Bernard Wright Russness and Peggy Joyce McKay were a 49-year-old and 41-year-old,

respectively, from Wolf Lake, Minnesota. They had been together several years and had a son.

On the night of April 3, 1976, locals noticed the Russness McKay house on fire.

Firefighters found the sun dead inside. Yet Bernard and Peggy's remains were not there.

They were never seen again. I'm a dancer, and this is unfound.

Fire is one of those topics that I could have never suspected would get mentioned so much ununfound.

When I started this podcast over six years ago, I would put it in the same category as missing

people who called for rides than weren't there when their friends or family arrived. We've had

four of that type amazingly. You wouldn't think it would be a thing. With fire, we've had at least

seven disappearances where it has played a role. Once again, surprisingly, can you name those seven

without peeking? I'll give you a moment. They are in no particular order. Dorianne Myers,

Jeremy Burt, Lara Bible, and Ashley Freeman, Tyler North, Christian Balky Thompson, and Ronald

McNutt, although fire didn't play a role until long after he went missing.

For the six, not including Ronald's, there's no doubt that foul play was the cause in all of them.

Thus what makes sense is when fire is an element of a case, it most likely points to a non-accidental

reason for the disappearance. Well, with Bernard Russness and Peggy McKay, we have a very unique case,

but it's that kind that can test or thinking the best. Where should our analysis start

when the smoke clears? And now a summary of the case. This is brought to you by my friend Megan

Lionnes' website, charlieproject.org. Bernard Russness and Peggy McKay were not married,

despite everybody around them believing so. They had been together for almost 10 years and had an

eight-year-old son, Brian. Each had prior marriages and children from those relationships.

Yet there's nothing on the record that shows this was a problem for anyone. They lived on Peggy's

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