Episode 7: Night Crawlers

As the season's investigation reaches its conclusion, buried FBI files, political scandals, and one of the earliest behavioral profiles ever tied to the Barbara Bushnell case begin reshaping the story entirely. But after a denied FOIA request and a formal federal appeal, the biggest question may no longer be what happened in Ocean City decades ago — but why some parts of the story may still matter today 

Transcript

SPEAKER_11 0:06

When you rise before the sun, take your steps of your first morning coffee. You head to the shed. You grab the shovel. Dig in the dirt. You're bound to catch some worms today on the beach remains. I'm Ricky Conlin. Nightcrawlers. What's the story? It's a question I've asked since the beginning of this investigation. When I started this journey, now over five years ago, I never expected it to lead me here. And yes, it's had its moments of intrigue and excitement. But it's also had me investigating difficult topics and rehashing heartbreaking events. When I think of this investigation, I can't help but be reminded of Rosemary Moon McIntyre, Donna Riley, and Barbara Bushnell, and the tragic fates that fell upon them and their families and friends so many years ago. I followed a story, five years later, here we are. But before we move forward with where do we go from here, we need to ground ourselves in what we've already uncovered, what we know, what we suspect, and what still keeps this investigation alive. This is the distilled story of episodes one through six of season one of The Beach Remains. Let's start with episode one, which begins on a quiet morning at Stinky Beach when a couple walking their dog stumbled upon something no one forgets. A suitcase filled with pottery shards, women's clothing, and bones.

SPEAKER_09 2:45

Uh do you know what Stinky Beach is? Yes, sir. Okay. Uh we found a suitcase in the water, and then also there was a bone inside. There was a bone inside? Yeah, I have no idea if it's a do me a favor, touch anything else. Okay.

SPEAKER_11 3:02

And suddenly the beach wasn't just full of sunbathers, but divers, helicopters, cruisers, and enough law enforcement to make Baltimore easy news. But by nightfall, the official story began shifting. Bones were sent to Baltimore. No suitcase was mentioned. Police said they'd resume the search in the morning. The next day, a miscommunication. They now claimed it wasn't a suitcase. It was a barrel. And the bones, animal. This all happened during a period now under intense scrutiny.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

In a few moments, you'll hear from both Dr. Kukuka and Attorney General Brown about what the audit revealed. But I do want to say at the top, the findings of this audit are deeply concerning.

SPEAKER_11 4:07

A recent Maryland statewide audit championed by Governor Wes Moore, questions years of medical examiner determinations, including the window when our bones on Stinky Beach were found. And on the ground, two reporters, Megan Raymond and Sarah Swan, spent the entire day there and never saw officers enter the water until hours later.

SPEAKER_15 4:48

And a dude, probably a police officer, it's sitting on a it looked like a log that had rolled the head rolled up out of the water.

SPEAKER_08 4:56

No, they didn't have any markers in the water, from what I can remember.

SPEAKER_11 5:01

Then we learned that this 2018 incident mirrored something earlier. In 2016, local resident Mary Jane Pusey found a large bone in virtually the same spot.

SPEAKER_14 5:14

I was with family members and we were just enjoying a day there on the beach. And uh one of the persons in my family group found a really large bone.

SPEAKER_11 5:26

Mary Jane's photos were geotagged within feet of the 2018 find. The location of these 2016 bones is currently unknown. In episode two, we turned our focus to Sticky Beach itself, meeting longtime local Fritz Piler, who's lived on Sticky Beach since the 1960s.

SPEAKER_05 5:51

And that was back when the fish stocks, Davis and Lynch Fish Company and Martin Fish Company, we were really, really busy. We had boats coming in from New Jersey, the the sea clam boats. It was a family-oriented neighborhood. It wasn't black or it wasn't white, it was just family.

SPEAKER_11 6:13

Nothing in Fritz's stories had me believing that Stinky Beach was a dangerous place, or had been. And the place was beautiful, but still, there were bones everywhere.

SPEAKER_13 6:26

Right up there in the in that little section of grass, marsh grass, there are some more bones than it looks like fish bones. Um big fish. But the point is there are bones here.

SPEAKER_11 6:37

But eventually, we turned our full focus into the water. The tides were dramatic there.

SPEAKER_13 6:45

Is that scour hole?

SPEAKER_11 6:47

It's out here.

SPEAKER_13 6:50

It's not turning today though.

SPEAKER_11 6:52

No, man, we were out here last week. That thing was frothing like a qual like a colony. And approximately 200 yards from where we found two instances of bones, we discovered something else. A 50 plus foot scour hole, as confirmed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

SPEAKER_09 7:11

The depth that we've been seeing is approximate like around 50 to 52 feet deep at NAVD88. So it all depends on the datum that you're looking at as well. It's certainly a dynamic area. So we got a lot of sediment moving around there. Um, you know, currents are very strong. And getting back to your question about the uh the strength of the currents around the scour hole, what we're seeing there is probably uh almost about five feet a second uh at its strongest with within there.

SPEAKER_11 7:40

Respecting the depth, power, and danger of the scour hole, I entered the water with a retired Navy captain and EOD diver, Ben Sipperley.

SPEAKER_10 7:51

The colder water will get you too. Umless you're in some kind of wetsuit and have you know either a propulsion vehicle or something like that, like spending a lot of time in current is exhausting. That's why it's yeah, it's so hard. And we don't recommend doing like even like the Navy Dive Manual says that you know thou shalt not plan to dive in north of one knot of current. Just because it it it you'll get burned out so fast.

SPEAKER_11 8:15

Then confirmed what we suspected. This scour hole could trap and release objects with unpredictable force.

SPEAKER_10 8:23

You know, when when you've got something like a scour hole, it starts forming eddy currents, right? Where kind of whirlpool type effects where you know things that are inside them get pulled in, but things that are on the periphery of them get spit out, and so you start getting those really wild uh surface effects, and then they're magnified the deeper you go.

SPEAKER_11 8:40

No doubt we needed technology. That's how I found aerial and submersible drone expert near Pier.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

And we go the extra mile in every project that we do. Um we mainly deal with complicated projects.

SPEAKER_11 8:56

Within weeks, there we were, finding the bottom of that scour hole.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Yeah, of course, once we hit it. Was that current or something, current or something?

SPEAKER_11 9:08

Do you think it could be like a solid object of some sort? I don't know, but and to top it all off, that same day, in nearly the same spot as 2016 and 2018, I had a bone finding of my own. Hello, it's 2911. Hi, yes, this is uh Rick Conlin. I'm uh I'm from Annapolis, Maryland, but uh I'm on stinky beach home where it all speaks right now, and uh found three bone segments on the beach. Oh, yeah, what's the phone number you're calling me from? The bones I had found were deemed animal, as verified by forensic experts in later episodes. But combined with our footage, we now had a working theory. The scour hole might be responsible for moving objects, including bones, into that shoreline of Stinky Beach. In episode three, we start with two of Ocean City's most wildest events: the White Marlin Open Fishing Tournament and the H2O car rally. And how would you describe the scene here?

SPEAKER_08 10:16

Just vibes. I mean, I have a beer, I got a trucker hat, I feel good.

SPEAKER_11 10:29

And soon thereafter, we were processing what near Pierre captured inside the scour hole.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

I um I don't think that in the uh manual there is anything talking about going into a scour hole. Uh, you know, with um I think that we probably encountered about six uh not all the time. It's I think incredible we managed to get I mean it's it's only a few seconds of uh video, but we managed to bring it back from um very deep.

SPEAKER_11 11:05

What's strange is there's no sand. I mean it just looks like it's it looks like a cave. It looks like the an emptied out cave.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah, it's not definitely not no sand there, and it looks like uh different color um different color of I don't know if it's stones or it looks like a rock. But it looks like a black rock.

SPEAKER_11 11:28

We still hadn't found the actual 2016 or 2018 bones, but we brought the images of them to Towson University's forensic department. Professors Kelly Elkins and Dana Coleman were immediately struck by the 2016 bone photo. Well, wait, it does it does look it does look human to you.

SPEAKER_16 11:51

Oh, it's absolutely human in no uncertain terms. This is you're looking at the posterior left femur.

SPEAKER_11 11:58

Dana Coleman was subsequently able to note size, staining, and age markers, suggesting a possible 20th century adult as the possible source of our 2016 finding.

SPEAKER_16 12:12

Um, and it does look small, although that is a a size 13 foot next to it. Regardless, it's just something that jumps out, it looks small. Yeah, all of that being said, I don't see evidence that this is a thousand years old. Um it's hard to say, is this something that is more recent? Well, the that staining would tell me that this is probably historic period, 1900s. And without touching the bone, I can't really tell birthdays. I can say they were an adult. Everything is fused. Um, I can't really zoom in enough to see any evidence of arthritis.

SPEAKER_11 12:55

In episode four, we took a step back to better understand Delmarva policing and the unusually large 2018 police response to Sticky Beach. I spoke with my cousin, retired Delaware detective Brian Conlan.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

And those of you that you know, if you're familiar with that area, that that's a tremendous, tremendous amount of area to cover. And we would have something called minimum staffing. Um the minimum amount of troopers on a road per shift, which was four. So we would have on a pretty nasty call or uh uh, you know, and you need assistance, your backup it could be a good 15-20 minutes away. You know, the the police are extremely undermined.

SPEAKER_11 13:41

I asked Brian over his decades-long career as a Delmarva policeman, how often he came across human bone findings.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

I I've been thinking about this since we first talked, and I I don't remember more than possibly two of um bone findings that were actually human remains. In in the 27 years I was on, well we got called to a lot of bones being found, but the majority of that time it was uh animal. That type of police response is something big, something going on. Um you'd be lucky to get a police or a helicopter response for an incident, much less 10 or 12 troopers at the scene in in addition to whatever uh uh the other um assets that you had there in hell. So that sounds like a tremendous amount of uh um police presence for something very serious.

SPEAKER_11 14:41

Later in the episode, we tracked down and spoke to Chris Manifold, the man who found the 2018 bones in question on Stinky Beach.

SPEAKER_07 14:52

So when I was there, I don't believe the officers went in the water. They they they had long pants on and uh you know they they were waiting for the divers. I think they thought a diver would get there sooner than they did. Initially, I thought they thought somebody would be there within an hour or so. So they did mark the area off with some tape, um, and so no one would was gonna get near um the the area. I believe that they put something on the beach at the point to to show exactly where when you walk straight out uh it would be. But when I was there, it wasn't like they were in the water um going through what was in the suitcase or trying to dig it up.

SPEAKER_11 15:34

And when you combine Chris Manifold's account with the two journalists that we spoke to that also were on scene, it's possible police never retrieved the suitcase before the tide took it in August of 2018.

SPEAKER_07 15:52

And as for the suitcase itself, concept came from, but I didn't see a barrel and I didn't see wood, it was more of a suitcase.

SPEAKER_11 16:00

And you were interacting with it enough to like like manipulate the top, but like it sounded like you had a tactile feel to it.

SPEAKER_07 16:08

Yeah, the um the top from my recollection was partially open. I don't I don't know if it's a zipper or what what it was, but um that's what that's my recollection, though.

SPEAKER_11 16:20

And definitely unmistakably not round or circular.

SPEAKER_07 16:24

Definitely not round or circular, correct.

SPEAKER_11 16:27

And doesn't appear to be made of anything wooden.

SPEAKER_07 16:30

Correct.

SPEAKER_11 16:31

Okay. With witness testimony and forensic evidence refining our search, we turned to Maryland Cold Case resources. Our forensic leads connected us to cold cases. First was Donna Riley, an 18-year-old, found in marshland, a half a mile from Stinky Beach, and hailing from my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Then, the 1969 Rosemary Moon McIntyre case. To understand that era, we met retired judge and Maryland Supreme Court Justice, Dale Cathle, an Ocean City native with deep knowledge of its political undercurrents. Judge Dale Cathle. Retired Judge Dale Cathle.

SPEAKER_06 17:23

That's where I grew up. That's where I used to climb up on the buildings in Berlin and throw water balloons down on the parades. And uh that's where I went to school. Used to dance with preachers' daughters, they're good dancers.

SPEAKER_11 17:40

In episode five, we return to Dale Cathell, who describes Jack Sanford, state's attorney, state senator, and power broker of 60s and 70s Ocean City, and his strangely close relationship with Leroy Tyler, a convicted felon he pulled under his personal supervision.

SPEAKER_06 18:00

He would have never got Leroy Tyler as Lisbeth's servant if Sanford hadn't dealt with the people that controlled the corrections industry to get him down here.

SPEAKER_11 18:12

Cathell traced how Sanford allegedly shielded Tyler during the investigation into Rosemary Moon McIntyre's murder.

SPEAKER_06 18:22

Jack Sanford had told him that Leroy Tyler had was with him the night of Rosemary Moon's abduction and that they were not that it were stopped investigating. And the state police, this is my view now, had already determined that Leroy Tyler had killed her. And they were upset that the prosecutor was doing whatever he was doing, stopped the case, and that's when they I started getting anonymous calls.

SPEAKER_11 18:50

Anonymous calls in evidence boxes, alleged breakfast confessions, and threats.

SPEAKER_06 19:04

And at one time, right after I got the threat from this lawyer that he this Lisbeth had put up $5,000. This relative of mine in Sanford's office called me up and asked me to be careful. That's when I started carrying a gun.

SPEAKER_11 19:21

Sanford survived the perjury indictment, but lost re-election days after the Donna Riley case made the headlines. And when Cathell was asked about what other unsolved cases from that era that I should look into, he didn't hesitate. It was the 1981 homicide of Barbara Bushnell. Episode six, one more case is all about Barbara Bushnell, who was in 1981, 19, finishing a summer job at Dumpsters Dairyland, when she vanished and was later found murdered. Longtime Ocean City police detective Brett Case walked us through the case files.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

When I came into CID, uh was elevated to be a detective, which was a dream of mine. Um I had heard about this Bushnell case because there's two huge boxes, bankers' boxes, in the uh in the CID offices back in the old station and the new station. And anyone that comes into the unit, the first thing they do is tell you, familiarize yourself with this police report.

SPEAKER_11 20:36

Barbara left work at Dumpsters around 8 p.m.

SPEAKER_03 20:39

The only thing that was unusual is I don't think she was supposed to work as late that night as she was as she did.

SPEAKER_11 20:46

She normally drove from work to her rental unit a mile up the road. Did she ever walk that route or it was always drive back from work at night?

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Oh, definitely drive. She drove you know everywhere.

SPEAKER_11 20:57

A witness later saw her car shaking violently around 9 30, 10 p.m.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

He said he heard the vehicle pull in, heard a door slam, and then he looked through the window and saw the car shaking violently and then stopped shaking, and then he went back to doing whatever he was doing.

SPEAKER_11 21:13

What what time was this? Approximately like 11, 11:30 that night?

SPEAKER_03 21:17

I believe it was closer to 9:30 or 10.

SPEAKER_11 21:21

Evidence included empty beer bottles.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

Yeah, there's two empty, I guess they were 12-ounce, maybe 16-ounce Budweiser beer bottles, the old style with the twist-off cap, um, and they were both laying on the passenger side.

SPEAKER_11 21:37

And a knife recovered by a nearby canal.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

A dive team located the knife at the end in the canal at the end of the street.

SPEAKER_11 21:46

And a blue sweatshirt containing Afro textured hair that supposedly to this day still exists.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

My recollection is it was a it was like a zip-up hoodie, and it was um. Light blue, aqua color, and it was size larger, extra large. It was bigger than the sweatshirt that that um that the victim would have been wearing.

SPEAKER_11 22:12

On the sweatshirt, do you think they still have that hair and could that provide DNA testing?

SPEAKER_03 22:19

I I'm pretty sure they have the hair, but I don't think they could get extract anything from it. And I don't remember why.

SPEAKER_11 22:27

A separate woman kidnapped and raped less than a week earlier, but a block from Barbara Bushnell's place of employment at Dumpsters, described two assailants, a black man and a bearded white man. And yet another witness claimed she saw Barbara with two similar men heading inland, westward, over the Route 50 drawbridge.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

And that the person in the backseat, and I don't remember which it was the white or the Hispanic man might have had a broken bottle in his hand.

SPEAKER_11 23:21

And notably, Leroy Tyler, who lived blocks away from the beach, and the crime scene was never investigated. And then um, I asked this before, I think I know the answer, but uh Leroy Tyler and Jack Sanford, were they ever mentioned in this case?

SPEAKER_03 23:39

I I never saw their names, and I contacted quite a few of the older detectives that were involved in the case when it was fresh, and they don't recall the name either. So I don't know if that was they don't recall or it just wasn't part of the case.

SPEAKER_11 23:54

Seven episodes in, the picture is clearer. A shoreline where bones appear twice in the same place, a scour hole capable of pulling objects from unknown origins, a medical examiner era under audit, a political history steeped in power, corruption, and fear, and a pattern of unsolved cases stretching across decades. Taking a step back, it's all a lot to digest. Looking at things in aggregate, here's the barking dogs for me. Of the cases mentioned in episodes four, five, and six, Donna Riley, Rosemary Moon McIntyre, and Barbara Bushnell, there are multiple commonalities across the three cases. All of these cases had a common MO. Their victims shared the same gender, age range, and physical profile. Two of the victims involved the crime we know originated in the car. And while we don't know that for Donna Riley, it's highly likely. And all of these cases took place in the early off season of Ocean City, Maryland. Also worth noting that two of the victims, Donna Riley and Rosemary Moon McIntyre, were found in creeks and marshland feeding the same inlet where our investigation began on Stinky Beach. While we know there is no direct connection between the 2016 and 18 remains and animal bones found and discussed in this podcast, we do know they come from the same time frame and derive from the same watershed. The sticks of sunset, where Don O'Reilly was found, was about a half a mile away from Sticky Beach, Scour Hole, and the location of the 2016 and 2018 findings discussed in this podcast. As for the 16 and 18 findings, we know that 2016 was remains, but we don't know its current location. The 2018 find was deemed animal by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, but also worth noting that the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner's casework in that particular year had been reviewed by an independent audit with several damning findings already being reported by Maryland Governor Westmore. The suitcase, I believe, was a suitcase, not a barrel. And that suitcase likely washed away in the current of the incoming tide and the multiple-hour time lag between when the suitcase of phones was dialed into police via 911 and when the Maryland State Police Dive Team made it into the water several hours later. I swam in this incoming tide multiple times. Was there a miscommunication in stating what was found was a barrel? Very likely, given what it was a manifold, the guy that found the bones told us. Was it a cover-up? With all we know and don't know right now, that's a bridge too far. Finally, there's Leroy Tyler and Jack Sanford. As I mentioned in the previous episodes, Jack Sanford's history and ocean city justice, particularly his second term as state's attorney between the years of 1968 and 78, had a definitive and measurable impact on the homicide solve rates, as discussed in episode six, and our evaluation of national cold case data derived from the project cold case database. I won't recap the detail already laid out in episode six and summarize earlier in this episode. But I will say that between Dale Capil's book and my multiple interviews with him and my own investigation, I find it hard not to find a level of credibility to Dale's accusations. As for Leroy Tyler, a known felon with multiple hearsay accusations of the involvement in the Rosemary Moon McIntyre cold case. I'll stop short of predicting further. We know that 1977 and 78 were tumultuous years. I filed a freedom of information request to the FBI over the years of 1977 and 78 and was able to obtain multiple case files. What I found most fascinating about those FBI files was not that they proved Dale Cathell's stories true. They didn't. But they did prove the atmosphere Dale described was very, very real. On January 27th, 1978, Ocean City Assistant Police Chief Raymond Dunavan wrote the FBI describing a growing conflict between Jack and Elizabeth Sanford and local Ocean City officials. Dunovan denied accusations from Elizabeth Sanford, claiming he was seeking Baltimore hitmen and offered to proactively cooperate with federal investigators. Days later, on February 1st, Jack Sanford acknowledged the conflict in his own letter to the FBI. He claimed his wife had only been publicly overheard repeating rumors about paid hits, none involving Donovan. Sanford insisted the FBI did not need to get involved. Outside the foyer files, recall in episode five of this podcast, Dale Cathell separately accused Elizabeth Sanford of seeking a paid hit on him during the same period. Then, on February 8th, the FBI informed both Sanford and Worcester County Police Chief Lee Dugan that the Bureau would avoid jurisdiction in the matter. Later, at the end of that same month, Mayor Harry Kelly personally contacted the FBI, disputing Sanford's account, defending his integrity, and referencing voluntary polygraph tests, he claimed supported his version of events. The foyer files I obtained also contained anonymous newspaper clippings sent to the Bureau documenting the widening political warfare engulfing Worcester County, right up through the GLASS state investigation and Sandford's eventual indictment for subordination of perjury. What these records ultimately revealed was not proof of conspiracy, but something perhaps just as unsettling. By the late 1970s, distrust, accusation, and fear surrounding these officials had escalated to the point that the FBI was being drawn directly into the middle of it. I shared my FBI Freedom of Information Act findings with Dale. And here's the last thing he had to say about Jack Sanford.

SPEAKER_06 31:29

All that Sanford stuff made me ashamed. It's the only time I've ever been ashamed of the Eastern Shore.

SPEAKER_11 31:39

Unfortunately, to this day, there remains little more than muted suspicion and hearsay. But, in running five years of an investigation, I believe there are a handful of questions left to be possibly answered in this investigation. Here they are. First, does anyone know the whereabouts of the 2016 human femur found on Sticky Beach? Or have any additional items washed up on Sticky Beach from either 2016, 18, or otherwise? Second, the supposed 1969 Leroy Tyler Evidence Box from the Rosemary Moon McIntyre cold case. The one allegedly naming Leroy Tyler prime suspect, as Dale Cathell's book suggests. Does that box still exist? And or can anyone else at least validate its prior existence? Third, the good cops, the real policemen, the ones that gave Dale Cathell the heads up on the Rosemary Moon McIntyre cover-up. Are they alive today? What might they have to say about the incident all those years ago? Four, was anyone at the 1978 Saturday night Ocean Pines party where Donna Riley was last seen alive? 5. Was the hair found on the hoodie in Barbara Bushnell's car in 1981 still testable for DNA? 6. Did anyone else see Barbara Bushnell with passengers in her 1981 car ride home from Dumpsters Dairyland? 7. What is it with Jack Sanford's loyalty to Leroy Tyler? I asked Dale Cathell about this, and here's what he said. I tend to be a very rational person in investigating. I try to find rational explanations, and one of the most irrational things in this case, or cases, is the loyalty that Jack Sanford has to Leroy Tyler. I mean, I just think about on face value. Even like a cousin or a family friend, they start getting accused of murder or violence. Like, I'm gonna start disassociating. It just seems like he's always defensively, he buys them his lawyers, he lets him stay in the house after all these things. Like, what is that connection?

SPEAKER_06 34:19

Well, there are a lot of us is have thought, have asked ourselves whether that connection, and it always leads to Elizabeth. What was the connection with Lisbeth? Jack Sanford was doing what Lisbeth wanted and he was willing to do. And so, what was the connection between Lisbeth and Jack? Jack didn't drag Leroy Tyler out to police station. Lisbeth did. It was Lisbeth's car Leroy Tyler took. He had a car of his own. And we tried to find the car after we learned about his involvement with Rosemary Moon. And we never found the car. We found that it had been junked by Jack and Lisbeth. And we never found the car. We went looking and see if there was any blood or like stuff like that in it.

SPEAKER_11 35:09

I agree somewhat with Dale, but I believe there may be more to that story. Is there? Lastly, eight. What don't we know? What witnesses might turn up? What evidence may still be floating in the depths of the inlet, bay, or its various scour holes? Only time will tell. We know that in a nationally scaled beach town like Ocean City, Maryland, there's a delicate balancing act. One where locals lament growth, commercialization, and the loss of nostalgia.

SPEAKER_12 35:49

There are geese a plenty there.

SPEAKER_05 35:52

Well, they've taken away all the old nostalgia of Ocean City.

SPEAKER_12 35:55

The charm that's now scraped and a new high-rise or hotel is gone.

SPEAKER_05 36:00

You could go to Disneyland cheaper than you come to Ocean City.

SPEAKER_14 36:03

It just reminds me of the Las Vegas Strip. So I think it's way overbuilt, overcommercialized.

SPEAKER_11 36:10

But they bear that burden partially as to not bite the hand that feeds them.

SPEAKER_12 36:16

I was so much more critical of tourists and of tourist season, even though, admittedly, that was the income for that was the economy for all of us.

SPEAKER_11 36:27

And under it all is the heart of this place something worth preserving and protecting.

SPEAKER_12 36:36

Some of that area there in the Eastern Shore is definitely in my blood, definitely in my family history and memory.

SPEAKER_05 36:42

I tell my stories about how it used to be and all the good things, and I try to emphasize the good and kind things.

SPEAKER_14 36:50

And the people are the people have history. Each person has history that they share with you. And it's it's a wonderful experience to learn of the local.

SPEAKER_06 37:01

I've lived everywhere. I've been to every I've been to a lot of other places. I would never want to live any place else or die anyplace else.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

So yeah, I'm I'm gonna be here a long time until I die. I buried my mom over in Stinky Beach. We had her cremated, and I threw threw her ashes off the end of the old bridge. And so every time I walk over in Stinky Beach, I'm walking with my mom.

SPEAKER_11 37:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

And so maybe I'll do the same way.

SPEAKER_11 37:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:31

You know? Yeah. Don't throw me on Stinky Beach. So, you know, every time you walk on Stinky Beach, you're walking with me. After I'm gone, I'm still gonna be here.

SPEAKER_11 37:43

I love that. And I I don't doubt it. It's also a balancing act for those that run Ocean City and Worcester County. A balancing act where the police generally try to keep the populace safe, but do so with disproportionately small resources that are intended to be quiet and in the background, especially in peak tourist season. A balancing act where city officials do anything to keep the city economically vibrant and perceived as a safe family town.

SPEAKER_12 38:19

It can be a family-friendly resort, which is what its main, I guess, slogan has been for some time. But it's not.

SPEAKER_05 38:29

They want to try to say that it's a family-oriented town. Well, a lot of the families are afraid to go on the boardwalk at night.

SPEAKER_11 38:38

Occasionally outslips the whispers of monsters. Not just in the water, but sometimes lurking in the land at night. But when I reflect back on who or what perpetrated the atrocities that led to the homicides of Rosemary Moon McIntyre, Donna Riley, and Barbara Bushnell, I don't think about monsters. Instead, I think about worms. Slimy, disgusting, dirt-eating worms. The very bottom of the food chain. And while these worms have long since died hidden from the truth, it's never too late to dig them up. There is still truth to be told, lies to be corrected, and justice to be served. That ultimately is what has led me to releasing this podcast. Given everything I've conveyed over seven episodes, I believe that someone out there listening to this podcast knows something, some new piece to the puzzle that perhaps fills in the blanks and uncovers the truth. Crowdjustice is a real thing. And the audience of this show now potentially is a part of it. I encourage those of you that are interested in the case to participate in the online community and social media pages that are born out of this investigation. But before we close this season, there's one final thread I haven't shared publicly until now. During conversations with current and former Ocean City police officers, one detail kept surfacing quietly and carefully. In 1982, the FBI created a behavioral profile connected to the Barbara Bushnell murder investigation. And not just by anyone, by John E. Douglas. Yes, that John Douglas. Before Mindhunter, before criminal profiling entered pop culture, Douglas helped build the FBI's behavioral science unit itself. An early Douglas profile exists for this case. For more than 40 years, almost nobody outside law enforcement has publicly discussed it. After confirming the profile existed, I filed an additional freedom of information request with the FBI. Recently, the Bureau responded. Not because the document was lost, not because the case was too old, but because the FBI stated releasing material they acknowledged exists could interfere with an active law enforcement proceeding, a 40-year-old murder case. I've since appealed the denial to the Department of Justice and contacted Ocean City police seeking clarifications on the current status of the Bushnell investigation. Because the question is no longer whether the Douglas profile exists. We know it does. The question is, why does it still matter? Over this investigation, we uncovered inconsistencies, forgotten evidence, overlapping timelines, allegations of corruption, and the possibility that some of these cases were never viewed together the way they should have been. And somewhere inside an FBI file cabinet may sit one of the earliest behavioral analyses written by the man who helped invent modern criminal profiling. Maybe it changes nothing. Maybe it changes everything. But if John Douglas's original analyses ever collides with what we uncovered here, then this story may not end at Stinky Beach. It may force us to reconsider what was really happening in Ocean City for decades. And whether some of these ghosts were never truly buried at all. Special Agent Douglas, sir, if you're listening, let's talk. As for me, I'll follow where this story and journey continues to take me. For the family and friends of Rosemary Moon McIntyre, Donna Riley, and Barbara Bushnell, we'll keep in touch. Also, if you happen to be one of these people and haven't yet met me or spoken with my team, please reach out via social media through the Beach Remains Facebook podcast page. This story and journey are far from over. But season one of this podcast is. Stay tuned for what's next in store. And until next time, on the Beach Remains. I'm Ricky Conlin. The Beach Remains podcast is produced by Dream Oak Productions, All Rights Reserved, the song Gods and Ghosts performed by Koydog. Follow us on the Beach Remains Facebook page for show updates and fan community.

unknown 44:18

Now you sing until we go to sleep.

SPEAKER_11 44:25

This concludes season one.