Crackling fire engulfed the 1982 Sob 900, melting the car's plastic pieces and scorching

its metal shell.

The flames fed off the fuel that the car provided, roaring and warming up the cold early hours

of the morning.

It was December 10, 1982, and the town of Thornton, New Hampshire was cold and quiet, the hissing

of the fire the only sound breaking the small town winter silence.

The car had tumbled off of Route 175 into a shallow ditch, but the crash did not awaken

Roland Gooch or John Spurling, both of whom lived nearby.

It was the sound of the fire and smell of the burning that drew their attention.

When Roland and John arrived at the scene, the car was fully ablaze, though the physical

damage from the crash was minimal.

Roland described it as an inferno, and the two men struggled to see if anyone was in

the car.

The flames obscured the passengers inside.

Janet Dow and her son, Stephen Dow, were inside that burning car just 500 feet away from

their own home.

They were deceased, but the cause of their deaths, whether from the seemingly gentle car crash,

the wild flames or something else, was not clear.

What was clear to both John and Roland was that there must be more to what they'd witnessed.

For the next 40 years, and across multiple investigations, whether the truth of the suspicious

deaths of Janet and Stephen Dow was ever uncovered is still uncertain to some, and a closed

case to others.

...