than forty years later, no one has been charged in his death. If you know anything about the August 5, 1982 homicide of Paul J. Costanza at the Tudor Motor Inn in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, contact Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office at 508-453-7589, or email WorcesterDAunresolved@mass.gov. Sources: Paul Costanza - Shrewsbury - 8/5/1982, Worcester County District Attorney’s Office https://worcesterda.com/cases/paul-costanza-shrewsbury-8-5-1982/ Drug addict’s slaying unsolved, Kevin Keenan, Telegram & Gazette, updated August 27, 2006 https://www.telegram.com/ Music credit: Mahalo to Yoza for the use of her song “Broken Wings.” #PaulCostanza #UnderThePines #UnsolvedHomicide #MassachusettsTrueCrime #ShrewsburyMA

Holly Jean Cote: Gardner Waitress Murder, James Randall, and the Unresolved Birch Hill Dam Homicide | 031

Holly Jean Cote was 28 years old when she left Mr. D’s in Gardner, Massachusetts after work on March 4, 1984, and never came home. She was a waitress, a wife, a mother to a six-year-old girl, and a sister whose absence was felt almost immediately as something wrong. Her car was found unlocked behind the bar. Her family searched. Friends searched. Volunteers searched woods, marshes, junkyards, riverbanks, and surrounding towns. Then, three months later, canoeists found her body in floodwater near Birch Hill Dam in Royalston. Her death was ruled a homicide. This episode of Under the Pines follows the 1984 Gardner waitress homicide, the search for Holly, the fear that moved through the city after she was found, and the long shadow of James Randall, who was later named in reporting as the prime suspect but was never charged in Holly’s death. Randall was later convicted in Florida in the strangulation deaths of Wendy Evans and Cynthia Pugh. Those convictions gave new weight to old suspicions in Massachusetts, but Holly’s family never received a courtroom verdict in her case. In 2008, investigators revisited evidence connected to Randall, including clothing with a reddish-brown stain that reportedly tested positive for human blood. Unsolved Worcester later reported that the DNA testing came back inconclusive. This is not a story about a suspect first. It is a story about Holly, her daughter Heidi, her husband Joseph, her sister Theresa, her family, her co-workers, and a community that searched, waited, and still never received the full truth. Anyone with information about Holly’s homicide is asked to contact the Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office at 508-453-7589 or email WorcesterDAunresolved@mass.gov. Sources: Holly Jean Cote, Royalston, 3/4/1984, Worcester County District Attorney’s Office: https://worcesterda.com/cases/holly-jean-cote-royalston-3-4-1984/ Unsolved: Worcester, Holly Jean Cote, March 4, 1984: https://thisweekinworcester.com/unsolved-worcester-holly-jean-cote/ Unsolved: Worcester, Season 6, Episode 6, Found Face Down and Strangled in Swamp, Holly Jean Cote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG8_OBf7N4Y The Murder of Holly Jean Cote, Massachusetts, Dark Downeast: https://darkdowneast.com/hollyjeancote/ Randall also a suspect in similar killing, Tampa Bay Times: https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/01/26/randall-also-a-suspect-in-similar-killing/ Holly Jean McNeil Cote Memorial, Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/232219460/holly_jean-cote Theresa Mary O’Neil McNeil Memorial, Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157648756/theresa_mary-mcneil Gerald D. McNeil Obituary, Phaneuf Funeral Homes & Crematorium: https://obits.phaneuf.net/gerald-mcneil Janette Cote Ducharme Obituary, Brandon Funeral Home: https://www.brandonfuneral.com/obituaries/janette-cote-ducharme James Randall v. State of Florida, Florida Supreme Court Decisions: https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/supreme-court/2000/sc92652.html Additional archival reporting reviewed from The Boston Globe, Athol Daily News, The Patriot Ledger, Transcript-Telegram, The Morning Union, The Berkshire Eagle, The Recorder, North Adams Transcript, The Miami Herald, St. Augustine Record, Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg Times, and Worcester Telegram & Gazette reporting by Jason Feifer, Lisa D. Welsh, Gary V. Murray, George B. Griffin, and Mike Elfland. #HollyJeanCote #MassachusettsTrueCrime #UnsolvedHomicide #GardnerMA #UnderThePines

John Gordon and the Murder of Amasa Sprague | Rhode Island’s Last Execution, 1843–1845 | 030

John Gordon. Amasa Sprague. Rhode Island’s last execution. This episode takes you back to Cranston and Providence in 1843, where wealthy industrialist Amasa Sprague was found murdered on a winter road and suspicion quickly settled on Irish immigrant John Gordon. What followed became one of the most controversial murder cases in Rhode Island history: a circumstantial prosecution, anti-Irish prejudice, Gordon’s 1845 hanging as the last execution ever carried out by the state, and a 2011 pardon that forced Rhode Island to confront how badly this case may have gone wrong. This is a fact-based historical true crime story about class, power, immigrant bias, wrongful conviction, wrongful execution, and the long shadow of a murder that history never fully settled. If you’ve been searching for John Gordon, Amasa Sprague, Rhode Island wrongful conviction, Rhode Island death penalty history, Irish immigrant history, or one of New England’s most haunting historical murder cases, this episode sits right at that crossroads. Sources:Governor Lincoln D. Chafee Pardons John Gordon — https://www.ri.gov/press/view/14182 [https://www.ri.gov/press/view/14182?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Personal papers of 19th century judge shed light on last R.I. trial to end in execution — https://www.uri.edu/news/2008/06/personal-papers-of-19th-century-judge-shed-light-on-last-r-i-trial-to-end-in-execution/ [https://www.uri.edu/news/2008/06/personal-papers-of-19th-century-judge-shed-light-on-last-r-i-trial-to-end-in-execution/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] The Trial of John Gordon and William Gordon — https://explore.thepublicsradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Mosaic-Podcast-The-Trial-of-John-Gordon-and-William-Gordon.pdf [https://explore.thepublicsradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Mosaic-Podcast-The-Trial-of-John-Gordon-and-William-Gordon.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com] State v. John Gordon, 1 R.I. 179 (R.I. 1844) — https://explore.thepublicsradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Mosaic-Podcast-John-Gordon_s-Appeal-September-1844.pdf [https://explore.thepublicsradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Mosaic-Podcast-John-Gordon_s-Appeal-September-1844.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Who Killed Amasa Sprague? — https://explore.thepublicsradio.org/stories/who-killed-amasa-sprague/ [https://explore.thepublicsradio.org/stories/who-killed-amasa-sprague/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] The Rhode Island Historical Society — https://www.rihs.org/ [https://www.rihs.org/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] #JohnGordon #AmasaSprague #RhodeIslandHistory #TrueCrimePodcast #HistoricalTrueCrime #WrongfulConviction #WrongfulExecution #IrishImmigrantHistory #Cranston #Providence #NewEnglandHistory

Sarah Maria Cornell Murder (1832) | Ephraim Avery, Fall River, Tiverton, Rhode Island | 029 (U09:19AM)

Sarah Maria Cornell, a Fall River mill worker, was found hanging in Tiverton, Rhode Island, in December 1832. Her note named Methodist minister Ephraim Avery, the postmortem raised deeper suspicion, and the case became one of New England’s most notorious 19th-century murder trials — a story of Fall River, Tiverton, religion, class, gender, and the brutal distance between suspicion and proof. This episode follows the Sarah Maria Cornell case from her life in the early mill world through the discovery of her body, the investigation, Avery’s trial, the not guilty verdict, and the theories that still cling to the case. Sources: Brown University Library exhibit on Sarah Cornell and Ephraim Avery: https://library.brown.edu/exhibits/archive/RLCexhibit/avery/averyms.html [https://library.brown.edu/exhibits/archive/RLCexhibit/avery/averyms.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com] National Library of Medicine digital trial material: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm%3Anlmuid-101648970-bk [https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm%3Anlmuid-101648970-bk?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Cornell Law Library Trial Pamphlets, Fall River, an authentic narrative: https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/satkf06 [https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/satkf06?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Cornell Law Library Trial Pamphlets, Avery trial report: https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/sat3901 [https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/sat3901?utm_source=chatgpt.com] American Heritage, The Minister and the Mill Girl: https://www.americanheritage.com/minister-and-mill-girl [https://www.americanheritage.com/minister-and-mill-girl?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Ocean State Media on Kate Winkler Dawson’s research: https://www.oceanstatemedia.org/history/a-minister-was-acquitted-of-a-brutal-1832-fall-river-murder-a-new-book-revisits-the-case [https://www.oceanstatemedia.org/history/a-minister-was-acquitted-of-a-brutal-1832-fall-river-murder-a-new-book-revisits-the-case?utm_source=chatgpt.com] #SarahMariaCornell #EphraimAvery #FallRiver #Tiverton #RhodeIslandHistory #MassachusettsHistory #MillGirl #TrueCrimePodcast