It’s around 9:15 a..m. on Sunday, October 22, 2023.

A call is placed to the Gardner Police Department. The woman on the line reports to police that her neighbor’s four children have just appeared at her door.

The children told her that they couldn’t find their father, and that their mother was in bed crying.

In under five minutes, first responders arrive at the children’s home on Cherry Street in Gardner.

Upstairs, they find the body of 30-year-old Breanne Pennington lying in bed.

She had been shot in the head.

Breanne’s husband, Aaron Pennington, was nowhere to be found.

He had fled the home roughly 30 minutes earlier. And he hasn’t been seen since.

Townsend, Massachusetts is a small town of less than 10,000 residents bordering New Hampshire.

Townsend is part of Middlesex County, but it borders the Worcester County line and the cases we explore in this episode may be closely connected to each other, and other unsolved murders from the same area and during the same time period.

We again return to 1973 and the unsolved murder of 31-year-old school teacher Judith Viewig in Townsend. Then we move forward four years to the same small town and the disappearance of 13-year-old Deborah Quimby in May 1977.

It’s just before 9 p.m. on September 30, 1973.

Jo-Anne Muldoon's parents arrive at her apartment on Intervale Road in Fitchburg after a call from a neighbor saying they could hear Jo-Anne's three month old son crying.

When they get to the second floor apartment, the door is unlocked. When the enter, the lights won't come on. The power in the apartment is out.

Using light from the flame of a cigarette lighter, the Muldoons find baby Christopher safe in his crib.

It would be their first and only sigh of relief.

They found their daughter’s roommate Deborah Johnson dead on the sofa bed.

In the kitchen, their daughter Jo-Anne was dead on the floor.

Both young women had been stabbed to death. Their throats had been cut.

More than 50 years later, their murders remain unsolved.

It’s just after 12:30 PM on June 5, 1973.

32-year-old Maureen Moynihan and her 4-year-old daughter Jennifer have just dropped off Maureen’s 6-year-old son Timothy for afternoon kindergarten in West Boylston.

Maureen and Jennifer have a day full of errands planned.

Roughly 24 hours later, Maureen and Jennifer’s bodies were discovered along a dirt road in Rutland State Park.

The mother and daughter had been stabbed to death.

And their throats had been slashed.

Maureen was found lying on the ground outside of her Ford sedan. Jennifer’s body was on the floor of the front passenger seat.

More than 50 years later, their case remains unsolved.

It’s Sunday morning, July 29, 2018. It's around 2:15 AM.

A fight involving several people has broken out in front of a three-decker home on Sturgis Street.

Witnesses told police a man came running from the side of the Sturgis Street home and rapidly fired several gunshots, striking two people: one a 28-year-old man, and the other, 23-year-old Jovanexen “Jampy” Rivera.

The shooter fled the scene, leaving Jampy and the other man laying on the sidewalk…each suffering serious gunshot wounds.

Minutes later, Jampy would be pronounced dead. It’s been nearly six years and his case remains unsolved.

It’s around 9 a.m. on November 8, 1989.

A heavy fog across Central Massachusetts is finally lifting and a tragedy begins to reveal itself.

A retired construction worker is traveling along Chocolog Road in Uxbridge when he spots a large object along the road opposite of the Route 146 south bound exit ramp.

He discovers it’s an open sleeping bag, and it appears something is packed inside of it.

Police roll back the front of the sleeping bag to find the body of 17-year-old Jessica Jones inside.

Jessica had been beaten to death and stabbed multiple times. 

Her body was stuffed inside the sleeping bag and dumped along Chocolog Road.

Nearly 35 years later, Jessica’s murder remains unsolved.

It’s Saturday night in Worcester. May 26, 2018. Memorial Day Weekend.

Five teenagers are walking together along Holland Road, heading toward Main Street in the city’s Webster Square neighborhood.

At around 11:15 p.m., a vehicle pulls over on Holland Road. A man gets out of the car and fires 10 gun shots in the direction of the five teens.

16-year-old Sidney Krow Junior tries to run from the scene, but soon collapses in the road on Main Street.

He has been shot. Thirty minutes later, Sydney is pronounced dead at a local hospital.

It’s been more than 30 years since 10-year-old Holly Piiranen was abducted and killed.

Holly disappeared on August 5, 1993.

Holly was vacationing with her father and brothers at her grandparents cottage in Sturbridge. She had last been seen by her father around 11:45 a.m., heading toward a neighbor's house to play with puppies.

It wasn’t until October 23, 1993, 11 weeks later, when Holly’s remains were found by pheasant hunters in an Army Corps of Engineers flood control forest off of a dirt access road along Five Bridge Road in Brimfield.