Vermont State Police

But her disappearance would have a lasting effect on every missing person's case that came after hers in Vermont.

Weak points in the investigation and the search for Paula directly led to the creation of the Vermont State Police.

Paula's father never gave up looking for his daughter and always questioned what really happened to her.

But he was proud of her legacy, that being that the Vermont State Police was created to help keep Vermont residents safe and investigate when they vanished.

And people did continue to vanish.

68-year-old James Tedford didn't disappear in the woods, but he was last seen on December 1st, 1949, exactly three years after Paula Welden disappeared.

Here's what the court record and the reporting from that summer lay out.

A former hostess at the tavern, who was 16 years old at the time of the alleged incident, told Vermont State Police that in May of 2005, Hessling assaulted her in an upstairs office of the restaurant while she was counting the night's cash receipts.

The state initially charged him with sexual assault, a felony.

Hessling's attorney was blunt about the defense strategy.

And that somebody did not get himself out.

It wasn't until late Friday afternoon, many hours after the fire had been knocked down and crews had started sifting through what was left, that searchers found a body in the debris, roughly where Hessling's bed would have been.

The Vermont State Police confirmed the following Monday what everyone had already assumed.

It was him.

It was a Saturday afternoon.

A Vermont state police trooper was the one to pull up to all of this.

He looked at the car in the wall, the plywood on the trunk, the debris in the dirt, and he came to a conclusion.

Drunk driver.

And that's the honest shape of 20 years of investigation.

Not a wall of red string, just a lot of things crossed out.

On the 20th anniversary in March of 2024, the FBI and the Vermont State Police stood at the barracks at Williston and announced a reward of up to $40,000.00. And the specific wording mattered.

It's a reward for information leading to Breanna's recovery.

I think we should adjourn this.

I think, you know, we went through the Vermont State Police.

There was one more thing I wanted to go through, but Charlie Kirk's a close friend of mine.

You've probably seen the Charlie Kirk news, so I'll let you get going.

His family were distraught and immediately contacted the authorities, who started to search for him.

Unfortunately, despite the combined efforts of the Vermont State Police, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, and search and rescue crews, no sign of Robert has ever been found.

Investigators did find that shortly before his disappearance, Robert had tried to make a booking for the Appalachian Mountain Club's Zealand Falls Hunt Hotel, but the request never went through.

His car was later found at the Appalachian Mountain Club's Highland House in Crawford Notch, but it appears no evidence was retrieved.

Robert Larson Hughes is described as a white male with gray hair, blue eyes, stands six foot tall, and weighs 190 pounds.

Robert had shown intentions of self-harm, and authorities are incredibly concerned for his welfare.

Anyone with any information is asked to please contact the Vermont State Police at 802-254-2382 and reference case number 08-D-202534.

Number seven: Daniel Joseph Marks.

Um, They remained there for roughly three hours with the clergy singing, praying, and reading the names of people Girol said had been killed in ICE interactions or died in detention.

Yeah, sounds like they were a real threat, right? Ultimately, Girol was arrested by Vermont State Police alongside six others, two United Church of Christ Ministries and Episcopal priests, and the Archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, a Quaker leader, and a Unitarian Universalist minister.

According to footage recorded at the scene, at least two of the clergy were physically carried out of the center by law enforcement as they were arrested, including the Reverend Karen Johnston, senior minister at First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington.

In a statement to Religion News Services, Johnston said she refused to cooperate with law enforcement, explaining that her UU values of justice, equity, generosity, interdependence and transformation call her and all people of conscience and faith to actively not cooperate with the system of cruelty that is fueled by this center uh so wow i i just think it's amazing and i think it's you know just something we should all share that that's not getting a lot of national attention um and it should i kind of feel like these clergy are heroes and i admire what they're doing um something else that's not getting a lot of national attention a little um Just blows my mind, though, this attack of Amy Acton, this from Newsweek.com.

But the trail back to familiar territory looks strangely unfamiliar, with debris on the trail that he certainly would remember crossing.

By 1130 that morning, Robert is found by Vermont State Police.

Thanks to Paula.

His final thoughts on the whole affair? Robert says, either I took a side trail, which doesn't make sense, or something weird happened.

Files go missing.

Who benefits most from charity silence? The answer, always, is those with keys to the lock." Within the next week, a letter arrived at the town clerk's office, an official request for intervention from the Vermont State Police, citing media-fueled community unrest and potential irregularities in municipal charity oversight.

The mayor's office published a tepid response, all procedural platitudes.

That night, Florence Atwood, fragile, wrapped in a heavy shawl, sat by her window and watched as a figure in a town windbreaker let herself into the garden shed with a spare key.

Carla felt the back of her neck prickle.

"The auditor's preliminary review indicates sizable unexplained transfers from several community funds," the mayor read, hands unsteady.

"We are cooperating fully with the Vermont State Police, who have opened a criminal inquiry into the matter.

Sergeant Moffat has been placed on unpaid leave pending investigation.

Despite a $5,000 reward and a search covering thousands of acres, no trace of Paula Welden was found.

The failure of this investigation led directly to the establishment of the Vermont State Police in July 1947.

Third disappearance, James Tedford, December 1, 1949.

Exactly three years after Paula Welden vanished, James Tedford, a veteran residing at the Bennington Soldier's Home, disappeared under circumstances that defy standard logic.

I've made other videos about it.

The primary factual legacy of these events was the modernization of Vermont's emergency response systems.

The transition from localized, uncoordinated searches to the professionalized Vermont State Police was a direct result of the public outcry following the Paula Welden case.

Whatever you do, be careful if you go into the Bennington Triangle.