Some disappearances don’t fade.

They linger — because they are unresolved.

In small towns, especially, when a missing child becomes part of the landscape. A name whispered. A memory that refuses to settle.

This is the story of two teenage girls who vanished within a year of each other — in towns just miles apart — along the New York–Pennsylvania border.

One girl was never found.

The other was found murdered.

And decades later, their stories remain strangely, hauntingly connected. This is the stories of Mary Lou Bostwick & Sharon Coston.

In the early morning hours of April 2nd, 2008 police received a call that a woman’s screams were heard near the 500 Block of Jennings Creek in Killawog, NY. Killawog is located just north of Whitney Point, NY and only about 15 minutes north of Binghamton. When the police arrived at the location they did their due diligence, but found nothing out of the ordinary. What the police were unaware of, at that time, is at the exact time when the 911 call originally came in, Bethanie Lynne Dougherty mysteriously vanished from her home directly next door from where the call was made. Since that morning, there has been no sign whatsoever of where Bethanie could’ve gone or who is responsible for taking her. In this story, I’m going to share what happened in the evening leading up to Bethanie Dougherty’s disappearance and everything we know about her case. This case is truly a night mare, something truly out of the Twilight Zone.

In the quiet hours before dawn on March 17th, 2011 — St. Patrick’s Day — the city of Binghamton was asleep.

Then, at 3:30 a.m., flames erupted on the front porch of a home at 20 Milford Street.

Inside were seven members of the Aissa family.

Six would escape.

One would not.

Seventeen-year-old Jeffrey Aissa — a twin, a brother, a son — never made it out.

And for nearly fifteen years, the truth about what happened that night would remain buried beneath smoke, silence, and unanswered questions.

It was January 11th, 2006. Binghamton was cold that night, quiet in the way only a small town can be when it’s hoping to keep its secrets.

She was the kind of kid who did everything right. Cheri Lindsey — just 12 years old — was known throughout her Binghamton, New York neighborhood as the girl next door. Friendly. Athletic. Dependable. She was a seventh grader at East Middle School. Bright, kind, and always lending a hand, especially to her dad, a Binghamton police officer. During Little League games, you could find her behind the scoreboard, keeping track of every play. And after school? She delivered the Press and Sun, rain or shine. One of those kids who stuck to a routine.

March 26th, 1984, was one of those ordinary days. A Friday. Cheri had gone to collect money on her paper route. She told her parents she’d be back soon. She had plans. She was collecting payments that day, earning money to help throw a baby shower for her teacher.

She left her home a little before 3 p.m. She never came back.

April 21st, 2022 was a day that was cool but seasonable, typical of upstate New York in April. Temperatures hovered in the 50s (°F) during the day and dipped into the 40s or upper 30s by night. People were starting to get outside again, walking, biking, preparing gardens. Sunset occurred around 7:50 PM. The East Side of Binghamton was a quiet, largely residential neighborhood with modest homes and long-established families. Known for being relatively peaceful. It’s not considered a high-crime area. Like much of the U.S., Binghamton was still recovering from the emotional and economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools were fully reopened, but some students (especially middle schoolers like Aliza) were still adjusting to normalcy. Local softball leagues were starting up. Parks and schoolyards were more active. At the time, Binghamton wasn’t experiencing a spike in gun violence. Crime was relatively low. That’s part of what made Aliza Spencer’s murder so jarring — it felt aberrant, like something that just didn’t happen in that part of the city. People were talking about the opioid crisis, mental health access, and housing costs — ongoing issues in many upstate New York communities. But the streets were not considered dangerous for families or children. There was already a mild distrust of local law enforcement in some circles, especially when it came to transparency and community policing. That tension only deepened after Aliza’s shooting and the perceived lack of communication from police.

When Nicole Marranca stopped calling her family in the summer of 2017, they knew something was wrong. Nicole had struggled, yes—but she was very open about her struggle with addiction. At the time she was without stable housing, engaging in sex work to get her basic needs met. But she always stayed in touch. She saw her mother regularly and called her father regularly, no matter what. Until she didn’t. In the years since, no trace of Nicole has ever been found. 

There are some locals who believe Nicole didn’t just disappear. That she may have been targeted.We don’t know. There are so many unknowns in Nicole’s story. But what we do know is this: her life matters. She was deeply loved. And she was Last Seen in the Twilight Zone.

Our thoughts are with Nicole's family, who just celebrated her birthday on December 11th.

https://ithacavoice.org/2017/11/father-missing-ithaca-woman-im-waiting-worst-id-love-hear-best/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://murderincorp.wordpress.com/2024/01/01/upstate-ny/

Missing Persons podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2L8ObEDb5ggn5c9P4tWmuf?si=3752118de70346e2

Today’s story is one of hate, heartbreak, and horror. But it's also a call to remember those we lost. Today, we go to Buffalo, New York—a proud Rust Belt city known for its snowstorms, football team, and the blue-collar resilience of its people. But on May 14, 2022, something happened that would fracture this community... a hate-fueled act of domestic terrorism. An 18-year-old man from the quiet town of Conklin drove more than 200 miles with one clear, terrifying motive: to kill Black people.

This is the story of the Tops Market Massacre.

It was a Saturday afternoon in Buffalo’s East Side—a neighborhood rich in history, culture, and community, and one that’s predominantly black, which is kind of crazy to me that he drove all the way there because theres quite a large black community right here in Binghamton, or like Syracuse? Why Buffalo?

Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue was bustling. Families shopping for Sunday dinners. Elderly neighbors picking up prescriptions. Regular folks going about their day. Tops was one of the few full-service grocery stores in the area. For many residents, Tops wasn’t just a store. It was a lifeline.

But around 2:30 p.m., that ordinary afternoon turned into a nightmare.

A young white man dressed in tactical gear and armed with an assault-style rifle stepped out of his car in the parking lot. On his weapon were racial slurs and symbols.

He livestreamed the attack on Twitch.He opened fire before even stepping inside.

Within minutes, 10 people were dead. All were Black. Three others were wounded.

A few weeks ago, I was in the car with my husband, driving through downtown Binghamton. We passed a small greenspace; it’s easy to miss & nestled in a busy intersection. It’s the Memorial Park in honor of the American Civic Association. At its center, there’s a broken column, surrounded by thirteen glass birds in flight. Each bird represents a life lost in one of the most devastating events in our city’s history.

There’s something we noticed about Binghamton—it’s that many of our most beautiful public spaces are named in honor of its most tragic moments. Places designed for reflection, built from heartbreak. There’s something eerie about it.

As we drove by, I started telling him about April 3, 2009. It was the day a man walked into the American Civic Association on Oak St. in Binghamton NY & opened fire. I told him about the families hopeful for good news that never came, and the advocates who held them in their grief. I told him about how this one day changed our city, and how it pushed everyone to think differently about emergency planning and how to move in a crisis.

In this episode, we’re going to revisit that day—not just to recount the timeline of events, but to understand what it meant for the people in that room, for the families who lost someone, and for a city that will never forget.

Sources:

https://americancivic.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Binghamton_shooting

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/nyregion/04hostage.html

Who is Stacy Stewart, Christopher Thomason, and Brian Early? Today, we will go down the next rabbit hole of another man, or men, who could also be responsible for her disappearance. We're not going to talk about the entire case again like we did in Part 1 and 2 go give those a listen first. Fasten your seatbelts because we are about to DIVE in hard. Almost all of the information from this episode is taken from the book Reign of Justice, the link to that is down below, there is so much more new information in it. 

Again, if you haven’t listened to part one or two of this series, you should definitely go back and listen Part 1 gave a general overview of this case. In Part 2, we talked about Cal Harris. What evidence made him appear guilty, what evidence might be missing?

https://www.amazon.com/Reign-Injustice-Cal-Harris-Story/dp/B08F74RWVH