Pod Insights Dark Downeast The Murder of Claire Gravel (Massachusetts) About this episode On a Saturday night in late June of 1986, a 20-year-old college student went out with friends in a familiar place, celebrating her softball team’s big win. But in a narrow window of opportunity just after she was dropped off in the shadows outside her apartment building, the young woman faced an evil that managed to stay hidden in those same shadows for decades.
Investigators searched for connections…People who knew her, places she had been, anything that might explain her senseless death. But nothing fit. Leads faded. The case stalled. And over time, it slipped into that uncertain space between open and unsolved.
For decades, the answer remained just out of reach until advances in science, and a single piece of preserved evidence, began to tell a different story.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:32 Kylie Low? On a Saturday night in late June of 1986, a 20-year-old college student went out with friends in a familiar place, celebrating her softball team's big win. But in a narrow window of opportunity just after she was dropped off in the shadows outside her apartment building, a young woman faced an evil that managed to stay hidden in those same shadows for decades. Investigators searched for connections: people who knew her, places she had been, anything that might explain her senseless death. But nothing fit. Leads faded, the case stalled, and over time, it slipped into that uncertain space between open and unsolved.
1:14 Kylie Low? For decades, the answer remained just out of reach, until advances in science and a single piece of preserved evidence began to tell a different story. I'm Kylie Low, and this is the case of Claire Gravel, on Dark Down East.
1:41 Kylie Low? On a summer afternoon in Beverly, Massachusetts, a state public works crew was cleaning along a stretch of Route 128 when something caught their attention just off the roadway. It was June 30th, 1986, just before 3:00 PM, and about 25 yards from the northbound lanes near the old Grapevine Road exit, they found a body lying along a wooded path. According to reporting by David Lee Show for the Daily Item, the road leading to that area was blocked by large boulders, making it unlikely that anyone could have driven directly to that location. However, Barbara Teramina reports for the North Shore Sunday that it was the kind of place people knew about locally, a secluded stretch often used as a party spot.
2:27 Kylie Low? But it wasn't somewhere you would expect a young woman to be alone in the middle of the day. She was fully clothed, dressed in casual attire, but her shirts had been pulled up, exposing her chest. She wasn't wearing any shoes. A single white sandal was found nearby. There was blood on the leaves around her body. Some of her personal belongings, like a wallet, checkbook, makeup, and photographs, were found in a bag not far from where she lay. It didn't look like a robbery. The watch on her wrist and jewelry were untouched. As police responded to the scene and began to look more closely at the personal items in the bag, investigators got their first clue as to the woman's identity. By the end of the day, police would confirm that the young woman
3:11 Kylie Low? found on that wooded path was 20-year-old Claire Gravel, a student at Salem State College. By the time Claire was found, she had been dead for more than a day. Investigators at the scene believed her death may have been caused by strangulation using a piece of her own clothing, a conclusion that would later be confirmed by the autopsy. Risa Versola reports for the Boston Globe that the same examination also revealed that Claire had likely been brutally beaten, and she had bruising consistent with either a fall at the scene or being dragged to the location where her body was discovered. Just hours earlier, people in Claire's life had already started to worry. Claire hadn't shown up for work that morning
3:55 Kylie Low? at the National Braille Press in Boston, where she'd recently been assigned through a temp agency. It was unlike her, and her managers noticed. They made some calls home to Claire's family, which spurred two of her brothers into action. They headed to Salem to go looking for her themselves. Meanwhile, police were making their way to the home of Claire's parents, Bob and Mary Gravel. Before the detectives could even say the words, Mary seemed to understand why they were there. She asked them where her daughter was, and when they handed her Claire's license, she knew. Claire was gone. And whatever had happened to her had unfolded somewhere between the last time she
4:36 Kylie Low? was seen alive and that quiet stretch of woods off Route 128. Before she became the center of an investigation, before her name appeared in headlines and court documents, Claire Gravel was a young woman building a life that was still very much in motion. Claire was from North Andover, Massachusetts, where she grew up in a close, tight-knit family. She graduated from North Andover High School in 1983, where she ran track. She always loved sports. She had a strong drive and competitive spirit. As Claire entered college at Salem State, now called Salem State University, she carried a strong sense of energy and independence into that next chapter.
5:18 Kylie Low? She had academically withdrawn during the last semester in 1986, but not as a step back, just as a reset. She had plans to re-enroll in the fall, this time focusing on a computer science program. But even during that time away from classes, she didn't step away from responsibility. Claire had held a work-study position in the college's Office of External Affairs and also took on job assignments through the Skill Bureau, a temp agency that had recently placed her at the National Braille Press in Boston. Before that, she had worked with Salem State's Public Relations Team, where she was described as a reliable and dependable employee. The people who knew Claire described her as motivated, someone who embraced being
6:02 Kylie Low? different and took pride in it. She stood out in a way that felt intentional. She wasn't trying to blend in, and she was always smiling. Claire had a tight circle of friends that she lovingly referred to as "The Gang." The five of them were together almost all the time, usually hanging out at Major McCliché's, a bar on Washington Street in Salem, sometimes called Majors for short. Whenever everyone was together, Claire would often exclaim, "The gang's all here." But that Saturday night, June 28, 1986, was different. For the first time in a long time, they weren't all together. Some of the friends had separate plans, but Claire ended up at their usual hangout anyway.
6:47 Kylie Low? Earlier that afternoon, Claire played in a softball game as part of a restaurant league team she was on. After the game, the group went out to celebrate their win at Majors. Claire's softball team represented the bar, so it was a natural place for post-game celebrations. Just to note, Massachusetts had raised the legal drinking age from 20 to 21 the previous summer, and Claire was still just 20 years old in 1986. Despite that, she and others her age were known to frequent Majors. If alcohol was being served to her, it would have been in violation of the law, and the bar had already drawn scrutiny for this. Just a few months earlier, Majors was sued for allegedly serving alcohol
7:29 Kylie Low? to a minor who was later involved in a car accident. That incident dated back three years, but perhaps the bar may have had a reputation for lax enforcement when it came to checking IDs. In any event, that's where Claire spent her Saturday night. At some point after midnight, Claire was ready to head home, so she asked an older male friend to drive her back to her apartment at 4 Loring Avenue, right on the edge of campus. Roughly 36 hours after that ride home, Claire was found dead. As investigators worked outward from that last confirmed sighting, they also began looking inward, into Claire's own life, for clues. Based on the clothing she was found
8:13 Kylie Low? in, investigators initially considered whether Claire may have been out for a jog along the path when she was attacked for some unknown reason, but that didn't sit right with the people who knew her best. Her mother, Mary, pushed back. Yeah, Claire did jog, but not in that area several miles from her apartment, and not typically on weekends. If her mother's doubts rang true, it meant that whatever happened to Claire likely began somewhere else.
8:43 Kylie Low? Massachusetts State Police Detective Elaine Gill had been one of the first investigators on scene that June afternoon when crews found Claire's body. She was a newly assigned investigator to the Essex County District Attorney's Investigative Unit, having started with the unit in January of that year. Detective Gill couldn't have known at the time that Claire's case, her story and life and family, would stay with her for her entire career. But she felt an immediate connection from day one.
9:15 Speaker 03 I kind of connected to the case because I was only, what, 24, I think, at the time. And so Claire was 20 going on 21. So it was, I felt like I was sort of in that same age group. So I could relate more. And so that is what pulled me in so much. She was just, she was a college kid, just trying to have fun with her friends. And then just in an instant, she just disappeared. And to have her body just found, just thrown on the side of the highway, it was so sad.
9:46 Kylie Low? As part of the early investigation, Detective Gill interviewed Claire's roommate at the Loring Avenue apartment, who handed over Claire's diary and datebook. So often, a suspect emerges from the victim's inner circle. So Detective Gill reviewed the entries carefully, studying the names, the plans, the small details of Claire's daily life, trying to understand who she had been with and what she had been doing in the days leading up to her death. Yet, at the same time, tips were coming in that suggested Claire could have crossed paths with a stranger on the night she was last seen alive. According to Jill Harmasinski's reporting for the Eagle Tribune, one of those tips indicated that Claire had been seen speaking
10:30 Kylie Low? with an unknown man at Major McCleish's that night. No one recognized him, and he didn't appear to be a regular. But he stood out because he was dressed noticeably nicer than the typical crowd at the bar. Witnesses described him as not very tall, but with a "nice tan" and brown-black hair. Another account suggested that a man with curly hair had been bothering Claire that night. That man was reportedly driving a white Nissan pickup truck. Going off the original reporting about those tips, it's not clear whether these descriptions were referring to the same person or to different individuals.
11:11 Kylie Low? However, Elaine tells me now that those tips were taken to refer to the same stranger. But as of July 2, 1986, a few days into the investigation, police were unable to identify that person. Investigators conducted dozens of interviews. They followed up on rumors. They chased down tips. No clear suspect emerged, but there were several individuals who landed in an investigative gray area.
11:42 Speaker 03 The biggest thing about this case that was troubling to us was that we'd hear name after name after name. In 1986, there was not another term for it. So either somebody was a suspect or not a suspect. Now, sometimes people will say like a person of interest because it's not really a suspect, but we're kind of looking at them. But back then, you didn't really hear that term was either suspect or non-suspect. And there was a lot of people that we couldn't really rule them in, but we couldn't rule them out either.
12:11 Kylie Low? Among those in that gray area who were questioned in the early stages included three local police officers, one of whom drove Claire home that night.
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13:09 Kylie Low? The older male friend who Claire had asked for a ride home that night was later identified as Jimmy. I'm only using his first name for privacy purposes. One of Claire's friends described Jimmy as someone who looked out for them, someone who made sure they didn't have to walk home alone at night. Maybe that's because it was part of his job. Jimmy was a Salem State Campus Police Officer. Police located and questioned Jimmy as part of the early investigation. He told them that Claire had asked to be dropped off not directly in front of her apartment building, but next door, near St. Joseph's Credit Union. It was an unusual choice.
13:50 Kylie Low? According to a friend, Claire didn't normally use that entrance, and that side of the building was darker, less visible. After questioning, investigators did not consider Jimmy to be a suspect, but the uncertainty surrounding what happened after that ride home remained. Jimmy told investigators that he did not see Claire go inside the building after dropping her off, but she was almost there when he pulled away.
14:17 Speaker 03 The person who last saw her saw her about to step onto the stairs to walk up to her walkway to her home, and she, in that short distance, never made it inside the front door. So that was also frustrating to us to determine, was somebody waiting for her there? Did she turn and walk away after she was dropped off and somebody saw her along the way?
14:43 Kylie Low? Whatever happened to Claire went down after she left his car near the credit union and walked into the dark shadows of the dimly lit side of her apartment building. It was an incredibly small window of opportunity for something to happen at random. Jimmy may have been crossed off the list, but another local police officer raised suspicion for a different reason. Beverly Police Officer James Stapleton came to investigators' attention after he was found sleeping in his car near the area where Claire's body was discovered.
15:18 Kylie Low? Officer Stapleton explained to investigators that he got into an argument with his wife, and he just needed somewhere to cool off, so he drove to a quiet spot and fell asleep in the car. According to his wife, who also spoke to Detective Elaine Gill during the investigation, Stapleton also had an alibi for the presumed time of Claire's murder. He had attended a wedding that weekend. At the time, investigators were not able to establish a direct link between Stapleton and the homicide. But the name of yet another officer surfaced through rumor. Investigators received information that Salem Police Officer Gerald "Jerry" Verrett may have been seen arguing with Claire on the night of her murder.
16:03 Kylie Low? Jerry, like Claire, was also known to frequent Major McCleish's and was considered a regular at the bar. The rumor turned out to be just that, a rumor, because when investigators examined his work and pay records, they found that he had been working continuously during the timeframe in question, providing him with a verifiable alibi. He was effectively cleared in the early stages of the investigation. But knowing what we know now about Jerry Verrett, it wouldn't be surprising if he had the creep factor back in 1986 that contributed to the rumors in Claire's case. In 1992, Verrett resigned from the Salem Police Department while under investigation
16:47 Kylie Low? for the sexual assault of a minor. According to reporting by Tom Farmer for The Daily Item, in January 1993, Verrett was arrested and charged with three counts of rape and abuse of a child under 16, along with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. The abuse began when the victim was just six or seven years old and continued for two years before she bravely came forward as a teenager. In 1994, Verrett was convicted on multiple counts, including rape and assault and battery of a child under 14. He received a three-year sentence on one of the indecent assault and battery charges,
17:30 Kylie Low? along with suspended sentences of eight to 10 years and 10 to 15 years on the remaining charges. He would be eligible for parole after serving just about two years of that time. The survivor in that case, by the way, later won $200,000 in damages in a civil case for the emotional distress she endured. To be clear, none of that established a connection between Jerry Verrett and Claire Gravel's murder, but it does add a layer to the case that seemed to brush up against unsettling possibilities as time went on. Three officers, all questioned, none of them were confirmed as suspects in the moment, and still no clear answer as to who was responsible for Claire's death.
18:14 Kylie Low? Within just 10 days, the investigation was already beginning to cool. Over time, Claire's case became one of many that lingered in the same investigative purgatory, still open, still unresolved, but no longer at the center of daily attention. Some of the individuals investigators had never been able to fully rule in or out, started lawyering up, and stopped cooperating directly with police. As time went on, there was one question that nagged investigators beyond all others: Who was Claire seen talking to at the bar that night?
18:52 Speaker 03 We knew that there was somebody that Claire had been speaking to at Major McGlycius' bar that we could not identify. And that's something that we continued to work on to see if we could identify this unknown person that people saw her talking with. That was first stated to us.
19:12 Kylie Low? The case was running into a brick wall, but Claire herself was not forgotten. At Major McGlycius', the place where she had spent her final night out with friends, her softball jersey was framed and displayed on the wall for years. It remained there as a quiet reminder of who she was and of what had been lost. As the months and years passed, behind the scenes, investigators ran down the rare tip that floated in, assuring the Gravel family and the public that police were committed to seeing it through to the end. Every document, every incident report, every speck of evidence was carefully maintained in hopes that someday, a new clue would make sense of the mystery.
19:57 Kylie Low? The team didn't know it in the mid-'80s, but the careful collection and preservation of the physical evidence in particular would change absolutely everything about the case decades later. It didn't happen overnight, not at all. But when new testing revealed new answers from old evidence, it was suddenly crystal clear why police hadn't been able to identify any suspects in the earliest stages of the case. They had been looking at those who had some sort of connection to Claire or to the scene. But the person behind this senseless crime turned out to be a stranger with no connection to Claire at all.
20:44 Kylie Low? In 1999, the opening of the Massachusetts State DNA Laboratory in Sudbury brought renewed hope, not just for Claire's family, but for investigators who believed that advances in technology might succeed where earlier efforts had stalled. Evidence from Claire's case was submitted for analysis, but progress wasn't immediate. More than a decade after that, in 2013, Taylor Repalia reported for the Salem News that the Essex District Attorney's Office confirmed new information was available in the case. It was enough to prompt what they described as a renewal of the investigation, but not enough to result in an immediate arrest. What investigators were working with,
21:28 Kylie Low? though not publicly disclosed at the time, was something that hadn't been possible back in 1986. They had a DNA match. According to reporting by Julie Manganas for the Eagle Tribune, investigators confirmed that a male DNA profile had been identified on the tank top Claire was wearing, the same piece of clothing that had been wrapped around her neck and used to strangle her. That profile matched a man already in the system, John W. Carey Jr. The statistical strength of the match was overwhelming. According to forensic analysis, Carey was 390 million more times likely to be the contributor of the DNA found on the murder weapon.
22:13 Kylie Low? The suspect's DNA hadn't been in the system in 1986. There was no widespread system for storing and comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes at that time. But more than 20 years later, when DNA analysis was a more routine forensic technique at crime scenes, John Carey left his genetic marker at the scene of another terrible attack, and his own actions started the clock of justice for Claire's case. According to court records, around 9:40 PM on the evening of June 6, 2007, a woman was alone in her kitchen at home in Hamilton when she heard a knock at the glass door leading to her back deck. She thought it might be her husband.
22:57 Kylie Low? The two were separated at the time, but he still spent time at the house with her and their children, and he'd just left for the night not long before. But when she approached the door, she realized it wasn't her husband. It was John Carey. She knew him as a friend of her husband's, someone who had been inside her home before, so she let him in. John asked where her husband was. When she told him he wasn't there, something shifted. John became aggressive. He questioned why her husband invited him over if he wasn't home. The woman tried to defuse the situation. She offered to call her husband, but John told her not to. She asked him to leave and began moving toward the back door.
23:41 Kylie Low? That's when he attacked her. Carey wrapped a cord around the woman's neck and dragged her through the kitchen attempting to strangle her, and what happened next saved her life. The woman's young son, who had been upstairs, heard the struggle and rushed to defend his mother. He struck John with his fist. His mother told him to grab a knife, and he did. He stabbed the man, breaking the handle of the knife in the process. The boy jumped on him, trying to pull him away. John let go. He turned briefly toward the child, then fled, as the woman and her son ran in opposite directions, each seeking help at neighboring homes. When police arrived, they found a piece of a necktie on the back deck.
24:22 Kylie Low? Forensic testing later revealed that the necktie contained DNA from the victim and a mixture of at least three individuals, including John Carey. Both the woman's husband and her son were excluded as contributors. John Carey was later apprehended, and as investigators built their case, they uncovered something deeply unsettling. On the suspect's computer, they found hundreds of images and materials described as "strangulation-oriented" or "having strangulation themes." John also conducted online searches for asphyxia and accessed material about cases involving strangulation deaths. Investigators believed the attack had been driven by sexual gratification
25:06 Kylie Low? associated with asphyxiation. John Carey was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He later claimed the incident was part of a consensual sexual encounter, but that argument was rejected on appeal, and his conviction was upheld. With John Carey's conviction in that case, his DNA profile landed in the state database, and that would become the key to solving Claire's murder. Because John's DNA was now available for comparison to DNA evidence connected to Claire's case when the investigation was renewed in 2012. But identifying a DNA profile is not the end of an investigation. It's only the beginning of a new one.
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27:39 Kylie Low? Investigators had to be sure there was no other reasonable explanation for John's DNA to be on the murder weapon. So they started working backward to put the evidence into context. State Police Lieutenant Stephen Boucherey revisited the early threads of the investigation, interviewing potential witnesses connected to Salem State, and even looking into John Carey's past at the Bass Rocks Golf Club in Gloucester, where he had been known as a skilled golfer. But as far as I can tell, the renewed investigation still could not identify any clear connection between Claire and John Carey as of 1986, because there wasn't one.
28:20 Kylie Low? And that is one of the most unsettling aspects of the case. The suspect was a stranger. There was no known relationship and no clear reason for investigators to identify him in the early days of the case. Statistically, that kind of violence is rare. In modern US data compiled by the FBI, only about 9% to 10% of homicides are committed by strangers. Most cases involve some level of familiarity: family members, partners, acquaintances. When that connection exists, it often provides a starting point for investigators. But when it doesn't, there are fewer warning signs, fewer behavioral clues, and often far fewer immediate leads.
29:05 Kylie Low? That was the reality in Claire's case. Investigators were never going to find their suspect among the people in Claire's orbit. The person responsible wasn't part of her circle at all. And that's part of the reason why answers in this case were so hard to uncover without new forensic science. There's also another reality that's difficult to ignore. If John Carey had been identified earlier, if his name had surfaced in 1986, it's possible that the violent attack he carried out in 2007 might never have happened. But the inverse is also true. If that woman and her son hadn't survived, hadn't fought back, hadn't been able to identify
29:48 Kylie Low? him, there may never have been a DNA profile to match. Claire's family might still be waiting for answers as the 40-year anniversary approaches. The actions of that mother and her child were not just an act of survival, they represent a turning point. Their courage in the face of evil ensured John Carey's DNA entered the system and eventually connected him to a crime committed more than two decades before. It's a reminder that breakthroughs in cases like this don't always come from investigators pounding the pavement. They can do everything in their power to solve the case. But sometimes, it all comes down to one unpredictable, fateful event that puts all the pieces into place.
30:32 Kylie Low? As an additional critical step to confirm that the DNA profile had identified the right suspect, investigators also revisited individuals previously questioned in the case. In 2019, they located James Stapleton, the former Beverly police officer who had been found sleeping in his car near the scene decades earlier. He provided a DNA sample for comparison and was excluded as a contributor.
30:58 Speaker 03 Once the DNA hit, it all came together. You know, we determined what John Carey looked like back in 1986, what his profession was, how he dressed, and what his propensities are. It all, it all came together.
31:14 Kylie Low? After nearly four decades, investigators finally had what they had been missing all along: a name, a DNA match, and a suspect who wasn't on their radar in 1986, but who had a history of violence against women, who was already serving a sentence for an attempted murder conviction in a case involving strangulation. On August 24, 2022, the Essex County District Attorney's Office announced that a grand jury had handed down the indictment of 63-year-old John Carey for the nearly 40-year unsolved murder of Claire Gravel.
31:58 Kylie Low? In January of 2026, the case was finally brought before a jury in Lawrence Superior Court. From the outset, both sides presented sharply different versions of what happened. In her opening statement, prosecutor Kim Kaitella laid out the Commonwealth's theory of the case in no uncertain terms. She told the jury, quote, "John Carey murdered Claire Gravel on June 29, 1986, motivated by his sexual arousal to the act of strangulation." She pointed specifically to the forensic evidence, stating, "On the tank top, in the exact area that was twisted and pulled over Claire's head and used as a murder weapon, the only male's DNA on that was the defendant, John Carey," end quote.
32:43 Kylie Low? The defense took a different approach. In their opening, they argued that the investigation itself had been fundamentally flawed. They told the jury, quote, "This investigation was absolutely corrupted by bias and that evidence is going to show Mr. Carey is not guilty," end quote. Over the course of the trial, jurors heard from witnesses who helped connect the past to the present. Among them was Elaine Gill, who retired from Massachusetts State Police after 27 years and is now deputy chief of the Merrimack College Police Department. Even decades later, she was still able to speak to the earliest moments of the case, what was found, what was known, and what remained unanswered.
33:28 Kylie Low? The prosecution also called a witness who spoke to John Carey's behavior in his personal life. His former wife testified that he would use belts or nylons to choke her during sexual encounters. Meanwhile, the defense argued that other potential suspects had not been fully investigated, revisiting names that had surfaced early in the case. One of those individuals was James Stapleton. The Beverly Police Officer had been found sleeping in his car near the location where Claire's body was discovered. But that line of argument faced a critical limitation. Stapleton had already been excluded through DNA testing. His genetic profile did not match the DNA found on the murder weapon.
34:10 Kylie Low? The defense also pointed to Gerald "Jerry" Verrett, the Salem Police Officer who had been rumored to have contact with Claire the night she was last seen alive. Verrett had been cleared early in the investigation based on verified work records placing him elsewhere at the time. Side note, my research shows Verrett died in 2005, and based on available records, it does not appear that investigators obtained a DNA sample from him or a family member for comparison. At its core, the defense focused on uncertainty. They argued that investigators had never definitively established where Claire went after leaving Major McLeish's, or exactly when and where she was killed, points they said created reasonable doubt.
34:55 Kylie Low? After hearing the evidence, the jury reached a conclusion. In March of 2026, John W. Carey Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder with extreme cruelty and atrocity.
35:08 Speaker 03 Forty-three years, basically, with my past job with the state police and now my current job at Marymount College. I would say it's, the conviction is the highlight of my career. This case has troubled me all that time, and I always hoped that it would come to this positive conclusion. And, yeah, it's, it's, it's the one time in court that I ever cried, so I couldn't, I couldn't help it. There's that much emotion involved.
35:38 Kylie Low? On April 9th, 2026, John Carey was sentenced to the mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole. Claire's family, including her five siblings, were present for his sentencing and were given their time to speak about what this moment meant and what they'd endured over the last several decades. Claire's brother Mark said, quote, "They say the key to happiness is forgiveness. There will be no forgiveness. The key to happiness for the Gravel family is justice, and so it has prevailed."
36:10 Kylie Low? Investigators collected and preserved evidence in 1986 without knowing whether it would ever lead to an answer. At the time, DNA analysis was not yet a practical investigative tool, but decades later, that same evidence, once just an unknown biological trace, became a statistically overwhelming match to a known offender, finally identifying the stranger who crossed Claire's path that night.
36:38 Speaker 03 We had this unknown person who did not fit in that bar, and nobody had ever seen him before, nobody saw him since, and that's who was convicted of her murder.
36:49 Kylie Low? After decades of unanswered questions, court proceedings, and finally, a conviction, what remains most important is who Claire Gravel was while she was here. Her father, Bob, once said that “no one could dance like Claire. She was joyful, full of energy, the kind of person who brought a sparkle to life with her wherever she went.” Bob Gravel carried that memory with him, along with a photo of Claire in his wallet, holding on to that image of his daughter as she was. Claire was still figuring out her path when a killer crossed it, but she had a vision for what she wanted her life to look like. She hoped to build a future alongside a partner and to have a big family of her own.
37:33 Kylie Low? Claire once told a friend she wanted “a long-lasting marriage, just like her parents, and at least six to 10 children.” Claire was full of personality, full of life. Her brother testified that Claire was “a fun, feisty, and friendly young woman.” She was in the middle of becoming whoever she was going to be. Claire’s mother, Mary Gravel, spent years living with that loss. She passed away in 2015, never seeing the day when someone would finally be held accountable for her daughter’s murder. For the Gravel family, justice came decades late, but it is finally here, a reminder that no matter how many years pass, justice is possible.
38:15 Kylie Low? As technology advances and databases expand, even the coldest cases can be reexamined and solved.
38:22 Speaker 03 I’m so grateful in this case that her family finally has justice and some kind of closure, which has been 40 years. But I always hoped that this day would come, that the person would be found and be convicted. I’m so grateful that that’s happened. I want people to have hope and not to give up. Now, that’s easy to say, I’m looking at it from the side of an investigator, not somebody that’s experienced it as a family member or survivor. But I hope that people won’t give up and have confidence in the police that are working on their investigations, but not be afraid to also ask questions and expect answers.
39:07 Kylie Low? Claire Gravel didn't get the life she was planning. She didn't get the future she imagined. But she was never forgotten. And in the end, hope and persistence of her family, of investigators, of time itself, brought truth out of the shadows and into the light.
39:33 Kylie Low? Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram, at Dark Down East. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Low, and this is Dark Down East.
40:05 Kylie Low? Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and AudioChuck. I think Chuck would approve.
40:17 Speaker 04 If anyone wanted to commit a murder, up here would be the greatest place in the world to hide the body. But soon they'll find it. He acted friendly. He talked friendly. He sounded friendly.
40:30 Speaker 05 They all knew that I did the scary boogie stuff. And they said, maybe she'll find out where this girl is. I saw him violent. Backhanded her. Pow!
40:43 Speaker 06 Listen to The Devil's Quarry, Season Two, in the Bone Valley feed, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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