When a Massachusetts schoolteacher fails to return home from a weekend camping trip with a friend, his wife reports him missing.

Investigators discover that the friend in question, the principal of a private religious school, is hiding a shocking past in this episode of Last Seen Alive.

Music Thanks for listening to Last Seen Alive.

I'm your host, Leah,

crime analyst by day, and true crime storyteller by night. As always, I'm a co-host Scott. A quick heads up. This episode contains

discussion of sexual assault. We won't go into any graphic detail, but still, please listen with care.

Christopher Bird was last seen alive on July 29, 1984. He was 25 years old at

the time and lived in Haverill, Massachusetts. Haverill is located about 35 miles or 56 kilometers north of

Boston along the New Hampshire border. Although its population has since grown, at the time, it was home to

about 45,000 people. Christopher lived there with his wife, Donna, and worked as a special education

teacher for Haverill's public schools. The job suited Christopher, who was known as a kind and helpful

person, well. Christopher had been raised in Haverill and was himself an alumnus of the town's public

schools from which he'd graduated with honors. Afterward, he'd gone to college about an hour away,

studying special education with the intent to return and serve the community where he'd been raised.

College was where he met Donna, and they married shortly after graduating.

By the summer of 1984, they were just a few years into their marriage and were enjoying life together as they established their careers.

That year, the 29th of July, was a Sunday.

Donna had gone out of town for the weekend on a girl's trip to Maine with her sister.

Meanwhile, Christopher had gone on a weekend trip of his own, camping in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with a friend. That friend was

39-year-old Richard Brunt. Like Christopher, he worked in education. He was the principal of a small,

private Christian school that operated in Haverill, serving grades K through 12. Christopher and Richard

had met seven months prior, not through work, but at the local YMCA, where they both often used

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