More than a century ago during the winter of 1923, a quiet Christmas in East Hartford, Connecticut took a devastating turn that would echo far beyond that holiday.

Mrs. Mary Mansel never arrived for the dinner she'd been warmly invited to, and within hours her home became the center of a crime that would send police searching for a suspect who vanished into the world and never returned.

Mary's name rarely appears in headlines now. Her story has merely slipped beneath the weight of time.

But history leaves clues if you're willing to look.

And some stories are worth digging up again.

I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Mary Manel, on Dark Down East.

It was Christmas Eve in the Burnside section of East Hartford, Connecticut.

The kind of night when winter presses up against the windows

with a sparkling frost and the whole neighborhood settles into a hush. Silver Lane and Forbes Street

were quiet. The streets frozen and empty. And inside the small cottage at the corner,

72-year-old Mary Monsel was preparing for a simple, pleasant holiday.

According to reporting by the Hartford Current, Mary had lived there alone for the past four years,

ever since her sister Jane passed away. Mary had moved to Connecticut from Long Island

to be with Jane after they were both widowed, choosing to share a home and

each other's company in the later chapters of their lives. When Jane died, Mary stayed. The house

held memories and the life she'd built in her golden years, and her neighbors had stepped in to fill

the gaps that loneliness left behind. Among those neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. John Rao, who lived

close enough to check in all the time. They liked Mary, and they worried about her. She was elderly,

she lived alone, and she had no other local family. When the Rao stopped by for a brief visit

on the night before Christmas, they brought a small

gift and something even more important, an invitation. They were hosting Christmas dinner the next

day with turkey at one o'clock sharp. They told her she was welcome, expected even. Mary accepted

...