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Dark Downeast
The Murder of Martha Brailsford (Massachusetts)
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On a Friday afternoon in July of 1991, Martha Brailsford told friends she was going sailing. In coastal Massachusetts at what is often the peak of summer heat and humidity, that wasn’t unusual. Martha knew the water, and in Salem Willows, boats were part of the everyday landscape. There was no reason to think a simple afternoon sail would become anything else. But when Martha didn’t come home that night, the search for her would expose a man whose stories kept changing, a familiar coastline that suddenly felt unknowable, and a truth hidden somewhere beyond the shoreline.
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On a Friday afternoon in July of 1991, Martha Brailsford told friends she was going sailing in coastal Massachusetts at what is often the peak of summer heat and humidity. That wasn't unusual. Martha knew the water, and in Salem Willows boats were part of the everyday landscape. There was no reason to think a simple afternoon sail would become anything else. But when Martha didn't come home that night, the search for her would expose a man whose stories kept changing and a truth hidden somewhere beyond the shoreline. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is the case of Martha Brailsford on Dark down east. On July 12, 1991, Salem Willows looked a lot like the kind of place you might imagine when you think of a New England summer. The neighborhood sits on a peninsula in Salem, Massachusetts, ensconced by briny Atlantic waters. There are old homes packed close together, views of the sea from roof decks and porches, the smell of salt air, the steady rhythm of boats moving in and out of the harbor, and the familiar summer noise of people walking to the beach, the pier or the park. It's a neighborhood where a quick sail from the pier wouldn't have seemed unusual at all. That afternoon, 37 year old Martha C. Brailsford was seen near Salem Willows Pier, apparently preparing to board a white 28 foot sailboat. Early reports in the Boston Globe by John Ladler said that she told friends near Juniper beach that she was going sailing with a friend, and some witnesses said they saw her with a man near the boat. Nothing about that Scene, at least from the outside, looked alarming. Martha was comfortable on the water and on boats. Her husband, Brian Brailsford, worked as a skipper and captain for a Boston cruise company. And Martha's own family described her as an experienced sailor and a good swimmer. So if someone saw Martha stepping toward a sailboat that day, it may have looked exactly like what she said. It was your quintessential afternoon sail. But by that night, something was clearly wrong. Martha wasn't anywhere to be found when Brian came home from work around 9pm that night. She hadn't called or left a message. And as Brian looked around the house, the details didn't fit with the idea that she'd simply gone out for the evening. The house looked as if Martha hadn't been home for hours. Even her artwork had been left outside. Brian waited, but the longer the night went on, the harder it became to explain her absence away. At about 1am on Saturday, July 13, Brian called Salem police to report Martha missing. He was told to stay home, but Brian couldn't just sit and wait. He decided to start searching on his own. Brian walked through the neighborhood by flashlight, looking for any sign of her. At dawn, he went out again. As he racked his brain for any idea as to where Martha might be, he remembered that she sometimes took early morning walks with their dog, Rudy. And sometimes she was joined by a man from the neighborhood, Thomas Maimoni. In fact, they'd just gone for a walk together the previous morning. Thomas wasn't home when Brian first checked at his condo. But his sailboat, named Counterpoint, was still in its slip at Palmer Cove Yacht Club. By the time Brian doubled back to Thomas apartment, Thomas was home, but he didn't offer any helpful information. Thomas said they did go for a walk the morning before, but he hadn't gone sailing at all. And certainly not with Martha. Thomas insisted that he wouldn't have gone out alone with her without inviting Brian along, too. Then he told Brian he'd pray for Martha. By that point, the search had spread across the places Martha knew best. The pier and the harbor, the beach, the streets where she walked her dog, and their close waterfront community. Salem Police, local Harbor Masters, and a state police helicopter were searching Salem harbor for any sign of her. Residents even searched the water in their own boats while family and friends printed hundreds of flyers with Martha's photo and distributed them throughout the neighborhood and to yacht clubs. In those first days, people who knew Martha kept coming back to the same thing. This wasn't like her. She wasn't someone her family believed would vanish by choice. Just before she disappeared, Martha had been standing at the edge of a new chapter. According to Tom Farmer's reporting for the Daily Item, she'd recently decided to work for herself as an interior designer, and relatives said she was happy and optimistic about that change. There was no reason to believe she'd go off on her own. As part of the ongoing search and investigation, police followed up with Martha's dog walking buddy, Thomas Maimoni themselves. He echoed what he told Brian he hadn't seen Martha since early Friday morning. He said he hadn't sailed with her and he wouldn't have gone out alone with her because he was married and it wouldn't look good. He was worried, though, and he hoped for Martha's swift return. But the next time police talked to him, that concerned neighbor story started to unravel. Police had since learned from other witnesses that Martha was in fact seen getting on Thomas's sailboat on the day she disappeared. When detectives spoke with Thomas again and pressed him with that detail, his story changed. Now Thomas said Martha had had gotten onto his boat, but only briefly. According to this version, she was supposed to meet him on counterpoint around 1pm to talk about her resume. Thomas said he brought the boat from Palmer Cove to Salem Willows Pier, but the pier was crowded and he couldn't tie up, so Martha just jumped aboard and he motored the short distance to Winter island, where he said she got off near one of her regular walking routes. Police tried to check that account. One of the people they spoke with was a dentist who knew Martha. He had been at the Winter island landing around the time Thomas claimed Martha got off the boat. The dentist said he was there from noon to 2pm and he never saw her. The next day, investigators brought Thomas in again. A state trooper was there this time, too. Thomas repeated the Winter island story, but police told them they didn't believe it. That's when his story changed again. This time, Thomas said Martha hadn't gotten off at Winter island after all. He said they'd gone sailing farther out toward Gloucester. He said it was getting close to sunset and he was starting to turn back towards Salem when the head sail became fouled. According to Thomas, Martha tried to help, but a rogue wave or maybe two hit the boat. He said her face struck the mast in the swell and she grabbed for the headsail but couldn't get purchase so she went overboard. Thomas said he froze. He said he didn't call the Coast Guard. He just marked a place on a chart where he claimed Martha had gone into the water, and he said he'd take police there. The truth, or something adjacent to it, Was trickling out of Thomas Maimoni slowly and only with applied pressure. If his most recent telling was anchored in truth, Martha wasn't just missing. By July 17, police were publicly saying they believed she was dead. Police and coast guard officials searched from salem toward new hampshire, Looking for Martha or anything that might belong to her. But there was still no Martha. Not a single sign of her in the water, Despite Thomas story of a rogue wave or two. Investigators hadn't ruled out foul play, but his newest account of their supposed afternoon sail stretched the timeline and the geography of Martha's last known hours. If his story was true, Martha had been out on the water with Thomas for hours. Farther from shore, with no one else there to say what happened, Martha's family and friends were no longer just waiting for her to walk through the door. They were waiting for the water to give them an answer. On the morning of Thursday, July 18, 1991, lobster fisherman Hooper Goodwin was hauling his traps off marblehead near cat island, now known as children's island. It was the kind of ordinary physical work that happens on the new england coast every day. Moving through a line of gear, pulling pots from the water, checking the catch, resetting, moving on. But as Hooper brought up one of his trap lines that morning, Something broke the rhythm. An anchor was tangled in the gear. Trailing from that anchor was a rope, and the rope was tied to a body. Hooper immediately contacted the harbormaster after realizing what he'd found. After nearly a week of searching, the sea had returned. Martha Brailsford. Until then, Thomas Maimoni's latest version of events had left a narrow opening for the possibility of a terrible boating accident and an unforgivable response afterward. But the way Martha was found made that account much harder to accept. This wasn't just a person who'd fallen overboard. She was nude and tangled in the lobster lines. A diver's weight belt was around her body, and an anchor was tied by rope to her ankle or legs. The medical picture was complicated. Martha had been in salt water for days, and the condition of her body limited what could be determined with any kind of certainty. At first, a medical examiner spokesperson said an autopsy showed Martha had drowned, though officials didn't elaborate publicly on the finding. However, court records describe injuries to her head and teeth, including damage to a molar, a loosened front tooth, and several impact injuries to her head. The most serious head injury involved bleeding under the scalp and was likely inflicted shortly before death. The other injuries involved less force. None of those injuries necessarily would have caused death on their own, but they could have hurt her, dazed her, or made it harder for her to survive whatever happened next. By the evening of July 18, police weren't just looking for answers anymore. Salem Police Chief Robert St. Pierre announced that authorities had issued a murder warrant for Thomas J. Maimoni. He said they believed Thomas murdered Martha Brailsford and now he was on the run. So I just got back from a friend's wedding and the rehearsal dinner dress code was cowboy casual. 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Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com downeast for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com downeast. By the time the identity of Martha's body was confirmed, Thomas Maimoni was already gone. Police released a photo and description of the suspect nationwide, including that he was believed to be driving a silver Ford Taurus with Massachusetts license plate T6J. Investigators searched his home, his boat and the waters near where Martha was found. They also spoke with co workers at Parker Brothers, where Thomas worked as an engineer and kept asking for anyone who may have seen Counterpoint in or around Salem harbor on Friday, July 12 to come forward. For two days, there was no trace of Thomas. Then on Saturday, July 20, the case moved almost as far from Salem Willows as it could get while still staying in New England. Waite, Maine is a small town In Washington county, deep in the eastern part of the state near the Canadian border, it's not the crowded waterfront of Salem in July. It's woods and two lane roads, long distances between houses, quiet places where a car that doesn't belong can stand out because there aren't that many cars to begin with. And that's what caught the attention of a local caretaker in town. According to Brian McRoary and Kathy McCabe's reporting for the Boston Globe, the caretaker noticed an unfamiliar car parked near a vacant summer house. There were other things that didn't fit either. The air conditioner was running. The back door looked like it had been forced open, perhaps a break in. The caretaker called police and Washington County Deputy Sheriff Robert Gross was was sent to check the cabin. When he got there, he ordered whoever was inside to come out. After a few tense moments, a man voluntarily exited the cabin without a fuss. He laid down on the ground as instructed and police arrested him without incident. The caretaker had a look around inside the cabin after the man was arrested, and it didn't look like someone had torn through the place looking for valuables. Both of the beds upstairs appeared to have been slept in, but nothing else seemed disturbed. It looked more like this mysterious Mr. Goldilocks had been testing out the mattress options and using the cabin as a place to rest and stay cool in the main woods. At first, this wasn't necessarily a dramatic capture. No chase through the woods, no standoff at the cabin door, no weapon drawn by the suspect. Until the man made a comment to the deputy, something about being in trouble in Massachusetts. When the deputy asked what he meant, the man referred to someone falling overboard from his boat. Tony Losee and Alexander Reed report for the Globe that it took about 10 minutes before Deputy Gross ran the guy's name and realized the person he'd just taken into custody was Thomas Maimoni, the same man wanted in Massachusetts for the murder of Martha Brailsford. Investigators believed Thomas may have been trying to cross the Canadian border because Waite was only about 20 highway miles away from the crossing at Vanceboro, and it seemed he could have been planning to be missing for quite some time. Police also found camping goods, maps and a compass in his car. Thomas was taken to the Washington County Jail in Machias, where he was expected to face local charges connected to the cabin break in along with being a fugitive from justice. And on Monday, July 22, Thomas waived extradition from Maine and was flown back to Massachusetts. On July 23, 1991, Thomas Maimoni pleaded not guilty in Salem District court, and he was ordered held without bail. That court appearance was the first public look at what prosecutors believed had really happened before Martha ever stepped onto Counterpoint. According to prosecutors, Martha hadn't gone sailing with a trusted friend. She had gone sailing with someone who lied about who he was. Assistant District Attorney Kevin Mitchell described Martha and Thomas relationship as at most, an acquaintance, just a person from the neighborhood whose story may have received Martha's sympathy. Thomas told her his wife died, that he was a lonely widower, but that wasn't at all true. Thomas wife, Patricia was very much alive. Thomas was a practiced liar, and investigators found questions in his background at every turn. There were discrepancies in his resume, including a claim that he held a doctorate that they couldn't verify. He claimed he was once an Air Force pilot, but that claim reportedly didn't check out. He claimed he graduated from the University of Rhode island, but URI had no records to support that claim. Martha had stepped onto Counterpoint with a man who had carefully built a false identity out of sympathy, grief, and trust. In the prosecution's early theory, Counterpoint wasn't just a sailboat. It was a place Thomas could control. A place where a casual invitation turned into isolation. A place where once the shoreline was behind them, there were no neighbors, no bystanders, and no easy way for anyone else to know what happened. But there was another version of the story. And as much as he'd been represented as a liar spewing falsehoods, Thomas desperately wanted investigators, the courtroom, and the public to believe that what happened out there on his sailboat was a terrible, tragic accident and that he may be guilty of something, but it sure wasn't murder. Thomas Maimoni's attorney, didn't deny that Martha had been on Counterpoint. He didn't deny that Thomas lied. He also didn't deny that Thomas behaved badly after Martha died. But according to Charles Craig's reporting for the Boston Herald, the defense position was that none of that proved Thomas killed her. According to Thomas version, Martha was injured during rough conditions on the boat. He claimed she struck part of the boat, went into the water, and died despite his attempts to save her. But what about the fact that Martha was found without any clothing? Well, his defense said Thomas was actually able to pull Martha back onto Counterpoint after she went overboard, and he removed her wet clothing to prevent hypothermia. He then wrapped her in towels and tried mouth to mouth resuscitation. But when he realized she was dead, he panicked. In Thomas telling that panic was tied to the situation he'd created for himself. He was alone on his boat with another woman while his wife was away. He lied about who he was. He lied about his marriage. And now Martha was dead on his deck. The defense wasn't asking anyone to see Thomas as honest. Yes, he lied. Yes, he hid what happened. Yes, he disposed of Martha's body. But they argued, that didn't mean he caused her death. The commonwealth's position was much simpler. Thomas wasn't confused. He was adapting. Prosecutors argued his story changed whenever investigators found something that made the last version impossible to keep telling. So by the time the case moved toward trial, the question was not whether Thomas lied, because everyone agreed he did. The question was why? Was Thomas a panicked man who. Who made a horrifying decision after an accidental death? Or was the accident just one more story from a man who had already lied to Martha, to Brian, to police, to his wife, and to almost everyone else around him? The trial of Thomas Maimoni began with jury selection in January of 1993. In opening statements, prosecutors said Martha was still alive when Thomas put her into the water, weighted her with an anchor and a diver's belt. The defense said, no, Martha was already dead after an accident on the boat, and Thomas crime was what he did afterward, Lying, panicking and disposing of her body, not causing her death. One of the first major pieces of testimony came from two women who said they'd been on counterpoint with Thomas before Martha's death. One woman said Thomas had told her his wife died of cancer before taking her sailing. Once they were out on the water, she said, this conversation turned sexual. He described encounters with other women on the boat, and then he removed his clothing. Another woman said Thomas used a possible house purchase as the reason to get her on board. But once they were away from shore, she said, he touched her repeatedly, tried to pull her into the sleeping cabin, and didn't take a direct route back until she warned him she would go overboard if he touched her again. It gave jurors a pattern to consider. Thomas allegedly used sympathy or some other pretext to get women alone on his boat. And once they were offshore, the situation changed. The boat wasn't just the setting, prosecutors argued. It was part of how Thomas created isolation. Martha's husband, Brian Brailsford, testified for the prosecution he told the jury about going to Thomas while Martha was still missing and asking whether they'd gone sailing together, and that Thomas denied it. Brian also testified that Martha was an experienced sailor and a good swimmer, which cut against the idea that she was simply overwhelmed by ordinary conditions on the boat, according to Sarah Coke's reporting for the Boston Herald. A member of Palmer Cove Yacht Club also testified that the seas were calm the day Martha disappeared, which challenged the defense's version of a dangerous accident in rough, nighttime water. A former friend testified that Thomas maintained his innocence at first, then later admitted there had been an accident. She said he even talked about wanting to create a memorial for Martha if she was found dead. The former friend also testified that Thomas blamed his wife's absence, saying that if she hadn't been away, the situation wouldn't have happened. The medical testimony was more complicated. Martha had been in the water for days, and because of that, certainty was difficult. Dr. Gerald Feigen testified that he couldn't determine the cause of death with complete diagnostic certainty because of the condition of Martha's remains. But based on the circumstances, including the anchor and weight belt, he attributed her death to drowning. He also testified about Martha's head injuries, including one he believed was likely sustained before death, though he couldn't say with certainty whether all of the injuries happened before or after she died. There was also dental evidence Martha had recent damage to her teeth, including a fractured molar and a loosened lower front tooth. Prosecutors used that to argue that there had been force or some kind of blow before she entered the water. The defense called its own medical witness, Dr. Michael Baden, who testified that he didn't believe Martha was alive when her weighted body entered the water. According to Andrew Blake's trial coverage for The Boston Globe, Dr. Baden said the skin around Martha's ankle didn't show the kind of bruising or injury he would expect if the anchor line had been tied while she was still alive. Patricia, Thomas's wife, took the stand, too. She testified that she believed Thomas until Martha's body was found and the evidence connected to the boat began exposing his lies. She told the jury that she recognized the anchor tied to Martha's body. It was given to Thomas by her father, and the diver's weight belt was her own. Now, Thomas Maimoni testified in his own defense. He described a lifetime of failed relationships, job disappointments and lies he said he used to cover pain and insecurity. He admitted he lied to Martha about his wife having died of cancer, though he claimed he later told the truth on the day they sailed. But on the stand, Thomas stayed committed to the accident story. He explained he didn't call for help after she fell overboard and died in rough waters because he was afraid of how everything would look. He believed his life, his marriage, and the identity he'd built would collapse if he returned to shore with Martha's body. Defense experts testified that Thomas had a personality disorder, lived in a fantasy based version of himself, and reacted irrationally when that fantasy world was threatened. But prosecutors argued that no psychological explanation could erase what Thomas actually did. He weighted Martha's body, disposed of her in the ocean, lied repeatedly, and fled toward Maine. In closing, the defense asked jurors to see Thomas as a liar and a deeply flawed person, but not a killer, while the prosecution argued there had never been a boating accident at all and it was part of a cover up for murder. On February 12, 1993, after about seven and a half hours of deliberations across two days, the jury reached a final verdict. Thomas Maimoni was convicted of second degree murder. He was later sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 15 years. After the verdict, there was still one question the case couldn't answer cleanly. Why? Why did Thomas kill Martha that day? Motive in this case was never as simple as one sentence. At trial, two women testified about their own encounters with Thomas aboard Counterpoint. And prosecutors used those accounts to argue that Martha may have found herself trapped in a similar situation, isolated offshore with a man whose behavior changed once there was no easy way to leave. In that line of thinking, Thomas could have decided to kill Martha after she rejected his sexual advances. But why Martha if other women had rejected him too? A North Shore Sunday story titled Surviving Maimoni by Dinah Carden and Lisa Guerrero offers one possible explanation. Through Frances was Martha's mother in law. Frances believed Martha wouldn't have quietly let the incident go if she realized Thomas had brought her onto the boat under false pretenses or with sexual intention. In Frances view, Thomas may have understood that if Martha made it back to shore, she could expose what he had done. In that version of the case, murder was not just about rejection. It was about exposure. Thomas never agreed with that version, though. Even after his conviction, he kept returning to the same core claim. Martha's death was an accident and his real crime was what he did. Afterward, Thomas challenged the conviction more than once. In 1995, he asked for a new trial, arguing that the verdict went against the weight of the evidence and that his trial lawyer had been ineffective. A judge rejected those claims, and in 1996, the Massachusetts Appeals court upheld both his conviction and the denial of a new trial. Thomas tried again in 1999, this time arguing that his appellate attorney had been ineffective. That request was denied too, because Thomas had been convicted of second degree murder. He became eligible for parole after serving just 15 years of his life sentence. His first parole hearing came in 2006, and it forced Martha's family and community back into a story they had already lived through in the worst possible way. According to Brenda J. Buott's reporting for the Globe, Brian Brailsford opposed Thomas's release. Paul Brailsford, Martha's father in law, also opposed parole. He said his concern was protecting others, not revenge. And Martha's twin sister, Muriel Conant Garvey, said Thomas actions went far beyond panic and that she didn't believe society could afford to have him released. At that 2006 hearing, Thomas still described Martha's death as an accident. He focused his responsibility on what he did, panicking, lying and disposing of Martha's body. When he was asked why the public should feel safe if he were released. Peter Gilzinis reports for the Boston Herald. That Thomas answer get this was essentially that his sailing days were over. He wouldn't get back on a boat. Talk about missing the point. Thomas. The board was not persuaded, and he was denied parole in 2006. Thomas sought parole again in 2011, still maintaining that Martha's death had been a boating accident caused by a rogue wave and that his wrongdoing was disposing of her body. Afterward, the parole board denied that second request, too. Reporting indicated the board remained unconvinced by his account and concerned by his failure to accept full responsibility. By 2016, Thomas was seeking parole for a third time, and Martha's family once again had to listen as he explained her death in a way they did not believe. At that hearing, Thomas offered a new version of events, yet another change in his story. Julie Manganis reports for the Gloucester Daily Times that this time Thomas reportedly suggested Brian knew Martha was on the boat with him that day. Brian directly rejected that claim at the hearing, and a parole board member reportedly called that suggestion offensive and insulting, while a prosecutor called it disgusting. The parole board denied Thomas parole for a third time in 2017. Later that same year, Thomas Maimoni died while still a convicted murderer and after multiple failed attempts to be released. By then, more than 26 years had passed since Martha stepped onto counterpoint. The legal case was over, the appeals were over, the parole hearings were over, but the wound at the center of the story remained the same. Martha Brailsford went out for what looked like a summer sale, and she never came home. Martha Conant Brailsford was an artist, a designer, an animal lover, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a neighbor, and a person whose presence seemed to have left an impression almost immediately with everyone she encountered. Martha was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, and grew up in Chicago and Cleveland before finding her way to Massachusetts for school. She attended Endicott College in Beverly and later Boston University before returning to endicott for a third degree, this one in interior design, in 1989. She lived in Marblehead before moving to Salem Willows in 1986, where she shared a home with her husband, Brian, an older house they had been slowly redesigning. It had a roof deck with views toward the Atlantic. The ideal place for two people whose lives were tied in different ways to the water, like it does for so many. New England stole Martha's heart, but she had much deeper roots here. To begin with, her obituary noted her family connection to Roger Conant, the founder of Salem. Professionally, Martha was creative in more than one direction. She had worked as a clothing designer, operated a fashion business called Uncommon Threads, and she had just started her own interior design business. Friends and neighbors described Martha as artistic, active, exuberant, personable, soft spoken and friendly. She also cared deeply about animals. She had her beloved pup Rudy, and she was active in animal rights causes as a member of Citizens to End Animal Suffering and Exploitation and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. In a story by Tony Rogers for the Daily Item, one neighbor remembered that the day before Martha disappeared, she reportedly took the time to explain to a child why a jellyfish should be returned to the ocean so it could live. In the middle of an ordinary day at the beach, Martha noticed a living thing that someone else might have overlooked, and she cared enough to stop. Martha disappeared just as she was stepping into something she was excited about. She had work she cared about. She had plans. She had a home she and Brian were shaping together. She had a life in motion. After Martha was found, about 300 people gathered at Juniper beach for a private memorial. Children threw flowers into the ocean. People shared poems and memories near the beach. A small garden was placed in Martha's memory, decorated with flowers, rocks, shells and a plaque bearing her name. Years later, Martha's twin sister, Mariel Conant Garvey, described her as one of the kindest hearted people and said Martha had a reverence for nature and all life. Muriel told Laurel J. Sweet of the Boston Herald that Martha would have continued doing good in the world, and that is the loss at the center of this case. Not only the violence of what happened on counterpoint, not only the lies Thomas told, not only the years Martha's family spent hearing him call her death an accident. The loss is everything Martha didn't get to do after July 12, 1991 the rooms she didn't design. The business she didn't get to build. The walks she didn't get to take with Rudy. The dinners she didn't have with Brian. The art she didn't finish. The good she didn't get to keep putting into the world she deserved to come home. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case@darkdowneast.com Be sure to follow the show on Instagram arkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is Dark Down East. Dark down east is a production of Kylie Media and Audio. Chuck. I think Chuck would approve.