On January 1, 1988, 17-year-old John Lango walked out the front door of his home in Pottsville, Pennsylvania never to return. He was treated as a runaway, but now more than three decades later, all signs indicate John never meant to disappear on his own. John Lango’s case unfolded just outside the boundaries of New England. However, Dark Downeast is sharing this mini episode alongside other audiochuck shows to bring attention to unsolved missing persons cases in honor of National Missing Persons Day.

The Disappearance of John Lango (Pennsylvania)

Dark Downeast: Maine and New England's True Crime Podcast digs into the decades-old and modern day cases that prickle the history of Vacationland and beyond – the unsolved homicides, undetermined deaths, unexplained disappearances and other dark stories of New England.

Investigative journalist and storyteller Kylie Low gets straight to the story with a mix of narrated episodes and documentary style production featuring interviews with surviving family and friends and insight on the investigations from detectives and sources who know these cases best.

This is heart-centered, ethical true crime, bringing light to stories you’re not hearing on other podcasts. It is Dark Downeast's mission to honor the legacy of the humans at the heart of each story and bring new attention to the cases still awaiting justice.

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When a 15-year-old girl snuck out of her bedroom window one night in May of 1996, it was like she vanished right into thin air with no leads. Years later unsealed court documents revealed that police had a theory and a suspect from the earliest days of the case, but it would take over a decade to build a case strong enough for an arrest.

The Disappearance of April Dawn Pennington (Connecticut)

In a one month span during the winter of 1969, the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts was set on edge after two violent attacks on women while they slept in their beds challenged the very sense of safety residents thought they had in their own homes. 

Nearly 50 years later, one of those cases was finally solved, but the second, very similar homicide is still waiting for answers. The case file for the homicide of Ada Bean shows that the investigation uncovered numerous leads and tons of evidence at the time, but none of it led to an arrest. After more than five decades, this story is long overdue for an ending.

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Thirty-three years after Douglas Wagg, Jr. turned up on a lone stretch of railroad tracks in the middle of the night in rural Martin County and over a year since Delia took on the case the scope of what was really going on in the area during the 1990's has come into view. Who was Doug? How did he end up so far from home? Who was he last seen with? Was the train really what killed him? Why was his case never investigated?

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When investigators in Alachua County, Florida discovered the remains of two people among the charred ruins of a burned down shack and a letter in a nearby car that seemed to explain the entire scene, police in two states thought they were on the brink of closing a multiple murder case that started all the way north in New Hampshire. But as experts attempted to identify the two people found in that shack, doubt started to poke glaring holes in the case.

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When a fire destroyed the home of respected local innkeepers, leaving it in ruins and revealing the horrifying aftermath of a double murder, the close-knit community of Jackson, New Hampshire faced an unthinkable tragedy. As detectives looked into the lives of the victims, they discovered years of conflict caused by the older man their daughter had fallen in love with.

This story begins in New England, but it ends almost 1500 miles away in Florida with two more deaths. But did it really end? Doubts lingered among some of the original investigators, casting skepticism over the closure of the case and the true fate of the suspect.

The Disappearance of John Lango (Pennsylvania)

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