The Misery Machine - The Disappearance of Ludger Belanger | Missing in Washington Maine

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

This week, Yergy and Drewby delve deep into the mysterious disappearance of Ludger Belanger, which has gone unsolved for the last 45 years. Belanger lived in Washington, Maine with his wife Linda at the time of his disappearance. He worked as a heavy equipment mechanic at Bridge Construction in Windsor, working on diesel engines, but at the time of his disappearance was between jobs, and Linda had a job as a waitress at Ho Ho Chinese Restaurant on Western Avenue in Augusta. They had three daughters - Michelle, Traci, and Angel,  whom was only four months old. At 9:00 a.m. on November 25, 1975, after a morning of hunting with Linda and his brother (and possibly his father according to Open Season), Ludger was dropped off half a mile from their home on Route 105 so he could go deer hunting.  Belanger had a good home life and marriage at the time of his disappearance, and isn't believed to have left of his own accord. Linda thinks he was murdered. Police had allegedly two suspects: David Svenningsen (Suspect A) and Danny Collins Jr. (Suspect B). The latter being the only one alive and still living in Maine. This year on November 5th would have been Ludger’s 70th birthday. As of the date of this release, Ludger will have been missing for 45 years.   “Open Season: True Stories of the Maine Warden Service,” by author Daren Worcester dedicates an entire chapter to Ludger's case for anyone interested in further reading. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Maine State Police at [phone] or [phone]. You can also reach out to Ludger’s family via their FB page “Justice for Ludger Belanger.” A very special thank you to Dani for the invaluable information she generously shared with two complete strangers that went out on a limb to reach out! Thank you to Daren for helping us with our questions regarding Open Season: True Stories of the Maine Warden Service , and the vast amount of information he covered. And of course, to Levi for supporting our show as our highest tier patron! Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #podcast #themiserymachine #truecrime  Source Materials: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B01NATIZJP&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_QAbZFbX0KGERS https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=justice%20for%20ludger%20belanger https://lcnme.com/currentnews/mvhs-graduates-1975-disappearance-remains-unsolved/ http://charleyproject.org/case/ludger-r-belanger https://www.pressherald.com/2015/11/21/hunters-disappearance-decades-ago-haunts-family https://www.facebook.com/Justice-For-Ludger-Belanger-387173201682994 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111144212/david-brackenridge-svenningsen https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3A0D0YpXggY1oJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fknox.villagesoup.com%2Fmobile%2Fp%2Ffamily-of-washington-man-seeks-justice-43-years-after-his-apparent-murder%2F1791792%20&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&fbclid=IwAR1F9n3cl1cbdYAvUmBJZrD408z0VIruXR3f-evgoolcxRqHoIDlI4m6p64 https://newspaperarchive.com/kennebec-journal-jul-31-1976-p-1/ https://youtu.be/O4Gyt-cS28U    

Hi, we're the Misery Machine. I'm Yergy. And I'm Drewby. And we're at Sandhill Cemetery in Somerville, Maine. And this week we're doing another important missing person's case from the state of Maine. And that's the Ludra Belanger case. Yes, this case has been unsolved since 1975. And the police have not been very helpful in getting any sort of resolution for the family. And we want to use our platform to do so. Yes, we definitely want to see Luger brought home. It's been since 1975. And the family are still working to this day on it. So if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and speak. subscribe. Yes, really appreciate all the help. Everyone has given us so far, but without further ado. The disappearance of Luger Belanger. Before we start, it's important to state that anything we are stating is information that's been relayed through the media, through other sources. We are not making any accusations on who we believe is responsible for the disappearance of Luger Belanger. These are just our opinions. We'll also be naming suspects that have all been named in separate sources in the media. We are simply relaying that information. We are not stating it as fact. This is still a case that is unsolved and being

worked on. Yes, and all source information will be listed clearly in our description and show notes for you to research. So with that legal disclaimer out of the way, on the morning of November 25th, 1975, just days before Thanksgiving, just like many Mainers, Luger Belanger went hunting in the woods near his home in Washington, not far from the town of Somerville, and the adjoining county of Lincoln. He had set out in the snow-covered woods off Route 105 for a last shot at an end of season deer. However, he never returned home. Born in 1950, Belanger grew up in Mechanic Falls, which is not far from where we record our podcast. Maybe like 30 minutes.

So toward the end of high school, he moved with his family to the small Knox County Town of Washington, where he graduated from Modomac Valley High School in 1970. He married his childhood sweetheart Linda in 1971, whom he met through his sister, also named Linda. Lutcher had found work as a heavy equipment mechanic at bridge construction in Windsor, working on diesel engines, but at the time of his disappearance was between jobs. By fall of 1975, he had become the father of three young girls. Washington is a rural town of about 1,532 inhabitants. It lies along State Route 17 in the northwestern corner of Knox County,

between the county seat in Rockland and the state capital in Augusta. Linda has described Luger as a great husband and a wonderful father. He was an avid outdoorsman. He loved to hunt and fish much like many Mainers do, and he was overall a very kind person, the type that would do anything for anyone. He was down to earth and not a big drinker at all. maybe just a bit here and there on the weekends.

She has said that on the morning of November 25, 1975, her husband had been hunting deer not far from their home in the woods off of Route 105 in Washington. Linda's sister, who was staying with them at the time, was at home watching the couple's three children, Michelle, Tracy, and Angel who was the baby at the time. There was fresh snow on the ground, which made for perfect hunting conditions.

Linda and Luger's brother, John, had dropped Luger off after they concluded their own. hunting at 9 a.m. So the book Open Season says that Luger's father also accompanied them on the hunt. I couldn't find that elsewhere, but that was there. I believe the book also is where we found that Linda's sister was watching the children when they went out of hunting. Yes, that is, that is accurate. That's where I found that information. When they last saw Luger, he had walked across a field carrying his 30-30 hunting rifle, which had been purchased out of Sears in Augusta. He was dressed in a red and black checkered hunting jacket, probably one of the most stereotypical.

ones you see in hunters. I think it's called buffalo plaid. Is it okay? Yeah. He was also wearing blue pants, an orange hat, and hunting boots. He also had on Long John, so he was more than prepared for the elements. So at or around 11 a.m., when Luger failed to return to bring Linda to work, she sensed something was definitely wrong. So Luger was supposed to drive her to work, as she didn't drive much in the winter, and there currently was fresh snow on the ground. There had been a storm the night before. The family had searched on snowmobiles and found tracks at the top of a hill, which is about where he came out when they dropped him off. So game wardens quickly came out and took over their search at around 3 p.m. Initially, according to open season, the two wardens that had shown up initially had thought that he

might have taken off and was on some sort of drinking bender, despite Linda's insistence that Luger was not that type of guy. They had really thought that maybe that they should sit in the driveway and wait for him to just show up at home because that's normally how things like this turned out. That's the assumption for most cases like this. But thanks to Linda's insistence, they decided to go further. Right. And the terrain in which he went hunting and in Washington, aside from the hill that they initially let him out on, it was basically flat. There's a pond, a stream woods. So it'd be difficult to just fall and get hurt out there with that kind of terrain. Right. So days later, when the search for Luger proved not to be fruitful, eventually the main state police came involved. I believe

they waited the 72 hours before getting involved. So one thing to note, Washington is about a 30-minute drive to Augusta where she was working. And even if you're not a seasoned person that deals with driving the snow, it's still quite treacherous to drive on those back roads. Especially from a rural area to Augusta. And not to mention, Luger didn't have any history of doing this. He drove her regularly. He wasn't late. He didn't lose his sense of time while he was hunting. So this was very out of the ordinary. Right. He was a good husband. Yeah. Like there's no reason he would have left her high and dry. Yeah. So Linda has said that she became extremely upset and was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Augusta on the night of November 25th. As a young mother of three, she was stricken with an

understandable sense of loss and the grief that comes when you don't have answers. Absolutely. completely understandable. A theory developed based on the evidence found at the scene that Belanger had been picked up by a passing vehicle on the side of the road after he had finished hunting. It is suspected that an altercation and subsequent abduction occurred after Luger was picked up. So the first two wardens to arrive on the scene were John Marsh and Richard Dick Hennessy and they too were the ones that give a lot of the information in open season. Yeah, I believe they were interviewed directly by the author, if my understanding is correct. Right. So while they searched the area for Luger, a helpful neighbor named Clifton Crummet, referred to as Clayton Crosby in open season, led them to a wooded ridge near a stream. So the game wardens soon discovered bootprints. They were, because the snow had gone over it, you know when you walk in the winter and it gets slushy and your footprints then freeze, and then you end up with these footprints that are now ice, but then there's snow over them.

That's what basically they were looking for, was a needle in the haystack type of situation here. They found the boot prints, and then following the trail of frozen tracks, they found evidence that a buck had been shot in field dressed by Luger. Apparently was a very big buck based on the gut pile. The deer had been dragged towards the south and ended up around Creamer Lott Road. After reaching that road, the wardens found evidence suggesting that Luger had been picked up by a passing vehicle. From their law enforcement officials determined that Luger had gone willingly, they were no longer looking at a lost hunter. Luger had a good home life and marriage at the time of his disappearance. He isn't believed to have left on his own accord.

So this happened just purely out of coincidence. So when Clifton went along to assist the game wardens, he announced that he had stepped on a piece of paper. So they came over and looked at it and it was a crumpled receipt for a garage in Union, Maine. And in open season, this is called Sully's garage. I am assuming this was not the actual name of the garage. The receipt led to a vehicle, which in turn led to two suspects. However, no arrests were made. Right. And during this time, they found a lot of other strange evidence. Yes, they did. At the scene. So they found cigarette butts, same brands. They found Budweiser cans. Yep. Or at least they were beer cans. They called them Budweiser cans in the chapter. They found that two people had pulled over to urinate and they could tell that one of the people who came in this vehicle had a cane. Yes. That was.

a really big clue as well. Yes. And also they noticed that Luger had set down his gun against a tree and that by judging by all the boot prints, Luger went into the backseat, had set his gun against a tree himself and then one of the men went to go retrieve it and that they couldn't get over the fact that Luger didn't take his own gun with him. Right. It was very, very strange. Yeah. So authorities have two suspects. In open season, this person was named as Wayne Franklin. The police have named him suspect A, but his name has also been released in the media. He is no longer among the living. His name is David Svenningsen. And one person I talked to pronounced it Swennington.

And this was according to the Knox Village Soup. This is public record. So it took us a bit to find the name David Sveningsen. It took a few steps to say the least. We didn't want to go into this naming people by false names like they did. And I understand why they did in the book. but we personally feel if we're reporting on a case, a missing person's case, a true crime case, we want all the accurate information there. And in most cases, like, say the Delphi murders, all those suspects' names are known. And it's not like these names weren't put out in the papers.

How I went about this is I knew that David had died in a fire, which will get in more detail about what went on with that a little bit later on in our story. And I know where he lived. He lived on Hosmer Pond Road in Camden, Maid. So I simply just did a Google search for Man Dies in the 70s in Camden, Maine in a fire. And I found not only his obituary, I found an article on Find a Grave that gave me a lot of information. I found the article in Knox Village Soup, which was then webcast. We have a link in the show notes if you want to look into it a little bit. But it gave a lot of information in finding his obituary in the Find a Grave,

We were able to find out his ex-wives name. So we found a woman named Sharon. This was his first wife. And we couldn't find any information regarding her. But his second wife, Susan Field, we found quite a bit of information. So while doing our research on her, we found that she remarried. Her married name was Susan Evans. And unfortunately, she passed away in 2016.

But in finding her obituary, we found that she later in life had a daughter named Danny. who we then found via Facebook, who was still living locally. And we took a chance. We emailed her to see if she had any information and she thankfully got back to us and was a source of so much information that we can share. Not specifically about Luger's case, but about David himself. So we can paint a better picture of who he was, what parts are actually fact and what went on with him probably contributed to the case.

Yeah. So let's start from the beginning. So David was born in 1945 in Boston. He has ties to New Hampshire as well, as well as South Carolina, but he spent most of his time in Maine. He enlisted in the Marines in 1965 and did three tours of duty in Vietnam. His release date was September of 1970. At this point, he was honorably discharged and considered fully medically disabled due to being hit in the head with shrapnel. and fracturing his skull.

After this, he became a guard at the Maine State Prison at the time that was in Thomaston, Maine. And his work history was a little shoddy. Yeah, I want to touch on some of the opening conversation that I had with Danny. And I have full permission to do this. We did talk quite a bit at length. She's very interested in the case. She did want me to note that in no way she related to David Spenningson, that is not a relative of hers. but she's totally okay with me sharing this information.

So, you know, I opened up our conversation, said who I was, what we were doing, and a little bit about the case. So what she basically said to me is it's not strange at all. I'm honestly not surprised to hear this. The name David Svenningsen has always, since I was a little girl, equated to something sinister. My mother was very religious and she used to refer to him as the devil. She had severe PTSD and depression because of him.

and although she found my dad and had me and tried to lead a normal life, it was a constant struggle for her. I can say from what I know, David Svenningson would have been capable of this crime. So we went into a little bit more conversation about how David died. So just to kind of touch a little bit on that, and we will have some articles that we found in Danny shared with us. Essentially, what had happened was, and there are a few different accounts of this. And this is mentioned in the book Open Season as well. Yes. There was an explosion at his home on Hosmer Pond Road to the point where he was blown out the door and onto the yard. So there's a couple of accounts. So some label this as an attempted insurance scam gone wrong. I don't personally believe this. In my opinion, I think he was trying to kill himself and kill his wife.

Right. So he had poured gasoline over multiple places in the house, allegedly. He had filled up a bathtub full of gasoline. And according to witnesses, they heard a gunshot before the explosion. My guess is he shot something and lit several things on fire. Susan was locked upstairs in the second floor and she escaped out an upper window. So here's what's not mentioned because this is basically covered in the paper. A bystander or a neighbor went over to check on him, covered him up in a sleeping bag, said it's okay. your wife's okay and another bystander who wasn't named comforted Susan. But what Susan told

Danny is that... I can read it. I can actually read this off. Yeah, read it. So my mom told me this story. She had run away from him once, but he found her in Florida and dragged her back. I believe she was planning on running again. He locked her inside their bedroom before he set fire to the house. She escaped from the second floor window. She told me that after the explosion, as he lay on the grass losing consciousness, he saw her walking away from the house and started screaming, no. She felt like he was expressing anger and seeing her alive. This man was so horrible to her that when he was in the hospital before he died, she prayed he wouldn't make it. So first of all, I have to say thank you to Danny for sharing this information.

Being so transparent with us. You have single-handedly provided us information that has not been recorded anywhere else. And I am very grateful for that. It also gives us more of a narrative and history of what happened here. Also, I just want to say and commend the fact that Susan, enduring all this, still was strong and was able to do the right thing. I can't imagine what it's like to be locked in a bedroom and trapped in a burning building and still being able to escape, to try to flee to Florida from somebody and not being able to get away. Danny mentioned that David had a lot of friends in the police force, according to her mother. And I'm assuming this came about from him being the military, him being a prison guard, but he had a lot of

connections with local police. And because of that, she couldn't go to the police and there wasn't really much she could do. I mean, added to the fact this was the 70s, domestic abuse cases weren't taken as seriously as they are now. Danny actually told me that someone in the police force told her that if you don't stop pissing him off, he's just going to kill you. I can't imagine being trapped in something like that where you have no resources, you have no help. And she was able to make it out and start a family and put it behind her. That is very commendable because there are countless numbers of women throughout history. Many of them will never be in the record books anywhere. They'll never be a written account of them. But they,

in these same situations lost their lives and are forgotten. Susan wasn't one of those people, and I'm really happy to hear that portion of it. So Danny was extra helpful and reached out to her aunt, who was Susan's older sister, to see if she knew anything about Luger's case, anything at all. She unfortunately didn't, but she had some very interesting information.

So this will also back up some of his violent and impulsive nature. she says that he got in a fight with her husband at the time over a pool game. So Susan's brother-in-law at the time. And David attacked him and literally bit his ear off. And this wasn't his first assault conviction from what I understand. He had multiple ones from my understanding. This is from my understanding. And at the time of his death, there was a pending, it wasn't a conviction, but he had a pending charge.

In Exeter. In Exeter, New Hampshire. that was dropped due to the fact that he was dead. This was clearly a violent person. Right. And this wasn't like some sort of, you know, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield. He literally got such a big piece of his ear bitten off.

They had to put it on ice and they couldn't reattach it. Yeah. We were shown the police report of that. Danny thankfully had in her records. I was able to track down someone that knew David. And there's not many left alive that did that knew him in that period of time. And he was gracious with his time. I spoke with him for a few minutes on the phone.

I'm going to leave his name out of it because of who he is and his standing in the community. But he told me that he had known David through racing cars, that David helped him as part of a pit crew. He said that while David wasn't a close friend, he wouldn't call him an acquaintance either. He said that he was hard to get to know, a very troubled man, but he found him to be a very kind man. He basically left it at that, said that he had lost contact with David around the time that he had passed away. So that's as much as I got out of that. Yes. And we, to give a little background, we got this person's name from Danny. She had a lot of different letters that this person had written to her mother and some of the family members had written back and forth with

Susan over the years. She was gracious enough to scan some of these letters for me. Some of them hard to read and she actually last night transcribed some for me. I really appreciate that. So there is one I can read. One of them I cannot read because it will give information as to who this person is, but I can share one with you that I found, you know, a bit haunting. From a different person, different from who I mentioned. Right. So Susan Deer, I was so afraid that we had lost you and then your very moving letter arrived. You were the finest thing that ever happened to David and the tragedy is that he did not find you sooner in life. Everyone has two sides to their nature. which to me represents good and evil. Evil is best portrayed by the seven deadly sins, and good is best portrayed by the example set before us by Christ's life. All of us swing back and forth. We think we are good, but then the evil side of our nature keeps popping up, and we seem to go almost out of control.

Your David lost control, and in doing so paid with his life. It's a lesson you and I, and everyone who ever knew him, must never forget. We ache because each and all know how truly fine he was. I can see him now. Great tall, handsome young man, smiling and always anxious to help. You are a great couple and I'll look forward to the birth of your child. It is bound to be very, very special. And that's where the letter leaves off.

It is important to know if this child was not Danny. It was a baby that Susan was going to be having with David and she did have a miscarriage. So one thing that Danny also shared with us, it looked like a medical record from David's stay. at the hospital in Texas. Part of it was cut off. The cut off part looked to be the treatment he was receiving for his burns. However, what I found interesting was his past medical history.

So, I will read it to you verbatim. Quote, the patient was a 100% disabled veteran due to the previously stated causes. He served in Vietnam in 1968, where he received a shrapnel wound. He smoked two packages of cigarettes per day and used a moderate amount of alcohol. Adult illnesses included infectious hepatitis in 1964 and multiple hospitalizations for depression. He was currently under outpatient psychiatric treatment. Operations included systopic examination and crushing of bladder stone, excision of shrapnel wound in 1969, and possible repair of depressed skull fracture.

Significant injuries included a skull fracture in 1968 and shrapnel wound in 1969. The patient stated he was allergic to high pack die and current medications included. Okay, now part of this is cut off. This is the part that really concerned me. Tegretol, 200 milligrams twice a day. 10 milligrams of Valium four times a day. Mycelene, 250 milligrams, three times a day. Tofranil at bedtime.

Tylenol for pain as needed. He also took Dalmane 30 milligrams. As a layperson and as a medical coder, I don't have a extensive background in pharmacy. However, I do deal with some of these things and I read some of these things in charts and right away something seemed to miss here. So I talked to a friend of the show, Dr. Nathan, who has given us insight into certain things. involving pharmacy as an inpatient pharmacist himself. You may have heard him on the Kanika Jenkins episode. I passed along this information to him, and I asked him what his criticisms would be. And now remember, this is professional opinion.

None of this is diagnosis. He is just simply stating what could be possible here, also noting that this was treatment that took place in the 70s. So Nathan's opinion that so much. much is wrong with this regimen. All of the drugs he is on interact with one another, increasing and decreasing their effectiveness. He has alcohol use disorder, so he shouldn't be using huge doses of benzodiazepines. I'll probably call them benzos here on out. And it's true, I believe he's on, at least off the top of my head, at least two benzos. And here they list

him having moderate alcohol use. I would classify it, me personally, In my opinion, I would have classified it as severe or heavy, and this is just given the fact of certain accounts of people showing up and finding him absolutely drunk. This is just my opinion. So because he has alcohol use disorder, he shouldn't be using big doses of benzos. The interactions with them are not good. So I'll return to what Nathan has told me. There is a potential risk, a huge potential risk for CNS depression, that central nervous system. Also, and I've seen this as well, if he had infectious hepatitis, quite often patients that have, this is from my, me, Drewby's experience with reading charts, if somebody has infectious hepatitis, even when treated, chances are it can become chronic.

So if we assume that that is still an active problem, Nathan says that somebody that has acute hepatitis secondary to an infectious source should not. be on Tylenol. And I continue with what he says. It is possible that the TBI, and I'll be clear, if I didn't make it clear earlier, he was combat wounded in Vietnam, trauma to the head, shrapnel wound, skull fracture. I think if this happened in this day and age, he would have been diagnosed with the TBI. I don't feel as if we were that far along then to really diagnose. that this is just my guess from the 70s that it had to be so severe for them to classify traumatic brain injury I'm not too familiar with the history of TBI or the advancement of TBI diagnosis or science involving that however what I can

tell you is that post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD is very new I don't believe it was added to the DSM until 1980 so because of that one I would assume that that David would have PTSD from this. And I also believe that he would not have been treated as it would not have been known. Not to mention, I didn't see any of it in his medical history. So keep that in mind as well. So I continue with what Nathan reads. The TBI from Vietnam could likely give someone a seizure disorder and primed a person for mental illness. So because of this, these medicines are likely to have inadequately treated him for major depression and he probably had underlying PTSD. It is possible that somebody with this medical history and this regimen was encephalopathic

due to hyperamemia that is elevated ammonia in the blood, which is secondary to likely liver disease, which would have been exacerbated due to heavy alcohol use and medication-induced liver injury. Remember, we're just talking about possibilities. We're not talking about definitive. There's a lot of moving parts here. So if I may summarize with some opinions, traumatic brain injury can result in a seizure disorder and personality changes. I think we're all aware of that. Alcohol use disorder in the setting of liver disease can worsen liver disease and cause encephalopathy. The medications that he was on suggest a seizure disorder, though it was not recorded, or it can suggest anxiety and depression.

Only depression I saw listed on the medical history. He was hospitalized numerous times for that. So tegratol is an anticonvulsant, which is metabolized in the liver. It also induces CYP 3A4. That is an enzyme responsible for metabolizing most medications. Mycelene is a barbiturate. Its side effects increase in liver disease. Barbituates also cause respiratory depression.

Valium, also a benzo. Benzos cause respiratory depression as well. The half-life is increased in patients with liver disease. Tofranil is a tricyclic antidepressant. You may know this is a TCA. Its half-life is shortened in alcohol use disorder, and it's also metabolized by similar enzymes induced by phenobarbital. And also, one thing you should know, Dalmame was discontinued in 2019 due to side effects.

very archaic drug in Drewby's opinion. According to Dr. Nathan, the net effect of all of this is unknown to him because it depends on how bad his liver disease was, though he suspects the concentration of many of these drugs were low and not effective. Tylenol and liver disease together causes further liver damage. In closing, this is somebody that was probably delirious from constant benzodia withdrawal. Given this regimen on top of the alcohol use, it is crazy and surprising that he did not die due to respiratory depression. And that if somebody has liver disease, a TBI, and all the aforementioned drug interactions, it is possible that those things contributed to psychosis. So why do I say all this? clearly this person committed acts of evil. No question. And I am not looking to extract any sort of

sympathy here. However, the one thing that I had hoped to answer about David Sfenningsen in talking to people that may have knew him is what kind of person he was before Vietnam. That's what I really wanted to know. And I don't think I'll ever get the answer to that. If there's one thing Vietnam has taught us. It's that the military industrial complex has taken many enlisted soldiers and Marines, chewed them up and spit them out, given them very little care. They were improperly managed. Conditions that they suffered from, not very well known, PTSD especially. Military hospitals are known to not provide very adequate care, and I've heard this from multiple members of the military. whether or not David was an evil person or not inherently.

I think it is safe to presume that what happened in Vietnam, as well as the improper handling of his care and how we handle veterans in this country, greatly exacerbated that. So I just want to jump in a little bit here. I have a friend who was injured in Iraq has a TBI, and I reached out to him just to hear his take on how the, services he got for his TBI good, not so great, and how it could possibly give a reflection of how things could have been back in the Vietnam era. So basically, this is what he said. I honestly never

dealt with the VA. I was Medevac to Germany when it happened, then only dealt with it at hospitals on military bases. I never did any of the follow up that I was supposed to because I was so disgusted with the VA in Brockton, which is where he's from. Brockton, Massachusetts. As soon as I walked in the door, I just left. apparently it smelled like a mix and I quote of piss, B.O and medicine and was extremely dirty in there. This would have been within the last 10 years.

So if that's how they are treating our injured war veterans, I imagine things were not that great back in the 70s. This is not the first time I have heard VAs criticized in this fashion. You have another friend as well that will go there for care and it really depends on the type of care he's getting. Right.

He was a Marine that served not during wartime. So he doesn't have a whole lot of issues that would have stemmed from war. But, you know, if he has something that's a little bit expensive that he doesn't want to pay for through our insurance at work, he will go to Togis to have something done. So he will go there to get a tooth pulled. He won't get anything done there that takes any bit of finesse. Basically it's because he thinks that they're butchers. So at the end of all this with the fire, he was taking to Camden Hospital. Susan was released three days later, her burns being relatively minor in comparisons to David, who had life-threatening burns.

Yeah, it was second and third degree with literally, they said flesh falling off of his legs. Yes. So they realized they couldn't treat him. So they airlifted him to a burn unit. It was the Brooke Army General Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. So there, they sent somebody to obtain a deathbed confession. and unfortunately he passed away before they were able to get somebody there to talk to him. All knowledge that David may have had about the Luger case, he took to his grave.

And with that, only left one known suspect. And that's Danny Collins, Jr. He still lives locally, and we obtained his name from Public Record from the Charlie Project. The Charlie Project has his name out there. This is, I want to be clear, this is not an accusation of any. sort of crime. This is just what people allege. I'm not saying heads or tails that Danny Collins, Jr. was involved with this. We are just stating the information that's on record. Yes, and there's not a ton of information out there on him. So in open season, they refer to him as Cole Daniels. And the police know him

as suspect B. So Collins allegedly, allegedly confessed the murder to a friend. His name was Charles Christensen Jr. I don't believe. he's alive any longer. No, he is not. He is known simply as Chris in the book open season. So the confession supposedly happened in 1977. He said Collins and Svenningsen were under the influence of drugs when they picked up Luger and ultimately shot him to death in the back seat. Christensen also reported Collins allegedly being the trigger man. A meeting between the state police and the main attorney general's office was held January 22nd, 1985, almost 10 years. after Luger went missing.

The consensus was that there was not enough information to present the case to a grand jury for possible charges. Detectives began re-interviewing people involved in the case. However, Christensen had died by this time. So what had happened? This was really highlighted in open season, and I have to thank the author for the amount of information he covered because the investigation, I think this is the only place

you can really read about it in detail. In detail. There is not a lot of information out there. And I believe I had a conversation with the author. His name is Darren Worcester and he was a really nice guy. The information he presents in open season was firsthand accounts from Linda and both of the wardens. So any mistakes that might have been said there was a discrepancy we'll get to. He left in there specifically because he wanted this to be from the perspective of the wardens.

And remember, there's been 45 years since this. So a lot of things can kind of get lost in the mix. Some things can be hazy. And not a lot of people are left alive that had firsthand interaction with these people. So just keep that in mind. So authorities had examined a car, which was found abandoned at an Exxon Mobil in Camden. Well, we should probably talk about this car. So it was the car in question that picked up Luger at that road.

They had found the car. the car, the car's owner, in this case, allegedly being David Sfenningson, and in the book, they had went to the garage, talked to the person. Sully was his name. The garage owner said that David gave him the creeps and was drunk. Yeah, there was apparently a big to-do. He just went in there, demanded that right then and there that the car be fixed. It had a busted radiator.

He didn't even think he could fix it. Yeah, it was a whole situation where the car was basically junk. So he did what he could do, sent him on his way, and then not long after he showed back up with Collins, basically just drove his car into the garage. Allegedly. He showed up with somebody with a cane, gave the description of the character in the book. Right. And had literally driven into the garage. And as he stated, acts as like they were a McDonald's drive-through and it wouldn't even get out of the car. Yeah. So the wardens showed up at David's house. David surprisingly let them inside. In talking to them, this is according to open season, this is the only place I have this account, David denied having this car.

Then he said he sold this car at a bar. He was a bar or diner in Rockland. And he doesn't remember what happened because he was drunk or how much he sold it for. He also said he's never been hunting this year and he's never gotten a deer this season. He had not been in Washington. Then he later, after being pressured, admits that, okay, he did go there and that he sold the car afterwards because it was a piece of junk and that he did not have it any longer. Yeah, and that was the reason they had found the receipt. But he didn't see anybody.

There was no deer. There was no deer out in that area. And if Luger had gotten a deer, he got in the only deer that was out there. Yeah. And so then at that point, they asked to see his hunting clothes. And they did. So one of the wardens went downstairs to see these clothes. close. And one of the other wardens got suspicious. And check the fridge. And check the fridge. And

inside of the fridge or freezer was deer meat. And the deer meat had not been frozen yet. It was fresh. Right. He had also seen some 12 gauge shotgun shells sitting on the kitchen counter. So for someone who doesn't really hunt, why is that out there? So one of the wardens took one of the packages of meat, understanding that he took this without a warrant and that it may not be admissible into evidence, but took it anyway. Then between this and their accounts with interacting with Svenningsen, they decided to go get a warrant and they obtained a warrant. They came back later.

The next day, unfortunately. While a party was going on. And not only was all the meat gone, but all the hunting clothes were gone. Apparently, everybody was drunk. There was a huge party going on in the basement. It was like a ranch-style home where when you walk in the front of. door technically you're on a landing and you can go down to the basement or upstairs to the living room kitchen area there's a lot of these types of homes in our area yes but apparently there was a

party going on downstairs and there was this locked door that he claimed we had always been locked ever since he bought the house and he had never been in there it was in the basement he said he lost the keys it there was under a master lock i believe so they cut the lock off and they went in there and it didn't necessarily look like it hadn't been open in a while, though there was a lot of dust. Though that what they did notice in there, it was mostly empty. But they noticed the sites from a 30-30 rifle. They found an imprint of what could be a 30-30 rifle and found the sites, which matched sites that would have been purchased at the Augustus Sears. Well, at a Sears in general.

They couldn't confirm the exact Sears, nor did they have the technology then to converse. confirm that it was Luger's rifle. However, Luger did purchase his 30-30 hunting rifle at the Augustus Sears. Yes. So that's all they had. Because of this and because everything being gone, there was nothing they could work with. The last shred of information that they had left was the car, which they ended up finding later. It was abandoned at an Exxon mobile in Camden, according to, where did you find that? Was that the Knox Soup? Yes. So I found that information in the Knox Village soup. I had also heard. to interview with Linda where she had accounted for it being found on the side of the road.

Now, in open season, it has claimed that it was found on private property in Northport. However, I talked to Darren a little bit about this, and he went over his notes for me and confirmed that the police report did confirm that the Camden Xon mobile story. However, since he was writing the chapter from the perspective of the wardens, he went with a warden's account. So shortly after Luger's disappearance, they found this car. they noted that unfortunately the interior had been washed and washed well and the rear seat was missing. There was a single deer hair stuck to the hood ornament and it just wasn't enough.

Yeah, the trunk had completely been stripped out as well. You could smell cleaner in there. They did find a single shot gun pellet in there like a buckshot and also what appeared to be some sort of beard hair. Now, I do know they did test it with the technology they had back then, but It wasn't enough to actually confirm who it came from. Yeah, they couldn't confirm it was loogers, though if I remember correctly, and I don't have the information in front of me, if I remember correctly, they thought it was the same color as his beard hair. I do wonder, could they still test that now with the advancements of technology? Could they test it?

I'd like to think they could. There hasn't been a lot of motion in this case, even though I don't think it's been officially closed. No, it is considered a missing person's case. gets you a little bit why that is later on in the episode, but it is still an open case. So when they went to Collins' house, there was nothing there either, or I believe he didn't say a word to the police. He didn't say a word. There wasn't a party going on or anything, but any shred of evidence that he ever went hunting his life was gone. I don't even think they got a warrant for his house. I think they just were able to talk to him. But basically, they went over to Collins'

house and there was nothing there that was incriminating. Right. From what I understand, Collins did some time at one point, and they had people trying to get some sort of confession out of him while he was doing time, and he said nothing. And again, we're just speaking allegedly. This is information that has been passed along to us. So there are rumors in the community about what happened. Just like with the Kim Moreau case, people talk.

There are rumors. It is hard to substantiate these things. And sometimes there are a lot of them are hard to hear. Yes. They are, especially for the family. And I can't imagine what it's like to have a loved one missing and to be hearing things like this. So here's the rumor. Luger's body was taken to a friend's house where it was rolled up in burlap, chained, taken across the lake and a small boat and dumped.

This was in Crystal Pond, allegedly, they think it was in Crystal Pond. Right, which is a small pond in Washington. So what happened exactly? The rumor is that they showed up and said that they were taking the deer, to which Luger protested, obviously. There was enough meat on that deer to feed someone's family for the entire winter. Right. And he's a young father. He's only 25 at this point.

He has a very young wife. She's about 20. They have three children. One is a baby. You know, allegedly we had heard that her sister was living there too. They were just starting out. They had started building a house on land that his family had provided. The family lived next door.

So this deer, you know. This deer at its size would have fed his family. He could have shared some meat. And, you know, living in Maine, hunting is very important. Yeah. It's very important, especially for rural families. So at this point, allegedly Luger was sitting in the back seat, and that's when he was shot in the chest and killed.

People might be sitting here thinking, Well, why would somebody shoot somebody over a deer? That seems rather ridiculous. But unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened. You think about how generally in Maine these areas are very poor. People rely on this. People's incomes are unreliable or potentially seasonal. Having that much deer meat can be almost life or death for some people. It really can. My family that does hunt, it's not like a life or death thing. They just prefer to feed their family that way. That too, it lasts you all year and not have to pay that at a grocery store that literally could be everything for a family. It really could. So just keep that in mind exactly where this took place when you start to think, well, no one would shoot someone over a deer. Yes, they would. So the family has arranged searches privately. They use cadaver dogs and professional trackers to locate Luger's remains. A dog named Quincy owned by one Julie Jones actually had a hit at Crystal Pond. However, He passed away while they were waiting for the lake to lower in the spring as it was too deep to conduct a search.

Other dogs were used, such as a bloodhound and the family and other searchers would go out on the lake in boats with the dogs in metal detectors. State police have allegedly told Linda to back off by her own admission. They threatened to press charges against her for hindering an investigation. Linda herself, I can't even believe this, does not have access to her own husband. case file. I have never heard of that before and that is disgusting. If anyone in the family should be allowed, obviously it would be Luger's widow. I'm so shocked by that. But much like the Kim Morrow case, a television crew allegedly wanted to cover Luger's story. However, then Attorney General and now Maine's governor, Janet Mills, allegedly shut the production down and threatened legal

action against the production company according to the family. A retired FBI couple living in Maine also wanted to do their own private investigation to Luger's case, free of charge, but the state block their involvement, allegedly. Allegedly. And this is not the first time we heard this. If you listen to our Kim Moreau case, which you showed if you haven't, this same thing happens. And this is just... It's infuriating because things like this, when you have outside film crews come in at a national level, that's when things get solved. Yeah. When the heat is on. Maine has a history of doing this.

The Luger case and Kim Moro's case, those cases combined represent perfectly my problems with how missing person cases and murder cases are handled in Maine. It's just reading this, it sickens me, it's disgusting. I can't imagine how the family must feel. Just this feeling of helplessness is what I can imagine and hopelessness. The sad thing is, in my opinion, the state could have done so much more. And when I look at this, in my opinion, the wardens did so much more to potentially solve this case to further this case along than the state police ever did. And they often do. They really, when it comes to rural communities, the wardens generally.

And they have a huge case load. And it's not even the warden's job either, but they did great work. They even brought out people to help search for Luger who did it free of charge that were in the warden service themselves. They did as much as they really could with the resources that they have. They did more than their jurisdiction almost. Right. During the same time, there was apparently or allegedly, a huge deer smuggling operation going on that was taking up a lot of the warden's time. That's per open season. And they didn't have a lot of, you know, available resources for things like.

this. You know, it is a very busy time of year with people going missing, especially at end of season. Late November is basically when hunting season for most, unless you're doing hunting with a muzzle loader. Your season ends. So you have people who are out there later than they should be, maybe in some sort of inclement whether they shouldn't be out there in. I think bow hunting has different restrictions as well. Right. It does have some different restrictions. But, you know, if there's the time to be careless when hunting, it's end of season if you haven't gotten your deer yet. Yeah, absolutely. So on June 20th, 2001, a probate court judge in Knox County formally declared Luger dead.

Quote, based on due diligence search of family, the Maine's warden service, and main state police over a period of 26 years. The declaration was sought by Linda, his widow. Luger has a family headstone in Somerville Sand Hill Cemetery across the street from the town office. We've been there. We have been there. Very small, very rural place.

Didn't really have cell phone reception. Yeah, it was weird. We weren't that far. away from Augusta yet it just felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Right. There was like a lot of even by the town office, for a row that was very rural, it had some traffic. It did. It did.

There was more traffic than I thought there would be. And it was traffic going towards dirt roads. And we saw a lot of people hunting. We started early in the morning. Anytime we do any road trip, we like to do it early right now, you know, in hopes that there won't be as many people out due to COVID. But we saw a lot of people once we hit Somerville, Washington coming back with like their hunting hats out on their dashboard.

So we could have just gotten unlucky, but I feel like even driving around certain places, we got a lot of funny looks. So if this was a typical thing, I would assume then that a lot of people driving in that area are locals. They all know each other. Yeah, and everyone knows each other. So we were like clearly recognized as outsiders almost a media. Who are these strange people in the forester?

Yeah. So just kind of giving you some idea of what this. general town in the greater Somerville, Washington area. Linda still lives in Washington. It's only a short distance from the spot where Luger vanished. His daughters, Michelle, Tracy, and Angel have all grown up and started their own families, and many of his grandchildren are also avid hunters. Yeah, there was a picture that I believe it was Linda. She might have posted on, she has a Facebook page that the family runs. It's Justice for Luger Belanger, and she posted some of her grandkids hunting pictures. One of the grandsons looks just like Luger.

So Linda is also an active member of the Maine Cold Case Alliance, which is comprised of families of missing people across Maine, and they're pushing for cold case reform, which is sorely needed in the state. Absolutely. They have pushed for the creation of the unsolved homicide unit specific to cold cases and have created bills that have extended the statute of limitations on filing civil cases from two years to six years. And if pushed for legislation that allows for more communication between the police and victims' families regarding the staff, and information pertaining to their cases. However, there's been pushback on this. You'll routinely see this come up in our local media from time to time, but push back from the state police on these sorts of things. However, Luger's case has faced trouble as Lieutenant Jeffrey Love of the main state police major crimes unit removed Luger from the cold case list and back onto the

missing persons list, citing that he didn't believe there was enough evidence to prove that Luger was deceased, despite courts declaring him legally dead in 2001. And just ridiculous, in my opinion, just incompetence. It's just insulting. I just don't think he really wanted to deal with this situation. So Linda's been very, very good about keeping up on this. And she wanted to know why. So in an interview that I listened to, she, that same day, went down to Rockland and got

all the documentation stating that, yes, he is legally dead. I did file this. then went back to present it to Lieutenant Love and he had left for the day. So it really feels like these folks try to make it very, very difficult for the families to even file anything. Yeah. So this year on November 5th, this would have been Luger's 70th birthday. As of the date of this release, Luger will have been missing for 45 years. Open season, true stories of the main warden service by Darren Worcester dedicates an entire chapter to Luger's case for anyone interested in further. reading. I really suggest that you do. It was a really good read. It was a very enlightening read.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the main state police. 207-624-7-143 or 1-800-452-4-664. Both those numbers will be in the description. You can also reach out to Luger's family via the Facebook page we mentioned Justice for Luger Belanger. Listen, this case does not have a lot more time. this can be solved. Somebody knows something and people aren't talking. I'm not here to say who is or who isn't responsible because we truly don't know. However, I believe someone knows something and in doing research for this case, it was ridiculously hard to find people that knew some of the alleged suspects. And it was that difficult. And I made some phone calls and we've reached out to people and we're lucky, to get the information that we did. And most of the people related to some of the people in question,

as we mentioned with David Sfenningsen's ex-wife, Susan, there's not a lot of people left alive. It's about time the family has closure that Luger can be brought home and this case can be put to rest. In doing research for this, it was frustrating and heartbreaking because of all of these factors. And if I felt that way researching this, I can't even begin to imagine how that feels for the family. Please, if you know anything, anything at all, no matter how insignificant it is, it could lead to something bigger. Please contact these numbers. If you have to reach out to us and we can relay it, but say something, do something. Yeah, this doesn't have much time left. Linda, Tracy, Michelle, Angel, you're in our thoughts. We

want this to get solved for you and your family. You know, his mother passed away without knowing what happened to her son. She's buried in the plot that they have over in Somerville. And that's just not fair. Your kids are not supposed to go before you. And if they do, you should know what had happened. Another thing that I found frustrating about the case is because they won't name who the suspects are, even though they have good reason to know who the suspects are, a lot of people that we contact with ties to this didn't even know about Luger's case. Yeah. They couldn't tell us anything about Luger's case.

It's obviously not their fault. No. But, you know, if the media was a little bit more public, Knox Village Soup went out of their way and named people. And this is a discontinued newspaper from when I understand. Like, we had to find this on the way back machine. These were posted in newspapers that are no longer operational from my understanding. Like, local papers from the 70s posted some of this information.

There could be a point where all this information is lost for good. Yes. We're going to definitely find a way to get this information out there. The articles that we have, again, we're going to link everything that we can in our show notes. We have some clippings that Danny was gracious enough to scan for us that will get into the YouTube episode. I will find another way either on our Facebook page or in some way to get these posted up. Yes. So that they're not lost.

Yeah, we don't need this to be lost in history. And that's unfortunately what we're facing right now. And, you know, if any other podcasts that are interested in the case are listening to this and want to try to research this further and kind of go off of what information we have, please do so. And reach out to us. We will help you however we can. We will be openly transparent about our process, about the things we can be transparent about, which is most of it. We will help however we can because this needs to come out. I think as of this recording, we are the first podcast to actually name who the alleged suspects are. are as far as podcasts are concerned. There are other websites that have done it. We are the first podcast to do this. And I don't want to be the last.

This needs to be figured out. Even if nobody is brought to justice, we need answers. The family needs answers. Like not just their daughters, like their grandchildren, who have these questions about the history of their lineage that can't be answered now. This is just unacceptable. And I know somebody out there at least one person. can do something to further this case.

I mean, it's a small town. Somebody knows. I think there's more than one somebody that knows. I think so too. I think so too. So before we end this, I know we usually promote us and stuff. I don't really want to go too deep into this,

but one thing I do want to say is that we hit 2,000 subscribers. I am incredibly grateful for this. A lot of this happened very quickly in the past couple of weeks. If you're here and you haven't done that yet, hitting like and subscribe goes a long way for us in the YouTube algorithm, but a more important piece of this. Yes, we have 2,000 subscribers and that platform, we can get the message of this case out. What we can't do, unfortunately, is go beyond that.

And I sit and I wonder just how much further we could push awareness of this case if we had double, triple, quadruple, 100 times the platform, 100 times the amount of subscribers that we have. Would this make the difference in getting this case solved? I wonder that. I think about that with the Kim Moreau case. Like if we had a bigger platform and we got this out there, would it ensure it got to the person that could help these cases be closed? So these aren't the last missing person cases we do. And if anything growing up in Maine and seeing these injustices in murder cases and missing persons cases, we're going to be doing more cases like these. I want these to be solved. And I want to be able to use our platform to solve these cases. So if you like this video, you hit subscribe, you share these videos around. You help in native. us to be able to get our message and these cases on a bigger platform to more people. And hopefully the end result is we will be able to bring closure to the families of missing people. Like this is a pretty emotional case. We spent a lot of time on it. We don't usually go for three weeks researching a case. We spent weeks, almost four weeks. It was almost four weeks. We

reached out of it. We never reach out to folks. One, because we don't want to trouble families. We really don't want to do that because we feel a lot of times the information that we need is already online somewhere, whether it's articles or interviews, and we just don't want to trouble them in that way. It's our job to put the work in, to put this out. So, you know, we definitely went out on a limb and we normally don't do that. Reach out to complete strangers, cold calling people. I knew if I hadn't made those phone calls, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life because looking through all of these notes, I knew that there was pieces missing. And I knew that there was a chance that I could fill in some of these pieces if I contacted certain people.

You know, Yergi contacted people. We are now able to at least shed light, maybe not directly on the looser case, but on one of the potential suspects who is no longer with us. And you may ask, what's the point of this? It helps at least complete the picture of what happened. If somebody cannot be brought to justice in this case, at least to be able to understand what happened, why it happened, who these people were. that's the closest we can get is in providing answers.

And in doing this and in calling people and reaching out, it gets people asking questions. Yes. Yes, it does. So that's my one plea for you. If you made it this far, I very much appreciate that. If you could help us get to a bigger platform, my goal is to one day be 100,000 subscribers at least because I feel that at 100,000, that's when we can really do real work in getting these cases out here. and we will keep doing missing persons cases.

I think about maybe we should save some of them until we're a bit bigger so that way we can do more work here. Or definitely revisit them. There's no reason we can't, you know, revisit. We will definitely do. I mean, we plan to revisit Kim Maro's case. I think that there will be in the future. My gut feeling is there'll be more information with that in the future. So that will be revisited.

This case, I hope to revisit it. I hope, I hope in the pit of myself that something comes up. this. So if you can help us, the very least you can do is hit like and subscribe. And so with that, I will also thank the patrons, Eddie Rowan, Markey, Holly, Ashley, Voo, Anna, Serena, Chloe, Mark, Tara, Sophie, Karen with an EA and Neil and Karen. Thank you so much for going that extra step to support us. Also Levi. And Levi, thank you Levi's picture right now. We didn't include it in the beginning because of the seriousness of this case. Normally as the highest tiered patron, he gets his own special section at the beginning, but due to the nature of this case,

I'm sure he would understand that we're doing it this way. So here it is at the end. And all of the honoring of Levi is in the description. I'm just going to leave it at that. If you do want to become our patron, patreon.com slash the misery machine. And again, a very, very special thank you to Danny. You have been so helpful in getting some information about this case, information that ties this case out.

You have done something that no one else could have done at the time. this point. You have provided information that we now can put out there that hasn't been able to be put out there before. And I thank you so much for that, for being gracious with your time and your energy and helping us with this. I also want to thank Darren Worcester, who wrote Open Season for being very generous with his time too, answering some questions that I had. Being transparent about the research. You know, going into his notes for me, just like at a drop of a hat. So thank you so much. and everybody please read that book. You know, I'm not even a very big reader,

but I was glued to it. Yes, it was written very well. And again, there's information in there that you just can't find anywhere else. So if you want to know more about this case, I highly suggest picking it up. So that out of the way. Until next week.

We love you. We love you. Bye.