When local farmer Frank Vadney went out to inspect his fields at the edge of town in Bethlehem, N.Y. 43 years ago, he could not have expected to find a dead body on the corner of his property – but he did. Was this a murder? The body was so badly decomposed, the cause of death was uncertain.
In the area that has since been referred to by the Vadney family as Dead Man’s Cove, the discovery of human remains in 1981 would be the start of an intriguing investigation – one that would go cold for decades. In 2013, Sergeant Adam Hornick of Bethlehem PD was tasked with researching the old John Doe computer entry made by his department. The journey to identify the body found on the Vadney Farm in 1981 takes Hornick through a web of unknowns, challenges, and obstacles. But his persistence pays off with the eventual identification of the ‘man without a name’ who had been buried long ago in a pauper’s grave in Albany County.
Hornick recalls his journey using investigative processes, new technologies and gut instinct as he searches for a missing person who had never been reported missing. The episode, Dead Man’s Cove, is as much a story about the compassion of a police officer to the survivors of Bethlehem’s John Doe, as it is an account of advancements in DNA science, genetic genealogy and evolving state law. Former police chief Mark Spawn interviews Retired-Commander Adam Hornick about the case of Franklin Feldman in this week’s episode of APB Cold Case.
APB Cold Case is a true crime audio podcast featuring unsolved missing persons and murder cases from across the country.
Episode Link – Dead Man’s Cove: Anatomy of a John Doe Case. Go to: www.APBColdCase.com.
