The Murder of Lyda Jameson (Vermont)
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Leader James son was seventy three years old when her son found her lying in bed without a pulse one morning in march of one thousand nine hundred seventy six. First responders at the scene believed he died of natural causes until they noticed signs of a possible homicide. Decades later, DNA evidence LED to an arrest, and yet someone has still gotten away with murder. I'm highly low. And this is the case of leader Jason on dark downest.

IT was snowing on the morning of tuesday, march second, nineteen seventy six, as wae Jason began his workday. He was the owner of black Jason insurance agency and a real state agent in the small border town of alberg. Remind wain was gearing up for the busy season when tourists from canada began scoping out potential vacation homes on the shores of lake sham plane almost every week.

Way's name was printed in the burlington free press and other local papers below ads for seclude e cottages and rust lake IDE retreats. He was well known in alberg and great of remond for his real estate endeavors and also far his earlier political career in the vermont house of representatives. Even without his political titles and business, though, IT was hard to remain anonymous in a town of less than thirteen hundred people and with his mother being a steadfast figure of local education.

Well, the jamison legacy were in deep in alberg and grandi le county. Wains office on north main street in alberg was actually just across the street from the home of his mother, leader Jameson, according to reporting by mcdonough. E for the berlinton free press leader, had made a forty year career as a school teacher.

He was known to be pretty strict, but at the end of the day, SHE really just expected a lot out of her peoples. And he knew they were capable of IT. SHE had taught at least two generations of Albert residents in the public school system over those four decades, but even after retirement in one thousand nine hundred and seventy, SHE couldn't stay away from education altogether.

Leader went on to teach religious education classes at sane ama day's church right next door to her home on north main street. Leda was independent, involved in her community, and some said appeared much Younger than her seventy three years, but even an independent Young for her age. Subtitle an needs help once in a while.

And her son win was there for her, according to wine leader, had recently broken her rest. And so he was planning to bring his mom and groceries and make sure he was getting along alright. He had tried calling ledda several times over the course of that tuesday morning, but each of his calls went unanswered at one o'clock that afternoon, wae decided to walk across the street to check in.

The house was quiet as he entered, finding no sign of his mother on the first floor. Wine made his way upstairs to her bedroom and stepped inside there. SHE was lying in her bed.

The blankets pulled up to her chain, wine called out to her, but SHE didn't respond or stir the sound of his voice when when in checked for a polls he found in on wae reached for his mother's phone, which was inexplicably off the hook and picked up the receiver lesly core in reports for the burlington free press that win didn't call nine one one or any other local emergency line. Instead, he dialed his office across the street and spoke with one of his employees. He asked her to call leaders doctor and told her he believed his mother was dead.

The employee tried the physicians number a few times to know a avail, so he decided to call an ambuLance instead. When first responders arrived at leaders home, they confirmed he was deceased. And so we asked that his mother be transported to a hospital or a funeral home.

But there was protocol to follow before that would happen. This was an unattended death. And no matter how innocuous IT at first seemed, romance state police was called to the scene.

As reported by alloweth head bar for the brilliant ant free press. The assumption was that leader died of natural causes. There wasn't anything obvious to raise concern that this was anything other than an elderly woman who passed peacefully while I sleep in her own bed.

However, that assumption was proven false. When state police began a closer examination of the bedroom and of leaders remains, they realized that beneath the blankets her nightclothes were partially ripped from her body. Not only that he had Bruces all around her neck, IT appeared.

Leader's death may have been caused by something decidedly unnatural by the time the state bureau's criminal investigation and grandie county states attuning Michael cane arrived at leaders home, more than a dozen people had filtered through the scene. People had even been making calls using the phone that wae found off the hook when he first got there, the same one he used to call his office after he found his mother. When asked about the concerning bruising on latest neck, wen told investigators that IT was from a recent fall on the ice, but still an autopsy was ordered to determine her cause and manner of death.

When the findings from the state medical examiner came back, they made clear that leaders Bruces could not have been simply from a fall. The autopsy determined that leaders cause of death was manual strangulation. This was a homicide.

Someone killed her with their own two hands. The medical examiner concluded that there were no clinical signs of sexual assault, but the bruising wasn't the only clue the ami found during the autopsy. Lizy Anderson reports for the retina herold that clutched and lead us hands.

And under her fingernails, as well as near her neck, armpit and hip were several strands of hair. The hairs were fifteen to sixteen inches long and radish Brown in color. At least some of the strands of hair had the follow intact.

Though DNA analysis was a long ways off in one thousand nine hundred and seventy six, an intact hair follow meant that the strands of hair could go beyond microscopic examination and potentially be processed for clues like blood type and even race and sex. Of the person who left those hairs seen, investigators learned leader was last seen alive by a neighbor who delivered her newspaper around five P. M.

The night before her body was discovered. So with that, in the condition of her remains, the medical examiner estimated leaders time of death to be sometime between midnight and nine A M on march second. Later, the time frame was narrowed to a two to three hour window between five A M and seven or eight am on march second.

Leader jama son's murder was believed to be the first homicide in alberga recorded history, perhaps even in the history of greater grand dial county. The tragedy of her violent death sent the otherwise quiet community into a spiral of fear. Vermont ate police set up a temporary investigation headquarters in the town clerks office as they began to scouter leaders house and the town for clues.

The trouble was, leaders house and any evidence that might have been there had already been disturbed before anyone realized that they were dealing with a homicide, with so many people taping through the house before the bureau's criminal investigation arrived, any fingerprints or other evidence was likely already contaminated. The only fingerprints police identified at the scene belonged to lead herself and herself waye. With the exception of her telephone being off the hook, nothing seemed out of place and lead us house or bedroom.

There were no signs of a struggle and no broken windows or doors force open. Lida kept despair key hidden, but only a few people other than lida and her son wae would have known where IT was. But even though eda kept her house locked up tight, according to reporting in the times argus, there was a door lock that didn't always latch properly and IT could have been giggled glues without detection, so IT was possible that the door with the faulty lock was a point of entry.

The theory among investigators after their assessment of the scene was that whoever killed leda could have entered and escaped through the back door, crossing through her backyard and into a field that stretched out behind house if this was the true point of entry and IT meant to police that the killer was familiar with the house and its surroundings. Meanwhile, interviews with family, friends and neighbors were underway to develop any leads. Investigators learned that leader had recently witnessed a brain and burglary at the same amedee's church next door.

The suspects made off with a one hundred and fifty dollar pa. System, and leader had given details to police about the getaway car, although IT was something to consider, maybe the thieves came back to silence the witness, police told reporters for the times, artist IT was one of the least promising of all the potential motives they were investigating. Another lead had vermont officials looking into a separate but similar homicide case across state borders in new hampshire.

The victim was seventy four year old, making crowds, also a school teacher like leader. And SHE was also strangle to death in her na apartment either february twenty seven or twenty eight, just a few days before leaders murder. The parallels were worth and scrutiny, but police were saying they had no evidence of a connection. However, within the first days of the investigation, police had discovered to lead that was much more promising. There had been a party in town on the night of the murder, and one of the party goers was allegedly unaccounted for during a critical window of time that night.

The party had started at the american legion hall on the night of march first, when the bar they're closed down, the party reconvened at someone's house to keep the hand going into the early hours of march. Second, a witness described the party as a bunch of drinking buddies just hanging out. Several of those bodies spoke with police about their weare outs on the night of the murder, including a local resident named Michael fenning.

Michael told police that he'd been at the party all night, starting at the american legion and then moving to someones house around two A M. He said he laughed around three A M and went straight home, making IT back to his place by three thirty A M. However, as questioning of Michael friends and the other people at the party that night, continued, holes were popped in his version of events.

For one, Michael romney said that Michael actually didn't get home until around five thirty in the morning. And when he left the party, Michael drove off behind the wheel of someone else's car. He ended up crashing the car into a ditch and continuing the rest of the way back to his apartment on foot.

When police traced his route that night from the house party to the ditch, wicky crashed the car and onto his apartment, they realized that he would have passed right by leader's house. And if what his roommate said was true about the time Michael got home, then that would put him in the vicinity of leaders home within the same window of her estimated time of death. Michael was among twenty four people who gave hair samples for comparison to the hairs found at the scene of the murder.

He also submitted to a polygraph test and reportedly passed, but police were unable to rule him out as a suspect and leaders. Death photos of Michael from that year shows that he had a beard and long hair, which he wore in a pony tale. And after microscopic examination of the foreign hairs recovered from the test body and the samples given by Michael, investigators determined that there were notable similarities between the two.

The other hairs compared to the evidence did not share the same characteristics, so IT was possible that Michael fenn's hair was found in leaders hands and on her body. IT was also possible that he was near or around the scene at the estimated time of the murder. He also didn't have an ala bi after he left the party.

But as compelling as IT all was the grand dial county steeds. Attune wasn't confident the evidence was strong enough to bring an arrest and convince a jury that Michael fen killed later. Jason, for one, no obvious motive was jumping out at investigators.

A motive isn't unnecessary part of prosecuting a suspect for murder, but IT doesn't hurt to have an understanding of what may have driven someone to strangle the life out of another human being in their own home. The only perceived connection between Michael and leader was that, like many of the locals, mrs. Jason was once his teacher in the alberg school system.

Another local resident had made an insensitive remark in a boston globe peace by Mariah carie leader being strict with her students, and quote, probably one time or another, every kid in town would have liked to choke her. And quote, but that was hardly given any weight as a realistic motive for anyone to take her life. The investigation pressed forward, though without much in the way of developments.

In june of one thousand nine hundred and seventy six, a secret inquest was held with the intent of compelling certain witnesses to give statements and generate new information, but the effort didn't lead to any arrests. By that point, investigators had conducted over two hundred interviews, administered several light detector tests, but the case had stalled out for no single discard able reason. Debra winner reports for the burlington free press that given alberga location with its proximately to the canadian and new york borders, there was a vast area to search for leads and suspects.

Another issue potentially holding the case up was the fact that no weapon was used, there were no witnesses, and neighbors hadn't reported hearing any concerning noises. Veron state police corporal Bruce lehua described the difficulties of the investigation like this quote, strangulation is a silent homicide, and everybody Carries a pair of hands, but the facts together, and there isn't much to go on. A Young person, and there are triangle possibilities, an older woman, and it's a sticky situation.

Leaders case grew colder, intending with the northern vermont weather in january of nineteen seventy seven. With the anniversary of her death just a few months ahead and no sign of an arrest coming soon, her son wing footed the bill for an out of state psychic to aid investigators in his mother's case. New jersey psychic jon dora was known for assisting law enforcement in many high profile criminal investigations.

Later in life, SHE and her daughter, who discovered SHE inherit her mother's clear volumes, would be credited with helping to identify Joseph, a gustise rally previously only known as the boy in the box. Jones, apparently impressed, states attorney can, with what he was able to tell him about his past things that SHE wouldn't known otherwise. When I came to the case of leader Jameson, the only public details of predictions states that he believed information would come to light in leaders case during the course of a different investigation, and the information would lead to an arrest.

Until that prediction and anything else zone might have told the enforcement about leaders murder proved true. The case was stuck right where IT had been for months. Some of the weaker leads, once considered, were crossed off the list like the robbery at the church that leader had witnessed.

Those suspects were apprehended and deemed to have no connection to her killing. The murder of the other elderly school teacher in new hampshire was still under investigation, and so IT doesn't appear that angle was rolled out altogether. Nothing in the source material leads me to believe that IT was ever conclusively connected to lead us murder.

Michael fenning remained on the list of suspects, but until further evidence connected him or anyone else leaders murder was left to freeze over. In one thousand nine hundred and seventy eight, newly appointed grand dial states attorney at word cash men made a date top priority to reopen leader jamon s case. Though he was cautious in his assessment of the investigation, kashmir explained that the evidence in the case was largely circumstantial, making IT difficult to move forward with the prosecution, but the hope was to bring IT to a grand jury and secure entitlement.

In the midst of kashmir review of the case, a second murder rocked the region in november of one thousand nine seventy eight, a blanch mitchill, a forty five year old woman from high gate center, was found dead down in a bank mental of robot, wrote seventy eight near mud creek in alberg. Early reports suggested that an had died from a shotgun blast, but these were later corrected. SHE had been brutally beaten to death.

Some speculated whether this murder might have been that other investigation that the psychic done, done, was talking about the one that SHE predicted would lead to developments in lead us case. But if IT was, despite the best efforts of law enforcement and the new states attorney to drum up new information in this case, they were unable to take IT to a grand jury. The largely circumstantial evidence simply wasn't strong enough, leaving the case in limbo.

Once again, the case wasn't entirely circumstantial, though there was some physical evidence, namely the strains of hair that showed microscopic similarities to one of the top suspects for leaders murder. Those hairs had been preserved and stored, just waiting for the day that science would catch up. In nineteen ninety one, fifteen years after a leader James son was killed, a new detective was assigned to her case, detective sergeant ref.

CHilton said to work examining the case file and reinterview wing witnesses, even hoping a plane track down out of state individuals who spoke with police a decade and a half earlier. Interestingly, some of the witnesses with many years, and in some cases hundreds of miles between them and the small town of berg, had new information to offer the case. They disclosed things they did never revealed before.

IT was a slow and steady grind, getting the wheels turning again in a long, stagnant case, all while balancing the data. Day case low that often plug detective sergeant children's focus from leaders, file more active investigations. But then in one hundred and ninety four were monsters.

Police were met with a bit of a reprieve. That year saw a lower than average homicide rate, which reportedly freed up. Investigators make some progress in the cold case backlog. Leaders was one of those cases that year. Detective sergeant cHilton retrieved the hair samples collected from leader's body from the evidence socker, where theyd been stored now for nearly two decades.

He sent them off for DNA analysis at a lab called cel mark diagnostics, which had made a name for itself in forensic science and criminal investigations in a few short years since its founding in one nine hundred eighty seven, IT would go on to be the lab that tested evidence for the O. J. Simpsons case and many other notable cases down the road, with the folk le still intact on the long strands of radish Brown hair collected from leader's body.

Sum mark diagnostics s was able to utilize pcr testing in an attempt to develop a DNA profile. Pcr more polymerase chain reaction is a method used to amplify small amounts of DNA, making IT ideal for testing tiny or degraded samples like a single hair route. In the nineties, pcr analysis was still a new and developing method for DNA profiling, but IT was proving to be faster, more sensitive and highly effective for forensic identification compared to older techniques.

So cl mark diagnostics went to work, and the chemists were able to develop a DNA profile of the contributor of the hair. The DNA profile could now be compared to potential suspects in the case, and that's when two plain cloth officers showed up at Michael fannings doorstep in all the years since he was questioned in connection with leaders murder. Michael never left Albert.

He worked in town, he frequented the local establishments, and he never tried to run from the suspicion over him that began brewing in the first days of the investigation. But Michael knew that this time when police came knocking, his life was about to change. As he put IT in an interview with lesly korn for the burlington free press.

Quote, that is, when I found out, I was about to go through how, and quote, detective sergeant child tried to get a blood example from Michael funding by way of court order, but Michael and his public defenders fought this. Ultimately, investigators were able to collect a chee swab from the suspect in december of one thousand and eighty four, when Michael DNA profile from the cheek swab was compared with the profile developed from the strands of hair. IT was a match one in three point five million eyes.

That number means that the likelihood of randomly selecting an unrelated person from the general population who would have the same DNA profile as the hair found on leaders body is extremely low. In other words, the DNA matched between the hair and the suspect is highly specific and unlikely to occur by chance, making IT very strong evidence that Michael could be the source of the hair. Despite the match, Michael fending wasn't arrested immediately. The investigation continued to strengthen the other elements of the case, but Michael was put on notice. The clock started ticking, and about two years later, 长安 摩萨德。

On monday morning, April fifteen th, nineteen ninety six, vermont state police, in an unmarked car followed Michael fenning as he drove to pick up his coffee and the newspaper. He was arrested without incident soon after and charged with second degree murder in connection with the death of leader Jackson after twenty years.

The circumstantial evidence, paired with the new DNA findings finally built a strong enough case to bring a suspect into custody. Michael timeline in consistencies his proximity to the scene on the night of the murder, and not least evolved the DNA analysis that identified his hair on liter's body, all seemed to point to Michael fenning. But Albert locals just couldn't believe that this quiet, reserved man who lived in town nearly his whole life could possibly be a killer.

Michael entered a plea of not guilty. As he awaited trial, the state offered him more than one plea agreement, say he killed leda and he'd serve minimal time, but Michael rejected each one of the deals he was offered. He simply could not confess to something, especially such a honest murder, but he claimed he did not commit not even an offer of less than three years in jail could sway him.

Michael put his faith in the justice system and his fate in the hands of the jury. If he was found guilty, Michael could receive a life sense. The trial of Michael fending began on thursday.

Mae eleven two thousand in north hero mot the evidence that the state presented to the jury against Michael fending senate on DNA analysis, the timeline and consistently, and his perceived suspicious behavior during the early morning hours when leader Jameson was murdered. The jury heard that Michael had been a suspect early in the investigation. After microscopic analysis of the hairs, trans found and leaders hands showed similarities to a hair sample Michael gave in the first days of the investigation.

Expert witnesses in DNA analysis and scientists testified that the same hair found in the hand was a match to my, linking him to the scene. Two decades later, prosecutors called witnesses who showed that Michael account of the night of the murder did not alive with what other party goers remembered. Michael had claimed he left the party at three A.

M, and arrived home by three thirty. But his roommate reported that he got home around five thirty a, placing him mere leaders house during the estimated time of her death. Witnesses also testified that Michael had taken a car from the party and crashed the vehicle into a dt, further raising suspicions despite this compounding evidence against the man on trial, his team of public defenders were equipped with a defense that they believed would contain significant reasonable doubt.

In the case, the defense suggested that there was someone else more likely to have killed leader. Unlike Michael, they argued this person had motive and evidence at the scene of leaders murder suggested this person was even there who was this alleged alternate suspect, none other than way in jen leader jama son's own sign. The defensive theory went like this the day before the murder, march first, one thousand nine hundred seventy six, with town meeting day in many towns across from mont, including the town of alberg.

The town meeting is a gathering of citizens and town officials to discuss issues pertaining to the town, like the budget and other matters. It's not clear if leta attended the meeting, but there was an item on the agenda that would have been relevant to her and to win the minutes from the march first one thousand nine hundred and seventy six Albert town meeting stayed that there was much discussion about what to do with property owners who were in arrears on their taxes. The diluent taxpayer statement printed in the towns annual report for that year, this dozens of property owners and businesses who, from just a few dollars up to several thousand dollars, one such delinquent taxpayer was awkward to which owed the town of Albert back taxes to the tune of fifty seven hundred forty two dollars and forty nine cents.

Today, that's nearly thirty two thousand dollars, if adjusted for inflation. Now, leaders sun wine was one of, if not the primary investor in the aquaria corporate and development project. According to the defense, his mother, leda, had invested some money too, perhaps after persuading by her son if the book taxes were any indication of the project's health. Though IT wasn't going well, Michael defence attorneys presented to the jury evidence that leda and wine were out around fifty thousand dollars from the failed project during the discussion of the dilli quent taxes.

At that town meeting, officers considered options for putting pressure on taxpayers through their mortgage companies and possibly holding tax sales, which could potentially mean the owners would have wines placed on their properties or have the land and buildings sold out from under them for a figure in local real state like win, this could arguably be the cause of some financial stress. And as the defense argued, IT may have been the motive for him to kill his own mother for financial gain. Beyond this sticky situation with the failed development project, the defense suggested that win couldn't be ruled out as a suspect.

His residence was technically an hour away in south bowlings ton, but wine was estranged from his wife and no one could account for his whereabouts. Tween eleven pm on march first and six or seven A M on march second, a time frame that covered the estimated window of leaders murder. What's more, we knew how to get into his mother's home, and his fingerprints were found at the scene, though what is easy to argue that those prints were there because he frequently visited his mother and was the one who found her, and he used her phone that morning, something he did not deny.

Waye Jameson actually took the stand at Michael fenders trial, but he kept his testimony to what he said in his original statement more than twenty years earlier when asked about specifics of the night before and date of finding his mother's lifeless body in her bed, he said he could not remember the details when asked point blank if he killed his mother, waye said no. Asked for the DNA evidence against the Michael funding, his defense attorneys hoped that the jury would doubt the reliability of the testing and argued that just because his hair was there doesn't mean he killed later or even that he was ever at the house. And when IT came down to IT, the defense argued there was just no obvious motive for Michael to take leader's life.

Michael's trial lasted almost three weeks, but the jury finally began deliberations on tuesday, may thirty, two thousand. While working to reach verdict, the jury asked for two things they wanted to know way in jesson's height and wait, perhaps trying to fully consider him as an alleged alternate suspect for the murder, but that information had not been part of the testimony, and so the jury wasn't permitted to know IT. The members of the jury also asked if Michael roommates testimony could be read back to them again.

He was the person who said Michael didn't arrive home until five thirty A M. First is Michael version of events which had him home at three thirty A M. The time difference was critical, given leaders estimated time of death after over fourteen hours of deliberations over two days.

On may thirty first two thousand, the jury returned with their verdict. Michael fanning not guilty. The state hadn't made a strong enough case to convince the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, and so a men under suspicion for murder for over twenty years was acquitted of all charges.

Michael fenning left the courtroom with tears streaming down his face, and he told reporters waiting outside that IT felt good to be vindicated. Though IT was bitter sweet, Michael father passed away during the course of the trial, and he never got the relief of knowing his son was not a killer, or at least that the jury did not find him guilty of murder charges. There is a significant difference between a jury finding a suspect not guilty and a declaration of actual innocence when a jury delivers are not guilty.

Verdict IT means that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect committed the crime. IT doesn't always mean the jury believes the suspect is innocent, only that the evidence presented wasn't strong enough to meet the high legal standard required for a conviction. Actual innocence, on the other hand, means that the person truly did not commit the crime, and in many cases that there's a formative evidence proving they were not involved, are not guilty. Verdict in Michael fenner's murder trial leaves open the possibility that he could have been involved, and after Michael fenders acquittals, some people still held fast to the belief that he was the right suspect on trial for the right charges.

The strength of hair found on lead's body will forever raise questions, were they really mics hair? Was the testing fault I, or was the evidence contaminated in some way? If they really wear Michael hair, how did they get there if he wasn't physically in her room, struggling her to death with all those people in and around the scene before B, C, I got there, is IT possible the hairs were on one of those people and transferred to her body.

In the midst of those questions, others felt that the not guilty verdict revealed the truth that Michael didn't do IT and someone else was responsible for her death. Michael remained in Albert and picked up the pieces of his life in an extensive interview with lesly karren for the brilliant ant free press following his acquittal, le Michael talked about the loneliness he felt during and after the trial, the difficulty of getting a job of dating, of proceeding as Normal when he was once a man accused of murder. Still, he said he tries to appreciate life and the things he enjoys riding motorcycles, hunting, photography.

With his freedom ahead of him, Michael hoped to visit alaska someday and maybe even fall in love at the end of IT. All, no matter what anyone believes about this case, Michael can never be charged with the murder of leader Jameson again. The conclusion to the trial left lingering doubts and questions about who really committed the crime.

The defense raised a compelling theory. That way in James, in the sun of the victim was the true killer. To be clear, wine has never been charged with any crimes and connection to lead a Jameson's s death. He has denied any involvement in the crime. A few years after the murder, wae left alberg in vermont, told together he moved to texas, remarried and started a new life away from the place that held the memory and the truth about what happened to his mother.

Thank you for listening to dark downest. You can find all source material for this case at dark down's dotcom. Be sure to follow the show on instagram at dark downcast.

This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm kindly low, and this is dark, Dennis. Dark donis is a production of Kelly media and audio check. So what do you think check do you approve?