The Disappearance of Marble Arvidson (Vermont)

When a teenager disappeared from Brattleboro, Vermont hours before the wind, rain, and damaging floods of a major natural disaster devastated the state, it took days before he was finally reported missing and initial search efforts were hindered by ongoing storm recovery. Now as the case approaches another anniversary in 2024, loved ones are still waiting for the information that could lead them to answers.

August 27, 2011

It was around 1 o’clock in the afternoon on August 27, 2011 when there was a knock at the door of 503 Marlboro Road in Brattleboro, Vermont. 17-year old Marble Ace Arvidson greeted his visitor and they chatted for a bit before Marble tacked a note up on his bedroom door with a brief message. He’d be back in 30 minutes. Going to frolic with some friendly gremlins, it said. That’s how Marble spoke – whimsical, playful, creative.

Josh Stilts writes for the Brattleboro Reformer that Marble had plans to meet up with his girlfriend back at the house around 4 o’clock, so at the very least he was expected home by then. But at 4 p.m. when his girlfriend arrived, Marble wasn’t there. He hadn’t called or contacted her in any way to let her know their plans were canceled or that he was running late. It was odd, but not altogether concerning. Maybe Marble got caught up in whatever he was doing, but he’d be back. It wasn’t unusual for a 17-year old boy to lose track of time.

It grew dark in West Brattleboro as the evening wore on, and then it began to rain. Hurricane Irene became Tropical Storm Irene by the time it worked its way up the eastern seaboard and arrived in Vermont that Saturday night. Meteorologists had warned of the impending storm for days and when the skies finally opened up, nearly 7 inches of rain drenched the landscape. When it was all over, at least six people in Vermont lost their lives to the treacherous weather. Bridges were washed out, power and phone lines were down throughout the state, and entire towns were cut off from main roads.

The next morning while citizens and emergency crews assessed the damage the storm left in its wake, Marble’s housemates realized that he never returned home the night before.

About Marble and Life Circumstances

Marble’s aunt Trish Kittredge has become the voice for Marble and his family from the earliest days of his case, but she’d been an advocate for Marble long before his disappearance, too. She and Marble share a birthday – Birthday buddies, they called themselves.

“Marble was always front and center at every family gathering and every picnic and every trip to the pond. And he was always quite a character,” Trish shared. “He talked with different accents and he always wore different hats and kind of was the life of the party to an extent. He was always an energetic, lively kid who had a wicked sense of humor.”

Trish continued, “As he was growing up, though, he started to have a little bit more difficulties interacting, especially with his mom, who at the time had struggled with alcohol and drugs, and that relationship became difficult, and my grandparents most specifically stepped in and spent the bulk of his young childhood raising him, interacting with his mom.”

Trish’s sister, Marble’s biological mother, Sigrid, has been very open about the challenges she faced that impacted her ability to parent Marble, including her own substance use disorder. Trish said family was always there to help Sigrid with Marble and do what was best for both of them.

“There was certainly a lot of change throughout Marble’s young life. And when he was five or six was when my grandparents and I took Sigrid to court and we were able to have my grandparents take custody of him and that’s when my sister realized, Sigrid, his mother, realized that she needed to make some dramatic changes in her life and that’s when she stopped drinking,” Trish explained.

Marble lived primarily with his great-grandparents but when Sigrid and Marble were both ready, he eventually returned to live with his mom. There were new challenges as he got older though, and Sigrid sought services that could help Marble with his social and emotional needs.

In Trish’s words, “During those numbers of years, and so I’m talking the end of elementary school and the beginning of middle school, there was opportunities where, like mentors were partnered with Sigrid and Marble to give Marble an out, a mentor, a real, a male role model, somebody to help process difficult situations. And over a couple of years, Marble and his mentor became very close.”

The mentorship was great for Marble, however, persistent issues made Sigrid realize her son needed an alternative living situation.

“His struggles with his mom became more difficult and Marble’s size became larger and there was a group, in my opinion, a group decision that it would be better for everybody if Marble transitioned from living with his mom to living with who was then his mentor, who was an older gentleman, and his wife, and they became his foster parents and Marble lived with them and continued to go to school,” she continued, “Still always had an amazing relationship with my grandparents, who remained a steadfast part of Marble’s life.”

As reported by Megan James for Seven Days, Marble and his foster father bonded over pizza and long drives in the car listening to Bob Marley. The foster father described Marble as an introvert who preferred to listen to music, watch movies and read rather than playing sports. He also saw a side of Marble that was impulsive with bad judgment. A kid who was easily manipulated.

Trish shared, “Marble started to experience – and so this is junior high, beginning early high school – started to have some mental and emotional challenges. He was hospitalized. He had some things that they were trying to sort out that made it difficult in many ways for him to interact. He had, at that point, no, very little interaction with his mom, limited interaction with his younger brother. I think about two years into living with his first set of foster parents it became too difficult for them, for him to live with them.”

Outside of the challenges with his mental and emotional health, Marble had more or less outgrown the foster home. They were homesteaders and lived in a rural area. They didn’t have TV or computers that Marble could access which would’ve been tough for a teenager and, plus, he wanted to be closer to his friends.

Marble’s foster mother at the time worked with Families First, a social services organization providing community and home supports for youth and adults living with disabilities. So, Marble became a client of Families First and his case manager helped find an independent living situation with another mentor-slash-foster parent. Marble moved into a home with his mentor at the corner of Route 9 and Sunset Lake Road in West Brattleboro that they shared with another teenager and their adult mentor. Unlike Marble’s first mentor, this new one was much closer in age to Marble.

“He had two young adults, I think in their mid-twenties, literally become his foster parents, which I think is shocking to me that two 20-somethings would become foster parents to a then 17-year old troubled youth living independently in an independent home,” Trish continued, “But on some levels that seemed to be working really well. He was still going to school. The school felt it was promising that they thought he would graduate from high school that fall, that next year and had even discussed the idea of maybe community college or, or other things. So on some levels, things looked promising.”

In August of 2011, Marble was preparing to begin his senior year at Brattleboro Union High School. He had some close friends he enjoyed spending time with. He had a girlfriend. Marble seemed happy. He was also doing things that Trish would categorize as typical, or at least unsurprising, teenage behavior.

“I think it’s difficult as a teenager in any circumstance to kind of navigate figuring out who you are and where do you fit in the world. That, you know, you experiment with things, and that included drugs, and it included sexuality, and it included pushing boundaries, and so I think Marble did all of those things,” Trish shared.

These were the circumstances of his life when Marble seemingly vanished without a trace in the midst of a devastating natural disaster.

Marble Arvidson’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.