The Murders of Joan Gray Rogers and Bernard Ewen (Vermont)
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For almost fifty years, the murder of two people in the tiny northern vermont village of hardware have gone on, so the rumors in town ran almost as rampant as the fear. But whether any of the chatter about what happened to the victims is true remains to be seen nearly five decades later. I'm Kelly low. In these are the cases of joe gray Rogers and burnu on dark Dennis.

Arch Parkers had been waiting hours to catch a glimpse of his best friend, sixty four year old bernard U. N. IT was almost three in the afternoon on saturday, july sixteen, nineteen seventy seven, and burnt should have left his downstairs apartment.

Hours ago. Bernard was retired, but there was nothing about him that enjoyed in idle weekend. He was a constant figure in the small town of hardware, remind, walking everywhere and anywhere, usually with his beloved radio in one hand and a walking stick in the other.

If you ever found yourself in a conversation with bernard, clear your schedule because he loved to talk, and many said you couldn't get a word in edge wise with him, but that was part of his charm, always friendly, always social. That was burnt. U.

N, according to reporting by gene of a grad ski for the retta daily herald, rg lived across the hall from bernard in the business block on main street in hardware. The three story, whether grey building was home to about twenty apartments, that said, abo, a few commercial units on the first floor, a general store, a dressed P, A discount shop and IT made up a large part of the village center. The building had been the target of several brains over the previous few months.

Anywhere from four, five all the way up to twenty, depending on where you got your data from at the time in january of that year, there was even a bomb threat at the building. The a bomb was never found. The owner of the building had petitioned for police controls along main street to cut down on criminal activity.

But the town was lacking in law enforcement resources, as IT was. Hardwick police was a two person department plus the chief, but then a patrolman injured his back, which made the entire force for the roughly twenty two hundred residents just one officer and the chief. So when archie had heard some strange noises coming from the direction of bernards apartment earlier that day, he didn't dare stick out his head to see what was going on in the halls, given the break gains at the building.

But now, hours later, without any sign of bernard, archie is worry mounted where those sounds coming from his friend bard's place, he decided to go a look and see what had bernard hold up for the Better part of a saturday. When R. T.

Tried the door to unit five a, he realized IT was locked. So he went to the back of the building where one of the windows to burn's apartment was open. He hoisted himself up onto the porch and over the window sills inside, but arching, knew as soon as his feet hit the ground that his friend was not okay.

One glimpse of bernard, lying on the kitchen floor and arch, flung himself back of the window to call hardware chief of police. When chief Michael laws in arrived at the apartment, he found bardun in his kitchen and an unusual scene around him. Mary bosaso reports for the boston globe that there was a folding metal chair on top of a table, and a slipper or shoe was caught in part of the chair.

The chief noted that IT looked like a crack in the wall or a section of torn wall paper was taped, perhaps as a makeshift repair. At first gLance, the scene might have told the story of an accidental death. Perhaps bernard was standing on the folding chair on top of the table to reach the area of his wall in need of a patch.

Bernard could have slipped or the chair could have partially folded. And then bernard fell to his death, losing a shoe on the way down. But as the chief looked closer at arnott's body, he noticed something odd, burnt, had Bruces on his face and neck Bruces that didn't seem like they could have been caused by a fall of a chair.

Chief lawson picked up the phone to call vermont police, or ardor injuries were simply too suspicious to make assumptions about what had happened there in apartment five a. That this could be a murder in his small town was at the back of the chief s mind. As the state police investigation in the berardi death began to unfold, arch told investigators about the noises he'd heard earlier in the morning.

He said, around five thirty A M, he heard growing and moning, and he now believed they were coming from burn's apartment. Another neighbour who lived above bern's place also reported a commotion of some kind in the middle of the night. The investigation revealed that bernard had spent the day before friday, Julie fifteen, the same way he usually spent his days.

He walked around town and at one point stopped into male electric to replace the batteries in his radio that he always Carried with him around five thirty P. M. That night, bernard was seen at the I.

G. A grocery store on main street just down the road from his apartment. He cashed a state rent rebate check for a one hundred and thirty eight dollars. Those were his last known movement before his body was found the next morning, knowing he likely still had that cash on him or in his apartment, police searched for the money to determine if I had been stolen.

Now this is one detail that no one has been able to agree yond throughout the years, whether or not the one hundred and thirty eight dollars or any portion of the money was found during a search of burn's home. Several early reports said that nothing was taken from bernard apartment. Other sources said anywhere from five dollars to the entire one hundred and thirty eight dollar cash check was unaccounted for among burnt things.

So if the money was indeed missing, was this a robbery gone wrong, or was this an accident? Despite the suspicious bruising on burn's neck and face, the chair with the stuck slipper and the table nag that investigators, assistant chief medical examiner doctor elenora quill in was called to the scene, and then bard's body was transported to the state police morg later that night. An autopsy would examine those suspicious bruising and determine if barrage cause of death was something other than a fall, even without an official cause in manner of death determination.

Yet hardwork residents were already understandably shaken by the circumstances of bard's passing, but IT was only the beginning of what would become one of the darkest weekends in the town's history. The same nike burn's body was transported for a complete autopsy. A man named clinton gray walked into the hardwick police department.

He was there to report his daughter missing. The last time anyone had seen thirty nine year old jon gray, Rogers was around eight P. M. On friday night, SHE dropped one of her teenage sons off at the idle hour theatre on main street in hardware for the eight o'clock.

Shelling of a horr film called day of the animals is a very seventies production that tells the story of a world where the ozone layer is so severely depleted that U. V. Exposure causes animals to become highly aggressive.

There are attacks by ATS and mountain lions and one character rustles with a grazy bear and losses. According to A U. P, I report by Jennifer small published in the binton banner, Jones was supposed to pick up person at the end of the movie, which had a total run time of ninety seven minutes.

But as the movie let out around nine forty pm, her son was left waiting. John never showed, and SHE didn't turn up at her father's house at any point that night either. Je in her husband, earle Rogers, had been separated for at least two months, and sh'd filed for divorce that spring, so SHE was staying at her father clintons place in the village.

In the meantime, however, despite the pending divorce, Jones continued to work on the family business with URL, a two hundred and sixty five acre farm about four miles outside of the village in an area called the number ten district. IT was just past the landfill. Which small town people no is as good a landmark for navigation as any.

The rutli daily herold reports that jone and earle had owned and run the farm for about six years. Source material describes the farm as average, and IT made enough money to support zone in oral. In their two sons, john was in the military before they started the family farm.

As was real, they were both members of the american legion auxiliary, and they like to socialize at the post. In hardware, jone was known as a hard worker and someone who made friends easily. Though he was not the kind of person who found herself at the center of attention.

SHE was more quiet and reserved in contrast to the man SHE married, who was older and more likely to command a crowd down at the american legion post that saturday morning, july sixteen, earl called jone's father clinton Jones should have been at the farm by now to help with the daily chores, but he never showed. Not showing up now to two appointments was extremely out of the ordinary. Clinton waited a few hours for jone to turn up with an explanation, but by eight P.

M, when there was no sign of her, he spoke to chief losing to report his daughter missing. The chief was just a few hours into the burner. U, an investigation at that point, but he knew that one person dead and another missing was caused for immediate concern.

Jone's friends and family began searching for any sign of jone and her truck then on sunday morning, as the assistant chief medical examiner was beginning an autopsy for barred at the state. Morgan burwink ingin the phone ring at her office. SHE was needed back in hardware for a second suspicious death in twenty four hours.

Around ten fifteen A M. On sunday, july seventeenth, Jones friend in a former employee of the family farm, Williams, was out with the search party scouring hayfields when he found her. Jones body was partially knowed, except for a tank top that was pulled down, exposing her breasts.

A bob was wounded tightly around her neck. Next to her body, a pile of clothes was neat, folded, and her purse was found at the scene. Toe about one hundred feet away from her body, just down a hill, was Jones pick up truck.

Soon, the otherwise quiet farmland was crawling with state police investigators. The crime scene van had relocated from his post outside the beast block and burn's apartment now to the much different landscape of the Rogers family farm. According to reporting by the hardware, gaeta Jones body was found in a hay field on a section of property that was leased by the Roger's family from out of state owners.

The area was accessible by a less than half mile walk through the woods from the other parcel of land farmed by the Rogers jone's truck found in a gully was transported to the crime lab for analysis. In that era, investigators would have been looking primarily for fingerprints to see who else may have been inside her truck or if SHE herself drove IT to that spot. With processing at the scene underway, investigators also began interviewing Jones family and friends and anyone in town who might have seen her.

After SHE dropped her son off for that movie on friday night, police spoke with Jones estrange ed husband ural Rogers, at least once, but there's limited information about what he may have said during that interview and then he subsequent conversations he might have had with investigators. All that reported in the s material i've been able to uncover is that one witness placed earle at the american legion post on the night zone was last thing alive, and that are all was free to go. After answering the investigators questions, another witness, a neighbor near the farm, reported seeing Jones driving her truck down the road towards the family farm sometime after eight P, M on friday.

One man who said he was very intoxicated at that friday night also claimed he saw jone as latest eleven thirty P. M, but he couldn't remember where or what context do to his condition. At the time.

You had another witness reported seeing a great truck speeding away from the area where Jones body was eventually discovered. Investigators followed up on every lead, but we're stayed pretty quickly after at least one hundred interviews in three polygraphs, one of which was reportedly administers red to a woman eight. The Turner's office leveraged another rare investigative tool to drummed up some new information from witnesses.

In john Rogers case, a secret inquest was held to compel certain individuals to give statements under o regarding anything they knew about Jones murder. A secret inquest is just that secret. And so who the state's attorneys office was questioning and what they said or didn't say was kept under raps.

In fact, the investigation from this point forward was pretty much locked down between the gag order in place that prevented investigators from saying anything about new developments in either case and the super secret inquest. There was little for locals to go on. The residents of hardware were left to fill in the blanks for themselves.

What began as an expected amount of fear with burnt un. Death became an uproar. Two people in the small town turned up dead under suspicious circumstances.

Within the same twenty four hour span the building rumor and fear was that both of the murder were perpetrated by the same person who could be lying in wait to pick another victim, even though there was no confirmation or evidence to prove a connection yet hardworking s police chief Michael laws in said they were Operating on the assumption that the cases were somehow connected until something proved otherwise. When the autopsies came back, IT seemed the rumor was only given more credence. Doctor maquina in found that bernardo died by manual strangulation.

As for zone, because of the state of decomposition, due to the hot, humid weather that weekend, IT was difficult to determine her precise cause of death. However, the assistant chief ami determined that jone's bra around her neck was indicative of strangulation by literature. Investigators did not find any evidence that zone had been sexually assaulted, so both burnand Jones had been strangled and both deaths were ruled homicide.

It's no surprise that the town took the information and ran with IT. Soon, hardwood police were overrun by phone calls with frightened residents, asking if the rumors about a third, fourth body were true or that other residents had been beaten and strangled, but the town was the target of a serial killer and no one was safe. The rumours, by the way, were not true.

There were no other suspected homicides in hardwick in the days and weeks that followed, but the community was on edge, and the enforcement worked to calm their fears while working higher lesly to figure out what exactly happened on the of july fifteen, after bernard and Jones, where last seen alive in a rutland herold article by gene of a grad ski, both chief laws in and a hardware officer, spoke vega about a quote on, quote, troublesome element in town, they said these people were in their twenties, but some were also older. Most of them lived at home and didn't work and stayed out until two or three in the morning. The officials wouldn't say whether or not anyone within that troublesome element might have had something to do with the death of joan Rogers or burnu n, but they hinted IT was something that the investigation was looking into.

Starting the gag order a bit, the hardware police officer said he had a feeling something was about to happen in the cases. Chief law in was also optimistic that arrests were coming soon, but state police who were heading the investigations apparently did not share in the hardwood p's optimism. Sergeant David reed said that he'd be surprised if anything happened in either case after the inquest, according to Kevin duffey reporting for the rutland herald, after for several weeks of no progress, police decided to call in some help to make sense of the tips and leads they were getting.

In Jones case, doctor john w. Has a junior of willington, who is built as a truth and deception expert, was known for his unconventional and arguably controversial investigation techniques. Doctor hassi used hip nosis and truth cereal alongside lie detector tests to help south cases truth serum such as sodium diopters tal or sodium eat, or drugs that were historically believed to lower in ambitions and make people more likely to speak the however, the reliability of information obtained under the influence of these drugs is highly questionable, and their use raises significant legal and ethical concerns.

Generally, any information or statements obtained while using these so called truth serum is not admissible in court. Nevertheless, doctor has. He was a go to practitioner in the field, and so he spent nearly all summer helping state police narrow down the field of suspects and weed through the numerous witness statements.

That witness who said he was under the influence of alcohol at the time, he saw Jones around eleven thirty P. M. On friday night life, fifteen, he was he natives ed, to see if he could recall any more details about the sighting.

Unfortunately, the hypnosis made the man sick and he couldn't continue any other information. The truth and deception expert was able to uncovered during this time in hardware isn't publicly released. Several months passed with little progress, but by the fall of one thousand nine seventy seven, local police were ready to answer the biggest question in both cases. Chief lawson told dirk venture stern for the burlington free press that the as of jan Rogers and berardi were not related, and the timing of their deaths was simply a bizarre and terrible coincidence. He stated that one of the deciding factors in ruling out a connection was that the circumstances surrounding each case were different and that the means of strangulation manual and rann's instance and ligature and Jones were also different enough to deem them separate.

I'll be similar events in october celadon account states attorney dail grove said simply that there had been nothing new in the cases for three months and that there would be no arrest unless someone walked into confess to either killing about six months later, though in April of one thousand nine hundred and seventy eight, the states attorney confirmed that investigators had identified two suspects in the murder. Even still, the pessimism remain. There wasn't enough evidence to make an arrest in either case.

In july of one thousand nine hundred seventy eight, when the one year anniversary of that terrible weekend arrived, the new police chief, who covered both hardware in the nearby town of Greens barrow, said that in the old days, maybe they could have taken a suspect to court for Jones murder, but IT wasn't going to happen. Now they just couldn't build a strong enough case. Over the next few years, the original investigators on both done and burnt cases began to leave the area or retire from law enforcement entirely.

IT wasn't long before the names of the two victims were all but erased from public consciousness. The fear that once scraped hardwood faded away. The firearms and dollops ks. They bought in a panic, were unused, and the cases went cold with the gag order that was once in place long since lifted.

Though a few new details about the original investigation began to surface, the hardware is that report said more than one witness called for questioning during the inquest, refused to answer for fear of self incrimination. Other people in interviewed as part of the Rogers case lowered up later in barns case. The original cause of death was chAllenged and independently reviewed by another pathologist.

Apparently, investigators still had a few questions about whether bernard was actually strangled and his death truly a murder about an accidental fall. But that second opinion upheld the original cause and manner of death as manual strangulation and homicide. However, IT seemed now that the leading opinion about the motive for bart's death being robbery was back up in the air.

The latest information from the state's attorney was that there was no evidence burnt cash was missing from his apartment. This flip flopping motive in burnt case had made way for a rumour over the years if burnt wasn't targeted for his money. And why else? What a killer. Seek out this kind, friendly guy who didn't have an enemy in the world. Speculation grew that maybe on the night he was killed, barred, saw something he wasn't supposed to see.

A rumour around town that endured for years after the murder was that maybe bargu and saw who killed john Rogers and that same killer tracked burner down to make sure he could never go to police with what he had witnessed. The theory is propped up by bern's zone habits. He didn't have a car, and he walked everywhere long distances, didn't face her.

Walking four miles out of town on the real farm roads where zone was later found was not a stretch for those who knew burnt in his ways. If it's true, Jones was killed friday night sometime after eight P M, when her truck was reportedly last scene driving towards the family farm and bern's death was sometime before five thirty A M. When the noises in his apartment stopped, then it's within the realm of possibility that the same person killed both people.

But lacking any confirmation of either donor b ards, precise time of death and other key details about the circumstances of their murders, it's really hard to suss this theory out. As you've heard, investigators have been pretty firm on their sense that the cases are not related in any way. According to mary bosley for the boston globe, no one ever placed bernard near the Rogers farm or on the road leading to IT.

On the night june was murdered, police maintained that IT was nothing but a very large and devastating coincidence. So if they are not connected, then who are the suspects? Police hinted they're identified but couldn't charge, lacking any real substance.

In a ear's case, it's chAllenging the venture gas, but in Jones case, there's this soon to be x husband. What about earl? Was he a suspect in her death in the year after Jones was killed, all sold the family farm and moved into the village with their two sons.

Then he moved about fifteen miles away to south alboni. But a few years after that, he moved back to the farm that he in jone one zone together and into a trailer on the property. He sometimes helped out the new owners of the farm.

Sources show that URL eventually lost touch with at least one of his two sons. And then he remarried in one nine hundred eighty six and had a few more kids with his new wife. He lived out the rest of his life in hardwork.

He tended bar at the american legion post. He drove a school bus for a local schools. He worked for himself as a carpenter until his health failed. And then URL died in two thousand six. His arbitrary, by the way, does not mention his late wife zone.

If URL was ever a suspect in Jones death, he's never been publicly identified as such, but there are plenty of circumstances that would make him a likely suspect. You can't really ignore the fact that they were in the middle of a divorce, that Jones body was found on land where they farmed together. And a witness saw Jones truck driving towards the farm on the night he was killed.

But there are other things, too, that make you wonder about earl. Sources state that the day before zone was killed, SHE paid a visit to her lawyer in barry remind. The lawyer later told the boston globe that the Rogers divorce was the, but there was no hope for reconciliation.

IT was over over. So john, in her lawyer, had drafted up a property agreement which would leave zone with thirty thousand dollars after the divorce. The only public comments about zone i've seen from URL Rogers came in one thousand nine hundred eighty two, and he said the opposite of Jones torney regarding the divorce.

He claimed that was all a misunderstanding and that he and john were about to get back together. Never mind what Jones divorce lawyer had to say on the subject, the detail about zone having a divorce agreement ready to go was apparently news to him. Earl had his own theory about who killed his wife, but he wasn't about to disclose the suspect if police ever identified the person.

Now, URL said he'd kill them before they ever went to trial. None of the source material i've been able to finally discusses a possible motive in Jones murder. But again, in that piece by mary bosnia, in the boston globe, comments by a friend of Jones eluded that he may have had a crush on someone who worked on the farm.

The same guy who found her body, will in mcalister. Willie was hired to work on the farm about two years earlier when URL was recovering from an injury. He told police that he and Jones became friends just in a few months before her death.

So then, if earle Rogers is a possible suspect, was jealousy a possible motive? I don't know. Just like I don't know if there is any hard evidence against oil.

I don't know if investigators processed Jones truck and found rolls fingerprints, for example, but his fingerprint in her truck might not have been a red flag anyway. They were married, and they still worked together on the farm each day, so IT seems reasonable that his prince could have been there. Investigators haven't said one way or another, if any physical evidence, fingerprints, DNA or otherwise, exists in either Jones or bonds case.

All that's clear now is that the families of both victims have not yet received the answers they deserve in one thousand nine and ninety seven as the twenty year anniversary of Jones Rogers and bernard un. s. Murder approached, Jones twin brother john gray decided to do something about the fact that his sister's death had gone without justice for two decades.

Nicky Parker reports for the hardware is that that john gray had tried everything he could think of to get more attention on his sister's case throughout the years. He called up unsolved mysteries and america's most wanted, but the T. V. Crews never came to town, so he decided to offer up a substantial financial reward to get people talking again. He hoped ten thousand dollars would shake out tips and leads that had evaded the investigation and finally tie together.

Whatever loosens still remain through the summer of one thousand nine hundred and ninety seven reward announcements ran in hardwood newspapers in december, john increased the reward to twenty thousand dollars for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who murdered his sister. But if any tips came in, they weren't enough to make an arrest or close the case. So a few years later, other members of Jones family decided to take a different approach.

In november of two thousand, a photo of joan Rogers ran in the orbital ary and memorial section of the hardwood. IT was a portrait of zone in her military uniform with a short poll. Unlike any other poem i've seen published in this kind of tribe before, IT reads, quote, the time has come.

The time is near to exact revenge from the one you fear we love and miss you penny, tom and calling gray and well, a week later, a second photo and another palm quote, now I lay me down to sleep and dream sweet dreams because the creep who struggled you on that summer day will very soon be going away. We love you, penny, tom and calling gray. And quote, in december of two thousand, about a week before what would have been Jones sixty third birthday, a photo of Jones headstone was pared with a third palm vote.

There will be no birthday candles, no birthday cards or cake. In the last time that I saw, you was in seventy seven at your week, and your killer still lives in hardware. Lately, we take turns watching him every day, because the only gift we can give you now is to make sure he's put put away love forever.

Penny, tom and calling gray and go. It's clear Jones surviving family members have a hunch about who is responsible for her death, but to this day, no one has been arrested or charged with any crimes releasing to her murder that summer weekend in nineteen seventy. As for bernard U.

S. Family, his daughter a sherill began advocating for his case around two thousand eight. According to reporting by thatcher notes for the times argus, sherill had only just reconnected with her dad about a year before he was killed.

Bernard was separated from his wife and didn't see his children very often. But when sharll turned eighteen, SHE showed up at his door and reintroduced herself. Bernard welcomed his daughter into his life, and they spent time together forming a new relationship.

Right up until his murder, sherrell started to think more and more about her father's death after her mother and two of her brothers passed away the following year, after Sherry reached out to police to learn more about the status of the over three year old investigation, state police began actively investigating bard's case again and put out a news release seeking information and tips. It's around this time that one big discrepancy in bernards case was finally cleared up. Vermont state police stated that the investigation showed robber y was the motive in his murder.

About four years later, in september of twenty thirteen, bonardin case remained open, so sherill and her sister Caroline announced five thousand dollar reward to spur leads and their father's unsolved to murder. That money was never claimed, and bernards case remains unsolved, burner d's daughter Caroline said in two thousand nine, quote, I just miss him and whoever has any information, I mean, they don't know the pain that you're in. I don't know how anyone could do this to a person and why someone please come forward and quote, two murders in the same twenty four hour span were committed by two different people in the same tiny town, both of whom have evaded justice for decades.

Two families still wait for long overdo answers. If you have information relating to the nine hundred and seventy seven homicides of joe gray Rogers urban guin, please contact the on state police. You can text v tips to two, seven, four, six, three, seven, or submit a tip via the form linked in the description of this episode.

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 downest.

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 ky media and audio check. So what do you think check we will prove?