This episode contains descriptions of domestic violence and crime scenes and may not be appropriate for some listeners.

What should be the simplest answer for the disappearance of Shirley Moon Atwood?

It's actually not simple at all.

In this case, we have a man with a history of convicted assault against women, an ex-wife with a violent conviction of her own, and a new girlfriend found dead with mountains of circumstantial evidence pointing to a killer.

Or does it?

Yeah, this case ends with one murder conviction, but it doesn't give us all the answers.

This is the case of one murdered, one missing. Where is

Shirley Moon Atwood? I'm Kylie Lowe and this is Dark Down East. When police pounded on the front door of the red trailer on

Heartland Road in Canaan, Maine on August 13th 2006, they braced for who or what might be inside.

They'd already discovered one gruesome scene

deep in the Burlewoods earlier that morning.

Together with their cadaver dogs,

investigators recovered the body of a missing woman,

37-year-old Cheryl Murdoch.

She was dumped among old mattresses and other trash. It was clear this woman was murdered.

With a search warrant in hand for the last known residence of that woman,

police announced themselves again to the man inside.

But Shannon Atwood didn't open the door. Instead, he locked himself inside the red trailer

and wielded a bow and arrow. I'm not going back there, he shouted.

As police reasoned with the man, his threats continued and elevated.

Shannon said he had a lighter, and the propane gauge on his tank was wide open.

He was going to blow the whole place up.

...