EP 57 | Gustafson Family & the Unsolved Mysteries of Judith Vieweg and Deborah Quimby, Townsend, Massachusetts

Crime of the Truest Kind is about New England crime stories and history. The Things that happen here. Crime is history and sometimes history is crime.

This episode contains descriptions of violent crime against women and children. Listen with care.

Episode 57📍Townsend, Massachusetts |
On December 1, 1987, Andrew Gustafson lost his entire family, his wife, two children, and the baby they were expecting. He fought through unimaginable grief to find joy & purpose. We remember Priscilla, Abigail, and William.

Through these narratives, we honor victims, remind one another of our vulnerability, our humanity, and our need for empathy.

We learn about two unsolved Townsend cases dating back to the 1970s, the mysteries that surround the murder of 31-year-old artist and teacher Judith Vieweg in 1973, and the disappearance of 13-year-old Deborah Quimby in 1977. 

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Transcript

Anngelle Wood: 0:00

Well, hello, my name is Anngelle Wood and this is Crime of the Truest Kind. Crime of the Truest Kind is about New England, crime stories and history and the things that happen here. Crime is history and sometimes history is crime. I will be at the True Crime Podcast Festival in July in Denver. Many other great podcasters will be in attendance Sarah Turney and Voices for Justice. Julie Murray, will be there. She has a brand new podcast coming out in February dedicated to her sister, Maura Murray, who has been missing for 20 years. This February, her podcast is called Media Pressure and Julie Murray gets to tell the story of her sister and their family.

Anngelle Wood: 1:09

I went to my first one over the summer in Austin and I had a really great time. I met so many people in the podcast world. In the True Crime Podcast World. The best part of it is everyone that goes is like-minded. Everyone who goes has a focus on advocacy and the ethical components of what True Crime Podcasting should be about. I'm here for it. Tickets available to the public. You can attend True Crime Podcast Festival dot com. I will have a discount code. I will post it at Crime of the Truest Kind on the Instagram feed.

Anngelle Wood: 1:50

My name is Anngelle Wood. Some of you may know me from radio around Boston in New England. This episode talks about violent crime against women and children, so please do listen with care. I also talk about two unsolved cases dating back to the 1970s and life after death the death of an entire family and how one man saw his way through the grief to go on in tribute to the family that he lost. Episode 57, part one this is the story of the Gustafson family of Townsend, Massachusetts, thank you, thank you to the show's Patreon supporters.

Anngelle Wood: 2:41

I delivered the first of what will be Monthly Mini episodes video episodes so you get to see me and probably hear my dogs barking. This month's was Elizabeth Short of Medford, massachusetts. She went on to be known as the Black Dahlia, but always a girl from Medford. I must thank new patron Valerie B, signed on solid gold. Thank you. So, patrons, if you have a suggestion for February's Monthly Mini, let me know. Townsend, massachusetts, sits on the border of New Hampshire. There's Mason, where Parker's Maple Barn is. I recommend it. Brookline. The Massachusetts towns Pepperell, Groton, Shirley, Lunenburg and Ashby. Their population, as of the 2020 census, 8,570. Now, that is according to the Townsend Town page. Not a lot goes on in Townsend, and that's the way people who live there like it. I mean, that's why they live there.

Anngelle Wood: 3:45

Townsend recently made news for a pretty banana story. A woman has been charged with attempted murder, accused of trying to poison her husband with tainted soup. This is at the urging of a person claiming to be soap opera star Thorsten K from the bold and beautiful. I didn't know who he was either, but according to a report from WCVB Channel 5 in Boston, the investigation began on December 3rd when a woman contacted police with concerns about messages she found on her mother's phone about her father, who they were both visiting in the hospital at the time. Nicole Heath told police that she was with her mother, 64-year-old Roxanne Doucette of Townsend, in the hospital room of her 73-year-old father, paul Doucette, at Nishoba Valley Medical Center. That's an air nearby. When she saw concerning messages on her mother's phone, the daughter said her mother had been messaging someone she believed was the bold and beautiful actor. Wait, is it the bold and the beautiful? Whatever the case, this supposed actor ran a scam. Hold your reaction.

Anngelle Wood: 4:58

The daughter said that as she was making screenshots of the financial scam messages to give to the police, she saw a series of more disturbing messages. There was a back and forth about needing you so much, special potions and getting insurance money. It was a series of messages that set off red flags for the daughter. These messages she was exchanging with the soap actor said he loved her and he wanted her to leave her husband and that she had to get rid of him. The daughter was able to ask her dad about that day and that soup. The police report read. Paul stated that Roxanne made him soup, but that it wasn't very good. He stated it tasted bitter.

Anngelle Wood: 5:46

The daughter went with her mother to the police station to speak with investigators and it was there that Roxanne Doucette told police she did not try to harm her husband, but she did admit to exchanging messages with a person claiming to be the soap actor. She also said she had recently been scammed out of $8,000. React now I don't mean to. I was like what. The f chef.

Anngelle Wood: 6:12

Officers attempted to seize the woman's iPhone and iPad. She refused. When officers tried to take her into custody for interfering with a police investigation, she gave one of them a kick in the dick. I mean, that's a scene out of Step Brothers right there. Roxanne Doucette was charged with intimidation of a witness resisting arrest and assaults and battery on a police officer. She is also facing charges of attempted murder. Roxanne Doucette was arrested again on December 12th for violating an abuse prevention order by secretly sending a note to her husband asking that he consider dropping the restraining order. A limited toxic ecology test came back on Paul Doucette and it was negative. More testing will need to be done to see what was in that old soup, as Roxanne Doucette called it. Apparently, roxanne opened the door for every reporter who knocked on it. She will be back in court on February 8th for a pretrial hearing.

Anngelle Wood: 7:13

Now the story really isn't funny or entertaining. I mean slightly entertaining in the 12 year old sense because of the dick kicking. But here's the thing this kind of stuff is going to continue to happen, and hopefully not to your mom or your auntie or your nana or your pop. Pop Scammers now have a eye to trick people into believing they are other people or celebrities or madly in love with them and want to run away with them forever.

Anngelle Wood: 7:43

I learned about two unsolved Townsend cases, two cases that have sort of a connection. Judith Wiewig, a young artist and teacher who shared her love and enthusiasm with her students. She was just days into the school year with a new class of fourth graders at Townsend Spalding Memorial School. A 1964 graduate of Fitchburg State College, judith taught the fourth grade and was also vice president of the Middlesex Union Teachers Association. At just 31, she was popular with all the kids. They loved her. She touched a lot of lives in the years she taught there, so it was difficult for the kids when she didn't return.

Anngelle Wood: 8:27

It was a Sunday morning, september 9th 1973. Neighbors were alerted by Judith's dog barking outside her house. They saw the front door was wide open. That's when a neighbor decided to go looking for her and it wasn't long before she was found. She often took walks in the woods in the footpaths around her house at 393 Main Street. The discovery was made at 1130 am. The neighbor saw what appeared to be a body wrapped in a blanket and covered with rocks and tree debris. Police would confirm that it was Judith, found about 100 feet from her house. She had been stabbed several times in the chest and wrapped up in an attempt to hide or at least camouflage her body. She was clothed, dressed in a pair of dungarees and a jacket. Dungarees is the old school name for pair jeans. Her death was homicide.

Anngelle Wood: 9:25

Cause and manner Multiple, penetrating wounds of chest and back, puncturing heart and lungs. The medical examiner said she had not been sexually molested their language and estimated that she died early Sunday morning. Something else Her car, a late model Chevy Camaro, was found the next day in a landfill area A place the kids hung out in often called the Sandpit, off Turnpike Road, about a half a mile from her house. The car was dusted for fingerprints but no other clues were revealed. This is what Chief Irving Marshall told the Boston Globe. Does that mean nothing was found, or nothing they revealed to the public? Judith's house was about 200 yards from the Gustafson home, a family we would come to know 14 years later An eerie coincidence. It is important to say her name to remind people that Judith Viovic was killed in 1973 in Townsend and no one was arrested or prosecuted. Her case is unsolved to this day.

Anngelle Wood: 10:32

Another little known case is the unsolved disappearance of Deborah Quimby, and it is possible that she was one of Judith's students. Deborah was 13 when she was last seen in Townsend on May 3rd 1977. She left her note for her parents saying that she was headed to her grandparents camp on Vinton Pond Road in West Townsend. She put on her blue Pop Warner cheerleading jacket the one with Debbie on the sleeve. She hopped on her bike but then she disappeared. Police found a letter written to a friend in her locker. It said Deborah was upset and wanted to talk to her and gave directions to her grandparents. It is reported that another friend rode with Deborah as far as Turnpike Road, then turned back while Deborah continued on. She was last seen riding up the hill on Turnpike Road. She has never been heard from since. Her bike a brown boys model Takara 10 speed some reports say a Schwinn has never been found. Anonymous tips have come in over the years and in May 2003, investigators searched Walker Pond for evidence but found nothing. And again in 2004, where some items were located but nothing was connected to Deborah or her disappearance. The pond is about a half a mile from where she was last seen. Deborah's family believes she was meeting with someone they don't know who and that foul play is involved, and it is fact that children were being snatched off the streets in record numbers in the 1970s. I'll be right back.

Anngelle Wood: 12:16

Crime of the truest kind is hosting two live events this winter, in February and March only two. Thursday, february 15th, albeit Faces Brewing in Maldon, massachusetts. That should be an interesting Valentine's date. Unsolved New England crime cases with my guest Emily Sweeney, journalist and author and writer for the Boston Globe's cold case files. We're talking about local cold cases. Tickets on sale now. Go to FacesBrewingcom, crimeofthetruestkindcom and linked at CrimeOfTheTruestKind on Instagram. Second show, thursday March 7th at Off Cabot in Beverly, massachusetts, north Shore, new England crime stories live and talking about missing persons cases and advocacy. Tickets on sale now at OffCabotorg and CrimeOfTheTruestKindcom. Come to one or come to both. I'm only doing two live shows.

Anngelle Wood: 13:15

This winter Townsend would be shattered again, this time by a family murder that sent waves of terror throughout the community, throughout the state, throughout the region. How could this happen? We would find out, but it wasn't that big of a mystery. We would learn Actions that would indicate a level of darkness most of us only witness in a movie thriller, the kind of story we say you couldn't make this shit up. And it is very difficult to hear what took place. The events of December 1st 1987 are barbaric, but that word doesn't even encompass what took place at Three Saunders Road in Townsend, the 1700 square foot four bedroom, two bathroom gambrel on 11 acres Rural quiet. You know those places where people don't lock their doors, the home of the Gustavsons, andrew and Priscilla. They went to Klobog Regional High School in Ware, where he graduated in 1971. Priscilla a year later. Both Andrew and Priscilla went to Worcester State College where, in her first year, they began dating. The Gustavsons got married in 1975, the same year Andrew graduated from college and continued on to Boston College Law School where he received his Juris Doctorate in 1978. In that same year they moved from Ashby to the home at Three Saunders Road in Townsend.

Anngelle Wood: 14:47

Priscilla Jean Morgan was born on January 13th 1954, in Havlock, north Carolina. She would have celebrated her 70th birthday just days ago. Abigail Morgan was their first baby. She arrived on December 8th 1979, and William Andrew, born November 12th 1982, both in Limnister. They were children, wide-eyed and curious, funny, noisy, kind and innocent.

Anngelle Wood: 15:20

Tuesday December 1st 1987, andrew Gustavsson had been trying to reach his wife Priscilla all afternoon. Priscilla was 33 and the preschool teacher at Townsend Cooperative Play School. His law practice was nearby. That day he had just closed a big real estate deal. An associate had given him a stake in ownership of a hotel in the town of Gardner in exchange for legal services. Excited, he tried to get hold of her hoping they could get a babysitter for Abigail, or Abby as her family called her, who was 7, and William, or Billy as he was known, who was 5. Andrew wanted to celebrate but his calls were going unanswered so he drove the mile or so home. Getting there around 5.20pm it was dark out. It was December in New England. He saw Priscilla's car in the driveway. There was something about it that concerned him. Priscilla was early in her third pregnancy and they were excited to welcome a new baby.

Anngelle Wood: 16:21

Priscilla was last seen that afternoon leaving school around 1.30pm. It is believed that she and William arrived at home at 1.45pm. Abigail took the bus home from Spalding Memorial School where she was a second grader. She and her school friend, a little girl named Megan, walked up Saunders Road from their drop-off spot. Abigail was seen walking up their long driveway that led to their house around 3.30pm. Two hours passed between Abigail getting off the bus and Andrew returning home.

Anngelle Wood: 16:55

Andrew went inside. The house was dark and eerily quiet, no sounds from two small kids. What he found haunted him for the rest of his days. Upstairs he found Priscilla in their bed, completely still. The part of her he could see was ashen and lifeless. Her head was covered with a pillow. He knew it was dire. He knew he needed the police. He went to the kitchen, called the police and his parents. He was terrified to look for the children for fear of what he might find.

Anngelle Wood: 17:34

In criminal investigations, particularly when a spouse has gone missing or is killed, the first person to look at in those investigations is the partner. These are the rules of the game. When officers arrived on the scene, they knew they were dealing with a very serious situation, that a woman and possibly children were dead. They also knew, very soon into their assessment of the scene, that Andrew's agony was genuine. I asked myself why was I covering this case and what me telling this story might offer? A family is killed violently, but it's not unsolved. There's no killer at large. No one is missing from the home. The person responsible was found, tried and convicted.

Anngelle Wood: 18:23

It is part of our local history, but that's not enough. What it is about for me is that three human beings walked the face of this earth. They lived, they loved, they were taken away and did not get to live their lives, and every time the story is spoken of, it is about the person who took them In the absolutely deranged story that surrounds it. I want to say their names Priscilla, abigail, william and Baby Gustafson and Andrew, the lone survivor. He learned to live for them, for their memory. We have something to learn from his story. His entire family was taken away from him. So, yes, the sharpness of the pain does dull, but it doesn't go away. He took steps forward. He would eventually remarry to someone who knew loss. They adopted and raised two daughters. There was joy again and proof that there is life after death.

Anngelle Wood: 19:26

All right, here's that part of the show where I tell you to earmuff it. For me there's always one. It's from that scene in old school where Vince Vaughn tells his kid to cover his ears because he's about to say something terrible. This is what they found in the Gustafson home. Police Chief Irving M Marshall Jr, who was a sergeant at the time and lead investigator, described that scene, calling it probably the most horrendous he'd ever gone to. Priscilla was bound. She was lying in the bed with a pillow covering her head. She had been shot twice through the pillow after she was sexually assaulted. Five-year-old William was found in the upstairs bathroom drowned in the tub. Abigail was found in the downstairs bathroom. She had met the same fate. She was one week away from her eighth birthday and had a sleepover planned for that weekend.

Anngelle Wood: 20:27

The impact of this was immediate and severe. Andrew Gustafson had lost his entire family in the span of a few hours. On that Tuesday afternoon, everything about living for him became a struggle. He understood that ending his own life could be an option in his grief, but he rejected that idea. He said the only way to honor them was to go on, even in the darkest of days. He went to stay with his parents for a period of time and rented an apartment in Townsend. His thoughts were his enemy. Sleep would be a stranger If you have ever experienced loss, even through a breakup, maybe. While it is not a death, there is an ache. In death there's a constant aching like a hum. It's sometimes quiet, other times it's definitely loud, and within a few months Andrew moved back to his house. What we would learn later would add a deeper layer to that grief. Who had done this to his family? A young mom, member of the local church parish, where she sang in the choir, was the preschool teacher that so many of the kids in town knew from their earliest memories.

Anngelle Wood: 21:49

The person responsible for this wasn't a stranger to the Gustafson family. A neighbor said nothing looked unusual. Based on the timeline, it is believed that the crimes were committed between 1.30 and 5.00 pm. A neighbor reported hearing a girl scream from the direction of the Gustafson home. At approximately 3.35pm no one was seen coming in or out of their driveway. This suggested that the killer or killers fled on foot, likely through the thick woods that surrounded the home.

Anngelle Wood: 22:32

Lieutenant Tom Lane of the Pepero Police Department, now retired, has extensive knowledge of the investigation and writes about it in his blog called Celtic Sentinel in an article called the Elm Street Nightmare. That will make a little bit more sense later. Included in this article Officer George Aho, who retired from the Lüneberg Police Department, who was one of the first two officers to arrive at the scene. This is his account of what they found. Townsend Police wanted backup. They didn't give out a lot of information. Officer John Johnson, townsend PD, informed him that Andrew Gustafson came home and there were no lights on, which was unusual.

Anngelle Wood: 23:16

Andrew Gustafson went upstairs and discovered his wife's body. He did not know where the two children were. Officers Johnson and Aho went inside to search first going upstairs where the wife was. She was on her back with a pillow over her face. He could see she had been shot through the pillow. They began to look for the children.

Anngelle Wood: 23:38

Officer Aho went into the upstairs bathroom. The shower curtain was pulled shut. He opened the shower curtain and there was a blonde haired boy lying face down. There was hardly any water in the tub. They searched downstairs and found the daughter in the tub. There was still water in it. His feeling at the time was that she had fought to stay alive. Court records also state that Abigail suffered blunt trauma to the head and compression of the neck. In the bedroom near Priscilla they found two 22 caliber bullet casings. An open, untouched can of beer and semen stands on the bed.

Anngelle Wood: 24:20

Officers had to deliver the news to Andrew that the children were both located and deceased. What followed was a father's shock and sorrow, overwhelming grief that his entire family was gone. The investigation was immediate. There's no doubt that the community would panic about a crazed killer being on the loose. The last murder in Townsend was Judith Vjuvik in 1973. Still unsolved. Authorities appealed to the public for information. If anyone saw anything unusual, report it.

Anngelle Wood: 25:00

Townsend Police Chief William May told the Boston Globe that the Gustafson home had been burglarized in November and various items were stolen. Court records state the following On November 16, 1987, between 11.30 am and 3.30 pm, someone broke into the Gustafson home. Among other things, the thief took a cordless phone, two cable television boxes, a cable television remote control device and some coins from a Liberty Silver Dollar collection. There had been a number of break-ins in the neighborhood. An early theory was that the murders may have occurred during a second break-in, although nothing was believed to have been stolen on the day of the murders. During the initial search of the property, several sneaker prints were found in a flowerbed along the front of the house. It was also determined that the Gustafson family nameplate was missing. Police brought in tracking dogs to search the woods behind the house. During the search of the woods, state Trooper Sean Baxter would find the nameplate. Also a blue and white flannel shirt with a pair of soaking wet work gloves wrapped inside. Chemical tests would show the presence of gunshot residue on those gloves. The tracking dogs were given the scent from the shirt and began tracking through the woods that led from the back of the Gustafson property into another yard, two within four feet of a home. It was the home of Daniel LePlant, a 17-year-old who was known in town by the residents and by law enforcement. In part two, we will learn about what may have precipitated these crimes and other crimes that made LePlant known to police in the area.

Anngelle Wood: 26:52

Judith Viewig was murdered in 1973. Her case is unsolved. 13-year-old Deborah Quimby disappeared in 1977. She has not been found and no one has been held responsible for her disappearance. You can contact the Townsend Police Department in Townsend, massachusetts, 978-597-6214. For emergencies, you can always dial 911. Leave an anonymous tip by visiting townsendpdorg. That's T-O-W-N-S-E-N-D-P-DORG. Everything, of course, will be posted at crimeofthetruesskindcom and in the show notes. Thank you for listening. My name is Angelle Wood. Crime of the Chewiskind online at CrimeoftheChewiskindcom. Everywhere you listen to podcasts. Follow at CrimeoftheChewiskind online, leave a review, drop me a message and tell me what you liked about the episode. Send me an email and suggest a story CrimeoftheChewiskind at gmailcom. Thank you, patrons, superstarep Lisa McColgan, rhiannon SolidGoldDevin, pam Kay, valerie B NewbyMichelle and all you wickicles. You can support the show Four tiers starting at $1 at Patreoncom. Slash CrimeoftheChewiskind. I will be back next week with part two. Although the show is a bi-weekly podcast, I think it's a lot to make you wait for the second half of the story. Alright, I must be going. Lock your goddamn doors.