EP 83 | True Crime North Shore, Recorded Live at Off Cabot in Beverly, Mass plus Q+A (part two)

More from our sold out live in March. We have decades worth of unsolved mysteries and forgotten tragedies in our own backyards. In this continuation of our show at Off Cabot in Beverly, Mass, in March, we plunge into the case of Beryl Atherton—a 47-year-old schoolteacher brutally murdered in her Marblehead home during a 1950 Nor'easter, her throat cut in the sign of a cross. Decades later, her killer remains unidentified and her story largely untold. Beyond the details of these chilling cases lies a deeper exploration of how society treats victims of violent crime. Too often, especially with female victims, their characters become posthumously dissected and villainized—a disturbing pattern that continues from Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia, who grew up just miles away in Medford) to modern cases. This victim-blaming serves as a psychological buffer, allowing us to believe such horrors only happen to people who somehow "deserve" it. 

Audience members are welcome to share their connections to local crimes. We know these aren't just stories; they're lived experiences that have shaped neighborhoods and families across generations. Most importantly, this episode introduces the work of a new Massachusetts-based victim advocacy coalition formed alongside documentary filmmaker Melanie McLaughlin and forensic anthropologist Dr. Anne-Marie Myers. Our mission exemplifies what I call "everyday advocacy"—sharing accurate information, supporting grieving families, and refusing to sensationalize tragedy at the expense of human dignity.

We learn from these unfiltered conversations is the importance of advocacy.  The stories we tell about victims shape how we understand not just crime, but humanity itself.  
• Case of Beryl Atherton, a 47-year-old Marblehead teacher murdered in her home during a Nor'easter in 1950
• Discussion of how crime victims are often villainized posthumously, particularly women
• Introduction of a new Massachusetts-based victim advocacy coalition with Anngelle, documentary filmmaker Melanie McLaughlin, and forensic anthropologist Dr. Ann Marie Miers (MMMPAC)
• Open Q&A covering lesser known cases and the controversy around the Karen Reid murder case and its impact on our communities. 

More about this show at crimeofthetruestkind.com. 

Have a case, location for a show, ask a questiont? Reach out at crimeofthetruestkind@gmail.com and join our growing community of everyday advocates.

Chapters

• 0:00 Live Show Introduction
• 1:35 The Beryl Atherton Murder
• 9:55 Victim Blaming and Advocacy
• 16:12 Starting a Victim Advocacy Coalition
• 22:25 Open Q&A with Audience
• 34:32 Karen Reed Case Discussion
• 36:53 Final Thoughts on Justice and Advocacy

Transcript

Anngelle Wood: 0:00

Well, hello, my name is Angelle Wood and this is Crime of the Truest Kind. Welcome back. This is part two of two recorded live on Thursday, march 13th 2025, at Off Cabot in Beverly, massachusetts. Off Cabot has become a welcome home for the show and we will be back. This is part two of the live show. If you have not listened to part one, please go back and listen to episode 82. While you're there, listen to all the back catalog of Crime of the Truest Kind. But this is the second half of the live show. Now, keep in mind it's a live show and I welcome crowd participation. We try to get everyone on mic. That proves difficult. This is part two True Crime North Shore. This is episode 83. Send me an email anytime. Case suggestions crimeofthetruestkind at gmailcom. Truest kind at gmailcom.

Anngelle Wood: 1:35

Beryl Atherton is a case that I don't know. If a lot of people know about this, because it happened so long ago and there is a book that I have not read, so I haven't. I haven't dug enough into her case yet to to present it in an episode, but there's a book that was written, murder and Marblehead, by Harry Christensen and Rich Santasano. Sorry, rich, it chronicles her story and I do plan on reading it, but her story is horrendous and I'll tell you a little bit. I'll tell you what I know and something that I pulled during my research earlier. It was a Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend in 1950. A savage Nor'easter battered the coast. We've all gone through the Nor'easter right, the Nor'easter. In a place like Marblehead it was probably particularly windy.

Anngelle Wood: 2:20

Beryl was a single woman. They called her a spinster then Remember, the language has changed. Today we call her a woman. She was a spinster. She was. I believe she was 47. She was a teacher in Marblehead. During this stormy night somebody entered her home, attacked her, strangled her in her kitchen. They cut her throat in the sign of the cross, which is particularly morbid. Right, but of course we also read things into this. Was somebody truly like I don't know, a devil worshiper, because this predated satanic panic by a number of decades? But I'm sure that flipped a lot of people out.

Anngelle Wood: 3:05

When she was found they had no idea where to look. She lived in what they called a rundown clapboard cottage at 57 Sewell Street in the old town area of Marblehead. Those of you who are familiar with the area it might make sense. She was 47, tall, painfully thin. This writer called her no close friends, that they knew of no known enemies. I mean, she was a teacher Anybody had. Well, this is going back a lot of years. I can't imagine anybody in here was familiar with her at school. Her father was a clergyman who once lived with her in that house. She didn't do a whole lot. She went to get her hair done. She went to get her hair done, she went to the movies. She taught in Marblehead schools for more than 25 years. She was murdered in her home and that's all we know about what happened to this woman who lived alone, who was a teacher minding her own business, and it became one of Marblehead's most infamous maybe cases unsolved.

Anngelle Wood: 4:10

What in the world happened to Beryl Atherton? I am going to get that book and I'm going to read it and then I will. My plan is to write an episode based on her case, because I didn't know about her case prior to starting to really research more North Shore stuff. Is anybody familiar with her case? Yeah, it's one of those mysteries. It's one of those North Shore mysteries. It's a Marblehead mystery.

Anngelle Wood: 4:42

Who in the world was she involved with somebody? We simply don't know, because it was 1950. We really don't know anything about her life or really what she did. Well, how do they make her out in the book? Come on, well, what would you expect? See what happens to victims of violent crime. They're made out to be like deplorable people. When are we going to stop re-victimizing people who have been victimized? This is a woman that probably didn't fucking do anything. She probably went to school and took care of her wonderful school children and came home who knows? I mean, there was no Tinder then she couldn't hook up. I think the book would anger me, wouldn't it? I think the book might piss me off.

Anngelle Wood: 5:58

Yeah, yep, his co-author was like, let's throw this in there, let's say that she was just a hound dog. I mean, come on, she's not here to defend herself. Yeah, yeah, milkman, yeah yeah, they had no way to track anything. I mean, today, if any one of us goes missing and I really never want to do an episode on any of you Today, if anybody goes missing and I really never want to do a, I never want to do an episode on any of you today If, if anybody goes missing, we have a digital footprint, we can pretty much figure out everything.

Anngelle Wood: 6:54

You know, if you're, if you get in a car accident, we can figure out what your car did right up until the moment. Right, we can pretty much figure, I mean, if anything happens to me, not going to lie, everything is laid out, everything I've done, everywhere I've been. Everybody knows my dogs look like everybody knows what they did from moment to moment. Everything about our lives, generally speaking, is has a digital footprint. We don't know what she was doing.

Anngelle Wood: 7:23

Like if, if this book suggests that she was going into town and doing all the things based on what? Yeah, that's a good point, yep, that's a good point. Yep, right, right, villainized in this way, it often suggests that it's a way for people to feel a little bit more comfortable, like they're not at risk because that person who was abducted or hurt or murdered was up to no good anyway. So, as long as I feel like I'm on the straight and narrow, so to speak, nothing like this will happen to me. We know that's wrong. Yeah, and they want to take the responsibility off the person who committed the crime to say, well, she, obviously, we've seen it in in rape cases. Right, we've seen how people are villainized, right, people, victims of crime are villainized to be like, well, you were clearly doing something wrong. So what did you think was going to happen? I mean, it's part of victimology, we know that to see what somebody's lifestyle was like, it's part of an investigation, of course.

Anngelle Wood: 9:00

But the blame goes solely on the perpetrator of the crime, even if you were. Look, we've seen a number of cases where murder victims are sex workers. They don't deserve to be killed any more than a school teacher. Yes, they're in a dangerous profession, but they're often victimized. We see that all the time. We heard it with um the the. You know many serial killers. The Green River serial killer talked about it. That's why he selected them, because he thought nobody cares. Nobody cares about them. Well, that's not true, but they're just in a different situation. No, you're right, you're right. It takes sort of the responsibility off everybody else to look out for each other, right? Well, she was obviously doing something wrong. So Beryl Atherton was obviously up to no good. So somebody came to her house and what's that? Yeah, right, right, right, right, right. Somebody was what's that? Yeah, right, right, right, right. Somebody was judging jury for her, right? Yeah, no, you're right, you're right.

Anngelle Wood: 10:12

Advocacy is key. I have, I have, I got this bag of skeleton keys and I thought about what am I going to do with this, this bag of skeleton keys? And I thought, ah, advocacy is key to all of this. When I say that, what I mean is it is what makes us empathetic, it's what makes us understand this a little bit better. It helps us to really recognize what maybe a victim or a family has gone through, what is going through. That's really how I've changed in all this.

Anngelle Wood: 10:55

I sat at the top of the show where I was this you know, radio DJ, going to rock and roll shows and interviewing famous people and getting laughs on the radio and then I entered into this true crime world and I was still a little. I mean, look, you've been here, you've heard me. You know that I make jokes, I sidebar a lot, I'm I'm goofy about things, but never, never about somebody who has been victimized in this way. There's a there's a balance, right. So one of the things I have been involved in most recently is starting a Massachusetts-based victim advocacy coalition with a couple of other women who are in the space, one of whom is Melanie McLaughlin, who made the documentary called have you Seen Andy. If you have not watched have you Seen Andy, it is streaming on Max. It is a documentary about Andy Puglisi, who disappeared in 1976 from Lawrence, the public swimming pool. She was his childhood friend. They knew each other for one summer the last summer that he was here and she made a documentary about her experience and her investigation into his disappearance and she won an Emmy for it. She is part of this coalition.

Anngelle Wood: 12:14

Another person who's a part of this coalition is Dr Anne-Marie Myers, who is from here. She actually lives here on the North Shore and she is a forensic anthropologist who has worked on a number of very familiar cases Very familiar cases. She's worked on the Molly Bish case. She worked on the Sarah Pryor case. She worked on the Holly Molly Bish case. She worked on the Sarah Pryor case. She worked on the Holly Perenian case. She worked on the Whitey Bulger case. She was part of the team who recovered his victims. She was digging in the beaches and pulling victims out of the sand and she testified at his trial and helped send him to prison. He was subsequently beaten to death in jail. But hmm, karma's a bitch. And on the Whitey Bulger tip, it depends on who you talk to and where you talk to them, because he's still like a folk hero. To a lot of people he like pulled women's teeth out with pliers, but some people think he was amazing and did wonderful things and he helped bring heroin to South Boston.

Anngelle Wood: 13:15

So this organization, it's a coalition, a volunteer coalition, for those of us who just want to support families. We do events. If you're interested, you can sign up to our mailing list. We'll be having events where everyday advocates are invited to join us. Everyday advocates are all of you, who somebody goes missing, you share a flyer or you talk about a case that you're familiar with. I mean, everyday advocacy is quite easy Just be factual and share information and support families who are going through something like this. And advocacy is even just like you said.

Anngelle Wood: 13:58

The book is about her, about Beryl Atherton being villainized quite a bit. Advocacy is about saying that's really unfair to say that about her when you truly don't know. But also, at the same time, as a woman, what if she was seeing a couple of people at the same time? I don't think so, but maybe what if she was, for an example, I know that was taboo in the 1950s, but similar to Elizabeth Short, who some people don't even know.

Anngelle Wood: 14:31

The Black Dahlia has a name. Elizabeth Short is from Medford, massachusetts. She grew up right around here and she became the Black Dahlia in death because of how she was found. How she was found, she wasized and I actually have one episode out about her case and there's a second one coming about what happens? But I I want to humanize people in these situations because she is one of the most famous infamous murder victims, unsolved cases in the United States history and people call her a prostitute and she, she wasn't. She wasn't. Um, yeah, yep, yeah, right, right, there's that.

Anngelle Wood: 15:29

You know, we see the memes online. It's like teach your son. You know you can teach your daughter to behave a certain way and dress a certain way, but how about we talk to our sons about how we could be better at this? Right? This is a list of the cases I had really tried to talk about tonight and I got through most of them. Lisa Boy is a little boy who disappeared from Revere I want to talk about tonight and I got through most of them. Lee Savoy is a little boy who disappeared from Revere. I want to talk about him. The Elliott Chamber Fires of Beverly I have not even cracked the surface of but much of this stuff there's information available online.

Anngelle Wood: 16:04

If you decide you want to dig deeper on these cases and learn some more about them, please do. I probably will get the book on Beryl Atherton, though it might piss me off. I recently got a book in the mail from a publisher about a Rockport case some Rockport murders, I think it's simply called Murder in Rockport. I don't know anything about the case. It's going back, you know, even far like into the 30s, I think. But I'm gonna dig into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here is where a member of the studio audience studio audience, like we're on television here a member of the audience chimed in when I was talking about this very old murder from Rockport who had a relative who was very familiar with the case. And these things happen when we all get together. Is that right? That's really interesting. So did he talk about this case a lot when you were a kid? No, oh yeah, oh yeah. Oh, I imagine that it was probably. I imagine it's probably difficult. I imagine it's probably difficult for him to kind of bring that stuff home, right yeah, yeah.

Audience member 1: 17:27

I spoke to a retired judge who told me he was an explorer with the Rockport Police Department back then and he told me who the suspect was, but they just didn't have the evidence and what they do have the evidence. There were two murders. And when they moved, had the evidence and what they do have for evidence. There were two murders, yeah, Okay. And when they moved from the old police station down in the dark square area in Rockport up to 39 Broadway, this judge, who was just a kid at the time, went to the chief of police with another police officer and said Chief, what do you want to do with all this evidence for the murders? And the chief told them he said bring it to the quarry over at Hullabit Point State Park. Throw it in the quarry, because all that's going to do is just bring back bad memories to people.

Audience member 2: 18:30

Wow.

Audience member 1: 18:31

So that was back in 1939.

Anngelle Wood: 18:36

It's incredible, isn't it?

Audience member 1: 18:37

It is, it's crazy.

Anngelle Wood: 18:39

People know yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Audience member 1: 18:44

Yeah, yeah, that book that you mentioned about the murders in Rockport. The authors are going to be doing a talk about it at the Rockport Public Library in April. I would love to go to that. I don't know the date, but if you looked up the Rockwood Public Library they would probably have the date on that.

Anngelle Wood: 19:03

Yeah, I would like to. I'd be really interested in hearing what they have to say about it. I really would Thank you for that, though. Thank you Well, thank you, Off Cabot. I do a podcast. Please listen to it. Please email me if you have case ideas. If you have any information that comes to you later and something you want to tell me about, please email it. Everything's at the website crimeofthetruestkindcom. We can do an open Q&A if anybody wants to ask questions or talk about anything. I always save a little time for the end. It's 9 o'clock.

Audience member 3: 19:43

I have a quick question, yeah, over here.

Anngelle Wood: 19:48

I can't see you right here.

Audience member 3: 19:50

Oh hi Hi. Um, I was just wondering when that part two is going to drop on. Uh, the black Dahlia uh, next week.

Anngelle Wood: 19:57

Um, because I was going to get it out tomorrow but I uh had a massive project I had to finish. But it'll be out next week.

Audience member 3: 20:06

That was really well done. I I first heard about her like back in the seventies when I read one of those Hollywood Babylon books. Yeah, and. I knew nothing about her until I moved to Medford, Right Um. But I will say you did miss one person when you talked about the history of Medford. One of the most famous missing people also lived in Medford Amelia Earhart. Who Amelia?

Anngelle Wood: 20:28

Earhart, that's right, she lived on.

Audience member 3: 20:29

Brook Street.

Anngelle Wood: 20:30

That's right, that's an important one, that's a really important one.

Audience member 1: 20:33

Thank you.

Audience member 4: 20:37

Can you go back to the Lois Centofani story? Yeah, you want me to. You want to read about it? Nope, the picture of the General Edwards Bridge that you actually have a corner of the piece of Jacob's Ladder parking lot in that picture. Are you kidding the lower right-hand corner? You go over the GE Bridge. You look at a point of pines. Is that spit opposite? That's the start of Jacob's Ladder. That's the parking lot.

Anngelle Wood: 21:11

That's incredible.

Audience member 4: 21:12

Yeah, just to let you know.

Audience member 2: 21:14

The best place we'd never remember.

Anngelle Wood: 21:21

Wow, no, that's cool. I didn't know that. That's great news. Thank you. No, I had no idea that's where it was. I just had the bird's eye view of the area where she was found. Yes, yes, that's very interesting. It gets my red flags up. Somebody else had a question.

Audience member 5: 21:48

I'm right over here. I'm amazed at all the 70s. I mean I grew up in the 70s and I've had people say, oh, it wasn't that bad, but we didn't have the Internet. I started reading Schoenberger when I was in my single digits so I was aware that stuff was going on, but you didn't hear it on the news. But a lot of these bars and stuff I mean I went to. I was 13 years old hanging around outside of a bar because I liked the band.

Audience member 5: 22:13

Yeah, you know, it was a different time for all of us and a lot of it was good because we went everywhere and did anything, but I mean dangerous too. But I was wondering I know you're close with the Marie family if there's any updates or you know I know there's been some different things.

Anngelle Wood: 22:31

I love her podcast and you know they are very guarded with information, but since Julie released Media Pressure the first season of Media Pressure about Mara they have gotten a number of new tips and information.

Audience member 5: 22:49

And I know Freddie just passed away recently Freddie passed away. That's horrible. He was young, I mean, you know.

Anngelle Wood: 22:55

He was in his 50s. He was very young.

Audience member 5: 22:57

Yeah, the family's been through a lot. That's a case that's close to my heart, that you know. The family's been through a lot.

Anngelle Wood: 23:02

That's a case that's close to my heart, that family they're really wonderful people and they have been abused quite a bit as a result of their missing sister and it's not fair.

Audience member 5: 23:12

They tore that tree down too, which I think is upsetting. There's no reason to have done that.

Anngelle Wood: 23:17

The town was, well, the people who own the property? I don't think the people. I could be wrong, I'm not sure. Well, the people who own the property, I don't think. I don't think the people I could be wrong. I'm not sure if the people who own the property when they took the tree down were the same people who own the property when mara had the accident. I don't know, um, but I thought that was cruel, yeah, that they took the tree down, because that's the only like real. They, they don't have a grave site, they don't, they don't have anything to remember, to go and sort of remember her. They go there and every year there's a vigil, and there was just one this past february. But I've just felt it was cruel and I don't can't really say why the people did it.

Audience member 5: 23:57

They just didn't want the attention yeah, I love your podcast and I haven't heard the dahlia when I'm waiting for second pot to come out. But yeah, you're doing a great job, thank you.

Anngelle Wood: 24:07

Thank you for coming. I'm so happy you came again and you give me some great information. Next question Sure. Thank you everybody for coming. I'm happy to answer your questions or share your stories.

Audience member 2: 24:20

I was just wondering if you've ever heard of the Karen Floss case in Beverly from 1968.

Anngelle Wood: 24:27

I don't know anything about it. What can you tell me?

Audience member 2: 24:30

She was 14 years old, murdered in Cooney Field in Beverly In Beverly. Wow, right behind Hertz Stadium, right behind the football, the high school football stadium, wow, I mean the murderer was found, but it was. I was about 11 when it happened. She was 14. And it's just that had to have a big impact on you. It's something that's like haunted me my whole life. So, karen Floss, I will absolutely look up her story, the guy that killed her was Ronnie Hutchinson.

Anngelle Wood: 25:10

What do you know about that? Did they release any information about associated with this person and why he did this?

Audience member 2: 25:17

Probably he raped and killed her 14 years old. He was a ne'er-do-well around Beverly. Everybody knew him, so it was easy to find him and figure out who did it. But it was 1968, karen Floss.

Anngelle Wood: 25:42

Got it.

Audience member 2: 25:43

Thank you. Does anyone else have a question or something they want to talk about?

Anngelle Wood: 25:50

Go in once. Karen Reed Okay, let's talk about Karen Reed, all right, so here's what I think about Karen Reed. I don't think they're ever going to be able to prove that she did that. I don't know. I don't actually know.

Anngelle Wood: 26:16

I don't follow it nearly as closely as a lot of people do, but watching, I watched some of the beginning of the first trial and I just thought I, I called, I called it. I said this is going to be a hung jury. I called it like two weeks in and I'm not. I'm no, you know, I don't know. I know very little about law. You know the inner workings of law and trials and et cetera. But I said there's no way that there, I cannot see them finding her guilty because they proved nothing. She doesn't even know.

Anngelle Wood: 27:00

It's just so bananas, and there's just all these attention from all of these other people around the case. I just truly don't believe that they're going to find. I think if they, they're going to go take her to trial again and I think the same thing is going to happen. I don't think they're ever going to find her guilty of killing him. I don't Whether she did it or not, I don't know. I don't know. All of it is just too bizarre. They have made this into all of the players involved, have made it so messy and murky that you actually forget there's a dead guy, you forget that a man died. You forget because it's been made as sort of a mockery the whole thing. So my feeling is this I don't think they're ever going to find her guilty. I don't. I'd be surprised if they. I'd be surprised. And there's just so much that continues to go on. What do you think I?

Audience member 2: 28:05

think that state police are all corrupt. The judge is in on it and I don't think they have to prove her guilty. I think they'll put her away no matter what.

Anngelle Wood: 28:20

I do watch the Sandra Birchmore case a little bit more closely and that's associated because it's Canton, Stoughton and the Stoughton Police Department. That story is absolutely horrible, the fact that that young girl went through what she went through, and it's overlap. Absolutely. She was groomed by police officers More than one.

Audience member 2: 28:40

No, I mean Ken Reed, she's—i think she's innocent, she's factually innocent. More than one. No, I mean Ken Reed, I think she's innocent, she's factually innocent, oh.

Anngelle Wood: 28:47

It makes us look as Massachusetts people. I mean, we're North Shore, south Shore there's always this rivalry but it makes all of us collectively look like idiots. That's how I see it. I'm like we look so stupid.

Audience member 6: 29:02

If she wasn't a beautiful woman, this wouldn't have been on People magazine. I think that's part of it?

Anngelle Wood: 29:08

I think that's part of it. You know, I do feel for Karen Reid a little bit Because you know, whatever was going on with their relationship, he died and she never got a chance to mourn him. If she is or not, it's not up to me to say A crazy girlfriend.

Audience member 6: 29:22

Yeah, and is that a capital offense? Yeah, yeah.

Anngelle Wood: 29:28

Yes, I think there are a lot of people associated with that case that are. Hmm, what about?

Audience member 2: 29:34

people being afraid of other people.

Anngelle Wood: 29:36

Yes, there's a lot of fear around that case Absolutely, absolutely Corrupt. Yeah, we did say that. Oh, nepotism, how they're all like covering, they're all taking care of each other. Yeah, yes, oh yeah In my opinion, yeah, in my opinion.

Audience member 6: 30:08

I really what you think, do you? I don't think they'll ever find her guilty. I don't think they will because, um, and she was the fbi cleared the cops, oh, the fbi cleared the cops of any wrongdoing in that case. But then again, do we trust those cops? You know, that's the whole thing, isn't?

Anngelle Wood: 30:28

that like investigating themselves.

Audience member 6: 30:29

It's very well known in that community. Everybody knows everybody. They cover for everybody. Nothing would be more convenient than to find the fall person. She was a handy little fall person right there and her boyfriend the one they killed. He could have very well been on to something that was going on in the town, and what a convenient way to get him off the trail of any wrongdoing that was going on with the other cops.

Anngelle Wood: 31:07

Just take the attention away and oh, look it over here. It's like the squirrel effect, oh look.

Audience member 6: 31:14

Yes, Nobody pay attention to this. And when they had her, they said she's going to be the perfect one. We're going to pin it on her. She's going to be the perfect one. That's my opinion. Now, I know everybody differs on the opinion and some people want to see her go straight to hell. I know they do, and a lot of people feel that way.

Anngelle Wood: 31:32

That's not really how I feel. I just feel like I feel bad. I do have compassion for her because she did lose someone she loved and I have compassion for the O'Keeffe family big time and those kids that he was taking care of. That have nobody now Right. They have not proven. I'm not a juror, thank God, but they haven't proven to me she did it.

Audience member 6: 31:51

I think she's going to get off. My last person I just wanted to just bring up was a young man named Brian Lopez that was murdered in Lynn. Okay, I'm from Lynn, so I identify with a lot of the cases that have happened in Lynn and my husband, who's older than me, remembers Lois Senefani. I remember little Jesus, you know, in the city. But Brian Lopez also was murdered recently last summer this was no, not two years ago last summer. I recognize the name.

Audience member 6: 32:23

He was walking to school in the morning. He was diverted somehow during the day on the way to school, ended up going up, they think, towards Lynn Woods, because he had gone there before just to get away from things, and they found him in the reservoir. Okay, they pulled him out of the. They had the news media was there, they had the cops were all blocking the area. But the word on the street is With the local community and on the local Facebook page is that the police never let the parents see the body. They told them they had the whole thing locked down and they would never let them see the body and they said it was because he was too much a disfigurement and a lot of people think it's being covered up, and this was last summer and, to be honest with you, I don't even believe they actually pulled the body out of that reservoir.

Anngelle Wood: 33:28

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. I know what you're talking about. I'm going to look that up. Look it up.

Audience member 6: 33:32

I'm going to read that I'm going to read about it. You know what I'm talking about. It was pull from the Lynn Woods Reservoir.

Anngelle Wood: 33:45

Now, were they really pulled out for the Lynn Reservoir? The open Q&A gets really interesting and people bring all sorts of information and great questions and bring up other cases, some of which I have no knowledge of whatsoever. The Karen Reed case comes up every single time I am out doing a show. It has generated a great deal of interest and here we are. Trial number two has begun. What will become of the Karen Reed case I don't know.

Anngelle Wood: 34:23

But I will say this I don't follow it religiously like a lot of people do and I understand people's interest in the case, and I will say what I have always said A man is dead. John O'Keefe died. Whether he was beaten up by someone, I don't know. Whether he was hit by a car accidentally or on purpose, I don't know but I know that he has been lost in this story and that is a crime of the truest kind. And those children that he was taking care of without parents and now without their uncle, their guardian, their caregiver, their surrogate father, and that so many other people have been implicated in this, it is bananas and that people are getting rich and famous off his name. I can't tell you if Karen Reid did it or she didn't. It's really up to whether the prosecution or the defense tells the better story. And this case is so polarizing, like politics. There are people who believe she's guilty, throw her in jail, and others who said she's been totally railroaded. Where do you fall? I advocate for all people. I don't point fingers and vilify people. Victims of crime are just that they are victims In these stories. In talking to people who live in these communities, it is incredibly interesting and enlightening. I have been working on finding a venue on the South Shore and I can imagine what people are going to want to talk about. I am not invested in the Karen Reed case. That's not to say I'm not interested in following some of the updates as they roll out. I don't know every single player in the case. You're not coming to listen to my podcast to hear about the Karen Reed trial, and I get that. I'm here to do so much more. I have much more information and knowledge about Sandra's case. I really look forward to justice for Sandra Birchmore. Thank you for listening.

Anngelle Wood: 36:56

My name is Anngelle Wood. This is Crime of the Truest Kind. Massachusetts and New England crime stories and history and advocacy. Follow Crime of the Truest Kind online at Crime of the Truest Kind online Crime of the Truest Kind dot com. Tell your friends come to a live show. Nico's here. Hi. Online crimeofthetruestkindcom. Tell your friends, Come to a live show. Nico's here. Hi. I'll be back at Off Cabot in September. More live shows to come. Say bye, Nico, I must be going. Lock your goddamn doors. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.