It was just 10.30 p.m. the night before the 4th of July in 1971 and a family was just returning to their cottage near Killington Ski Resort in Vermont

when an unusual sight caught their attention on the dark and

winding mountain road. Down over an embankment, flames. When the father and son

got close enough to douse the fire with water, they made a grim discovery.

The body of a man, badly burned.

A family member would identify the man as 34-year-old veteran Ronald Rogers, but as the case developed

over the course of an entire decade, that basic fact would be challenged.

This case actually begins two years. would be challenged.

This case actually begins two years

before his body was discovered,

with an armed robbery in Rutland, Vermont.

This is a story of possible mistaken identity, of investigative missteps, and maybe the story of a so-called perfect crime.

I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Ronald Rogers part one on Dark Down East. Now the third largest city in Vermont, Rutland had an even greater population in the 60s and 70s, around 20,000 residents, making it a bustling community for a state

otherwise known for mountain peaks and rural wilderness further north towards Canada. Not far from what is now Rutland's trendy downtown historic

district is Cleveland Avenue. The street doesn't connect to any of the main roads and these

days it's a mix of residential and commercial use

with a dead end lined by warehouse and factory buildings that have more broken windows

than not. But in the early 1960s, Cleveland Avenue would be the home of the

latest and greatest innovation in supermarketing, according to the Rutland Daily Herald.

In October 1st, 1962 article announced the forthcoming opening of Ames Discount Food Land,

a 20,000 square foot store boasting a bakery department that baked all goods on site, a meat department open for the public

to watch their cuts being prepared, and a deli offering domestic and imported foods.

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