The Disappearance of Daniel K. Wood Jr. (Maine)

Dark Downeast

Audiochuck

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2021

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

MAINE COLD CASE, 1954: On July 22nd, 1954, Daniel K. Wood Jr. grabbed his fishing pole and set off on foot down Portland Road in Gray, Maine. Just ten minutes later, the phone rang at the Wood home. It was Danny. He told his mother he got a job with a door-to-door salesman. She warned him not to go off with strangers, but Danny simply replied, "I'll be home by dark." 12-year old Danny did not return. The search for answers in this enduring cold case continues nearly 70 years later. When a strange letter appeared in the mailboxes of two hundred Mainers in 2003, would it lead to answers, or only more questions?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On July 22nd, 1954, Daniel Wood Jr. grabbed his fishing pole and let the screen door slap shut behind him as he set off on foot down Portland Road in Gray.
0:15.3	His best friend lived just a mile down the road.
0:18.5	It wasn't a long walk or an unusual trip for him to make. His mother believed him when he said he was just
0:24.8	headed off to go fishing with a pal. The Wood family home is still there today.
0:30.0	It sits within view of Route 100, and though it is slightly obscured by trees, it's not far back from the street.
0:38.0	There's just a short driveway between the house and the road that Danny was assumed to walk down, fishing gear in hand,
0:44.3	headed towards the nearest body of water with fish willing to bite.
0:48.6	Danny's mother was inside the house as he left, tending to her other children. She heard a car door slam and a car drive off outside.
0:58.2	It was a little odd maybe for that location, but she was quickly pulled from the thought and back to mothering.
1:05.3	Ten minutes later the phone on the wall of the Wood family home rang.
1:09.6	It was Danny.
1:11.5	I've got a job with a magazine salesman, he told her. I'm going to get 50 cents an hour.
1:17.9	Danny excitedly explained that he'd met a door-to-door salesman, and he was going with him to Lewiston to make house calls.
1:25.2	Lillian Wood paused and considered her son's announcement.
1:29.4	He'd only left the house a few minutes ago, and now he was calling from a phone at a store all the way in gray center, about three miles away.
1:38.0	He couldn't have made it there on foot that fast.
1:41.0	She thought back to that car door she heard slamming. Someone must have driven him there.
1:47.3	Danny couldn't wait to get a job. It was all he talked about that summer. He was always
1:52.4	pestering his mother and father for permission to earn his own
1:55.1	spending money. At 12 years old the employment opportunities weren't exactly
1:59.6	plentiful but bowing to their son's unrelenting requests, they told Danny that he could sign up for a job picking beans at a farm nearby in late August.
2:09.0	It was early July. Patience for a 12-year-old boy was hard to come by.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Audiochuck, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Audiochuck and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.