St. Albans

Eventually, in 1947, he moves into the Soldiers' Retirement Home in Bennington, where he maintains his solitary existence and not really making any friends.

The only time his monotonous existence ever changes is when occasionally he would take the bus to northern Vermont to visit relatives in St. Albans, which is about an eight-hour bus ride through the Green Mountains.

So November of 1949, James boards the bus for one of these visits, maybe a little Turkey Day action, spends a few days with the fam and boards the bus to go back home on December 1st, which, coincidentally, is three years to the day from when Paula Weldon went missing.

Anyway, he gets on the bus for the routine ride back to Bennington, but he never makes it home.