Bennington Triangle

The first disappearance occurred on November 12, 1945, when 74-year-old Middie Rivers disappeared while out hunting, in the vicinity of Long Trail Road and Vermont Route 9. Rivers was on a weekend hunting trip with four other hunters up the mountains. The morning of November 12, 1945, Rivers and his son-in-law, Joe Lauzon, were walking together before reaching a fork. Rivers and Lauzon would separate here with Rivers telling Lauzon he would "only be going a short distance" before he would join them at camp for lunch. After 3 p.m., the rest of the hunting party would begin searching before getting authorities.^[4] An extensive search was conducted, but the only evidence discovered was a single rifle cartridge that was found in a stream.^[5] The speculation was that Rivers had leaned over and the cartridge had dropped out of his pocket into the water. Rivers was an experienced outdoorsman who was familiar with the local area.^[6]

Paula Jean Welden, aged 18, disappeared on December 1, 1946. Welden, a sophomore at Bennington College, had set out for a hike on the Long Trail. Many saw her depart, including Ernest Whitman, a Bennington Banner employee who gave her directions. She was not wearing a jacket during her journey; it was 50 °F outside, later dropping to 9 °F. Welden was alleged to have been seen on the trail itself by an elderly couple who were about 100 yards (91 m) behind her. According to them, she turned a corner in the trail, and when they reached the same corner she had disappeared.^[7] An extensive search was conducted, which included the posting of a $5,000 reward and help from the FBI, but no evidence of her was ever found.^[8] Welden's disappearance was the inspiration for the 1951 novel Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson.^[9]

James Tedford, a veteran, allegedly went missing on December 1, 1949, three years to the day after Welden was last seen. Tedford, a resident of the Bennington Soldiers' Home, had been in St. Albans visiting relatives and was accompanied to a local bus station, which was the last location where he was seen.^[10] According to witnesses, Tedford got on the bus and was still aboard at the last stop before arriving in Bennington. Somewhere between the last stop and Bennington, he vanished. His belongings were still in the luggage rack and an open bus timetable was on his vacant seat. Tony Jinks discusses this claim, saying that "The popular conception is that he vanished into thin air while on the bus, but like many missing person stories there's a gap between when he was last seen and when he was reported missing a week or so later. Regarding Tedford's disappearance, there is enough evidence to suggest he did not "dematerialize,” even though no trace of him was ever found."^[11]

On October 12, 1950, Paul "Buddy" Jepson, a special needs child aged 8, had accompanied his mother on an errand. She left her son unattended in the cab of their truck for about an hour while she fed some pigs. When she returned, her son was nowhere in sight. A bloodhound tracked the boy along a logging road to an intersection of backroads near a stream. Or, according to local legend, where Welden had disappeared four years earlier.^[6] Search parties with high powered flashlights looked for Paul but nothing was ever found. His father shared with press how easily it would be to overlook him, because his brown and tan clothing blended in with the fall leaves.^[6]

On October 28, 1950, sixteen days after Jepson had vanished, Frieda Langer, aged 53, and her cousin, Herbert Elsner, left their family campsite near the Somerset Reservoir to go on a hike. During the journey, Langer slipped and fell into a stream. She told Elsner if he would wait, she would go back to the campsite, change clothes and catch up to him.^[12] When she did not return, Elsner made his way back to the campsite and discovered that Frieda Langer had not returned, and that nobody had seen her since they had left. Over the next two weeks, five searches were conducted, involving aircraft, helicopters, and up to 300 searchers. No trace of Langer was found during the search.^[12] On May 12, 1951, Langer's body was found three and a half miles from the campsite in the eastern branch of the Deerfield River, an area that had been only lightly searched seven months previously. No cause of death could be determined because of the condition of her remains.^[12]

The events of 1945 to 1950 are told in episode 67 of Lore, titled "The Red Coats".^[13] The case was featured as one of the haunted locations in the paranormal TV series Most Terrifying Places in America which aired on the Travel Channel in 2018. The episode, title "Unnatural World" told the stories about the reportedly missing persons in a five-year span, and local lore of the "Bennington Monster", a Bigfoot-like creature that supposedly roams these wooded areas.^[14]