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Epilogue

The Vanishings at Lake Timmeny

Announcer: Meredith Underwood

Previously, on The Vanishings at Lake Timmeny …

Erika Sullivan

It’s my word and Rick’s against the world, really.

We know what we did that night. I pulled the trigger.

I took a life. But I never meant to harm anybody—I was only trying to help.

We were young and foolish for sure, but that doesn’t mean I had malicious intent.

Unfortunately, my thoughts aren’t evidence.

What was in my heart doesn’t leave a trace.

Izzy Greene

From Gold Glitter Productions, this is The Vanishings at Lake Timmeny , and I’m your host—and witness—Izzy Greene, with Meredith Underwood, my college roommate and associate producer.

We’re at a critical point in the story, and for Erika, if nothing changes, she will most likely be charged with murder, among other felonies for her efforts to frame David Dunne for the crime.

If you need to catch up, now is a good time to listen to past episodes because, spoiler alert, I think there is a serious mitigating circumstance that could dramatically reduce Erika’s culpability, and I’m going to try to prove it.

Erika’s lawyer declined to be interviewed for this podcast, but I don’t think we need her testimony to make our case.

The state ballistics team concluded the gun recovered from David’s house was indeed the same weapon used to kill my aunt Susie.

Disclaimer, I am related to the victim of this story, one of three women who disappeared at the lake.

We have a statement regarding firearm forensics from Detective Baker, the lead investigator on the case.

Detective Baker

Handguns and rifles are manufactured based on blueprints that specify their configurations.

This is known as rifling. The spiral lands and grooves built into a firearm’s barrel leave an identifiable imprint on the bullet.

The different rifling techniques make each barrel unique, so a trained examiner can determine if a given bullet was fired from a particular gun.

We’re sure we have the murder weapon in our possession.

Izzy Greene

Erika claims she checked the gun to make sure it wasn’t loaded, which might reduce the murder charge to manslaughter.

But can we prove it? Her lawyers will talk motive, how Erika feared for Susie’s life because she knew her father was dangerous.

Julia Crawford sensed the same from earliest memories.

Cormac always made her nervous, but it wasn’t until recently that she fully understood why.

For more details, make sure to check out episode 4, where we talk about the playroom incident.

Julia Crawford

I can’t prove that my memory isn’t flawed. The voice we heard that day could have belonged to a stranger. The carpet may have been thrown out because of a spill. But I highly doubt it, just like I now doubt that Erika is the one most responsible for Susie’s death.

Izzy Greene

There’s no way to prove Julia’s take, but it raises several interesting questions.

The door to the playroom where the girls were trapped doesn’t lock from the outside.

Julia and I both confirmed that fact. You can block it with a chair, so the doorknob turns, but no matter how hard you pull, you can’t get out.

So what if Erika’s mother had taken off for her safety, but returned for her daughter?

It’s common knowledge that it’s hard to leave the Mob when you know too much.

David Dunne had that very problem. He got in over his head as a teenager, and that was that.

The Mob essentially owned him. Now he’s likely viewed as a liability by Jimmy T and his crew.

If David gets hit with a murder charge, he might be tempted to plea out in exchange for information on Jimmy T, which leaves him in a very precarious position.

Then again, David’s commitment to truth-telling isn’t exactly sacrosanct.

Which brings us to this week’s episode titled, “One in the Chamber,” because Erika is sure the bullet that killed my aunt was intentionally hidden inside the chamber of the gun used to kill her.

Rick Sullivan

I come from a family of hunters, so we know our way around firearms. Erika was also raised around guns. She and I planned everything carefully. I made sure the gun we were using wasn’t loaded. I even double-checked it that night. We just meant to scare her. Nobody expected a live round to fire.

Izzy Greene

And this is where the bartender comes in.

Yeah, I know we haven’t brought him up since episode 3, when Julia went to Bennington to search for Fiona.

Honestly, we might have left it there, if not for something David Dunne said when he was holding us hostage.

It really stayed with me. I asked Julia if she remembered it the same way I did.

Julia Crawford

I remember David had the gun aimed at Lucas, and he warned everyone that there could be a bullet in the chamber that Rick hadn’t checked for.

Izzy Greene

So how does this comment relate to our bartender? Well, in that episode, we discussed his rather odd quote when speaking with Julia.

Julia Crawford

The bartender told me that David didn’t appreciate getting berated by Jimmy T over the Bella situation.

He didn’t think he should have been blamed for the revenge porn, which had put unwanted attention on Jimmy’s operation.

David tried to build himself up by bragging to the bartender that he wasn’t someone to mess with—that, in fact, he knew how to commit the perfect murder.

He didn’t confess to killing anybody, but he did say the strangest thing… a riddle.

Izzy Greene

The riddle was: How do you shoot someone without ever pulling the trigger? I asked Detective Baker for her answer.

Detective Baker

I suppose if you hid a bullet in the chamber of a gun, someone might think the weapon was unloaded, and if they pulled the trigger, they could unwittingly shoot someone.

Izzy Greene

When I told Baker what David said to the bartender at the Black Rose, her expression darkened.

Detective Baker

That’s what we call circumstantial evidence. It doesn’t prove that David knowingly put a bullet in the chamber of the gun that killed Susie Welch, but it does suggest it’s a possibility, and he certainly had motive to kill her because she was threatening him with rape charges.

Izzy Greene

Which brings us to one other question. How would David have known which gun Erika was going to use?

Julia Crawford

I think there’s a simple answer—he could have easily overheard Rick and Erika planning the confrontation at the Shack. We all hung out there. Maybe he showed up at the right place but at the wrong time for Susie. He also worked for Cormac, so he had access to the house and his guns.

Izzy Greene

That’s the part that bothers me the most: Detective Baker doesn’t seem to think we have enough evidence to charge David Dunne with my aunt’s murder.

It’s hard to believe he didn’t hide the bullet in the chamber of the murder weapon, hoping Erika would silence Susie for him.

There are too many unsettling coincidences for that not to be true.

If he was simply a witness to Susie’s murder, why did he keep it a secret for thirty years?

Why make up that bizarre riddle? And why reference a bullet in the chamber when he held us all at gunpoint?

No, David was there that night to make sure his plan worked.

It may be circumstantial evidence, but I think it’s more than enough to instill doubt in the jury at Erika’s trial.

And we’re putting our theory out there in the hopes that someone with information will hear this podcast. Maybe David bragged to others, like he did to the bartender, about how to get away with murder.

As we mentioned previously, David Dunne is a father. I know his children, having cared for them as their nanny. Their mother and I have stayed in touch. She shared her thoughts on David’s involvement.

Debbie Glasser

I was in shock when I found out about the charges—I still am.

But naturally my concern is for my children.

I’m happy to share that they’re both doing well.

They don’t understand everything that’s happened, but they still have fond memories of the lake, though what they talk about most is Izzy.

They have supervised visits with their dad, which makes them happy, and they were also glad to see Izzy again.

Izzy Greene

That was a great day for me. And they recently sent me artwork they created at school—a hand-drawn picture of the glass house where we all lived for a few short, but eventful days.

I love that drawing, because it reminds me of the innocence of childhood and what I meant to these two young souls.

But it also breaks my heart, because I know what I must do, and David is their father.

I’m not a professional investigator. I don’t have many resources at my disposal. But I’m committed to seeing justice served. I won’t stop my quest for the truth until I reach my goal.

This leads me to Fiona: she may be even more determined than I am.

There’s been no trace of her online, through banking, credit cards, or any of the usual means.

Erika told me she delayed planting the bloody shirt to give Fiona extra time to get away.

A young murder victim attracts a lot more national attention than an adult woman who is simply missing for a day or two.

Maybe something happened to her that we don’t know about, but she is bright, bold, and supremely resourceful.

It’s possible she successfully pulled off a disappearing act in a day and age when it’s nearly inconceivable to fly under the radar and off the grid.

There’s a quote from Mary Poppins that relates: Everything is possible, even the impossible .