Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, Dark Down Easter's. In the newest season of Counter Clock, my friend and investigative journalist Delia D'Ambra takes us back to 4th of July weekend in 1991, when 27-year-old Douglas Wag Jr. set out on his bike to sell some cans for some quick cash so that he and his wife Sandy could attend the local festivities.
But Doug never returned home. And the next time anybody would see him is when his body turned up on a stretch of railroad tracks on the outskirts of Williamston, North Carolina, under the dim headbeam of an oncoming train. This season, Delia dives into exactly how Doug died and how he ended up on a stretch of tracks so far from his home.
And while her investigation began with her probing into this one suspicious death, she ended up uncovering a string of potentially related crimes, a climbing number of mysterious deaths, and a web of small-town secrets that the community and Doug's family remains committed to unraveling.
So join Delia D'Ambra in CounterClock as she takes us back to the railroad tracks where her journey to the truth about what really happened to Doug lies and walks us through the twists even she didn't see coming. Listen to the trailer for CounterClock season six up ahead and then join the Crime Junkie fan club to binge all episodes now. Or listen to new episodes of CounterClock weekly wherever you're listening. Busy track.
And they were on a pretty tight schedule. I mean, you could pretty well set your clock by. In the early morning hours of July 8th, 1991, something was on the railroad tracks just outside the town of Williamston, North Carolina. Everything goes through your head. This was not supposed to be there. That something turned out to be a someone. There was no movement at all.
He said, your son Doug is dead. There's really no way to word it how you feel when you lose somebody you're thinking you're going to spend the rest of your life with. For more than three decades, questions about what happened to 27-year-old Douglas Wag Jr. have gone unanswered.
Why was he down here? What was going on with Dougie? Where was he? I don't know any more now than I did 32 years ago. Doug's family never got a straight answer from police about what led up to his demise. And that's because law enforcement chose not to seek answers. They said, I don't know what you think you're doing in my county working my crime scene, but this was an accident. ♪
For them not to have followed through with what they were required to do, to me, is negligence. The longer I've studied Doug's case, the more I've realized the investigator's decision three decades ago doesn't make any sense because the circumstances of Doug's death don't make any sense. It's almost like somebody's trying to throw you off track.
from what might have really happened. It's not the train that killed him. He was killed somewhere else, and he was put on those tracks. Over the last year, I've uncovered a web of small-town secrets that many people have worked very hard to keep silent.
Don't go asking questions. Do not go looking for answers. I never expected that probing into one man's death would reveal a string of crimes.
There was a lot of heroin, a lot of cocaine coming in. Missing people. They went missing for inapparent reasons, and the truck went missing at the same time. He came to me in a dream. He said, Mom, I will kill them. Don't let them get away with this. And at least nine deaths. When he shot, we heard this. All of it has made me rethink everything I thought I knew about where I'm from.
On the highway, you'd see a sign, welcome to Johnston County, KKK country. So buckle up. This season is the most intense investigation yet. When you have one big thing, it makes you question everything. And just like me, you won't see the twists coming. All I could think about was this baby. He was a living testimony.
And they needed him gone. Has anyone other than me contacted you about this in the last 30-plus years? No. At some point in time, somebody was going to come asking questions. Somebody was going to want to know what happened to their loved one because somebody was getting away with murder. Episodes of Counter Clock Season 6 begin releasing this May. Be sure to follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts.