Bizarre Disappearances: Vermont's Bennington Triangle

Location of Bennington, VT

The Bennington Triangle is reportedly a place in Vermont, near the Glastonbury Mountain, in which at least five or as many as ten people have disappeared. Most of these disappearances occurred without a single clue being left behind. The victims were people of varying age and of both sexes. Ninety-percent of all the victims were lost within a five-year period between 1945 and 1950. All of the disappearances happened in the months of October, November and December. Apart from those differences and similarities, there is very little else known about the nature of the disappearances in the Bennington Triangle.

The first disappearance in the Bennington Triangle was reportedly that of a man named Henry MacDowell. Henry was placed in a lunatic asylum after he murdered a man named Jim Crowley. He subsequently escaped from the lunatic asylum and vanished. Of course, it is heard of for a man who has been convicted of a crime and has managed to escape his captors to vanish on purpose. Nonetheless, this is often cited as one of the Bennington Triangle disappearances.

The most well-known Bennington Triangle disappearances began in 1945 with a man named Middie Rivers. Middie was serving as a mountain guide in the area on November 12, 1945. When he was guiding his group back to their camp, he got ahead of the bunch and was never seen again. The event happened near the Long Trail Road, an area that 75-year-old Middie was presumably familiar with. Police and volunteers searched for him, but no clue to his fate was ever found.

A little over a year later, on December 1, 1946, an 18-year-old student named Paula Welden went hiking on Long Trail. She received a ride there, but was alone on her hike. She was never seen again and no trace of her has ever been found.

There are also reports that three hunters went missing in the area in 1949, but very little can be found about these supposed disappearances. More is known about another disappearance that happened that year on December 1. A man named James E. Tetford vanished on a moving bus. He got on the bus in St. Alband. Witnesses saw him on the bus before its stop in Bennington, where James would have disembarked. However, by the time the bus reached Bennington, James was gone. This is perhaps the strangest disappearance that has occurred in the Bennington Triangle.

The following year, on October 12, an eight-year-old boy went missing. His name was Paul Jepson. Paul’s mother had been doing some chores and had left him for a short period. When she got back, her son was gone. Dogs followed his scent, but it was lost on a highway. Because of this, it is thought possible that the boy was abducted.

The last known disappearance in the Bennington Triangle was that of a woman named Frieda Langer. However, it probably shouldn’t be dubbed a disappearance. Frieda was hiking with her cousin on October 28, 1950 when she decided to head back to camp to change, after falling in some water. Her cousin stayed behind. Frieda never made it back to camp or her cousin. A massive search was mounted on the ground and from the air. Police, volunteers, firemen and military sought the woman, but nothing turned up until the following May. Oddly, her body was found in a field that had been searched extensively in the previous months. Supposedly, her cause of death was unable to be determined because of the condition of the body, which had obviously been left to the mercy of the elements.

There are several theories as to the nature of the Bennington Triangle disappearances, but none of them hold up very well. The first is that there was a serial killer on the loose. Well, that is possible, but it would have had to be a very indiscriminate serial killer. It is not often that you find a serial killer who kills people of all ages and both sexes without leaving a single trace. Another theory is that the disappearances all happened in the fall and winter because there was more leaf litter on the ground, which may have hidden some wells that the victims simply fell in. However, this could not possibly explain the Frieda and James’ disappearances. Also, no wells were found in the searches and no one heard someone crying out from within a well. In reality, the whole thing could just be a coincidence with each case having its own unique cause.