Paula Jean Welden vanished whilst hiking on Vermint’s Long Trail. Paula was born on 19th October 1928 and was the eldest of four daughters. Their father, renowned engineer, architect and designer William Archibald Welden was employed by Revere Copper and Brass Company. It was December the 1st 1946 and Paula was a sophomore at Bennington College in North Bennington. Before Paula Welden disappeared her dormitory was Dewey House, one of the older dormitorys on site and amazingly still standing today. Look, she left that door probably;

Fakipedia News

Read most articles about Paula Welden’s disappearance and you will see sensational remarks like “She turned a corner and vanished”. See Bennington Triangle – Wikipedia. Paula Welden Vanished but not like that. It’s fake news, sort of. I couldn’t find any evidence to support her disappearance happening like that. I also admit I was a bit disappointed. Researching the case using the Newspapers of the time does not mention anything about people seeing Paula turn a corner and vanish. So what happened? At about 2:45 PM Sunday 1st December. Louis Knapp, a building contractor living just outside of Bennington picked up a girl matching Paula Welden’s description from outside Bennington College.

The girl reportedly slipped on the sidebars of his truck climbing in. The girl was quiet and Knapp asked where she would like to be dropped off. She replied asking “Are you going anywhere near Route 9”. Knapp replied he lived that way out. The girl mentioned she was heading for the Long Trail. The last he would see of the girl would be her heading for the trail. He realised she was missing after reading the paper on Tuesday 3rd December 1946. Knapp was never a suspect and arrived home for his Sunday lunch at 3:15 PM. Weeks later, Welden’s father would confirm the person Knapp dropped off wore the same hood as his daughter.

Sightings of Paula Welden

There is then a report of someone matching Paula’s description getting a bus out of Bennington at 8:30 PM on the Sunday night. It’s unconfirmed but would match up with the next reports. But here’s where it gets sketchy. The next suspected sighting of Paula would be on Monday. I can’t work out if this is Monday 2nd December or Monday 9th December 1946. I suspect the sighting is on Monday 9th December. At 9:30 PM, Ora Telletier, a waitress at the Modern Restaurant reported serving a girl matching Paula’s description. Telletier was sure it was Paula because her face had been on the front of the paper most of the week. Telletier called the Bennington Evening Banner (The Banner) to report this and they got a picture of Paula to her.

She confirmed it was the same girl she had waited on. She was reported to be with a man of a heavy complex who was intoxicated and abusive. When the man went to pay his bill the girl called the waitress over and asked where she was. She was told Fall River. The girl replied saying she had got to Fall River on Monday, I suspect Monday the 2nd December with £1000 and none was left. She said she had to get back to Bennington. The waitress advised her to head for the bus depot. 

Police issue description of a man

Shortly after interviewing the waitress, the Fall River police would release a description of this man. John Proud, manager of Adams Clothes Store said he sold clothing to a man matching this description on the Saturday before Paula went missing. He was with two other men and said they might be going hiking. He said he was a student at a photographic school in New Haven, Connecticut. Interestingly, I also found Paula’s dad had mentioned the student living next door to them had said he wanted to visit Paula at College. In the article, it doesn’t give a name or a description of the person so it’s not possible to tell if this is the person in the shop buying the clothes.

So, if this is to be believed, the last sighting of Paula so far is December 9th in the restaurant. If that’s not true, the last confirmed sighting isn’t of her getting dropped off by Knapp. There was one more confirmed sighting of Paula Welden at 4 PM Sunday by Ernie Whitman. She asked Mr Whitman which way it was to get onto the Long Trail. He would go on to say three of his friends had seen the same girl walking over a bridge which only led to The Long Trail. These accounts would further be corroborated by a group of hikers who said they saw the same girl at Fuller Camp, a Long Trail shelter on Sunday afternoon. 

Why did Paula Welden vanish?

So what did happen to Paula Welden? Paula Welden Vanished yes, it’s a weird case. It looks like she definitely hiked the trail and possibly got a bus out of the area on Sunday night. Maybe she was the girl in the restaurant with the drunk and maybe, just maybe he murdered her when he found out her money was gone. One thing is for sure, it’s nothing like the bullshit on fakeapedia. Have your say in the Vanished Forums.