Fifty years after James Cassidy’s death, there is still no simple explanation for his brutal murder. The evidence left behind in the Maine woods raised questions investigators have never fully answered. And the deeper the investigation went, the more complicated the picture became.

A respected bank executive had vanished, federal authorities were preparing to arrest him, and a burned car was found far from home on a deserted logging road. But the paper trail and the witness accounts pointed in several directions at once – toward financial crimes, toward organized crime figures operating in New England, and toward the surprisingly valuable world of rare stamps.

Somewhere among those threads may lie the explanation for what really happened all those years ago in April of 1976.

• If you have any information about this case, please contact the Maine State Police, Major Crimes Unit – North at (207) 973-3750, or use their toll-free line at 1-800-432-7381. You can also submit information anonymously by using the tip form.

View source material and photos for this episode at: darkdowneast.com/jamescassidy-part2

Dark Downeast is an Audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

• Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok
• To suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

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In April of 1976, an anonymous call to a sheriff’s department in Maine alerted investigators to something almost impossible to imagine: a burning station wagon hidden off a remote road, and what looked like a body inside. What they found would open a case filled with contradictions.

The victim was James Cassidy, a Massachusetts bank vice president, father of three, churchgoing family man, and by all accounts someone living a quiet, ordinary life. But in the days before his death, Jim had vanished across state lines, federal authorities were preparing to arrest him on embezzlement charges, and whispers of missing money, valuable stamps, and possible organized crime connections began to surface.

Nearly fifty years later, his death remains unsolved.

• If you have any information about this case, please contact the Maine State Police, Major Crimes Unit – North at (207) 973-3750, or use their toll-free line at 1-800-432-7381. You can also submit information anonymously by using the tip form.

View source material and photos for this episode at: darkdowneast.com/jamescassidy-part1

Dark Downeast is an Audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

• Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok
• To suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

Did you know you can listen to Dark Downeast ad-free? Join the Crime Junkie Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/fanclub/ to view the current membership options and policies.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On a fall morning in 1988, police in Nashua, New Hampshire walked into an apartment and found two women murdered in their bed. What followed seemed, at first, like a case that would never truly reach an ending.

There were suspects, confessions, trials, and years of legal battles but no final resolution. For decades, the killings of Charlene Ranstrom and Brenda Warner lingered in the background, a file sitting quietly among other unsolved cases. But some investigations refuse to stay buried.

Years later, new detectives took another look. With fresh eyes, new witnesses, and forensic technology that hadn’t existed when the crime was first investigated, the story began to change.

View source material and photos for this episode at: darkdowneast.com/brendawarner-charleneranstrom

Dark Downeast is an Audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

• Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok
• To suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

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