When the daughter of wealthy real estate developer John Chakalos walked into her father’s Connecticut home one morning in December 2013, it set into motion a long-term investigation of not one, but two suspicious deaths in the same family within a three year span.

The murder of 70-year old Augusta resident Blanche Kimball remained a cold case for decades until a new tip, advancements in DNA technology, and a clever idea brought all the loose ends together.

Missing Kim, a Dark Downeast mini-documentary is out now.

The fire horn rang out in Ossipee, New Hampshire around 10 p.m. on September 28, 1916. The blaze at Frederick and Florence Small’s cottage on the lake burned fast, even, and hot. The fire department could do nothing to save the structure or anyone who might remain inside. Frederick was out of town, seen leaving on a train towards Boston that afternoon, but Florence was unaccounted for.

When Albert Flick was released from his first prison sentence for killing his wife, he restarted his pattern of threatening and victimizing women. But he’d age out of it, wouldn’t he? Statistics said so. His drooping, wrinkled face and frail body did not look like that of a brazen killer.

Ellen Choate’s name remains on the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide list all these decades later, one of two long-standing cases without resolution in Newport, Maine. From the start of the investigation, detectives considered possible ties to numerous other homicides in the area. What was happening in Sebasticook Valley in the mid-1970s?

It was just before 4 a.m. on June 20, 1975 in Newport, Maine at McNally’s Texaco Station. The driver waiting at the pump stepped out of the car to see where the attendant might be. As he opened the door to the station, he found 35-year old Robert McKee lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

The search for the suspect would become a cross-country event, tracking aliases and addresses out west until finally, a dedicated detective and a new State’s Attorney saw eye to eye on what needed to be done in the case, what needed to be done for Judith Leo-Coneys.

When the vehicle of Judith Leo-Coneys turned up at a junkyard in Roxbury, Vermont, it was the first big clue in the disappearance of the beloved school teacher and young mother. The case would spiral into an investigation spanning a decade and stretching across the United States, but before investigators would uncover any answers for Judy, they’d have to find a second missing person. The primary person of interest disappeared, too.

Semper Memento. Always Remember. Those words guide the work of the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide Unit. In this special release episode, I peel back the curtain on the Unsolved Homicide Unit and reveal what goes into re-examining and investigating long standing homicide cases in the state of Maine and how a team of experts collaborates in pursuit of one common goal – to find answers.

Nearly four decades is a long time to wait for justice. In the case of Dorthea “Dot” Burke, time proved to be exactly what detectives needed to secure that justice, bringing key witnesses forward to tell their story. You might assume DNA is the key to closing out cold cases, but more often than not, it’s all about getting people talking.

When State Police investigators started digging in March of 1988, it had been 10 years since anyone had seen Russell Bean. An investigation followed his disappearance, but foul play wasn’t suspected. Not until a deathbed confession and shocking accusation sent investigators to the site of an old pig pen on the property of Marlow, New Hampshire’s Police Chief, Robert Chambers Sr.