In a nine-month span between 1986 and 1987, two women were found brutally slain in the same Rhode Island city.

Investigators believed that the first was abducted from the side of the road on her way home from work in the middle of the night,

while the second appeared to get into an unknown vehicle voluntarily.

Both were found a few miles away from the locations where they were last seen alive,

cruelly discarded in industrial areas.

Decades later, thanks to creative, contemporary investigative strategies led by a bullish cold-case detective,

the cases were re-energized, producing

new leads, new evidence, and a new suspect who had been right under the noses of law enforcement

all along. I'm Kylie Lowe, and these are the cases of Kathy Perry and Rhonda Travers

on Darkdown Down East.

It was around 5.30 in the evening on September 14, 1986, and 20-year-old Kathy Perry was on her way to work at Ultra Finisher's,

a bookbinding company in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Her 1979 Mercury Capri wasn't the most reliable of vehicles, but it seemed to be cooperating

for her commute that night. When Kathy happened to pass her mother Marilyn on the drive-through town,

they exchanged waves with each other from behind their steering wheels. Kathy's shift was 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.,

which allowed her to attend cosmetology school during the day. She'd logged enough hours

in a hairstylist program at the school to start working in a salon while she

finished up her coursework. According to reporting by Karen Newell Young and Jeff L.H. for the

Providence Journal, Kathy was supposed to start her new job at a salon in Coventry that same week.

Kathy's boyfriend was a guy named Bruce, whose father owned ultra-finishers.

And Bruce also worked at the company with Kathy, and co-worker said that when Kathy and

Bruce weren't getting along, it would reflect in her demeanor at work.

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