Transcript
A (0:00)
This podcast is supported by the RealReal. Meet Christine. She loves shopping and this is the sound of fashion overload. Too many fabulous things, not enough space. So Christine started selling with the RealReal.
B (0:12)
I've always loved collecting designer pieces, Gucci bags, Prada heels. But my style keeps evolving. Selling with the RealReal game changer. I earn more. And they do everything.
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Members and I get peace of mind knowing I earn more selling with the RealReal than anywhere else.
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Exactly this. That's the sound of your closet working for you. The real Real. Earn more, save time, sell fast and only for the month of January. Earn up to $550 extra when you sell with the Real Real. That's right. Up to $550 extra. Go to therealreal.com to get started. Earn up to $550 extra this month at therealreal.com terms apply.
C (1:01)
Sometimes in the quiet corners of our world, or even in the glaring light of day, events unfold that defy the very fabric of reason.
D (1:11)
There is no scientific, logical or readily apparent explanation for what we witness. It challenges our understanding, our beliefs, and even our sanity. Why do these things happen? What forces are are at play?
C (1:27)
I'm Yvette Gentile.
D (1:28)
And I'm her sister, Racha Pecorero.
C (1:31)
Every week on our podcast so Supernatural, we dive deep into some of the earth's most bizarre and inexplicable occurrences. We don't just observe them. We actively try to explain the unexplainable.
D (1:47)
So if you're ready to have your perceptions challenged and your curiosity ignited, let listen to so Supernatural every Friday wherever you get your podcasts.
E (2:02)
When Mark Knapp's routine commute home from work one February night in 1984 ended with his car abandoned and his body at the bottom of an old marble quarry, the shock rippled far beyond one family. Suspects were quickly identified and charged in connection with Mark Stern death. But shifting narratives and fragile witnesses fractured the entire foundation of the case just as the truth came into view. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is the case of Mark Knapp on Dark Down East. By the morning of February 23, 1984, 28 year old Mark Fuller Knapp had been gone too long. According to Yvonne Daly's reporting for the Rutland Daily Herald, around 8pm the night before, Mark had done what he always did when he was out. He called home to see if there were any messages waiting for him. It was a brief, ordinary conversation, the kind his parents had heard hundreds of times before. And they expected, as they always did, that they would hear the door open and Mark's footsteps over the threshold not long after. But they never did. So that quiet Thursday morning, after no sign of Mark all night, his mother placed the call to Vermont State Trooper Dennis Holman, who wasn't just an officer but a man who knew their son personally. Lois Webby reports for the Rutland Daily Herald that Dennis and Mark both served with the Brandon Volunteer Fire Department, where Mark's father was chief and part of the close knit world where everyone is easily accounted for until suddenly, someone isn't. Mark's name, description and details of his vehicle were broadcast to area law enforcement in hopes someone might spot him. That very Same night, Mark's 1983 Ford LTD station wagon was discovered abandoned along Route 4A near the entrance of Rock Ruby's sand pit in Castleton, Vermont. The keys were still in the ignition. The gas tank was empty. There was no obvious signs of violence, just a car sitting where it shouldn't be. At first, Vermont State Police did not assume the worst. With the vehicle out of fuel, investigators considered that Mark may have walked to a motel or sought out transportation, perhaps trying to solve a mundane problem in the dark hours rather than fleeing something sinister. But that cautious optimism lasted less than a day. Around 1pm on Feb. 24, target shooters near the abandoned Vermont Marble quarry off Marble Street Extension in West Rutland noticed something on the ice. Far below them, at the base of a 125 foot cliff, a shape lay frozen in place. Though difficult to discern for an untrained eye, troopers who responded recognized the mass as a human body. The quarry walls were sheer. There was no way to reach the body without specialized equipment, so police secured the area and stood watch through the night over someone they could see but did not yet know. The next day, a rescue team arrived with an old quarrying cage attached to a crane and divers to descend into the pit. It took six hours to recover the body, six hours of machinery echoing off stones, six hours of waiting for a name that everyone already feared to hear aloud. Among those standing at the edge was Dennis Holman, the trooper who had taken Mark's mother's call, and the fellow firefighter who had once served beside him. He confirmed what the Knapp family already the man recovered from the ice was their missing son. Dr. Paul Morrow. The state deputy medical examiner conducted the autopsy. Mark's hands were bound. There was no obvious signs of struggle in the quarry itself. Yet Mark bore several small puncture woundson his back, his chest, and at least two on his wrists. According to reporting by Joseph Zingale for the Burlington Free Press, the injuries were no larger than the tip of a pen. The wounds on his wrists were noted as possible defensive injuries. Those puncture wounds were later attributed to a pair of 5 inch orange scissors recovered from the quarry not far from Mark's body. It seemed Mark had likely been confronted with a weapon before his death, however mundane it appeared. However, the medical examiner later said the scissor wounds themselves were not significant and did not contribute to Mark's death. Rather, he concluded that Mark was alive when he went over the edge of the quarry and that he died from head and chest injuries caused by the impact. Toxicology screens were requested as part of the examination, but there was no evidence of any substance or alcohol use at the time of the autopsy. The medical examiner believed Mark likely died after 8pm on Feb. 22, based on when his parents had received that final phone call. Those first few days of the investigation were defined by theories because there was really very little to go on. Not even the medical examiner's ruling felt definitive. Dr. Morrow classified the manner of death as homicide. But police were notably more cautious with their language, stopping short of using that same term publicly. Suicide did not seem likely, though investigators did not clarify how they reached that assumption. At the same time, they also did not rule out the possibility of an accident, since it was impossible early on to determine based on the given evidence whether Mark was pushed or if he fell. One theory suggested he may have been trying to escape an assailant when he went into the quarry. Complicating everything was the location of Mark's car. The abandoned Ford LTD was found roughly 10 miles from where his body lay. Police believed Mark may have been hitchhiking after running out of gas or that someone else had been driving the car and left it behind when the tank ran dry inside that station wagon. The scene did not match what people knew of Mark. A witness described him as an orderly person, yet the interior of the vehicle was found in disarray. That detail bolstered the theory that someone else drove Mark's car at some point. With that, state police dusted the car for fingerprints and collected approximately 40 pieces of potential evidence from the area around it. Among the items recovered were cigarette butts and alcohol bottles in cans. Also notable because Mark was not known to smoke or drink, footprints offered one of the few physical links between the car and the scene of Mark's death. An impression was found at the edge of the quarry and another near Mark's abandoned station wagon. The soles appeared similar with a small circular tread pattern. Photographs were sent to the FBI for further analysis. Police were also trying to establish where Mark had last been seen alive. Mark sold construction equipment for New England Equipment Co. Inc. And a witness told police he had conducted a business transaction with Mark around 5pm on February 22. The witness said Mark indicated he was heading home afterward. We know he called his parents around 8pm that night. So where did Mark go and who did he encounter after that? Nearly every fragment of Mark's final hours was scrutinized as police searched for something that might explain how a young man like Mark, generous, kind, gentle Mark could disappear after a phone call home and end up bound and broken at the bottom of a quarry. In the warmer months, Mark Knapp lived on his own in Orwell, Vermont, slowly restoring a house most people would have given up on. The place stood out big and yellow, trimmed in green and white. But Mark saw potential where others simply saw work. Winter sent him back to Brandon, Vermont, to the town where he had spent nearly his entire life. Mark was born on June 2, 1955, and aside from college years, he never fully parted from the place that shaped him. At Otter Valley Union High school, class of 1973, he had found his voice early. He wasn't just a member of the debate team. He excelled, earning a first speaker award at a state competition. His dedication to learning carried him to the University of Vermont, where he earned a bachelor's degree in speech pathology. Later, at Linden State College, he added an associate's degree in business administration. Even while building his own future, Mark kept looking back toward home. He returned to Otter Valley to judge debate competitions while still a college student, giving time to the same program that had once given him confidence. He also followed his father, Murray Knapp, Brandon's fire chief, into volunteer firefighting, another way of placing himself quietly in service of others. There were also smaller acts no resume could capture. Mark mentored a local boy who was struggling in school, stepping into a big brother role without being asked. Those who knew him described him the same way over and gentle, generous, bright, a good student who applied himself, a man who gave more than he took. One friend said that Mark wouldn't have hurt anyone, even if they were hurting him. Nothing about Mark's life suggested recklessness. Nothing about his habits even hinted at risk. And yet, somewhere in the space between a routine call home and a drive that should have ended at his parents doorstep, Mark Knapp encountered something or someone that pulled him completely off the map. Fear began to settle over the community like a fog. People who had never locked their doors before now did. A woman told the local paper she was afraid to walk alone. Another said she no longer felt safe sitting in her own vehicle. Whoever had taken Mark, bound his hands and brought him to that quarry's edge to die, hadn't been caught, and the absence of answers was louder than any police statement. For days, the evidence offered little more than isolated facts until a black and white photograph in the newspaper cracked the case wide open.