Starlet Vining disappeared in 1998 and has never been found.

Yet 15 years after she was last seen in the small town of Preskyle, Maine, a suspect was convicted of her murder.

This is a wide-open look at how a cold missing person's case was successfully investigated and solved,

despite the fact that the victim's remains were never recovered prior to trial or ever.

It's a story about what it takes, and that it is fully possible to bring a suspicious

disappearance investigation to a close and get a violent diabolical killer out of our communities,

even when the only proof a murder occurred is the testimony of questionable witnesses,

secondhand stories, and inconclusive physical evidence.

I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Starlet Vining, Bondark Down East.

It was July of 2012, the thick of summer in northern Maine,

and rumors had started to circulate in the Eoustic county town of Preske Isle.

Things were happening at 473 Main Street

on the corner block that intersects with State Street.

Yellow police tape was going up around the whole building,

and Maine State Police Evidence Response Technicians funneled in and out of the doors.

Paper bags marked evidence clenched in their gloved hands.

Preskeyele is that kind of small community where everyone knows each other,

where secrets and chatter circulated like clothes in the wash,

around and around and around until thoroughly drenched with whispered opinions and

speculations. But soon, after state police carried out their searches inside that commercial

building in town, at least some of the rumors proved to be true. At one time, the building housed

several apartments and a few businesses, including a wine

...