The Disappearance of Brenda LaCombe (Massachusetts)
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马萨诸塞州，1982年：在过去的40多年里，19岁的单身母亲布伦达·拉孔布的家人一直在想，她在1982年5月16日凌晨走出马萨诸塞州洛威尔的祖母公寓后发生了什么。莱西·基恩斯在她姑姑布伦达的案件中担任了寻求答案的先锋。尽管她从未见过布伦达，但莱西希望帮助她的家人最终在这些年后了解到真相。如果您有关于1982年布伦达·拉孔布未解决的谋杀案的信息，请致电伍斯特县地方检察官的匿名举报热线（508）453-7589。通过GoFundMe为布伦达发声捐款使用代码：DOWNEAST可享受20%的折扣，购买Sarah Madeira Day的未拉伸和纸质印刷品。请访问darkdowneast.com/brendalacombe查看本集的来源材料和照片。Dark Downeast是由Kylie Low主持的audiochuck和Kylie Media制作。请在Instagram、Facebook和TikTok上关注@darkdowneast。要建议一个案件，请访问darkdowneast.com/submit-case </context> <raw_text>0 Dark Down East proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. The unexpected can happen at any moment, and Amica knows how important it is to be prepared. Whether it's auto, home, or life insurance, Amica has you covered. Their dedicated and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to make sure you have the right coverage in place to protect what matters most. You can feel confident that Amica is there for you. Visit amica.com to get started.

For over 40 years, the family of Brenda LaCombe has wondered what happened to the 19-year-old single mother of a little baby boy after she walked out of her grandmother's apartment in the early morning hours of May 16th, 1982 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Although Brenda's lifestyle at the time had her mixed up with a rough crowd and risky behaviors, she adored her son and never would have taken off without any word back to her family.

Weeks passed. Her siblings checked hospitals, called police stations, talked to her friends, visited the places she was known to hang out, and scoured the newspaper for any clues as to where Brenda had gone. Then, almost three weeks later, there was an article in the paper. There was an article about a body being found and she just had a feeling and knew. And that's when they found out that that was Brenda. And everybody was devastated.

Lacey Kearns has taken the lead in the fight for answers in her Aunt Brenda's case. Though she never got to meet Brenda, Lacey wants to help her family finally learn the truth after all these years. I'm Kylie Lowe and with Lacey Kearns, this is the case of Brenda Lacombe on Dark Down East.

Lacey Kearns wasn't even born yet when her aunt, her mother's sister Brenda LaCombe, was murdered. But she knew about her Aunt Brenda from a young age. I've known just about as long as I can remember. I only began to understand what it meant as time went on. Once I finally had an idea of what happened, I began asking questions.

Lacey's questions mounted as she watched her mother, Barbara, dig into newspaper archives at the local library, looking for any shred of detail about Brenda. She remembers her mom paying a visit to the police station, asking for updates in Brenda's case. Barbara talked to people who knew Brenda, wrote letters to the editor, and advocated for her sister for years. That dedication inspired Lacey, even as a little girl.

Lacey began researching her Aunt Brenda's case in earnest a few years ago when she started to develop an interest in genealogy. As I started looking things up, it just got my inquisitive mind going. I started finding different articles and then questioning people and getting as much information as I could on her case. And the more that I got, the crazier things got and strings everywhere disappeared.

Lacey keeps pulling those strings, unraveling a case that has sat unsolved for over 40 years. She has become the voice for Brenda. She doesn't want her aunt to be forgotten. I want them to know what happened to her. I want them to not disregard, you know, who she was and to mainly remember the good things, but also her life mattered. You know, it matters no matter what

You're hearing the audio from old home videos captured by Brenda Lacombe's family. Brenda.

Are you sure? What's the matter with Brenda? There's a child speaking to the person behind the camera, naming off all the people in the room, saying Brenda's name. And then there's Brenda's voice, subtle, a little difficult to discern with the audio quality of a 1980s camcorder. But she speaks to her father. What do you say, Dad? She says.

What do they say, Dad? What do I say, Brenda? I'd like to see what an aunt does. These tapes are just one of the ways that Lacey Kearns has learned about and connected with the aunt she never got the chance to meet. Brenda Jean LaCombe was born December 21st, 1962. She was one of 10 children, with four sisters and five brothers. Her childhood was tumultuous, punctuated by instability.

Growing up, Brenda and none of the kids had it easy, I'll say that. She had been in and out of foster care for some time, and my mom was too. A lot of the kids were. A lot of not good stuff going on at home. But family remained important to Brenda. She became a motherly figure to her younger siblings. Her family, she loved them very much, and...

They'll always say how much she loved Christmas because she was born December 21st, 1962. So I think that whole, you know, week and a half was probably just extra special to her. So she always made that fun. She was strict with her younger siblings, but she was also fun with them. She mothered them, but she would dance around the house with them too. Then they'd make sure they put their toys away and, you know, make sure they ate their supper and things like that.

They remember going to the beach with her, going to the White Mountains. You know, just a lot of happy memories, just small things growing up that, you know, always stay with them. Her friends will tell you how kind-hearted and vulnerable and even soft-spoken, which, you know, I hear soft-spoken and then I hear feisty. I'm like, wow, that does sound like 19 to me. In her teenage years, Brenda ended up in abusive relationships.

She always seemed to choose the wrong type of guys. A lot of bad guys, really bad guys. I know she got beat up a lot. Brenda was 18 years old when she gave birth to her son, Wayne Matthew. His name was later changed to Matthew Wayne. Lacey told me she's heard stories about Matthew's father, that he was abusive and violent towards Brenda. Lacey also said that the child's father allegedly knocked one of Brenda's front teeth out.

He wasn't really involved in their son's life either, and so Brenda was a young single mother. It was undeniably challenging, but she absolutely adored Matthew. He was an anchor for Brenda, who often seemed adrift in life. Police reports allude to Brenda's possible drug use, marijuana, cocaine, possibly heroin, but none of the reports are consistent or verified. Lacey knows that Brenda certainly wasn't using when she was pregnant,

Lacey has also heard the rumor that Brenda may have been involved with sex work, but those rumors seem to be unfounded. There's a lot of rumors that are out there that I don't like. Some people have said that she's into or has been into prostitution. Well, I will tell you right now, there is zero record of that. And the only trouble that she wasn't even arrested for was I think she was 16 and there was some type of argument.

at home and the cops came and nothing happened. Other than that, no. The rumors about Brenda's activities and lifestyle would play a part in the investigation when in the spring of 1982, Brenda left her grandmother's house late one night and never came back. It was the evening of May 15th, 1982, and 19-year-old Brenda Lacombe had plans to go out with her sister Bev and Bev's boyfriend Jack.

And they were supposed to be going on a double date and the plans got canceled for some reason. I'm not sure why. So Jack and my auntie Bev bought Brenda wine and they dropped her off at her grandmother Pearl's house to play cards because they always played cards. My family was big on that.

Brenda's grandmother lived at the Francis Gatehouse Elderly Housing Complex along the Pawtucket Canal on Moody Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. The large brick building was once a mill and has since been converted into condos. The area back then was similar to what it is today, largely residential with multi-unit homes and apartment buildings wedged tightly together on surrounding streets.

So Brenda drank wine and played several hands of a rummy-style card game. But at one point during the evening, Brenda put down her hand and went to make a phone call. No one knows who Brenda was trying to reach. After the call, they resumed their game of cards until the phone rang just after midnight. Brenda answered. The call was for her. But again, no one knows who called for Brenda that night.

Brenda hung up the phone and told her grandmother that she was going over to her boyfriend Mark's house. He lived just a few blocks away on Broadway. Brenda actually left her pocketbook behind when she walked out the door of her grandmother's apartment and left the Francis Gatehouse, stepping into the dark night all alone.

Since Brenda had plans to be out on the night of May 15th, her son was in the care of her father, who often watched Matthew when Brenda needed a sitter. She had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Matthew the next morning, but Brenda didn't show up as scheduled. It immediately raised concern among her family. So that was a huge red flag because she never missed a doctor's appointment or anything to do with Matthew like that. She actually carried him around with her a lot wherever she went.

So it was unusual for her not to be, you know, around him. With no call and no sign of Brenda, her family started looking. My mom and my aunt and probably my uncle too, my uncle Eddie, I know for sure, went to everybody's house they could think of. You know, they went to the surrounding police stations. They called the hospitals, you know, checked anywhere they thought she might have hung out and she didn't turn up.

Brenda's father reported her missing. The initial report was filed on May 17, 1982. I know that my grandfather had gone to the police station right away. He just knew something wasn't right.

According to police reports obtained by Lacey Kearns from the Lowell Police Department, Brenda LaCombe's disappearance was investigated in the days following. In a follow-up report dated May 19, 1982, filed by an unknown officer, it states that this officer and a Sergeant Newell visited Brenda's known address on Fulton Street in Lowell as part of the missing persons investigation.

The report is redacted to remove names of those interviewed and their relationship to Brenda, but it's possible to decipher that the officers spoke to a male resident of the same apartment as Brenda.

Brenda was known to be living with her father at that address, and so although the name is redacted for clarity, all refer to the man as Brenda's father. Brenda's father told officers that Brenda had done this in the past, but has always called him to tell him where she was. Her father also said that in the past, she'd been with a man whose name is redacted from the report.

It's unclear if "been with" means dating or being involved with that person in a different way. However, Brenda's father told officers that this man allegedly once kept Brenda in his apartment for two days against her will and forced Brenda to take narcotics. He also stated that this man punched out Brenda's front tooth and fractured her jaw, but she was afraid of the man, and so she did not report the incident to police.

Connecting strings here, Lacey has heard that the man responsible for knocking out Brenda's tooth was Brenda's son's father. In the report, Brenda's father said it was possible that Brenda was with her son's father or in the company of another person, whose name and address are also redacted. The report ends with a simple statement. Investigation continued.

The next activity in the investigation into Brenda Lacombe's disappearance appears to be in early June of 1982. A report dated June 2nd, 1982, states that a Lowell police officer conducted interviews with people at Fred's Country Store on Middlesex Street in Lowell, asking around about Brenda, which gave the investigator a few new names and addresses to check, though all are redacted from the report.

The officer then checked at the Three Z's, a local bar in downtown Lowell. A woman there told the officer she believed she saw Brenda around the night of her disappearance at the bar having a drink with a man. According to this woman, the interactions between Brenda and the man weren't concerning, and Brenda seemed normal. The report states exactly, quote, didn't appear to be any problem with her, end quote.

The officer continued the investigation that day, speaking with a bartender at another establishment who said that someone close to Brenda, their relationship redacted, hung around the bar a lot, but Brenda herself hadn't been seen there in a while.

On June 3rd, 1982, a Lowell police officer spoke to a representative from the Department of Massachusetts Cruelty to Children. The officer states that this representative previously investigated Brenda and kept a check on her. It's unclear the nature of that investigation or what it was pertaining to, but the representative told the officer that she believed something was wrong

for Brenda to not have called or checked in after more than two weeks. Also detailed in that report, Brenda had previously shared with this representative that she'd gotten in an argument with an unnamed man because he wanted her to bring drugs into some unknown place and Brenda had turned the man in.

All of these reports by the Lowell Police Department during the days and weeks following Brenda's disappearance introduce a lot of leads, but none of them pointing to where Brenda might have been for sure. On June 4th, 1982, police discussed Brenda's disappearance in the daily roll call briefing. The roll call write-up includes a blurry photo of Brenda Lacombe and the following information.

The below picture is the resemblance of Brenda Lacombe. Her hair will be on the brownish-red side, weight will be about 100 pounds, with one front tooth missing. Needle marks in arms. Is a heroin user. Believed to be in the company of blank. Rumor has it that he is heading for blank. She may be with him.

We do hold a bench warrant for her arrest, which we would like kept quiet until she is located. Any information of her whereabouts or those of blank would be appreciated. She has been missing since May 16th, 82, and has a baby here. No word of where she might be. Thanks for your help, Skip Hunter, Juvenile Bureau.

At the time of her disappearance, according to this roll call briefing, Brenda LaCombe was wanted on a bench warrant. Lacey learned what that bench warrant was for. She was subpoenaed to court to testify for being a witness in a fire. She did not show up. She did not want to testify and she wanted nothing to do with it.

In the spring of 1982, Lowell, Massachusetts saw several deadly fires in the city, including a four-alarm fire at an apartment tenement located at 1020 West 3rd Street.

According to reporting in the Lowell Daily Sun by Margaret Connolly, 30 people were left homeless when the blaze ripped through the building in late April of 82. At the time of the initial coverage of the tragedy, no cause of the fire had been determined, but arson inspectors considered it suspicious.

According to Lacey's research, this is the arson fire that Brenda witnessed. Whatever Brenda saw, or whatever she knew about that fire, possibly made Brenda a target of something or someone. Lacey told me that after the fire and the subpoena to testify, Brenda was afraid.

And she had been, someone was following her. I don't know if it was one person, two, whoever. She had been followed around this time. And she was scared, you know. Every time she left the house, she used to walk a lot. And even more and more increasingly, she would take Matthew with her even when she was just walking down the street. Maybe in her mind, she thought that nobody would hurt her if she had her baby with her. And so...

And I just know that it had something to do with the fire or that's what I've been told. Everybody, you know, in the family just said there's something to do with the fire, something to do with the fire.

It seems, based on the case file, that the fire was explored as part of the investigation into Brenda's disappearance. There's a report in Brenda's case file dated June 2nd, 1982, but the contents are almost entirely redacted. All that remains on the page are these words. Following people present during Inspector Waterhouse's investigation into a fire at blank.

People also know Brenda Lacombe. It's the first reference to a fire anywhere in Brenda's case. But of course, the location of the fire and any helpful details are redacted from the copy of the report released to Lacey. But for Lacey, the fact that a fire is discussed at all in the case documents feels like an important detail, a lead for sure.

Was Brenda LaCombe's disappearance related to the possible arson case in which she was supposed to testify? The investigation into Brenda's disappearance was ongoing in early June 1982 when several towns over in Harvard, Massachusetts, a horrible discovery put an end to the search.

Harvard police received an anonymous tip around 1:45 p.m. on June 4th, 1982. The tip said there was a body in the woods near Littleton County Road.

In this little beautiful town that still looks exactly the same, you know, and it was just a bit off the highway, there was this married couple that were walking up the street. They smelled something. They wanted to get a closer look of, you know, where was that smell coming from? And that's when they found a decomposing body.

Police responded to the area off Route 111 near 495 and searched the location. The tipsters directed police to a partially decomposed body behind an old stone wall. The original police report from Harvard Police states that minutes later, by 1:58 p.m., the scene was secured with a rope around the perimeter to protect any evidence. By 2:15, the roads were closed to traffic as the investigation began.

The body was not visually identifiable given its condition and with no ID found at the scene, the person would have to be transported to the funeral home and await an autopsy before investigators knew whose body it was, what could have happened to the person, and how long the body had been behind that stone wall. Although no cause of death was immediately obvious, Harvard Police Chief Silvio Brule said they were treating the case as a homicide.

The autopsy was scheduled for three days later, on June 7th, 1982. But before the autopsy was even complete, Brenda Lacombe's sister called the police. Bev had checked the papers every day since her sister disappeared. My auntie Bev was looking through the newspaper constantly saying, like, if anybody was found. And there was an article about a body being found and she just had a feeling and knew immediately.

In a June 7th report by Harvard Police, the officer writes that a caller, whose name is redacted but we can assume it was Brenda's sister, stated that her sister, Brenda, was reported missing on May 18th, 1982, and she had disappeared under very suspicious circumstances.

The caller gave the officer a general description of Brenda's appearance, her hair color, weight, height, and age, as well as the clothing she was last known to be wearing. Her sister also informed police that Brenda was missing a front tooth.

Notes from the autopsy on the same day indicate that the victim found in Harvard was missing the right front upper incisor tooth. The following day, the jawbone of the victim was examined and compared to dental records, confirming that the body was that of the missing 19-year-old woman, Brenda Jean LaCombe.

The discovery of Brenda's body devastated her family as much as it opened a black hole of questions. What happened to Brenda after she left her grandmother's apartment that night in May of 1982? Who did she speak to on the phone before she left? And who killed the 19-year-old single mother and why?

These are the questions that Lacey and her family want investigators to answer, no matter how many years have passed. If they can't, if they won't, Lacey intends to find the answers herself. When I was little, I told my mom that I would solve her sister's case because my mom, my Barbie, she always told me I could be anything, I could do anything. So I believed I would solve her case.

Investigators processed the scene in the woods off Littleton County Road for any evidence. Articles in the Lowell Sun at the time state that there were traces of clothing found near Brenda's body.

According to a sketch of the location included in the original case file, some of the stones from the stone wall were knocked over, but there's no indication if they'd recently fallen from the wall or if it could have occurred when Brenda's body was dumped there. It was estimated that Brenda had been in that spot for at least three weeks, which would mean she could have been killed and dumped there on or around the same night she disappeared.

Because of the advanced state of decomposition, the autopsy was ultimately inconclusive. The state pathologist was unable to determine Brenda's cause of death. According to Michael LaSalandra's reporting for the Lowell Sun, police first thought Brenda might have been picked up hitchhiking, but Sergeant William Shea said, "'Now I kind of doubt that.'" Police told the press that they were eyeing several suspects in the homicide investigation.

Although investigators didn't have any hard evidence pointing to a motive or a specific suspect, Sgt. Shea indicated that he was optimistic about the cooperative effort between Harvard Police, the Worcester County DA's office, and Massachusetts State Police. Quote, I don't think I've ever seen a better coordinated effort. I think we'll come to a conclusion. End quote. But over a week later, that conclusion still hadn't come.

A three-person team worked the case, focusing their efforts on interviewing possible witnesses, hoping someone held a key detail or lead that they could run down. Investigators called the case a big puzzle, and the pieces weren't exactly falling into place.

Lowell Police continued on the investigation as well. Even though Brenda was found in a different county and jurisdiction, she disappeared from Lowell. And at the time, investigators believed that the key to her case was there.

In another Lowell Police Department follow-up report dated June 9th, 1982, the officer who wrote the report had spoken to a man who knew Brenda, but he said he hadn't seen her since just after she had the baby. This man is also identified in the report as a witness in an arson case.

And he testified in that case the very same day he spoke with officers about Brenda. It seems, based on the report, that this could have been the same arson case for which Brenda was also supposed to be a witness.

The man told the officer that before his testimony, he was approached by someone in a store who seemed to threaten him about his upcoming court appearance, allegedly telling him, quote, you know how to testify, end quote. The man explained that he felt Brenda was nervous about testifying in the case,

and thought the person charged with arson or one of his associates was capable of having something done about people testifying. In several other reports, witnesses mentioned that Brenda was nervous, scared and worried about testifying in the arson case. She may have been threatened even and grew so fearful of something or someone that she was even afraid to leave her apartment by herself.

It certainly seems like one angle to Brenda's murder could be that she was killed for something relating to that arson case. But then again, Brenda didn't show up to testify, and there was a bench warrant out for her. Wouldn't that have satisfied whoever was trying to silence her in the first place?

Then there's another possible angle. On the last night her family saw Brenda alive, she told her grandmother that she was going to her boyfriend Mark's house just a few streets over. In her own efforts to find answers for Brenda, Lacey Kearns located and spoke to Mark herself. She wanted to know if Brenda ever showed up at his place that night. I talked to Mark about this, and Mark says...

Marcus said multiple different versions of what happened, all of which are he wasn't there. You know, he was working until midnight, so he wasn't there. That he didn't see her, that he would remember because she would have slept over, that he remembered nothing. He started off with that too. Then he remembered that the cops questioned him and a few of the other guys that lived in the same house he lived in.

Mark may have also refused a polygraph test during the original 1982 investigation, or he may have agreed to it. His story is inconsistent and any records proving one way or another aren't publicly available. So was Mark on the list of suspects police were looking into? What about the father of Brenda's son? Was he on that list given his alleged abuse against her? Lacey's research shows that Brenda's son's father was in prison at the time of the murder.

at the time of her disappearance, and so it probably wasn't him. What other names might have been important to police as they spoke with Brenda's friends, family, acquaintances, and other tangential people in her life? Because so many key names are excluded from publicly released documents pertaining to the investigation, it's difficult to trace if the same people keep popping up from interview to interview. All we can really surmise from these documents

is that police were investigating Brenda's disappearance and murder, and based on the number of red flags relating to people Brenda knew and had relationships with, police had a number of leads they could follow. But those leads didn't amount to any arrests, not in 1982 or since.

On the same day that police recovered Brenda LaCombe's body in Harvard, Massachusetts, another young woman went missing nearby Billerica, Massachusetts.

That day that she was discovered was when Judy Chartier disappeared. As she worked on her Aunt Brenda's case, Lacey was inspired to also help other families find answers in their loved one's unsolved cases. She was particularly interested in the unsolved disappearance of Judith Chartier because of the parallel timing and location of her aunt's disappearance and murder.

Come to find out, Brenda and Judy also ran in the same crowds. Their families were intertwined, and they knew the same people. Lacey decided to look into Judy's disappearance. If anything, maybe she'd get some new information to follow about the people Brenda hung around.

马萨诸塞州，1982年：在过去的40多年里，19岁的单身母亲布伦达·拉孔布在1982年5月16日午夜过后走出她祖母位于马萨诸塞州洛威尔的公寓后，她的家人一直在想她发生了什么。莱西·凯恩斯在她姑姑布伦达的案件中担任了寻求答案的主导。尽管她从未见过布伦达，莱西希望帮助她的家人最终在这些年后了解到真相。如果您有关于1982年布伦达·拉孔布未解决的谋杀案的信息，请拨打伍斯特县地方检察官的匿名举报热线（508）453-7589。通过GoFundMe为布伦达发声捐款使用代码：DOWNEAST可享受未拉伸和纸质印刷品订单20%的折扣。查看本集的来源材料和照片，请访问darkdowneast.com/brendalacombe。Dark Downeast是由Kylie Low主持的audiochuck和Kylie Media制作。请在Instagram、Facebook和TikTok上关注@darkdowneast。要建议一个案件，请访问darkdowneast.com/submit-case </context> <raw_text>0 但莱西发现的远不止这些。在1982年6月4日的晚上，17岁的朱迪·查尔蒂耶在北比勒里卡参加了一场派对。

朱迪有一天去参加派对，地点是在北比勒里卡火车站附近的树林里。她和男朋友发生了争吵，然后把他送回家。然后她又回到了树林里的派对。嗯，

这又是在午夜之后。朱迪离开派对后，便无影无踪。几十年来，调查人员甚至无法找到她的车辆。她就这样消失了。这个细节让莱西感到困扰。经过这么多年，你连一辆车都找不到，你知道的，你会想，天哪，她到底在哪里？

你知道，我一直在做地图，标记他们派对的每个地方，和他们的家人谈了无数次。我真的在这方面做了所有可能的研究。我有一个朋友叫布鲁斯·斯特宾斯，他做水下无人机探测，基本上为他绘制了寻找的区域。他问他的朋友汉斯是否想和他一起去。然后他们找到了她的车，朱迪就在里面。

在她失踪39年后，潜水员在康科德河中发现了朱迪·查尔蒂耶的尸体，距离北比勒里卡树林的派对地点大约半英里。莱西·凯恩斯在这一发现中发挥了重要作用。朱迪·查尔蒂耶的家人终于对他们最大的疑问有了答案。但随之而来的是更多的问题。朱迪发生了什么？她是恶性事件的受害者吗？

这并没有被认定为意外。调查仍然是开放和活跃的。我们不知道布伦达和朱迪的案件是否有关联。任何事情都是可能的，真的。但似乎，如果有什么的话，她们都在同一个圈子里。对朱迪·查尔蒂耶失踪和死亡的调查仍在进行中，莱西·凯恩斯也在继续她自己的调查。

布伦达·拉孔布的案件在最初立案后不久便变得冷淡。岁月流逝，她的儿子被布伦达的姑姑和叔叔收养，从婴儿长成了幼儿，再到小男孩。尽管线索枯竭，调查停滞不前，但布伦达的家人从未忘记她。他们是为她发声并推动寻找答案的人。在她被谋杀整整十年后，布伦达的家人敦促洛威尔警方重新启动调查。

他们确实这样做了。或者至少他们似乎采取了一些行动。一名新侦探被指派负责此案，调查在当地媒体中获得了新的关注。莱西的母亲芭芭拉在1992年与《洛威尔太阳报》的玛莎·卡西迪交谈时表示，尽管整个家庭都担心布伦达和她所陷入的圈子，但他们都爱她，她不应该失去重新走上更好道路的机会，为了她自己和她的孩子。

家人想要答案。引用，“一定有某个地方有人知道些什么。我们只想知道她发生了什么。”结束引用。但重新启动的调查再次没有进展。根据莱西和她母亲的说法，没有逮捕，也没有进展。

在2005年9月的一封致编辑的信中，芭芭拉·凯恩斯向洛威尔警察局发表了一封公开信，揭示了她在最近几年试图获取布伦达案件更新时所遭遇的推诿。

来自信件。“多年来，我与洛威尔警察局就我姐姐的谋杀案进行了很多沟通。洛威尔警察局在前16年内完全负责调查。然而，唯一的采访材料和证据不知何故丢失了。

我曾与首席爱德华·戴维斯谈论过缺失的档案。我问首席，这怎么可能发生，备份档案的政策是什么。我不知道，也仍然不知道洛威尔警察局的备份档案政策。他随后告诉我，他不会和我讨论洛威尔警察局的政策，并让我不要再打电话。

正如信中所说，芭芭拉被告知布伦达的案件档案在这些年中不知何故丢失了。但莱西表示，她也询问过档案，警方否认他们丢失了任何东西。无论档案是否存在，莱西已经采取了行动，自己整理了一个巨大的文件储存箱，里面装满了她自己收集的文件。笔记、对话记录、报纸文章的复印件等等。她会尽其所能帮助调查人员跟进线索，

并继续推动她姑姑案件的答案，包括筹集资金以挖掘布伦达·拉孔布的尸体。我希望，我真的希望能得到DNA。我希望警方能调查DNA。我想要一些能让他们真正开始处理她案件的东西。挖掘尸体并不是一个简单的过程，而且也不便宜。必须由近亲来进行。

所以我们，你知道，我让每个人都参与其中。我想你可以说我在某种程度上在指挥事情。但你需要让殡仪馆参与，并且需要找一个挖掘机。你需要和墓地的人交谈，因为有时他们实际上会向你收取挖掘的罚款。然后你必须在殡仪馆之间确定容器和

棺材本身的更换价格，如果需要更换的话，虽然这很不可能，但根据情况，有些人可能需要支付额外费用，但如果州政府这样做，那将是天价，我认为他们不会这样做，他们需要在场，所以我需要让他们知道时间，以便他们能到场。

莱西发起了一个GoFundMe来筹集挖掘的资金。截至本集的原始发布日期，莱西已经筹集了5,335美元，目标是7,000美元。您可以在GoFundMe.com/A Voice for Brenda上为此事业贡献资金。无论时间过去多久，布伦达的记忆在她的家人心中始终存在。他们非常想念她。

莱西从未见过布伦达，但在她为布伦达的案件不懈努力时，她感受到布伦达的精神。

正如家庭对她姑姑布伦达的重要性一样，家庭也是莱西在布伦达案件中寻找答案的最大动力。成长过程中，不知道发生了什么真的让我感到困扰。看到我实际上可以有所作为，我实际上可以改变。

解决她的案件，我的家人，你知道，这对他们来说将是某种形式的闭合，所以我想要真相，让我们得到真相，我知道这会发生，我感觉到它，我不会放弃，如果有人能站出来让事情变得更简单，那就太好了，谢谢，但在那之前你可以活在恐惧中，这没关系。

如果您有关于1982年布伦达·拉孔布未解决的谋杀案的信息，请拨打伍斯特县地方检察官的匿名举报热线508-453-7589。感谢您收听《黑暗东部》。本集引用和参考的来源列在darkdowneast.com上。

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