Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett, and the story I have for

you today could almost be a work of fiction because it has a little bit of everything, heroes

and villains, hope and despair, murder and miracles. But there's a reason they say that

truth is stranger than fiction, and to solve this mystery, investigators need your help.

So listen closely. This is the story of Patricia Melody Newsom.

August 16, 1975 is a rainy, humid, Saturday morning in East Haven, Connecticut, and a truck driver

is making his usual rounds, taking a shortcut on an access road behind Bradley's discount

department store, like he does most days, a few times a day, even. But around 943, on his

second pass through the area, he spots something floating in a drainage ditch that borders

the road. It looks like a package wrapped in a canvas tart. He stops his truck and goes

over for a better look. You see this guy isn't even just a trucker. He's also a volunteer

state trooper, so he's more curious than most. And the closer he gets, the more he thinks

the package looks body-shaped. So he calls East Haven Police and gets an auxiliary trooper

mode to secure the scene until they arrive. Before long, police are there looking at the

culvert, which is about 2 feet deep. And they're also pretty sure they're looking at a body.

The tarp is secured around what looks like the head, waist, and feet with twine and copper

wire wrapped in black rubber. So they're sure it's body because it is very body-shaped.

Yeah, there's really no mistaking it, but they don't want to open the tarp and lose

potential evidence. So all they do is they cut this little hole in it, just a peek inside.

And sure enough, they see a human leg. So they contact the medical examiner who brings

the body still wrapped up back to the lap. Once they unwrap the twine and the wire, they

peel the tarp off, revealing that the victims' head and shoulders are covered in a green

...