Nov. 7, 2024

A Quiet Town’s Darkest Day: The Disappearance of Molly Bish

Show Notes
Transcript

A Quiet Town’s Darkest Day: The Disappearance of Molly Bish

In the early summer of 2000, sixteen-year-old Molly Bish took her lifeguard post at Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts, expecting a day of sunscreen and lifeguard duty. What followed instead was a nightmare. Hours later, she was gone—her belongings eerily untouched, as if she’d simply vanished into thin air. Her mother, haunted by a suspicious figure she’d seen days earlier, was left with only questions. What happened to Molly in those brief, mysterious moments at the pond? Over two decades, detectives uncovered chilling connections, unexpected suspects, and dead ends that would lead her family down a dark, twisted road for justice. This episode dives into Molly’s life, her disappearance, and the haunting evidence that still leaves us wondering: who took Molly, and why?

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WEBVTT

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It's the summer of two thousand and Sixteen year old

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Molly Bish is about to start what should be a

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simple day as a lifeguard at Commons Pond in small

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town Warren, Massachusetts. Her mom drops her off, relieved not

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to see the creepy guy with a mustache who'd been

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lurking in a white sedan the day before. But a

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few hours later, Molly's gone, her flip flops, left abandoned

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at her post, as if she just simply vanished into

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the thick Massachusetts air. As the search unfolds, what should

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be a straightforward investigation spirals into a mess of bungled

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leads and suspects who, one by one slipped through the cracks.

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Even decades later, the question still hangs heavy. Who took

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Molly Bish and how did they manage to disappear themselves?

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In this episode, we unraveled the haunting story of Molly's disappearance,

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The tale of a small town forever changed and a

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family left searching for answers that they may never find

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hang tight. We're diving into a tale that's equal parts

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mystery misfortune with a truly haunting question. Who took Molly

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Bish and why? Welcome to ten minute Murder. It was

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the summer of two thousand would change young Molly Anne

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Bish's life forever. While other sixteen year olds across Massachusetts

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were home from school for the summer season, Mollie was

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on her way to her job. But it wasn't quite

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a job like any other. Mollie actually worked as a

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lifeguard at Common's Pond and Warren, meaning that she was

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ready to spring into action and risk her own life

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at the drop of a hat. Her mother, Maggie, would

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drive Molly out to the parking lot a short distance

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away from the lifeguard post before her shifts. Mollie would

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then either get a ride back with someone she knew,

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or her mother would pick her up again. This was

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how most of Molly's summer days went, but that, unfortunately

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would not be the case for the day of June

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twenty seventh, two thousand. The day had started off same

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as any other. Molly had a shift at Common's Pond

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and Maggie drove her out there, but Maggie was a

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little on edge. While she'd been dropping off Molly the

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day before, she'd noticed something in the car park that

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had left her uneasy. A white man with a thick mustache,

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had been sitting in a white car the day before,

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seemingly waiting for something, and the sight of him alone

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had sent chills down Maggie's spine. Molly shifted the day

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before had gone just as fine as normal, but Maggie

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feared that the strange man would be waiting in the

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parking lot again. On June twenty seventh, she drove Molly

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up to the lifeguard post and then she let out

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a sigh of relief. There was no white car in sight.

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Maggie dropped Molly off, said goodbye, and then headed back home,

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but only a few short hours later she received a

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chilling phone call. It was the police and they had

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some horrifying news. Not only did it look like no

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lifeguards had been on duty at the pond the entire day,

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but no one could actually find Molly. Her belongings, including

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her flip flops, were still at the post, as was

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a first aid kit that looked like it had just

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been opened and then left there. Molly's parents and the

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police descended upon the scene and frantically began searching for Molly.

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The initial theory behind her disappearance was that she had

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possibly drowned in the lake while on the job, and

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this was based off the fact that her belongings were

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still at the post when she wasn't. The investigators also

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determined from physical evidence and witness testimonies that Mollie had

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only been a lifeguard post for around fifteen minutes before

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she went missing. Molly's case was not treated with immediate suspicion,

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which must have come as some kind of initial relief

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to her family, but it would prove to be the

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investigations undoing. The scene that Molly had disappeared from wasn't secured,

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and hundreds of people went through the post and the

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beach desperately searching for Molly. In fact, the search for

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Mollie quickly grew into the biggest and most expensive search

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for a missing person in the entire state Massachusetts. But

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from the get go it had started out on the

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wrong foot. As the investigators and the search parties continued

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to come back empty handed, one question was asked, was

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it possible that someone had taken the teenaged girl? Ours

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turned into days, and then into weeks, months and years.

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In two thousand and two, a hunter on Whiskey Hill

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in Palmer, only a few short miles away from Molly's

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family home made an unusual discovery. He spotted some blue fabric,

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similar to the type used in a bathing suit. At first,

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he thought nothing of it, but then he talked to

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a friend. A few months later in two thousand and three,

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his friend decided to call it in. The police sprang

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into action and conducted a shoulder to shoulder search of

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the area with over two hundred people. They found the

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blue fabric again and discovered that it was indeed a

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bathing suit, but not only that it was the very

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same bathing suit that Molly had been wearing the day

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that she disappeared. Now with heavier hearts, the search continued

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and they made one more chilling discovery. Only a few

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days later, they uncovered Molly's remains. Judging by what the

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investigators found, they believed she died the same day she'd

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gone missing, and though they couldn't determine her exact cause

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of death, they were certain that she had been murdered.

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It was clear that someone had taken Molly and then

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either dragged her out into the woods to kill her,

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or had used the landscape to simply try to hide

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her remains, But who would do that to a sixteen

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year old girl and why. With the discovery of her remains,

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the investigators remained hopeful that they would finally uncover another

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set of clues that would lead them to Molly's killer,

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but the going was tough and the information on who

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had done this to the young girl remained elusive. It

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wasn't until two thousand and nine, nine whole years after

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Molly had first disappeared, that the investigators were able to

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name some real suspects. All of them were men, and

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all of them had some sort of criminal history that

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involved the abuse of women or miners to some degree.

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And then someone posed the question of whether two similar

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murders could possibly be connected. In nineteen ninety three, when

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Molly was only ten years old, Holly Purinan, who was

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also ten at the time, went missing from her grandmother's

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house in Sturbridge. She was later found dead in a

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forest in Brimfield. Sturbridge is only about twenty minutes away

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from Warren. The girls were the same age, and where

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their remains had been found had both been in wooded,

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secluded areas. This could suggest some possibility of a connection

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between the two and suggest that they could have possibly

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been carried out by the same suspect, but there was

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still more to come to further tie the two of

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them together, and it would turn out that Molly herself

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was the finding rope between them. During the desperate and

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frantic search for Holly, Mollie had actually reached out to

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Holly's parents quote I'm very sorry, ten year old Molly

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wrote in her letter. I wish I could make it

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up to you. Holly is a very pretty girl. She's

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almost as tall as me. I wish I knew Holly.

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I hope they found her. It was possible that the

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two investigative forces were looking for the same murderer, and

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physical evidence at the scene where Molly had been found

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pointed to one man, David Pullyacht. Although what they found

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isn't open to the public, the district Attorney did make

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a statement saying that what and where they'd found this

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physical evidence in relation to Holly's remains made the evidence

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extremely significant. This, coupled with the fact that investigators now

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believed that the same person who'd kidnapped and killed Holly

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could be the same person who'd kidnapped and killed Molly,

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meant that the next logical course of action for both

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investigations would be to bring in that person for questioning,

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but there was a major setback in that plan. By then,

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it was twenty twelve and David Pulliat had died in

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two thousand and three. It was possible that David was

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the man behind both killings, but with no way of

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questioning him, that branch of the investigation hit a definitive

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dead end. But another man named as a suspect was

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Frank Sumner, a convicted rapist. He not only lived and

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worked in the area at the time of Molly's disappearance,

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but he also fit the description of the man that

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Molly's mother, Maggie, had seen while sitting in the white

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car the day before. In fact, that Maggie had been

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so relieved that there had been no man in a

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white car on the last day that she dropped her

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daughter off for work proved to be a little bit

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of a misdirection in and of itself. Witnesses would later

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say that a man with a mustache had been sitting

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in the car park at the lake only a few

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moment moments before Maggie drove in with Molly. Someone else

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would later say that they had spotted a man and

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a car matching that description in another parking lot that

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was connected to the lake via a path that very

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same day. Was it possible that Frank Sumner had something

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to do with Molly's death? As it would turn out,

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he not only matched the physical description of the man

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in the parking lot, but also had access to a

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white car. It would certainly seem that Frank was the

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culprit or at least certainly seemed possible, But by then

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it was twenty twenty one and Frank had died. In

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twenty sixteen, the investigation hit another dead end, one that

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even DNA evidence and familial DNA sampling couldn't solve. To

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this day, Molly's case remains open and unsolved. Frank Sumner

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has been named an official person of interest, but without

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further evidence or information, the investigation appears to be at

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a standstill. Two hundred and sixty seven pieces of physical

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evidence are being kept safe, and over sixty seven hundred

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leads and tips have been looked into to no avail.

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It's been twenty four years since Molly first disappeared, soon

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to be twenty five, and Molly's family still carry the

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weight of what happened to her on their shoulders quote.

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Molly's presence is missed every single day. Her sister, Heather

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spoke on the anniversary of Molly's murder. I miss my sister.

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It never ends. I don't look at the world the

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same way. My sister was taken by somebody, and I've

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learned there are many dangerous people out there. That's ten

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minute Murder for Today, brief and bingeable true Crime. I'm Joe,

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A Quiet Town’s Darkest Day: The Disappearance of Molly Bish

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