Dark Downeast - The Murder of Jason Bass & Disappearance of Adam Emery (Rhode Island)

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

RHODE ISLAND, 1990: They were sitting in their car eating clam chowder when another vehicle smashed into their rear bumper and took off. Adam Emery pursued the apparent hit and run driver. The ensuing confrontation escalated to homicide -- Adam stabbed and killed 20-year old Jason Bass. Though Adam Emery was found guilty of murder and awaited sentencing, he and his wife Elena Emery had other plans.To this day, state police, the FBI, and even international law enforcement continue searching for Adam Emery. Meanwhile, the family of Jason Bass waits for an ending that brings the long-awaited closure they deserve.This episode was co-written by Dena Norman. View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/jasonbassFollow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

This episode contains discussion of dying by suicide. Please listen with care. The lip reader pressed play on the tape again, eyes trained on the couple engaged in a hushed courtroom conversation. The woman leaned in towards her husband as they spoke, as close as she could get considering the barrier between them. The man was sitting at the defendant's table, and he, along with the rest of the courtroom, had just heard the jury's verdict. Adam Emery, guilty. Though difficult to discern except with a trained eye, the conversation between Adam and his wife Elena Emery was of great importance for the Rhode Island State Police.

Because hours after the whispered exchange, Mr. and Mrs. Emery were nowhere to be found. To this day, state police, the FBI, and even international law enforcement continue searching for Adam Emery. Meanwhile, the family of Jason Bass, whose life was ended by Adam's hands, continues searching for that long-awaited closure they deserve. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Jason Bass and fugitive Adam Emery on Dark Down East. Rocky Point Amusement Park was a coastal park that provided generations of Rhode Islanders and visitors from all over the country with seasonal fun since the mid-19th century. More than a few famous events in history occurred at Rocky Point, too. In a story shared in the Rocky Point documentary called You Must Be This Tall, President Rutherford Hayes received a phone call at the hotel at Rocky Point in June of 1877. The caller was Alexander Graham Bell. President Rutherford spoke the first words a

president had ever spoken over a telephone line. They were, please speak a little more slowly. Babe Ruth played professional ball games with the Providence Grays at Rocky Point. According to historian Charlie Beavis, in 1914, Babe Ruth famously hit a home run in an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs at the park. The ball landed somewhere in Narragansett Bay, but was only considered a triple, not a home run. The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 significantly damaged the park with high winds and storm surge. And in 1954, when Hurricane Carol came ashore, downtown Providence flooded with 12 feet of water. Other coastal towns and areas, including Rocky Point, were hit with a 14-foot storm surge. Rocky Point Amusement Park, despite its history of disasters

including coastal storms, financial setbacks, fires, and multiple changes of ownership, never stayed closed down for long. It had thrilling rides, a roller rink, a dinner hall, which was famous for its clam cakes and chowder, and auditoriums large enough to host musical acts and political candidates campaigning in Rhode Island. Many people, including visitors and former employees, still talk about the 4th of July fireworks shows that were put on by the park each year. Rocky Point shuttered for good in the 1990s, but it features prominently in the memories of those who visited the park and those who worked there, including Jason Bass. In the summer of 1990, 20-year-old Jason Bass was a food concession manager at Rocky Point Amusement Park. He was a young man on the verge of a happy

and productive life. That's what Jason's cousin, Joshua Post, told Newport This Week in 2020. Jason was one of seven kids. His parents, Barbara and Everett Bass, are of Cherokee and Mohican descent. He grew up with his large family in Providence, Rhode Island. When Jason was 16 years old, he decided to drop out of high school. He worked in food service for a few years, and he shared with his friends and family his dreams of opening up his own restaurant. But until he could make that dream come true, Jason worked his job at Rocky Point Amusement Park, right up until a week before his path crossed with 27-year-old Adam Emery. On the evening of August 31st, 1990, 27-year-old Adam and his wife, Elena Emery, were celebrating their second anniversary with Elena's sister and

brother-in-law. According to a 1994 piece in the Washington Post, Rhode Island local Adam Emery worked for a local plastics company in a customer service role after having graduated from Rhode Island College. His wife Elena had moved to the U.S. from Italy with her parents as a young girl and worked in accounting for a local construction company while she finished her own college degree. But that night was a special occasion, and the couples were sitting inside Adam's 1985 Ford Thunderbird, enjoying a very New England meal of clam cakes and beer that they'd picked up from the amusement park. Suddenly, out of nowhere, they were jolted in their seats when a car turned the corner and hit the rear driver's side of the T-Bird, smashing a taillight. The vehicle sped away, and everyone inside the T-Bird lost sight of it. The group was rattled, and Adam's passengers egged him on. According to testimony, Elena was the most vocal.

She wanted her husband to go after the driver and vehicle responsible for the hit and run. Whether an independent decision or fueled by the pressure of his wife and other passengers, we can't be sure. But Adam did decide to pursue the vehicle. He put the car into gear and accelerated in the direction of the suspected perpetrator. The first car they spotted was a 1975 Ford LTD with reddish-brown paint. According to the Washington Post article, Elena pointed ahead and shouted at Adam, that's the car. Former Rhode Island State Police Trooper Lieutenant Kevin Hopkins recalled hearing the sounds of a car crash near his neighborhood home. In 2020, Lieutenant Hopkins told NBC News 10 that when he reached the scene in

his cruiser, he discovered a reddish-brown 1975 Ford on the lawn of a neighbor's home. A man was laying on the ground near the car. At first assessment, he saw the man had suffered an apparent stab wound. Adam Emery was sitting on a nearby porch step, drinking a glass of water, covered in blood. Adam looked squarely at Lieutenant Hopkins and down at the man on the ground, uttering, I did it. The man on the ground next to that Ford was Jason Bass, and the person responsible for killing him was not up for debate. Adam Emery had admitted to the stabbing that ended Jason's life. However, the circumstances of the murder were heavily challenged in court, as Adam's legal team tried to present a case of self-defense. According to

court testimony, Adam chased down the car he believed was responsible for knocking out his taillight, but only to get the license plate so he could report the hit-and-run to police. However, once they'd caught up to the car, the driver pulled over. Whether Jason pulled over voluntarily or by force was in dispute during the trial. Adam Emery and his brother-in-law stepped out of his Ford Thunderbird and walked towards the LTD belonging to Jason Bass. Before Adam got out of the car, though, Alina encouraged her husband to take a military-style survival knife with him. According to Adam Emery, Jason tried to escape the situation by putting his car in reverse and driving away, dragging Adam with him. And that's when Adam pulled his knife

and stabbed Jason. It was self-defense, Adam's only option as he clung to the side of Jason's car, he claimed. However, according to reporting by the Boston Globe's Bob Holler, Jason's passengers testified that Adam initiated the confrontation. According to their version of events, Adam approached Jason while shouting, I'm going to kill you. Those who knew Adam Emery testified in court that, because he was a customer service manager,

he excelled at working with frustrated and sometimes angry people. They said he was a good person. But regardless of his friends' and family's classification of his character, Adam didn't really seem to care that he'd taken the life of a young man. Multiple sources reported that Adam was completely devoid of remorse. A Washington Post piece saying, quote, He truly seemed to believe that he was as much a victim that night as Jason had been. In pretrial negotiations, he refused to plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a 20-year sentence. He thought he should and would be exonerated. End quote.

While the series of events leading up to Jason's death are debated, the undisputable fact is that Adam Emery stabbed Jason Bass in the heart, killing him. As the papers classified the exchange, it was a road rage incident turned deadly. However, by the time the case went to trial, it was determined that Jason's car had not even been the one that smashed into the back of Adam's Ford Thunderbird. Lab tests revealed that paint samples did not match. Adam Emery killed an innocent man. On November 10, 1993, Adam Emery was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Jason Bass.

In a controversial decision, Superior Court Justice Linda Savage allowed Adam to remain free on bail while awaiting his sentencing. Three of his family members posted $270,000 of their own property as collateral. Adam and Elena shared a hushed conversation in the courtroom after Adam's conviction and cameras zoomed in to catch their reactions. Though the mood was tense and Jason Bass's family received a police escort home that day, convicted murderer Adam Emery was free to leave, hand in hand with his wife. At the time in Rhode Island,

second-degree murder did not require a mandatory penalty. Adam Emery could have faced a life sentence or maybe 20 years, but Adam would never be formally sentenced. That wasn't part of his or his wife's plan. Just hours after Adam left the courtroom, law enforcement responded to the scene of an abandoned vehicle, empty and idling atop the Claiborne-Pell Bridge in Newport, Rhode Island. The Toyota Camry belonged to Adam and Elena Emery. Police searched the vehicle for any sign of the couple. Inside, investigators discovered the clothing they had both worn to court

and receipts detailing their last known movements. They purchased black hooded sweatsuits and body weights at a sporting goods store. Another receipt revealed what investigators believed could have been their last meal, Burger King. Cut up credit cards littered the seats, but beyond the paper trail of purchases, there were no clues as to what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Emery after they parked their car at the crest of the well-known and heavily trafficked Newport Bridge. Adam and Elena were missing. Authorities decided to take the footage of the Emery's whispered courtroom conversation that they shared after the verdict to a lip-reading expert to see if that would help determine where the couple might have disappeared to. According to the Rhode Island State Police, the lip-reader reported that Elena had told her newly convicted husband,

quote, Nina had told her newly convicted husband, Investigators were at a loss, for a time. What could they have been planning? Three days after the Emerys disappeared without a trace, Adam's mother, Bertha, shared with the Washington Post a letter she had received from Adam. It said in part, quote, I was at a total loss about what happened in court today. We are not afraid to die, and we look forward to it. Free at last.

I write this letter with a clear conscience. End quote. The assumption was this. Adam and his wife, donning the ankle, wrist, and other body weights they'd just purchased, bellies full of fast food, leapt to their deaths into Narragansett Bay. It was a suicide pact, many assumed.

But the family of Jason Bass is not convinced. And they're not alone. A month later, the Emerys were still unaccounted for, and the family members who posted Adam's bail were at risk of losing the property they'd posted as collateral for bail. While the Emery's family members insisted that the couple had jumped to their deaths from the top of the Claiborne-Pell Bridge, investigators said in a 1993 Boston Globe article that they believed it was all a ruse. Rhode Island State Police Captain Frank Muzzerall

told Bob Holer of the Boston Globe, quote, We're leaning toward the fact that they may have fled. We haven't recovered the bodies, and we have nothing concrete to say they committed suicide. End quote. Assistant Attorney General Jack McMahon, who was obligated to begin the process of seizing the properties, also told Holer, quote, We're notated to begin the process of seizing the properties, also told Holler, quote, we're not going to rush to judgment. We want to give the Emerys a chance to turn up,

wherever that may be, end quote. On August 30th, 1994, just one day shy of the fourth anniversary of Jason Bass's murder, a fisherman working in Narragansett Bay caught in his fishing net what looked to be a human skull. It tumbled from a tangled nest of kelp and ocean debris, missing its lower jaw, but some upper teeth still intact. Dental records and tests later concluded

that the remains belonged to Elena Emery. As reported in the Berkshire Eagle, Elena's younger brother Dominic DiRocco told the Associated Press that Adam and Elena, quote, were in love. They were successful in business. They had so many plans. They felt their lives ended when he was convicted, end quote. In that same report, Lieutenant Kevin Hopkins, the first officer to respond to the scene of Jason's murder, said that they considered Adam Emery to be a fugitive from justice. They may have found Elena's remains, but the Rhode Island State Police vowed to follow up on any leads as to Adam's whereabouts. But Adam Emery's family thought the search was futile. They were frustrated with authorities and didn't mince words

when it came to their views of the continued search for Adam. They felt the state police were making fools of themselves, searching for a man who was obviously, in their minds, dead and gone. April Shaw, a Coast Guard petty officer who has worked a number of search and rescue cases in Narragansett Bay, told Newport this week, quote, We haven't had a case while I've been on duty where someone has jumped and gone missing for a period of time and never been found. In my personal experience, they are usually found either immediately or within a few days, end quote. Unofficial theories regarding Adam's whereabouts or even his likely or unlikely survival from the 215-foot jump are plentiful.

However, Petty Officer Shaw believes that while it's possible, it is doubtful Adam could simply walk away from such an impact. You are probably going to have broken legs, arms, or cracked ribs, she said. It would be very difficult for someone to then swim to shore. After the discovery of Elena's remains, the search for Adam continued for several days. According to reporting by the North Adams transcript, the Emery's family hired an expert dive team to assist in the search, wanting to recover whatever else they could of their family members. But the search was unsuccessful. With no sightings of Adam or clues to his whereabouts over a decade after he disappeared,

Adam Emery was officially declared dead in 2004. A shared headstone in St. Anne's Cemetery in Cranston, Rhode Island reads, Together sharing God's eternal love, with the names of Adam and Elena etched below. Both Adam and Elena's deaths are recorded as November 10th, 1993. Although Adam Emery was declared dead in 2004, the FBI investigation into his whereabouts is still ongoing. In fact, Adam Emery was added to the FBI's most wanted list in 2010, six years after he was declared dead. On January 2nd, 2017, the FBI tweeted a poster that detailed Adam's physical description and his crimes, which in addition

to second-degree murder, includes unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. The poster also warns that Adam Emery should be considered armed and dangerous. Details released by the FBI say that Adam could be in Florida or perhaps Italy. As reported in a 1994 piece in the Bennington Banner, Adam had studied Italian for eight months while in jail before his release on bail. As recently as 2020, Kristen Cetera, a spokesperson for the Bureau, told NBC10 News, quote, no matter how long it takes, the FBI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners in following every lead until we can locate fugitive Adam Emery or his remains

and provide his victim's family with some much-needed closure. End quote. The niece of Jason Bass, Melissa Seal Cruz, was only 10 years old when her uncle was killed. Melissa told Samantha Sugarman of WPRI that finding Adam would not only bring the family some peace of mind, it would simply bring some peace, period, she said. Jason's older brother, Raymond Bass, believes the FBI tweet was a good sign, proof that they believe, as he does, that Adam Emery could still be alive.

Raymond told Bob Ward of Boston 25 News, If I had the money and the resources to go look for this guy and bring him to justice, I would do it myself because of what my family is going through, end quote. Lieutenant Kevin Hopkins shared with NBC10 News that leg bones had been discovered from the bay following the discovery of Elena's skull in 1994. But those bones were eventually determined not to be Adam's. No sign of Adam Emery has ever been recovered from the waters of Narragansett Bay. Only theories are left behind. Jason's cousin Joshua was a passenger in Jason's car the night he was killed. Joshua told Newport this week that he believes Adam killed Elena before fleeing on his own.

Quote, The story of Jason Bass, and of Adam and Elena, reached Elena's native Italy. The Bennington Banner reported in 1994 that the small farming village of Fornelli, where Elena's parents were from, debated their own conspiracies. Rumors circulated that the mother and father of Elena contacted Italian authorities, believing they'd be better understood. However, police chief Francisco Grimaldi Infernelli changed his story on this a few times. Whether they did or didn't call for help in Italy, and when that call might have come, isn't a known fact. Chief Grimaldi did say, however, that if Adam was trying to hide out

in his late wife's small Italian village, quote, we would know that, end quote. Rhode Island State Police Colonel Stephen O'Donnell admits that he finds this case to be intriguing, but that closure is needed and deserved in this case. O'Donnell told WPRI reporter Steve Nielsen in 2019 that once Adam is found dead or alive, quote, then the family can close that door a little bit, end quote. In 2018, the Pawtucket Police Cold Case Unit partnered with the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and other statewide law enforcement agencies to create a deck of cold case playing cards.

The cards, 52 in all, feature missing persons and victims of unsolved homicides. The cards are sold to inmates through the commissary and state facilities, hoping they spark conversation and, more importantly, leads. On the Joker card, the cold case unit reminds the public that the victims identified in the deck are someone's mother, father, sister, brother, wife, husband, child, or other loved one. Though you might expect to see only the names and photos of homicide victims and missing persons on these cards, the nine of clubs bears the name of a perpetrator, a fugitive, and still missing yet legally dead convicted murderer. That's the card for Adam Emery. The family and friends of Jason Bass hold on to the memories they have of their son,

brother, uncle, cousin, and friend. Jason's niece, Cynthia Bass, told WPRI's Steve Nielsen about the time Jason met a man experiencing homelessness, who had come into the restaurant where Jason was working. The man wasn't wearing any shoes. Cynthia recalled how Jason finished his shift, then removed his own shoes from his own feet and gave them to the man, Jason's cousin Joshua told Newport this week, He was a great kid and had a lot going for him. I just miss him. Bringing justice to the Bass family means finding Adam. And finding Adam will bring closure to all the families affected by this tragedy. Adam Emery would be 59 years old today.

According to the FBI's Most Wanted poster issued in January of 2017, Adam Emery is 6 feet 1 inches tall, 175 pounds, and has brown hair. He has no known scars or other markings on his body. He may be traveling through Florida or Italy, and is to be considered Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. This episode was co-written by Dark Down East listener and supporter Dina Norman. Dina, thank you for sharing the story of Jason Bass with us and honoring his legacy through your writing. Sources for this case and others are listed at darkdowneast.com. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones,

and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and murder cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.