In December 1946, 18-year-old Bennington College sophomore Paula Jean Welden disappeared while walking alone on Vermont‘s Long Trail, which passes a few miles from the college. Local sheriffs were criticized for errors made in the investigation, which led to the creation of the Vermont State Police.
The Welden case, which inspired Shirley Jackson’s second novel Hangsaman, was one of several unexplained disappearances in the same area at the time. Her college dormitory, Dewey House, remains standing on campus. [Read more…] about The 1946 Disappearance of Paula Welden on Vermont’s Long Trail