On a winter night in 1981, a teenager stepped out of his Essex Junction home and never returned.

His disappearance unsettled the quiet Vermont town, leaving his family searching for answers that never came.

Years later, a hunter in the woods made a discovery that would finally explain what happened

to the missing teen, but not why. Whispers of a stolen check, shifting stories, and a courtroom

battle followed, yet the truth is still tangled even to this day. This is the story of a teenager

whose life ended far too soon, a family's years-long fight for justice,

and a case that still raises questions about trust, betrayal,

and the limits of the system meant to deliver answers.

I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Craig Cooley-Jackman on Darkdowne East.

The phone rang just after 6.30 on January 26, 1981, inside a Lincoln Street home in Essex Junction, Vermont, and Carolyn

Demaris picked up the receiver. On the line was a friend asking for her son, 16-year-old

Craig Jackman, Cooley, as his friends called him. According to reporting by Ian Pollenbaum for

the Burlington Free Press, Craig was in the bathroom, so Carolyn relayed the message through the door.

The invitation was simple.

Did he want to go bowling?

Craig's answer came back just as simply.

No, he wasn't interested in sitting around the bowling alley and watching his friend bowl.

Carolyn hung up, slipping on her coat as she headed out for a quick errand.

Before she left, she placed a few dollars on the counter in case her son changed his mind.

When she returned a short time later, and Craig wasn't home, she thought nothing of it.

Maybe he had gone out after all.

But as the hours ticked by, the silence inside the house grew

...