Kylie Lowe (0:01)

Hi Dark Down Easters. It's Kylie and if you enjoy diving deep into the cases from my home here in New England, but you may be looking for cases beyond to add to your listened to list, you need to check out Crime Junkie. Hosted by my friends Ashley Flowers and Brit, Crime Junkie covers cases from all across the country and even the globe, ranging from solved cases to murders to stories of missing persons, and even the cases that have hit the headlines in each episode. Ashley and Britt break down these captivating cases with the perfect mix of storytelling and heart in a way that makes you feel like you're right there with them. There's a new episode of Crime Junkie every week, so once you've finished listening here, listen to the latest episode of Crime Junkie wherever you get your podcasts.

Ashley Flowers (0:47)

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Kylie Lowe (1:28)

Dark down east is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. The unexpected can happen at any moment and Amica knows how important it is to be prepared. Whether it's auto, home or life insurance, Amica has you covered. Their dedicated and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to make sure you have the right coverage in place to protect what matters most. You can feel confident that Amica is there for you. Visit amica.com to get started. Netcredit is here to say yes, because you're more than a credit score. Apply in minutes and get a decision as soon as the same day. Loans offered by Netcredit or lending partner banks and service by Netcredit application subject to review and approval. Learn more@netcredit.com partners netcredit credit to the People When a new manager was gunned down at work during a narrow window of time when most of the staff should have been on lunch break, investigators honed in on two possible suspects among the victim's employees. To this day, the convicted killer and his supporters are convinced police picked the wrong one. But a key piece of evidence led the jury to a different conclusion. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is the case of Raymond Greene on Dark down east it was lunchtime on August 4, 1986 at the Belchertown State School in Belchertown, Massachusetts, and 30 year old Raymond Greene had just snagged himself a meatball sub and a soda from an eatery on campus, according to reporting by Lori Loisel for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. As Ray walked back to his office inside the power plant building, he stopped for a minute to talk to some other staff. Even though Ray was in a good mood and seemed happy, he clearly had a few things on his mind too, like the disciplinary meetings he'd just finished before lunch. Ray had been hired as the plant facility manager for the school about four months earlier. He was tasked with streamlining the department and making it more efficient. He was also responsible for enforcing rules related to time off and lunch breaks, assigning responsibilities to his staff of more than 60 employees, and making recommendations for demotions, firings, and other disciplinary action. It was something he didn't take lightly, and Ray was described as being much more strict than the manager who came before him. Sometimes his management style caused some tension among staff, but all in all, Ray seemed to be well liked by those who really got to know him in the few short months he'd been at his post, finishing his chat with the group outside the power plant building. Ray. Ray waved them off and then headed up to his office where he planned to enjoy lunch at his desk. But someone else had a different plan for Ray. That afternoon, an assailant met Ray at the door of his office and raised a gun in his direction. The shooter fired once and then twice, sending Ray to the floor. A third shot was fatal, but the shooter did not stop. He stood over Raymond's body and fired two more rounds into his head before fleeing the scene. Only a few minutes passed before Ray's secretary, Sally, returned to the building. She found Ray in his office lying in a pool of blood. Christopher Harder reports for the Transcript Telegram that Sally ran to find the maintenance supervisor, Samuel, in a nearby office and Samuel told Sally to stay put while he went to see Raymond's office for himself. Amidst the blood and Ray's lifeless body, Samuel saw spent shell casings on the floor. He grabbed the phone in Ray's office and called campus police and EMTs. He told them there's been a murder. Campus police roped off the scene as they waited for state and local authorities to arrive. Soon the Belchertown State school was a flurry of police activity. Raymond Anthony Greene was a success story by any definition. He grew up the third youngest child in a family of nine children and Charleston, South Carolina. He and his family experienced poverty and hardship while he was a young child, and after his mother and father passed away, Ray moved to Massachusetts where he had siblings and other extended family. He graduated from Dorchester high school in 1973 and then went on to earn his bachelor's degree in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1977. Raymond, whose nickname is listed as Ronnie in the Massachusetts Maritime Academy yearbook from 1977, loved travel and sports. Deborah McDermott reports for the Daily Hampshire Gazette that Ray was religious, hardworking and deeply devoted to his family. For several years after he graduated, Ray worked as a merchant marine for Gulf Oil Co. Before returning to the mainland for jobs in California and then back in New England at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. He accepted the position at Belchertown State School in the spring of 1986, a role his brother Reginald told Charlene Postel of the Transcript Telegram, quote, it was a job that he wanted for a long time, end quote. Ray supervised the maintenance, carpentry and masonry of the school with a staff of over 60 employees. His brother said that Ray may have been a quiet homebody outside of work, but he was a take charge kind of personality at the office. He was committed to improving the department in the school as a whole, so much so that he went beyond the call of duty, sometimes working Saturdays just to make sure the job was done and done well. Raymond wasn't married and he hadn't found a place of his own yet. He had been renting a room at the YMCA in Springfield since late July, but he was well on his way to establishing himself until it was all taken away. An autopsy showed that Ray died from a gunshot wound to the head and sustained other gunshot wounds to his right arm, one below his right eye and other wounds on his head, including two behind his right ear. Judging by gunpowder residue in two of the head wounds, Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Smith concluded the shots were fired at close range. The murder weapon was believed to be a.22 caliber pistol, though it had not been recovered at the scene. Witness interviews identified a very narrow window of time, just about 35 minutes, that the murder was likely to have occurred. Court records show that the investigation determined Raymond was killed between 12.25pm on August 4, when he was seen walking into the building with his lunch, and before 1pm When Sally found him deceased in his office. Charlene Postel and Jules Crittenden report for the Transcript Telegram that police couldn't locate anyone who witnessed the shooting firsthand and because of the Loud machinery that ran inside the building. It was unlikely anyone heard the gunshots. Ray's office was also in a remote section of the grounds, Far away from the housing units and other buildings. However, his office was also typically left unlocked, so if someone wanted to gain access, they probably could. It's important to note the controversial history of Belchertown State School before going any further with this case. The school was founded in 1922 to care for children with developmental disabilities. Years after Raymond's murder, the school would become the subject of lawsuits for its inhumane practices, abuse and neglect of residents. The school closed in 1992, but at the time of Raymond's murder in 1986, it was home to more than 370 residents. Administrators had no reason to think that a resident might be responsible for Ray's murder, and it wasn't likely any of the residents had access to a firearm. However, the school also had a large staff of 1,400 employees with a vast 785 acre campus and over 30 buildings. The gates to the school were unguarded, and the sheer size of it meant pretty much anyone could come and go. Not to mention, the school had a network of underground tunnels that housed the heating, plumbing and electrical systems and connected various buildings. If someone knew their way around those tunnels, they might serve as an escape route to slip away undetected, if that was their goal. Needless to say, investigators had a lot of ground to cover, starting with Raymond's office itself. Investigators recovered a bullet from Raymond's office, as well as two pairs of sunglasses. One pair was broken and later determined to belong to Ray. A piece of the sunglasses was found embedded in one of the bullet wounds in his cheek. The other pair were a pair of Foster Grant brand sunglasses, but it wasn't immediately obvious who they belonged to. Other evidence included pieces of a green scoring or scrubbing pad found on Ray's face. Later, during a search of school grounds, an officer digging through a large metal trash bin on the first floor of the powerhouse building found a brown paper bag all crumpled up. The trash bin was located just outside the entrance to the tunnel system. Also inside the bin and next to the crumpled paper bag was a green scoring pad rolled into the shape of a cone. It looked a lot like the fibers of the green scoring pad found on Ray's face. The officer collected the paper bag and scoring pad, and both were sent for analysis. It would take months for that testing to lead to any real conclusions. Meanwhile, interviews began with Ray's staff and other school employees, and it seemed that not everyone was thrilled with their new supervisor. Is your child struggling with a specific subject or need help with homework? IXL Learning is an online learning program for kids. It covers math, language arts, science and social studies. If your child is struggling, this is the smartest investment you can make. A single hour of tutoring costs more than a month of IXL. IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the U.S. watching my daughter learn new things is the best part of the toddler age and no doubt that will continue as she grows up. I want to give her the tools she needs to feel confident in school. And an online program like IXL Learning is not only more affordable than traditional tutoring and more accessible, it's effective. 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And listen, do not sleep on the home goods at Quint's. Or maybe do because the bed sheets are stellar and way cheaper than those other brands you see online. I also just ordered more of the Turkish waffle terry bath towels to stock my guest room because that's what being an adult is getting excited about. Towels. Give yourself the luxury you deserve with quince. Go to quince.com downeast for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q U I-n c e.com downeast to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com downeast robbery was ruled out as a motive for Raymond Greene's murder early on and his personal life didn't show any signs of someone who might want to kill him but investigators were confronted with two reasons that may have formed a motive for his murder. As Ray's brother, Leonard Greene, said, it was their family's belief that Raymond was targeted because he was new, young and black. All of Ray's employees that he supervised were white. Paulo reports for the Daily Hampshire Gazette that in the weeks after Ray's murder, the NAACP Springfield chapter conducted their own investigation of the school and interviewed some employees. They found that there was a climate of racial hostility at Belchertown State School, and at least one other employee who was black received a death threat following Ray's murder. School administrators acknowledged that they'd received complaints and heard concerns about racism at the school and had been working to address that by increasing diversity among management roles. However, at the time of Ray's death, overt racism remained the reality for people of color at the school, and investigators were weighing the possibility that Ray's race could have played a role or have been the sole motivator for his murder. There was something else, too, that investigators believed could make up a motive to kill Ray. He was respected among his counterparts and administrators for his work ethic and initiatives that were improving the efficiency of his department. But some of the employees he managed had different feelings about their new boss and his new policies. Compared to his predecessor, Raymond more strictly enforced the length of lunch hours and changed policies relating to vacations and days off. He required his staff to request any time off in advance and did not allow compensation time or any overtime worked. These policies were reportedly unpopular. However, Raymond's secretary later said that many employees actually preferred getting paid overtime wage rather than receiving time off credit in exchange for overtime. Not only were his new policies beginning to ruffle feathers, according to an anonymous source, just prior to Ray's murder, he was looking into reports of theft at the school and within his department. He was investigating complaints that some of his employees were ordering excess supplies, then selling them for personal profit. This source did not say who may have been involved, just that Raymond was supposedly looking into the alleged theft. Part of Raymond's job function also put him in a position to make disciplinary recommendations. And that very morning before he was killed, Ray was in two disciplinary hearings for two separate employees. There was nothing to suggest his murder was random. It was far more likely that whoever shot him had singled him out for any number of reasons. So investigators narrowed their gaze on employees who may have had issues with Ray and who could have had information or knowledge of Ray's movements and schedule and tracked him down in his office during lunch hour. Within days, police had interviewed dozens of employees at Belchertown State School but were coming up with little information regarding the murder. According to reporting by Peter Pollard for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, investigators hadn't encountered anyone among the staff who showed signs of great or unusual anxiety, and those they'd questioned already were cooperative. Most of the people who worked for Ray had solid alibis for the time of the murder. Police intended to re interview some staff they'd already spoken to and keep their focus on eliminating employees. During the second week of the investigation, while mixed feelings swirled among those same school employees, at least one member of the maintenance staff disagreed that one of their own could have killed Ray, while others figured they could be working alongside a killer. The investigation stretched into September and October without an arrest. By then, the FBI had weighed in on the case with a psychological profile of the crime and potential perpetrator or perpetrators. The FBI believed based on the circumstances of the crime and compared to other similar cases, the murder could have been plotted by several people, and some of those individuals could also be at risk of being killed themselves. The FBI profile also theorized that the victim and killer knew each other, and the fact that Ray was killed at work and not after work hours was an intentional choice. The FBI suggested the killer or killers had knowledge of ways to commit a murder and avoid getting caught. This FBI psychological profile got people talking, but it didn't generate any immediate action. In November, the DA's office announced a cash reward of an undisclosed amount for information leading to an arrest, but nothing came of it. On the outside, it seemed like Ray's murder was at risk of going unsolved. But things were happening behind the scenes. Police and forensic chemists were working together to analyze and test physical evidence. The crumpled paper bag and the green scoring pad found near it in the metal trash bin just outside the tunnels beneath the power plant building seemed like incredibly important and relevant items. And testing confirmed that to an extent anyway. A chemist processing the crumpled paper bag located a fingerprint in a small drop of blood. The bag also had a small hole with dark residue surrounding it, which tested positive for lead. The cone shaped piece of green scoring pad also tested positive for lead and gunshot residue. A small number of fibers from on or inside the bag were removed for microscopic analysis and other testing, and the chemists found that these fibers were consistent with the green scrubbing pad found with the bag and the fibers found on Raymond's body. Investigators theorized that the bag and the scrubbing pad were used as a makeshift silencer. The scrubbing pad may have also been intended to score the bullet, making it more difficult to compare and analyze to other ballistics evidence. The fingerprint found in the drop of blood was among over 60 individual prints at the scene and on the paper bag. Paul oh and Deborah McDermott report for the Daily Hampshire Gazette that all of the fingerprints were sent to Massachusetts State Police in Boston for comparison using a computerized identification process. But that effort failed to generate a match, so investigators reverted to traditional methods of analysis and would manually compare the prints to any suspects. And after revisiting interviews with employees, police had zeroed in on two of Ray's own staff members. One of Ray's employees, a man I'll call David, had reportedly made some suspicious statements prior to Ray's death and some alarming statements directly to the lead investigator on the case. According to reporting by Marsha Blomberg for the Republican When Massachusetts State Trooper Kevin Murphy interviewed David, he allegedly told the trooper that, yeah, he did have some ongoing issues with his boss, Ray. They'd even gotten into an argument a few days before. On August 1, David claimed he brought his shotgun to work more than once, including the day of the murder, because he was fed up with Raymond and thought the shotgun would get him to back off. The red flags are strong with this one and they just get bigger and brighter because David was working outside the powerhouse where Ray's office was located on the day of the murder and David admitted to entering the building between the window of the murder to get a tool from the garage on the other side of the powerhouse. David explained that he went into the powerhouse building shortly after Ray was seen walking inside with his lunch, but David said he was basically just taking a shortcut through the building to the garage on the other side. He cut up to the second floor, went out a gate into a parking lot and then to the garage to pick up the tool he was looking for. He said the walk took him 10 minutes. Other employees who were in the garage that afternoon reported seeing David there sometime between 12:35 or 12:40 and he stayed in the garage talking until after 1pm One of the staff who was in the garage talking to David said they heard a sound kind of like a hammer echoing around five times after David was in the garage and before 1pm the noise was odd to the employee because it sounded like someone was working when everyone would have been on lunch break knowing Ray walked into the building around 12:25pm and witnesses placed David in the garage by 12:35 or 12:40. That could rule David out as a suspect if those hammer like Noises heard while David was in the garage were in fact, gunshots. And if it really did take 10 minutes to walk from the powerhouse to the garage. But remember, the machinery in the building would have made it difficult to hear and identify gunfire either way. And the state trooper checked his times twice, and it never took him more than three minutes to cover the distance between the powerhouse and the garage, even when walking slowly. It was a discrepancy for sure, but not all that strong when it comes to proving someone committed a brutal murder. And David wasn't the only person facing scrutiny. There was another employee who had recently been directly impacted by some personnel decisions Ray had made. When analysis came back on key pieces of evidence, this employee's fingerprints were right in the middle of it.