Going West: True Crime - Margaret Kilcoyne // 373

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qlw8O9kJQMw96nq_dM28ncVc8C2ajBTWGb8xjbU-oao/edit 1. The Kilcoyne Disappearance: https://garyholmes76.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/kilcoyne-story.pdf 2. Hartford Courant: https://www.newspapers.com/image/368562463/?terms=margaret%20kilcoyne&match=1 3. New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/06/nyregion/follow-up-on-the-news-missing-person.html 4. Nantucket Current: https://nantucketcurrent.com/people/nantucket-s-greatest-unsolved-mystery-the-disappearance-of-dr-margaret-kilcoyne 5. Charley Project: https://charleyproject.org/case/margaret-mary-kilcoyne 6. MyHeritage: https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-40000-442230870/margaret-m-kilcoyne-in-geni-world-family-tree 7. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/vm6zvj/dr_margaret_kilcoyne_vanished_from_her_home_in/ie13kdv/?context=3 8. The Boston Globe: https://www.newspapers.com/image/436957935/?clipping_id=110436776&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjQzNjk1NzkzNSwiaWF0IjoxNzA0MDg0NzY0LCJleHAiOjE3MDQxNzExNjR9.ZLGW2Hlxk7BRLcTmr_GeCPeiJssz_qw8CGWnBWlhN3c 9. Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199785767/leo-kilcoyne Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, hope you're having a great week to match the recent weather that we've been having here in the States because it has been freezing everywhere. Oh yeah, especially for all those football fans out there, the Bills game and my PC game, like negative, what was it, like negative seven degrees? Yeah, something so crazy. So we have a seaside winter case for you guys today that is completely puzzling and eerie.

It's like a mystery novel. So put on your sleuthin caps and let's just dive right into this one. All right guys, this is episode 373 of Going West. So let's get into it. This episode is brought to you by Starbucks. Welcome back winter with the Starbucks drink in hand. Whether you've been waiting for a pistachio latte and pistachio cream cold brew, or are in the mood to shake things up with the new iced hazelnut O'Shaegin espresso.

Need to cozy up with a tea latte? There should be nothing stopping you from achieving all your goals. You've got this. What's up, Canada? After five long years, the UFC is heading back up north for UFC 297 in Toronto. This is the first event back with Bud Light. As the official beer sponsor of the UFC, we put together a bad card and it is gonna be an electric night. On a frigid night in January of 1980, a 49-year-old physician disappeared from her nan-tucket vacation home following a significant medical research breakthrough.

With reports of strange behavior leading up to her vanishing, some pondered if it was relevant to what happened to her vanishing, some pondered if it was relevant to what happened to her. But with the evidence at hand proving odd, police described her case as being like an agatha Margaret Mary Killcoine was born on August 26, 1930 in Worcester, Massachusetts, which is about an hour west of Boston to her Irish immigrant parents Margaret and Patrick Killcoin. And she was the youngest of four children, joining three older brothers named Thomas, John, and Leo. Sadly, her oldest brother, Tom, suffered an accident in the pool while attending college

and drowned in 1946, so Margaret would have been about 16 at that time. So this was an awful, freak accident that the family had to suffer through. As a young woman, Margaret was described as stylish and vivacious, and as a gifted academic, she devoted her life to studying medicine. Her family remembers her loud, very bostressed nature, especially in social situations, and that she was opinionated and often stubborn, but also steadfast in her belief of doing right

by those around her. Margaret was a lifelong student with a voracious thirst for knowledge, so in 1951, she graduated from the Boston Children's Hospital School of Nursing and began working as a registered nurse immediately upon graduation. Margaret continued on to receive a bachelor's degree from Boston University and later received her doctorate from the University of Vermont. Graduating in 1964, she was actually the first woman to receive her doctoral degree from the University of Vermont, which is awesome.

Margaret was obviously passionate about health care, and she took a position as a medical researcher for Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. She authored dozens of articles about her research over the years, and was well-known and respected in her field. And because Margaret was so hyper focused on her passions and work, she actually never married or had children. And her family claimed that she had dated casually, but that she never had come close to settling down. And her work schedule just kept her very busy and fulfilled, so she didn't even have time for a pet, but she was reportedly very happy with her life this way.

And family also remember that she was usually the one to break off any romantic relationships. Margaret maintained a very close relationship with her older brother Leo, although he had relocated to Toronto, Canada to work as an executive with TechGiant IBM, and then her brother John and her mom Margaret still resided in Worcester. In early 1980, 49-year-old Margaret was employed as a researcher in the field of hypertension, or high blood pressure, specifically the cause of hypertension and adolescence. The year prior, she teamed up with noted neurologist Dr. Earl Zimmerman after receiving a research

grant from the National Institutes of Health to study angiotensin 2, which is a synthetic hormone that regulates blood pressure by constricting blood vessels, and triggering water and salt intake. In the early days of January 1980, Margaret and Dr. Zimmerman made what she called a significant breakthrough in their research, identifying the presence of Angiotensin II and Arat's brain. So for the rest of the month, Margaret's co-workers noted that she was making comments about maybe having secured the Nobel Prize for their efforts, comments which her colleagues found a bit odd. Though she was known for her flair for the dramatic, Margaret which her colleagues found a bit odd. Though she was known for her flair for the dramatic, Margaret's fellow researchers and even

Dr. Zimmerman himself later claimed that while their findings were impressive, it was quote, nothing close to Nobel-Calibur research. The long days and late nights in the lab, as well as the frigid January and Manhattan, were really weighing on Margaret, and in the third week of the month, as well as the frigid January and Manhattan, were really weighing on Margaret, and in the third week of the month, she just decided to escape to her vacation house on Nantucket. Having grown up in Massachusetts, Margaret long idolized the idyllic shores of Nantucket Island, as well as its affluence in privacy, especially in the off season when chilly weather and rough waves basically just kept the tourists away. Ten years prior, Margaret had purchased a plot of land in the Tom Nevers neighborhood, which is on Nantucket's southeast shores.

She facilitated the construction of a custom 1400 square foot ranch home worth about $100,000 or close to $400,000 today. Her peaceful island escape was the perfect complement to her hectic life in Manhattan working in the lab, so she visited often, and though she mostly kept to herself, Margaret enjoyed tending to her garden and working on her home. At the time, Nantucket only had about 6,000 year-round residents, although that number would swell to 30,000 or more in the summer. Which goes to show how much more quiet the winters were and still are.

In the winter, by contrast, it was quiet, cold, and secluded, which 49-year-old Margaret seemed to love. She called Nantucket her quote, refuge. I mean, that sounds like an absolute dream. So on January 21st, 1980, Margaret spoke to her brother, Leo, on the phone. And this was a conversation that struck fear into him. Because according to Leo, he spoke with a sister for about an hour and a half, with most of the conversation dominated by Margaret.

Leo recalled her quote, rambling and chattering about her cutting-edge research that she was in the position to win the Nobel Prize, and saying, quote, I'm in a position of nationwide power. She also used that she was concerned about office politics, edging her out of the accomplishment that she felt was rightfully hers. To curb this, she decided that she would be opening a lab location on her beloved nantucket island,

though none of her colleagues seemed to be aware of this idea. But most alarmingly, Margaret reflected on her deep connection to her faith, telling Leo that she felt she was being given a spiritual test. She also told Leo that she had been in communication with his deceased wife Julie, who had passed away eight years prior, and that she was concerned about the spiritual welfare of their children. Now, to Leo, Margaret's commentary felt very paranoid and even a bit neurotic, and he worried that she was on the precipice of some type of mental health crisis. Interestingly enough, Margaret granted a massive favor to the investigation before her disappearance by recording her side of this phone call for whatever reason, which is really weird to me that something we don't, and this isn't like a spoiler, but we don't have an answer to that, and I just wonder why she did that. Like, she's just talking to her brother.

That's what I'm saying. Yeah, you're having a seemingly regular conversation with your older brother, and there's no real reason to record this conversation, but for some reason, she did, and we'll probably never know why she did this. It's so weird, but basically this tape was later recovered from her nan-tucket home, which police would review and pick apart. Though Leo seemed convinced that Margaret was suffering a manic episode,

others who knew her well listened to it and claimed that she was simply a bit of a brush and opinionated woman, and that this exchange didn't seem wholly out of character for her. The Nann Tucket Chief of Police later reported, quote, they said it was a typical conversation with rapid fire talking where you couldn't get a word in.

Dr. Kilcoin's close friends and relatives found nothing unusual with her talking about being on a higher spiritual plane, or receiving messages from her dead sister-in-law. Still, Leo was concerned enough to travel from Toronto to Nan Tucket at the last minute to seek the help that he felt she needed. So kind of weird that her friends and family basically said that they weren't concerned with her saying that she had communicated with the dead or anything like that. So maybe this was just a normal thing for Margaret. Yeah, I mean it's one thing to say, oh yeah, she had this kind of spitfire attitude all the time and she always talked over people or talked too much or whatever.

But to then also say, yeah, no, that other part is also not weird. Maybe she just was that person which makes you wonder then if maybe this, what is looked at as this kind of erratic behavior wasn't really considered erratic when it's regarding Margaret, you know what I mean? Yeah, exactly, exactly. She might have just been like kind of a eccentric woman. Exactly, and that's exactly how people described her. Right, so admittedly burned out and exhausted,

49 year old Margaret headed out of Manhattan on the morning of Wednesday, January 23, 1980. But before she did, she stopped in to see her research partner, Dr. Zimmerman. And again, mentioned that she believed she had secured the Nobel Prize. Later that day, Margaret started driving to high-annice, to head over to the island, but wound

up getting lost, which was obviously very strange because she had likely taken that same route many times in the 10 years that she owned that vacation home. So that afternoon, Margaret wound up lost and disoriented just 40 minutes outside of the city. Andrea Prince of Pay, a 26-year-old woman who worked as an executive at Avawn in Rye, New York, described Margaret as a middle-aged woman in a bewildered state. She allegedly said to Andrea, quote, I'm a nervous wreck.

I've been driving back and forth trying to find a hotel. Can you help me? Yeah, so Margaret is out there lost and she comes across this woman who is going to help her. Yeah, exactly. So, Andrea blides and offered to let Margaret follow her in her car to a nearby Marriott. When they arrived, Margaret was so thankful that she offered to take Andrea out to dinner at the hotel's restaurant.

Like Leo, Andrea recalled that Margaret quote dominated the conversation, excitedly chattering about her research findings, her breakthrough, and her impending fame and notoriety. Andrea told Margaret that her sister was interested in the field of medical research, and Margaret offered her a job at the new laboratory that she was supposedly opening on the Antucket Island. Again, a lab that nobody knew was coming into fruition at all. Right, and she had just met this girl Andrea, and she's like, Hey, your sister can have a job at my new lab.

But not only that, she also offered their server a job at the lab, even going so far as to take down her information on a piece of paper, which Leo later found among her personal effects. So at this hotel restaurant, Margaret purchased an expensive bottle of wine worth nearly $300 by today's standards. She took a few sips of it and offered it to their server to take home. She also told Andrea that she maintained a third residence in Boston, along with a third car, which came as news to Margaret's friends and family.

And oddly, this was never found to be true. So it's a little weird. She's talking about this house and car that she doesn't seem to actually have. She's talking about these accomplishments that haven't happened yet as if they've already happened. And she's offering people jobs at a lab that doesn't exist that nobody knows about. So this is a very weird conversation. It is.

By the time they finished their meal, it was around 1 o'clock in the morning. And not having secured a hotel room when they arrived, the hotel at that point was just full. So Andrea offered to let Margaret stay in her apartment and Stanford, Connecticut, which is just about 15 minutes up the coast from Rye. The two went to bed at 1.30 in the morning, Margaret sleeping on the couch in Andrea's living room. But when Andrea woke up 4 hours later, she found that Margaret was gone.

But an hour after that, around 6.30am, Margaret phoned Andrea from a pay phone on her way to Hyannis, telling her that she only needed an hour or two of sleep a night, and that she had left the apartment after sleeping for just an hour on the couch. Which I wonder if that's true because that feels completely impossible, but I mean, that sounds awesome. Well, as we know, she's kind of in this like manic state at this point. So yeah, maybe she really just is not sleeping at all. Well, in a shocking twist to the investigation, Andrea was actually the daughter of a Boston FBI agent. So soon after this, when she saw Margaret's missing persons report on the news and recognized her new friend, she alerted her father, who is already aware

of Margaret's disappearance. At the time they maintained Andrew's anonymity to avoid unnecessary implication in Margaret's case, with one report detailing quote, the FBI agent's daughter, like all the others, had found Killcoin happy, excited, very much alive, and not at all depressed. Still, she did exhibit a pattern of seemingly manic behavior, the sleeplessness, the purchase of expensive wine, the continual chatter, all were uncharacteristic. Even of the flamboyant Margaret Kilcoin.

But let's go back a second, so on Thursday, January 24, 1980, after finishing her drive, Margaret took the brief flight from Hiannes to Nan Tucket. That afternoon, as she was settling back into her house, she was visited by a friend on the island named Donald Smith. Noticing that she was home, he stopped in to see her, and they chatted for about three hours, with Don also noting, Margaret's non-stop chatter and manic state. And he said that during their conversation there were shades of religious epiphany. Margaret stated that she was going to start putting God first and that she was even prepared

to, quote, jump off the Empire State building for God. Don remembered, quote, she was very joyful, very excited, but I found it difficult to follow her train of thought. When he returned home, he told his wife that he was concerned about Margaret, and that she was, quote, in a difficult mental state. Don even claimed that if Margaret hadn't mentioned that her brother was coming to the island to see her, he was prepared to seek psychiatric care for her on her behalf. He agreed with Andrea's assessment that Margaret did not sound depressed, but that he found her manic state concerning.

The next morning, which was Friday, January 25, Margaret headed to the local A&P grocery store to stock up the house. But she wasn't just shopping for herself. Because according to Margaret, she was throwing a party for the press release about her research breakthrough, and to announce the launch of the lab that she was supposedly opening on NAN Tucket. She told the employees of the grocery store that she was prepping her own house in addition to two others on the island, with everything her multiple guests would need. And this included more food than she had room to store, even though she said that the party wasn't taking place until the first week of February, which was over a week away.

She also bought dozens of toiletries for her guests, purchasing everything in multiples of three. However, these plans, the press release, the party, and the launch of the new lab didn't seem to exist anywhere else but inside Margaret's head. And the only guest known to be coming was her brother Leo. She spent nearly $700 or $2,700 today on the groceries alone, in addition to $250 or close to $1,000 today on alcohol. Margaret filled two cabs with the groceries before making her way back to her home in

Tom Nevers, and then later that day Leo arrived on the island and headed to a sister's house where he'd be staying for his trip. So that evening, they entertained two friends of Margaret, a married couple named Grace and Richard Coffin. Now by Leo's account, he had to beg Margaret to be quiet, or no one else would have been able to speak. He also claimed that she was quote, floating in and out of reality. Grace and Richard left Margaret's house around 10.30 pm, and Margaret and Leo retired to bed.

And Margaret had hoped to go to church the following morning, planning to attend the 7.30 am mass at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, so she asked Leo to wake her up at 6 a.m. to get ready. The next morning, Saturday, January 26, 1980, Leo heard Margaret's alarm go off in the next room and just decided to let her sleep in another hour. Then around 7am, Leo entered Margaret's room to get her up for mass, but he found it empty. Her pajamas were still lying on her bed, her shoes next to them on the floor, and her

only winter coat hung in the closet. She had not been wearing her winter boots, and it also left her watch and purse behind. Leo was immediately alarmed, as the temperatures hadn't risen above freezing all week, so it was really really cold out there. The car and bike that she kept in the garage were still there, so it was really really cold out there. The car and bike that she kept in the garage were still there, so it was clear that she had either left on foot or that someone had picked her up. But who? Leo quickly called around to some of her friends on the island, asking if they had taken her to mass instead, and when no one had heard from her, he immediately suspected the worst.

no one had heard from her, he immediately suspected the worst. Thus, he called the nantucket police to report his sister missing, telling them, quote, I think my sister committed suicide. I feel motivated. I feel capable. I feel included. Resilient. At ease. I feel strong. I feel confident. These are just a few of the things you'll hear our members say when you join the YMCA. The Y is not like other gyms and not all benefits of being a member are visible, but you'll surely feel them. Try the Y-Free for seven days, and feel how the Y is way more than just a gym. Learn more at trytheY.ca Oh, the painter's very good. In the guest wing, I want a nice top-lay,

Caravaggio style. Not like the ones you see in a pizza ryer. Is that clear? Jimmy, write it down. Trump, wild caravaggio. In not like the ones you see in a pizza ria. Is that clear? Jimmy, write it down, Trump, wild caravaggio. In the other rooms, I want Liberty trimmings of Pale Yellow, but not this gold-late and eugant steel. I want floral liberty. All right, bye. Got that, Jimmy?

Floral liberty, no gold. What do you think, boss? Mm-hmm. Probably two cans. That's it. To cover all this. I didn't mean cans of paint. I mean, Red Bull, you'll I didn't mean cans of paint. I mean red bull.

You'll see. It'll give us wings. on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals, be careful along our tracks, and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Is it secure? Are you sure? Are you sure you're sure? Get answers you can trust from Salesforce at AskMoreVi.com. So Leo called the police to report her missing at 7.15am. So Leo called the police to report her missing at 7.15am. Within the hour, her residence was swarmed with police cars and a search of the island was underway. And also I just wanna say, so if, if, what Leo is saying is true,

that she, or that her alarm went off at 6am and he decided to let her sleep, so he didn't go in and wake her up, like did he not think that the alarm woke her up and obviously he didn't go in there to turn off the alarm so then she would have had to have been in bed or in her room to turn it off because it was turned off, of course. So based on that, it would lead us to believe that she had been home at 6am and then something happened to her after that between 6 and 7 a.m. when

Leo woke up. Well, depending on what kind of alarm clock this was, you know, it's possible that it wasn't one that would, you know, continually go off every 15 minutes or something, who knows. But we also know that she was only sleeping about an hour or two a night. So is it possible that she had left earlier? Maybe, yeah. But then I would just wonder how that alarm clock got turned off. I mean, I don't know, I don't know what kind of alarm clock it was, but it was 1980, so I don't think it would have just turned off by itself, you know, but I just thought that was an interesting

detail to note. So, frustratingly, as soon as Margaret was reported missing, the case had already received its first setback. The NAN Tucket Police Department was receiving a new police chief on the very day that Margaret disappeared. So by the time he arrived via ferry that day around 1pm, dozens of police officers, firemen, and volunteers were speedily searching the island for Margaret. Hungry to prove himself, Chief Paul Hunter responded to Margaret's home and swore to take the disappearance seriously, especially as it was his first case in this position.

But regardless of his desire for answers, he didn't necessarily have the history, the trust, or rapport with the other officers, or the residents, which really would have served as a boon to the case. A massive search of the island ensued regardless, with multiple helicopters and boats led by the Coast Guard scouring the waters, wondering if she had entered the ocean. Now Margaret was known to love long walks around the island and on nearby Tom Nevers Beach, so they thought maybe she had woken up after her hour or two of sleep and wanted to get out of the house before going to church.

But with the temperature plummeting well below freezing that night, her going on this walk just seemed really unlikely because she just would have been so cold out there, especially if she did enter the water. on this walk just seemed really unlikely because she just would have been so cold out there, especially if she did enter the water. In fact, it was so cold that a small charter plane assisting with the search crashed into the brush on the island after its carburetor froze due to the extremely bitter temperatures, but detectives continued to comb the island, including entering unoccupied summer homes, to see if Margaret had entered one of them seeking shelter or worse, was

being held there against her will. Police Chief Paul Hunter was instantly suspicious that she had been shuttled off the island, and checked the flight and ferry logs of every departing plane in boat that night and morning, as well as asking the airport staff if they had seen anyone who matched her description. Police also dropped into Nantucket Cottage Hospital to verify that she hadn't admitted herself or suffered an accident, and they had no record of her arrival. 45 searchers walked the 48 square mile or 77 square kilometer island, hopeful for any

indication as to where Margaret had disappeared. And despite the cold, Paul Hunter even sent divers into nearby Tom Nevers pond, which is a small body of water near Margaret's home, so law enforcement was doing everything they could to find her without letting the weather stop them. However, within 24 hours of Margaret's disappearance, many of those involved with the search had reached the conclusion that she had gone missing of her own volition, likely in a state of mania and confusion and had died by accident somewhere somehow.

But due to the lack of a body washing ashore or any evidence left behind at all, most supporters of this theory, including Leo, believed that she had entered the ocean and had been swept away, drowning or succumbing to the temperatures or both. Though Paul Hunter seemed to entertain the possibility of foul play, his colleagues felt that this was unlikely, as there had been no sign of a break-in or a struggle, and then of course, there was her behavior. On Monday, January 28, 1980, two days after Margaret was reported missing by her brother, the search for her was called off.

But less than a week later, a handful of tourists stumbled across the only credible clue to ever turn up in the case of Margaret's disappearance. On the morning of February 3rd, four visitors were walking their dogs in a swampy area of rugged brush near her home, and beneath one of the large shrubs in the vicinity, they recovered Margaret's wallet, checkbook, which was covered in a plastic case, passport, and a pair of her sandals. And the sandals are an interesting piece of this considering how cold it was, this is not sandal weather. Yeah, and the other weird thing about this is that these items were neatly stacked on top of each other.

So this caused a division among the police officers and firefighters that were working her case, as volunteers had been dispatched to that very area, but had missed this discovery somehow. Paul Hunter hatched another theory. The items had been planted there days after Margaret's disappearance in order to mislead the investigators, but by who and why? Well, and it's interesting that they were found under a shrub stacked neatly, like why would she hide

her own items there so close to her house? Yeah, that doesn't make any sense to me. It definitely feels like they were possibly planted there, but who knows? And then why? Like, why would somebody plant them there at all? It's just really strange. Well, that wasn't all, because as the area was canvassed once again, investigators also recovered a brown blouse, which had been turned inside out and rolled up under another shrub. So police brought it to the friends that Margaret dined with on the night of her disappearance, which were grace and richer. Asking them if it looked like it was familiar, but they didn't recall her wearing that particular blouse, and it also appeared to be too big for her. Desperate for any leads, police chief Paul Hunter expanded their search and conducted

a probe of Margaret's apartment in Manhattan. He also questioned her co-workers at Columbia Presbyterian and was taken aback when their response to her disappearance seemed a bit cagey. The hospital administration released a statement that simply called Margaret a respected researcher who wrote that her circumstances were, quote, a great tragedy. Margaret's research partner again, Dr. Earl Zimmerman, maintained what he told her before her disappearance, that they were making significant strides in their research, but that it was not ready to be addressed or announced publicly and not nearly up to Nobel Prize caliber

standards. However, while Columbia Presbyterian may have been trying to avoid sensation, their handling of Margaret's disappearance only sparked rumors of a cover-up. Paul Hunter remembers, quote, this is what made it into an agatha-christine novel. The press was pushing for a statement, but Columbia was playing real cloak and dagger. To this day, I don't know why they didn't just come out and say, yeah, it was an important discovery, or it wasn't an important discovery.

But the evidence to support this theory remains weak at best. As the dreary northeastern winter wore on a nan-tucket, a few tips and possible sightings of Margaret trickled in. A landlord from Quincy, Massachusetts called the nannt-tucket police to report that a new tenant of hers resembled Margaret and had a tendency to seclude herself in her apartment for days at a time. This woman was so certain that her tenant was Margaret

that police asked Margaret's brother, John, to drive in from Worcester to meet her and verify this sighting, but the woman did not turn out to be Margaret. And that's what's so tough about witness sightings. They are so often not credible, but they can come in and really muddy the waters and make people and police believe that this person is alive and living out there in secrecy when much of the time it's completely false. Well another handful of sightings poured in from Maine claiming that a woman was hitchhiking

on the side of an interstate and that they closely resembled Margaret, who didn't have a terribly unique appearance by the way, but police were not able to confirm or deny this sighting. In a brazen act of pursuing the truth at any cost, police chief Hunter exhausted his expendable travel funds, and even pleaded for and received a grant for extra money so that he and his detectives could continue to travel and track down leads in other states.

This, along with his dogs disbelief in a theory that Margaret may have disappeared accidentally, but of her own volition, was the first of many missteps that would garner criticism against the newly appointed chief. Chief Hunter's second-in-command, who was George Resendez, came to the conclusion and even announced publicly that he believed Margaret's death to be an accident, born of a break from reality. But Chief Hunter was steadfast in his beliefs.

He maintained the theory that someone in Margaret's family, perhaps even Leo himself, who was Margaret's de facto family spokesman, had her quietly shuttled off the island in order to prevent her from causing a fuss or a scene. Hunter believed that she was alive in seeking treatment in an inpatient facility somewhere on the eastern seaboard. Paul called dozens of psychiatric hospitals in Massachusetts and also surrounding states, inquiring about any sign of Margaret but none came. Now as the ground began to soften and winter gave way to spring, Paul doubled down his efforts

to search the vicinity of Margaret's home for her, especially focusing on the swamp where her belongings were found. On March 12, 1980, a pond near Margaret's home was drained, and cadaver dogs were marched through her house. And although they found no trace of Margaret, there are reports that the dogs indicated to a wall in Margaret's bedroom. Later, the wall, as well as the floor of her bathroom, her bathtub and the sinks, lit up when sprayed with lumenol. Much of the information from Margaret's original case file was lost in the years following her disappearance, so these findings are still controversial.

But if we're to believe that the reaction to Luminol was actually caused by an interaction with blood, this is the one indication in Margaret's case that points towards a cause of foul play. This also shifted potential blame toward Leo, who was the only one in the home with her at the time that she would have been murdered. And it is just wild that this big of a discovery was potentially made, and we cannot confirm this because they somehow, very irresponsibly, lost the original files. Like that is beyond negligent and just disappointing.

But this marked the very beginning of the friction between Leo and the investigators and in particular, Paul Hunter, who had taken on the role of relentlessly pursuing answers in Margaret's case. Leo obtained a lawyer who told the police that Leo maintained the belief that Margaret died on the night she disappeared. Leo felt that dragging out the investigation was harmful to the loved one she left behind, an exploitative on behalf of everyone on the island.

Just a few months later in June of 1980, Leo petitioned for control of Margaret's estate, knowing that she was delinquent on many of her financial commitments. And to the dismay of her family and friends as well as the team of investigators, especially Paul Hunter, months passed without any developments in her case, leaving everyone confused about what could have possibly happened to her. By the following summer in 1981, Leo had commuted all of his financial obligations, including purchasing her nantucket home, without using the money from her estate. Now, onlookers saw his desire to take over the finances in her home as a motive for him

to kill her, but Leo was Margaret's next of kin so the burden fell on him anyway. In January of 1989, nine years after his sister vanished into the icy winter night, Leo filed a motion to have Margaret declared officially deceased, and the court granted his petition, as there was still no solid developments in her case. And when this was granted, Leo received a payout of about $200,000, which today would have been around $770,000. Though her case file was reportedly and disappointingly partially lost, the Nantucket Police Department still considers Margaret's case open and unsolved. For years, Police Chief Paul Hunter maintained, quote, I think she's alive.

I felt that way all along. In an interview two years after her disappearance, Paul used quote, I said last year that if she was in the woods, the dogs would find her during the hunting season. appearance Paul Mused quote, There hasn't even been a sighting. There's not been one day in the last two years that I've not thought about it, but I try to keep an open mind. He described one of many flights that he took scouring the coastline for any sign of Margaret saying, quote, as we came in low over the beach, I found myself looking up and down the sands for signs of her, for something that might have washed up or for a grave. She's constantly

on my mind. Margaret's cause of death being accidental and brought on by a mental health crisis seems to kind of be the most logical conclusion, despite not having any real evidence pointing to this, as she just seemed to vanish into thin air. However, there are plenty of theories that cast out on that. Many islanders, including those in law enforcement, suspected Leo, based on how quickly he was willing to accept that his sister had taken her own life, like he told this to police when he reported her missing. As he that told us, I think my sister

committed suicide. That is what he said when he called police. Even though there was obviously no indication that that happened. He also left the island shortly after Margaret's disappearance, though he did have a son that he needed to return to, and later refused to return for more questioning. There was somewhat of a financial incentive at play, although as we said, he purchased her house outright, paying market value for it, and also had to wait nine years to receive the payout from her estate.

And I do wonder why he bought her house. I don't know if he just wanted to keep it in the family, but to buy it at market price after she disappeared, it's like I know a lot of people thought that he did that to conceal any evidence that could be found later on by somebody else, but I don't know, maybe he just wanted to keep it. There could be, there could be multiple reasons for this.

I mean, it's a vacation home on Nantucket Island. I mean, that's pretty desirable. It is desirable. Well, another possibility is that Leo and Margaret maybe became embroiled in an argument when Leo demanded that Margaret seek psychiatric help after Grace and Richard left her house on the evening she disappeared. Again, we keep saying evening, but I still just wonder about that alarm clock. Police Captain George Resendez even admitted, quote,

"'For years, I kept an eye on the town report in Worcester, where one of killcoins' brothers lived to see if her death certificate would ever show up. That would prove her brother scooped her up and put her in an institute. I did that for 10 years or so, but nothing ever showed up. Paul's initial theory that Margaret was forcibly removed and brought to a mental health care facility seems kind of unlikely as detectives were never able to find any record of Margaret receiving treatment at a mental health facility nor was there any record of her leaving the island.

However, Paul Hunter did discover months after Margaret vanished that there were a handful of departing private flights that evening, as well as the two evenings following her disappearance, that were virtually undocumented and whose passengers were not accounted for. Though the behavior of her employer in the aftermath of her disappearance was admittedly kind of strange, that may have been more for legality's sake than for avoiding any admission of guilt. If Margaret's research and findings were to blame for her disappearance, why had her partner Dr. Earl Zimmerman been able to present their research at a conference that summer without

Margaret? Sadly, though it was her life's work and her passion project, the research continued on without her. When Dr. Zimmerman himself was asked what he believed happened to his former partner, he claimed that he thought that she was exhibiting signs of dementia, and that the mania that she was experiencing could actually be early onset symptoms of dementia instead of a manic episode. Margaret's official date of death is now July 13, 1989, but we will likely never

know what brought her that fate. Sadly, Margaret's beloved brother Leo was killed in a car accident in June of 1992, which means that three of the four killcoin siblings died fairly young, and then her final surviving brother John died in 2013. Margaret was 49 years old at the time of her disappearance, a fact that has been widely disputed as she is often reported as already having turned 50, but she wouldn't have turned 50 until August of the year that she disappeared. At the time of her disappearance, she stood at 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed about 140 pounds.

Her hair was shoulder length, obber and colored, and cut in a layered, shaggy hairstyle. She had blue eyes and wore horn-rimmed glasses. It was possible that she was wearing a yellow sweater at the time of her disappearance. If you have any information about the disappearance of Margaret Killcoin, please call the Nantucket Police at 508-228-1211. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I'm so sorry about my heavy winter congestion during this story, but thank you for making

it through. This story is so bizarre, I just hate that there are no answers whatsoever because it's really hard to speculate, but it's just really a suspicious situation to me. Yeah, it definitely is. It sucks that they lost those original case files because that could have proved so much in this case, but- Oh my god yeah. You know, just very, very unfortunate. And also, sorry, if you could hear our dog, Dewey snoring in the case, but, oh my god yeah. You know, just very, very unfortunate. And also, sorry, if you could hear our dog, Dewey snoring in the background, he just likes to hang out with us and lay in the studio

with us, but he does snore very loud. So if you heard that, if you hear like a weird noise, that's probably him snoring. Well, thank you guys for tuning in. Make sure to check out the photos associated with this case and every other case we cover on our social accounts. And also comment your thoughts on this case and every other case we cover on our social accounts and also comment your thoughts on this case and where your heads are at with this

mystery. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

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