January 22, 2025

REPLAY | EP 44 | What Happened To Andy Puglisi? Lawrence, Mass & The Suspects In His Disppearance

1 hour 3 minutes

This is about abuse, missing, and murdered children. Listen with care.

In preparation for Friday's new episode with Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, a replay of Andy Puglisi's case first released in June 2023, in two parts.
There are many updates to this story, despite it being a decades-long mystery.

Explore the haunting case of Andy Puglisi, a young boy who vanished from a public pool in 1976, spotlighting the societal attitudes towards missing children during that time. There was no system in place, no organizations, resources or support. The discussion delves into a failed police response, and the lack of societal capital of these children. Andy's case shines a light on the systemic failures that persist in handling missing child cases, and worse, the cold realities of child exploitation, insidious clergy sex abuse, and the loss and anger survivors of sexual abuse have been left with.

The story of 10-year-old Andy Puglisi's disappearance in the summer of 1976 still echoes through those neighborhoods. We learned in shocking detail what was going on in 1970s Massachusetts from the documentary "Have You Seen Andy," that was researched, written, and produced by Melanie Perkins McLaughlin—Andy’s childhood friend and neighbor in the Lawrence projects. We confront the epidemic of missing and murdered children during that time, and confront the real threat of online child exploitation.

We travel the Merrimack Valley, remembering Michelle Wilson's 1969 murder in Boxford and the ripple effects of these events. Hear about the grim confessions of Charles E. Pierce and the sinister connections involving Wayne W. Chapman, a known predator whose dark legacy taints this New England community.

We continue to advocate for these children and so many like them.

Crime of the Truest Kind, EP 44 for photos, resources, and links

NCMEC information at missingkids.org
Tipline: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)

LINKS
Have You Seen Andy?, streaming now on MAX
by Melanie Perkins McLaughlin

Boston Globe "Have You Seen Andy' series, July 4, 1999
by Judith Gaines

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This podcast has minimal profanity but from time to time you get one or some curse words. This isn't for kids.

Music included in episodes from Joe "onlyone" Kowalski, Dug McCormack's Math Ghosts and Shredding by Andrew King