捉迷藏

你知道那些八十年代的电影吗？一群孩子骑着自行车在社区里闲逛，然后偶然发现了一个谜团。这个故事的开头有点像那样。

You know those eighties movies where a bunch of kids wander the neighborhood on bicycles and then stumble into a mystery? This story starts kinda like that.

你知道，在我成长的过程中，公园里大概住着二三十个孩子，我们就像在自己地盘上一样到处游荡。

You know, growing up, there was probably, you know, a good two or three dozen kids that lived in the park, and we just roamed the place like we own the place.

那是杰西·摩根。在这个故事的电影版本中，他可能会是这群孩子的头儿，那个机灵鬼，就像科里·费尔德曼的角色。

That's Jesse Morgan. In the movie version of this story, he'd probably be the leader of the group, the scrappy one, the Corey Feldman.

活动房屋公园的运作方式就是，很多人来了又走。我是少数几个从两岁搬进来，一直住到18岁才离开的孩子之一。

The way that trailer parks work, I mean, there's a lot of people that come in and go out. I mean, I was one of the few kids that moved in when I was two and moved out when I was 18.

1985年，杰西11岁。那是任天堂游戏机登陆北美的一年，新可乐上架销售，卡尔文与霍布斯漫画开始在报纸上连载。那年，杰西和他的朋友们发明了一个游戏。基本上就是捉迷藏，只不过寻找的人骑着四轮摩托车。

In the 1985, Jesse was 11 years old. It was the year the Nintendo came to North America. New Coke hit the shelves, and Calvin and Hobbs started running in newspapers. That year, Jesse and his friends came up with a game. It was basically hide and seek, except the seeker rode around on a four wheeler.

所有孩子都会躲起来，最后一个被找到的人可以骑四轮摩托车，就这样一遍又一遍地玩。我们整个夏天都在玩这个游戏。

All the kids would hide, and the last one that got found would be able to ride the four wheeler, just do that over and over. And we we play we played all summer long.

杰西长大的那个活动房屋公园，位于一个小镇，小镇的主街有一半实际上属于另一个村庄。紧邻公园的是一片超过15平方英里的高大红松和沼泽密林，占据了整个镇子大半面积——熊溪州立公园。

The trailer park where Jesse grew up, it's in a town so small that half of its main street is technically in another village. And right next to the trailer park, covering more than half of the entire town, is 15 square miles of tall red pines and swampy tangled forest. Bear Brook State Park.

我们能自由活动是因为不在城市里。我父母不太担心我，因为他们觉得我就在附近。小时候我们能去的地方其实很有限。

We were able to roam because we weren't in in a city. You know, we weren't my parents weren't worried so much about me because they just figured I was over there, over there. You know, there was only so many places to go when we were kids.

有一天玩这个游戏时，发生了件怪事。杰西正骑着四轮摩托车，他的朋友斯科特和基斯本该躲着，结果其中一人突然喊出声暴露了自己。

And one day in the middle of this game, something strange happened. Jesse was riding the four wheeler. His friends, Scott and Keith, were supposed to be hiding, and then one of them gave himself away by yelling out.

我记得是基斯说他发现树林里有个桶。没错，那里确实有个桶。

I believe it was Keith who said that he found a barrel just out in the woods. You know, there was a barrel out there.

那是一个蓝色的55加仑钢制圆桶，上面盖着盖子，但封口并不严实。有东西正从盖子下方挤出来——那是一个塑料袋。

The barrel was a blue 55 gallon steel drum. It was covered up with a lid, but whoever closed it hadn't gotten a tight seal. Something was squeezing through underneath the top. It was a plastic bag.

斯科特和基思从四轮摩托上下来，基思试图掀开桶盖。当他扯开防水布边缘时，我们突然闻到一股像是变质牛奶的腐臭味。

Scott and Keith both got off the four wheeler, and Keith was, like, trying to pull the top of the the barrel off. And when he got the edge of the tarp off, we got hit with, like, this smell of, like, rotten milk.

孩子们完全不知所措，于是他们做了11岁男孩群体唯一能想到的事——把桶踢翻了。

The kids weren't really sure what to make of this. So they did the only thing a group of 11 year old boys could think to do. They kicked it over.

当我们撞倒桶时，桶盖又松开了一些，但我们仍然看不清里面。只见某种白色物质开始从桶口缓缓渗出，我再次认定那是变质牛奶。

When we knocked the barrel over, the top came open a little more, but we still we didn't see into it or anything. We saw, like, something white was starting to drizzle out of the top of the barrel. And, again, I'm thinking it's rotten milk.

随后他们离开了，骑着四轮摩托扬长而去，始终没朝桶里看一眼。

And then they left. They rode away on the four wheeler without ever looking inside the barrel.

就这样，我们离开了现场。

That was it. So that was we left.

故事从这里开始不再像八十年代电影。杰西和他的朋友们与谜团擦肩而过——倘若他们当时查看桶内，会发现两具高度腐烂且部分残缺的尸体。这片森林中的瞬间，开启了一个颠覆所有真实罪案叙事惯例的案件：谋杀调查的每个环节都逆向展开，每个突破带来的疑问都比解答更多。这是第一个暗示——这个故事不会按你预想的方式发展。

This is the moment where the story stops being like an eighties movie. Jesse and his friends walked away from mystery. Had they looked inside the barrel what they would have found were two bodies heavily decomposed partially dismembered. This moment in the woods is the first in a case where every convention about how true crime stories usually unfold is upended, where everything about how a murder investigation is supposed to work happens in reverse, where each break in the case seems to raise more questions than it answers. It's the first clue that this story is not going to go the way you think it is.

整个家庭怎么可能凭空消失？

How does an entire family just go missing?

这是一个关于连环杀手的案件，警方后来称其为'变色龙'。

This is the story of a serial killer police would come to know as the chameleon.

我确信她反抗过。这点很重要——我必须相信她曾奋力反抗。

I'm sure she fought. That's a big I have to believe that she fought.

关于受害者的故事，其中一些人被铭记于心，另一些人则姓名湮没。

The story of victims, some of them well remembered, some of them nameless.

是哪个祖母放任这事发生？或是哪个邻居、哪个公交司机？我的意思是，你们当时都在哪里？懂吗？我是说，我...你们当时人在何处？明白吗？

What grandmother let this happen? Or what neighbor or what bus driver or you know, I mean, where were all of you? You know? I mean, I I where were you? You know?

这也是一个关于曲折调查的故事——历经数十年失败后，一项法医学突破永远改变了谋杀案侦破科学。这堪称自DNA发现以来犯罪侦查领域的最大进展。这里是熊溪镇，我是杰森·莫恩。我本不是犯罪记者，至少在这个故事找上我之前不是。

And it's the story of a frustrating investigation that after decades of failure led to a forensic breakthrough that has forever changed the science of solving murders. I mean, this is the biggest step forward for solving crime since the discovery of DNA itself. This is Bear Brook. I'm Jason Mone. I am not a crime reporter, or I wasn't until I discovered this story.

2015年末，当我被指派报道该案件的新闻发布会时，首次了解到熊溪镇谋杀案。那时我刚搬到新罕布什尔州约半年，对此案一无所知。当时我更关注报道新罕布什尔总统初选——就在前一周，我还被记者群挤得动弹不得，只为在走廊上追赶希拉里·克林顿。

I first learned about the Bear Brook murders in late twenty fifteen when I was assigned to cover a press conference about the case. I'd only been living in New Hampshire for about six months. I didn't know anything about the case. At the time, I was more concerned with covering the New Hampshire presidential primary. The week before, I was being crushed by a throng of other reporters while trying to follow Hillary Clinton down a hallway.

除却初选，新罕布什尔相当宁静。这里的新闻不像其他地方那样紧迫——这是个连一头失控的熊都能（也确实曾）霸占新闻周期的地方。所以当我得知1985年发现的尸体距NHPR新闻编辑部仅二十分钟车程，而三十年后警方仍未确认死者身份时，这个案件便萦绕在我心头。

And aside from the primary, New Hampshire is pretty quiet. There isn't the same urgency to news that there is in some other places. It's the sort of state where a rogue bear can and has dominated a news cycle. So when I learned that in 1985, bodies were discovered only twenty minutes or so from the NHPR newsroom and that police still hadn't identified them thirty years later. It stuck with me.

在拥有DNA检测和现代法医技术的今天，这怎么可能？他们怎会连受害者身份都无从知晓？新闻发布会后，我给编辑部发了篇简讯就回归日常报道，但熊溪案始终难忘。它成了我的副业项目——在不用参加市政会议或报道州议会时的研究对象。而我最先想深入了解的，就是发现尸体的那个小镇。

How is that possible with all of the DNA testing and modern forensic techniques? How could they not even know who the victims are? After that news conference, I filed a short story for the newsroom and went back to my usual beat, but I never forgot about the Bear Brook case. It became a kind of side project, something to look into when I wasn't sitting at a town hall meeting or covering the state legislature. And one of the first things I wanted to learn more about was the town where the bodies were found.

那个童年时发现桶装尸体的杰西·摩根成长的小镇。一个人口刚过4300的镇子。

The town where Jesse Morgan, who found the barrel as a kid, grew up. A town with a population just shy of 4,300.

搞定了？听起来不错。

You got it? Sounds good.

好的。新罕布什尔州艾伦镇。

Alright. Allentown, New Hampshire.

我们原计划只待几年。但后来他创业了，生活就这么继续着。不知不觉间...

We were only gonna be there a few years. It wasn't and then he started the business, and they you know, life went on. And before, you know it.

杰西的父母，安妮和凯文·摩根，于上世纪七十年代搬到了阿伦敦，住进了一个名为熊溪花园的拖车公园。摩根夫妇结婚多年。他们虽不至于能接对方的话茬，但确实会同时开口说话。

Jesse's parents, Anne and Kevin Morgan, moved to Allentown in the nineteen seventies into a trailer park called Bear Brook Gardens. The Morgans have been married a long time. They're not exactly finishing each other's sentences, but they do have a way of talking at the same time.

我是说，唯一的秘密可能就藏在各家各户的墙壁后面。不过嘛，你知道的，大家会社交往来。而且

I mean, the only secrets would be behind the walls of the of in the homes. But Yeah. You know, to socialize. And

我们过去

we used

经常举办邻里派对。

to have neighborhood parties.

总能听到些闲言碎语。

You heard things.

整个社区的人都会受邀参加。我们...该怎么说呢，当时的派对频率可能比我愿意让孩子参与的还要高些。我们不过

The neighborhood was always invited. And we I would say we partied a little more than I would like my kids to. We But

我们总能听到公园里流传的各种传闻

We heard things that would go around the park that

在熊溪花园，摩根一家是社区的核心人物。他们举办大型烧烤派对，邀请所有邻居家的孩子来家里过夜。

In Bear Brook Gardens, the Morgans were the center of gravity for the community. They threw the big barbecues, had all the neighborhood kids over for sleepovers.

我们就像家人一样。是的。而且互相帮助。我还记得帮别人劈柴火的情景。

We were all just friends. Yeah. And we helped each other. I can remember helping people cut wood.

还有埃迪，我是说

And Eddie, I mean

在一个严寒的冬天，气温骤降至冰点以下，整个冬季几乎一无所有。记得那时，整个社区里没有一辆车能发动，可能只有一辆例外。我记得我们会去朋友家，就靠那唯一能发动的车，载着我们所有人。

On a hard winter and up to winter's temp below up, there was nothing in the winter. And, you know, no none of the cars in the neighborhood would start except for maybe one car we'd go I remember going over to our friend's house, and that one car would start all our cars

这样我们才能都去上班。

so we could all go to work.

要知道，那时我们都还是年轻家庭，根本没什么钱。

You know, we were all just young families. We didn't have money.

知道吗？摩根一家已经不住在艾伦镇了，但他们回忆起来依然充满温情。我想在他们心中，那里就像田园生活的明信片。不过并非所有人都这么记得。对了，我刚才念错你名字了，是蒙特。

You know? The Morgans don't live in Allentown anymore, but they remember it fondly. I think in their minds, they picture it like a postcard of country living, But that's not exactly how everyone remembers it. So I'm saying your name wrong. It's Mont.

蒙特·普莱瑟。

Mont Pleasure.

蒙特·普莱瑟。

Mont Pleasure.

对，发音应该不一样。

Yeah. Should be pronounced differently.

这是法语名字吗？

Is that French?

或者

Or

罗恩·蒙特·普莱瑟在艾伦镇当了二十三年警察。

Ron Mont Pleasure was a police officer in Allentown for twenty three years.

要描述起来，那是个周六下午，温暖的周六下午。你知道，人们大约早上10点就开始喝酒了。

It was to describe it, it was on a Saturday afternoon, warm Saturday afternoon. You know, people would start drinking about 10:00 in the morning.

罗恩戴着无檐帽，笑声爽朗，总用一只手掩着嘴。2002年2月退休后，他在距艾伦镇约二十分钟车程的地方开了家清洁用品店。我们站在堆满吸尘器零件和清洁喷雾瓶的柜台后交谈。他很乐意讲述自己当警察时的往事。

Ron wears a beanie. He's got a big laugh, and he covers with one hand. After retiring in 02/2002, he opened a cleaning supply shop about twenty minutes from Allentown. We spoke standing behind the counter of that shop surrounded by vacuum cleaner parts and bottles of cleaning spray. My pleasure enjoys talking about his days on the force.

他喜欢当警察。

He liked being a cop.

我觉得街坊里每个孩子不是想当警察就是想当消防员。

I I think every kid in the neighborhood either wanna be a police officer or a firefighter.

他也喜欢艾伦镇，尽管那里算不上模范社区。

And he liked Allens down even if it wasn't a model community.

说到噪音投诉，当时乡村音乐震天响。

You talk about noise complaints. The country music was was blaring.

不是我不喜欢乡村音乐，我确实喜欢。但随着酒精下肚，音乐声越来越大，投诉电话就开始打进来了。

Not that I don't like country music. I know I do like country music. But but as as the alcohol flew, the the music got louder and louder, and then the calls started to come in.

接到报警电话时，莫特·普莱瑟经常独自出警。那时候艾伦镇通常每次只有一名巡警，20平方英里的辖区就靠一个警察。

When the calls did come in, Mott Pleasure answered many of them on his own. Back then, there was usually only one officer on patrol in Allentown at any given time, one cop for 20 square miles.

巡逻区域太大了，只有一个警员负责，实在很难...你知道的...全面兼顾

It's a lot of area of patrol, and there's only one patrolman on it, and it and it's real, real hard to to to find you know, to cover

州立公园那边尤其如此。熊溪州立公园占了艾伦镇大半面积。安妮、凯文和杰西·摩根居住的拖车公园紧挨着州立公园北缘。如果你从摩根家后门直线走出去，要走五英里多才能看到另一户人家。

everything. That was particularly true when it came to the state park. Bear Brook State Park that covers more than half of Allentown. The trailer park where Anne, Kevin, and Jesse Morgan lived hugs the northern edge of the state park. If you walked out the Morgan's back door in a straight line, it would be more than five miles before you saw another house.

很难形容这座公园有多么茂密与错综复杂。熊溪公园有些区域很容易到达，比如飞钓池塘和射箭场，还有如蛛网般的山地自行车道。但在这15平方英里的区域内，大部分都是浓密且沼泽遍布的。除了几座视野受限的小山丘，公园大部分地势平坦，因此你很难弄清自己的位置或曾经过哪里。即便以新罕布什尔州的标准来看，这里也足够荒野。

It's hard to capture just how dense and tangled the park is. There are some areas of Bear Brook that are easy to get to, a fly fishing pond and archery station, a spider web of mountain biking trails. But most of the 15 square miles is thick and marshy. Aside from a couple of viewless hills, much of the park is flat, so you never have a good idea of where you are or where you've been. And it's wild, even for New Hampshire.

蒙普莱瑟警官说，他的老警长曾纯粹为了取乐带他进入公园。他过去常

Officer Mont Pleasure says his old police chief used to take him out into the park just for the fun of it. He used to

带我去抓响尾蛇，木纹响尾蛇。我从来不相信新罕布什尔州会有响尾蛇。但他真的说，来吧，我们去抓几条响尾蛇。

take me to catch rattle rattlesnakes, timber rattlesnakes. And I never believed that there were rattlesnakes in New Hampshire. And sure enough, he goes, come on. We're gonna go catch some rattlesnakes. Are?

结果我们真的带着

And sure as heck, we come back with

几条木纹响尾蛇回来了。他想表达的是，这个地方很大。就是...非常广阔。

a couple timber rattlers. What he's trying to say is, this place is big. It's just it's it's huge. It's it's

不是那种你能随便开车进去的地方。

not some place that you just drive cars into.

罗恩·蒙普莱瑟警官在艾伦镇警队工作了约五年，主要处理酒驾、家庭纠纷和噪音投诉这类小镇警察的日常事务，直到1985年。

Officer Ron Montpleasure had been on the force in Allentown for about five years, dealing mostly with drunk drivers, domestic disputes, and noise complaints, small town cop stuff, until 1985.

我当时在值班。就是接到报警电话的那个警官。

I I was on duty. I was the officer that received the call.

哦，所以你是

Oh, so you were the

第一个我

first I

是那个

was the

第一个到达现场的人。电话是一位猎人打来的。蒙彼利埃开车到树林边缘与他碰面。

first one on the scene. The call was from a hunter. Montpelier drove out to meet him at the edge of the woods.

我见到他时，他结结巴巴地说，我觉得你们得上山看看那个桶。他说，我

And I met him, and he and he said, I think you need to go up on the hill and take a look in the barrel. He said, I

我觉得那上面有...有具尸体。我的同事记得那位猎人脸色苍白。他让猎人留在警车旁等候，自己独自走进了树林。

I think there's there's a body up there. My pleasure remembers that the hunter looked pale. He told him to stay behind with the squad car while he headed out into the woods alone.

我熟悉这片区域，知道很多人会在那里丢弃宠物尸体。我们起初没多想。可能只是动物残骸。当时正值狩猎季，说不定是谁打了鹿把内脏丢在那儿。

I know in the area, knew that a lot of people would dispose of their pets back there. They can nothing of us. It's probably an animal. And it was hunting season. Somebody maybe had, you know, gotten a deer and brought the caucus out there.

他穿过树林搜寻。先是沿着小路，后来不得不在灌木丛中艰难前行。

He struck out through the woods. First along the path, then eventually bushwhacking a bit through the scrub.

桶倒在地上，旁边有个袋子。当我打开袋子时，那张腐烂的脸正对着我。

The barrel was on the ground and there was a bag. And when I opened the bag, well, the face was, the decomposed face was looking right at me.

那是1985年11月，距离杰西·摩根和朋友们踢翻那个桶已经过去几个月。此刻，蒙彼利埃警官正注视着同一个桶。但与那些孩子不同，他清楚里面究竟是什么。艾伦镇警官罗恩·蒙彼利埃独自在树林中，直面着他刚发现的人类遗骸。事态的严重性开始压得他喘不过气。

It was November 1985, a few months after Jesse Morgan and his friends had kicked over the barrel. Now, officer Montpleasure was looking at that same barrel. But unlike the kids, he knew what was really inside. Allentown police officer Ron Montpleasure found himself alone in the woods, confronted by the face of the human remains he had just discovered. The weight of the situation began to press down on him.

这是大案子。懂吗？这这这可不是...不是谁把车停在消防通道这种小事。这是...我们发现了尸体。是人的遗体。

This is major. You know? This is this is this is this isn't, you know, somebody parking in the fire lane. This this is we've got bodies. We have people.

罗恩说警校的训练突然起了作用。他知道该怎么做。

Ron says his training from the police academy suddenly kicked in. He knew what to do.

我当时就想，要封锁现场。

I'm like, secure the area.

他开始在犯罪现场周围布控。但除了那个桶，几乎看不到其他东西，只有树木。在这么广阔的森林里究竟该如何划定警戒范围？警用隔离带该拉多远？蒙彼利埃通过无线电请求支援。

He began staking out the perimeter of a crime scene. But aside from the barrel, there wasn't much else to see, trees. And how exactly do you stake out a perimeter in a forest this big? How far do you stretch the police tape? Montpelier radioed for backup.

他是当时唯一值班的巡警，所以必须从家里调来艾伦镇的警员。即便如此，警方还是向当地居民寻求了帮助。

He was the only patrolman on duty, so Allentown officers must have been called in from their homes. And even then, cops turned to local residents for help.

我记得当时还在床上，然后听到敲门声。我起身开门，是警察。他说，凯文，我们需要临时征用你来阻止媒体进入。他告诉我他们在矿坑发现了尸体。

I think I was still in bed, and, I we hear a knock on the door. I get up, and it was the police. He said, Kevin, we need to deputize you to keep the press out. And he told me that they found bodies up at the pit.

当凯文·摩根穿上靴子去协助警方时，他的妻子安妮突然想起几个月前儿子杰西告诉她的事——关于他们在森林里发现的那个玩捉迷藏用的桶。

As Kevin Morgan put on his boots to go help the police, his wife, Anne, was suddenly reminded of something their son, Jesse, had told her a few months earlier about a game of hide and seek in a barrel that they'd found in the woods.

他突然想起来，说那个味道，闻起来像牛奶。

It just came to me, you know, the smell, you know, it came out like milk, he said.

那个桶在那里放了多久？有多少人曾从旁边经过，却从未意识到那里有什么？我就是...就是知道就是那个。桶里有两具尸体，一具是成年女性，另一具是小女孩。

How long was the barrel lying there? How many times had people walked right by, never realizing what was out there? I just I just know that that that was the one. The barrel contained two bodies. One was a woman, the other, a young girl.

调查人员尚未公布遗骸照片，所以我没见过。但他们公布的细节令人毛骨悚然：遗骸几乎完全白骨化，全身赤裸，肢体被肢解。

Investigators haven't released photos of the remains, so I haven't seen them. The details they have released though are grim. The remains were almost entirely skeletal. They were nude. They were dismembered.

显然尸体被塞进桶里，用塑料布包裹并用电线捆绑。颅骨显示两人都是被钝器击打头部致死。根据腐败程度，调查人员推测尸体在桶里的时间从数月到数年不等。调查人员常说，在失踪人口案件中，最初48小时最关键。因为如果那时找不到人，后续找到的几率就微乎其微。

Apparently, it fit inside the barrel, and they were wrapped in plastic tied together with electrical wire. Their skulls revealed that they were both killed by blows to the head with a blunt instrument. Based on the level of decomposition, investigators guessed the bodies had been in the barrel from anywhere from several months to a few years. Investigators often say that in a missing person's case, the first forty eight hours are the most important. That's because if you don't find the person by then, your odds of ever finding them are really small.

在凶杀案中，首要任务是确认受害者身份。多数受害者认识凶手，但要弄清受害者的人际关系，必须先确定其身份。就像失踪案一样，如果调查人员无法破解这环，破案几率就极其渺茫。新罕布什尔州警主导了熊溪案调查，他们立即着手确认受害者身份。根据年龄推测，调查组初步认为受害者很可能是母女关系。

In a murder case, the first priority is to identify the victims. Most victims know they're killers, But to know who the victim knew, you have to know who the victim is. And just like in a missing person's case, if investigators don't get this part figured out, their odds of success are really small. New Hampshire state police took the lead in the Bear Brook investigation, and they immediately began by trying to ID the victims. Their working theory was that, given the ages, the victims were likely a mother and daughter.

于是他们开始搜寻与之匹配的失踪人口报告。与此同时，艾伦镇警方开始在全镇展开排查。蒙特·普莱曾表示，这通常是艾伦镇破案的方式——靠着邻里间的烧烤聚会，更不用说那些酒后的闲谈，流言总能不胫而走，而他自有办法从人们口中套出信息。

So they started searching for missing persons reports that matched. Meanwhile, the Allentown PD started canvassing the town. Mont Pleasure says that's usually how crimes in Allentown were solved. With all those neighborhood barbecues, not to mention all the drinking, gossip had a way of getting around, and he had his ways of getting it out of people.

我们过去管这叫‘去钓鱼’。你知道，你会拦下一辆机动车，车上的人可能知道某些犯罪线索。我的开场白总是：‘知道什么好的钓鱼地点吗？’他们都懂我的意思。我们不是真去钓鱼，但这意味着区别——是收到警告还是传票，或者干脆帮我个忙。

We used to call it, let's go fishing. You know, you'd make a motor vehicle stop, you knew somebody that may have known some information about a crime. My my line was, you know, any good fishing spots? And, they knew what I was talking about. We weren't actually going fishing, but, you know, that meant the difference between, I mean, either receiving a warning or receiving a summons or just helping me out.

而且总有人会说知道个不错的钓鱼点，每次都是。

And there was always somebody I knew a good sufficient spot, always.

无论是谋杀还是小偷小摸，1985年的艾伦镇警察就是这样办案的。没有高科技法医团队，没有犯罪心理学家绘制嫌犯画像，只有蒙特普莱曾这样的巡警在灌木丛里敲敲打打，盼着能掉出点线索——可这次什么都没掉出来。

Whether it was a murder or a petty theft, this is how police work went in Allentown in 1985. No high-tech forensics team, no criminal psychologist coming up with a suspect profile. Just a few patrol officers like Montpleasure rattling the bushes, hoping something would fall out. Only nothing did.

最让我困惑的就是这点——太反常了，因为在那儿没有不透风的墙。

And that was the first thing that that threw me off is, like, this is strange because everybody knew everything over there.

与此同时，州警方面也遇到了难题。他们找不到任何关于失踪母女的报案记录——新罕布什尔州没有，邻近州没有，全美都没有。这对母女仿佛被整个世界遗忘。随着时间推移，警方尝试了各种方法寻找突破口：他们核查了全州所有小学的档案，试图找到与小受害者相关的蛛丝马迹。

Meanwhile, the state police were having their own issues. They couldn't find any reports of a missing mother and daughter, not in New Hampshire, not in neighboring states, not anywhere. Whoever these people were, it seemed that no one was looking for them. As the month started to roll by, police tried lots of ways to get any sort of foothold in the case. They checked the records of every elementary school in the state for some trace of the child victim.

他们翻查了熊溪州立公园五年的露营地记录，向全国执法机构发送了受害者特征通告，甚至通过FBI牙科记录数据库比对成年受害者——全部徒劳无功。新罕布什尔州警的一位下士称这是他职业生涯中最令人沮丧的案件。

They examined five years of campground records at Bear Brook State Park. They sent out nationwide bulletins to law enforcement agencies with descriptions of the victims. They looked for matches to the adult victim in FBI databases of dental records. None of it worked. One corporal in the New Hampshire State Police called it the most frustrating case of his life.

1986年，在发现油桶数月后，受害者合成画像终于完成。法医艺术家仅能依据头骨结构和头发进行创作，留白处很多。尽管可能不够精确，这些画像终究赋予了受害者某种身份认同——毕竟无人知晓她们生前的模样，这些素描就像是世人对她们的初遇。画中的成年女性面容憔悴。

In 1986, several months after the barrel was discovered, composite sketches of the victims were made. The artist didn't have a lot to go on, just their hair and bone structure, so there was a lot of room for interpretation. But however inaccurate they may be, the sketches do manage to give the victims some measure of identity. Since no one knew what they looked like in life, seeing the drawings was kinda like seeing them for the first time. The adult victim looks tired.

她脸型瘦长，双颊凹陷，一道阴影斜贯面部。法医推测其死亡时约二十五六岁，身高在1米57到1米73之间。

Her face is long. Her cheeks a little gaunt. A shadow falls across her face. Detectives estimate she was in her mid to late twenties when she died. She was between five foot two and five foot eight.

她留着浅棕色的波浪卷发。女孩的画像采用侧脸视角，小巧的鼻子微微上翘，扎着脏金色马尾辫，刘海拂过前额。警方认为她遇害时约九到十岁。

She had wavy light brown hair. The girl is drawn in profile. She has a small upturned nose. She wears a ponytail of dirty blonde hair with bangs swept across her forehead. Detectives think she was somewhere around nine or 10 years old when she was murdered.

当这些素描画像公布后，电话开始不断打来。调查人员以为他们可能掌握了线索，但所有线索都无果而终。回到阿伦敦，人们只能猜测。关于受害者身份及凶手是谁的理论五花八门，从有组织犯罪到流浪者和嘉年华工人，似乎每个人都有各自的猜想。

When these sketches were released, calls started to come in. Investigators thought they might have something, but none of the tips panned out. Back in Allentown, all anybody could do was speculate. Theories about the victims and who killed them were all over the place, ranging from organized crime to runaways and carnival workers. It seemed like everyone had a guess.

我我觉得他们不可能是外地人。你知道吗？可可能就住在我家那条街上。

I I can't see them not being local. You know? It it could have been someone that lived up the street from me.

我一直觉得是个过着双重生活的卡车司机干的。

I always had it in my mind that it was a trucker living a double life.

我不认为他们是从公园里掳走受害者的，虽然公园确实毗邻那个区域。

I don't feel that they they took them from the park, although they could have because it abutted that area.

纯粹是猜测。我就像在玩通灵板，但但这是我的直觉。要我说，你会在新罕布什尔州方圆200到250英里范围内找到线索，大概是西南方向。

Pure speculation. I'm playing the Ouija board, but but it's my gut feeling. You you're gonna find it, I would say, within a 200, 250 mile radius of New Hampshire. I would say South Southwest.

人们就是忍不住要猜测，你总想让他们知道点什么。

It's, like, irresistible for people to just start speculating. You just wanna let them know.

对吧？你就是想知道真相。

Right? You wanna know.

随着时间从数月延至数年，调查人员逐渐无计可施。对某些人而言，最大的希望似乎就是等待凶手或知情者主动现身。1987年，在发现油桶不到两年后，州警决定让受害者遗体下葬。曾带罗恩·蒙特普莱瑟警官看过州立公园里响尾蛇的那位警长，负责筹办了葬礼。他当时对当地记者说：‘即便我们不知道他们的名字，也不意味着他们不该得到与我们同等的尊重。’

As the months turned to years, investigators started to run out of ideas. To some, it seemed their best hope was to simply wait for the killer or someone who knew them to come forward on their own. In 1987, less than two years after the barrel was found, state police decided to release the victims' bodies so they could be buried. Officer Ron Montpleasure's chief, the one who'd shown him the rattlesnakes in the state park, organized the funeral. He told the local reporter at the time, quote, just because we don't know their names doesn't mean they don't deserve the same respect we do.

阿伦敦圣约翰浸信会教堂的教众集资，在教堂墓地购置了一块坟地。一名天主教神父和一名卫理公会牧师主持了葬礼，遗体被安葬在一个钢制棺材中。现场只有少数镇官员和记者见证。

Parishioners of Saint John the Baptist Church in Allentown pooled their money and paid for a gravesite at the church cemetery. A Catholic priest and a Methodist minister led a burial ceremony where the bodies were laid to rest in a single steel casket. Just a handful of town officials and reporters were there to see it.

每次我巡逻经过那块墓碑时，思绪就停不下来。这些尸体被丢弃那晚，我是不是正在巡逻？所有警员都会想这个问题。这是什么时候发生的？我怎么就错过了？

And every time I used to patrol and go by that tombstone, you know, the wheels kept on turning. Just was I on patrol that night when when these bodies were dumped? And all the officers would think about that. When did this happen? How did I miss this?

你知道，我的意思是，你开始自我怀疑了。

Know, I mean, you start second guessing yourself.

掩埋尸体在当时看来是正确的选择，尤其是案件两年毫无进展的情况下。但这也必定让人觉得执法部门已经放弃了希望。

Burying the bodies seemed like the right thing to do, especially given that two years in, the case was going nowhere. But it also must have seemed like law enforcement had given up hope.

我很失望。突然间，镇上的人聚在一起要给这些尸体立墓碑。这到底是怎么回事？这些人是谁？

I was disappointed. All of a sudden, now the next thing I know, the town's getting together to put a headstone on these bodies. And what the hell? These where who are these people?

多年来，杰西·摩根的父母一直把受害者的素描钉在冰箱上。和豪恩斯敦的许多人一样，他们一直认为自己的小镇是个好地方。现在他们很难将这一想法与发生的事联系起来。

For years, Jesse Morgan's parents kept the sketches of the victims pinned to their fridge. Like a lot of people in Houndstown, they'd always thought of their town as a good place. Now they struggle to reconcile that idea with what happened. It was

对我们来说这完全是另一个世界。就像两个平行世界——一个是我们毫无察觉的邪恶世界，另一个是家庭和孩子们生活的美好世界。

a whole different different world for us. You know, it was like two worlds. Like, you know, there was this evil world going on that we had no idea about, and there was this good wholesome world that was going on with with the rest of the, you know, with the families and the and the children.

对于小时候无意中发现尸体的杰西·摩根来说，这段经历永远改变了他童年记忆中的那片树林。

For Jesse Morgan, who as a kid stumbled across the bodies without really knowing it, the episode changed the woods of his childhood forever.

我确实记得自己会在雨天出去，在那片我们从未涉足的区域徘徊，想看看能不能发现些什么。比如，还有更多吗？

I do remember going out myself, like, on rainy days or whatever and walking around, like, out there, out in the where we never went to see if I could find something. You know, like, is there more?

事实证明确实有。二月份时，约翰·科迪还是州警重大犯罪组的侦探。该部门负责新罕布什尔州大多数凶杀案，科迪花了很长时间才进入这个部门。那时距离艾伦镇发现木桶已过去十五年，这个谜团只是该州众多未破案件中的一个。而当时处理这些案件的方式相当随意。

Turns out, there was. In the year February, John Cody was a detective in the state police's major crime unit. The unit handles most of the homicides in New Hampshire, and Cody had worked a long time to make it there. By that time, fifteen years had passed since the barrel in Allentown was discovered, and that mystery was just one on a long list of the state's unsolved cases. And the way those cases were handled back then was pretty informal.

基本上过去的流程是：当你被分配到重大犯罪组时，会分到一两个有时甚至是三个悬案。当我接手艾伦镇案件时，对这个案子一无所知。

Basically, what used to happen is when you get assigned to the major crime unit, you would get assigned one or two or sometimes three cold cases. And when I picked up the Allentown case, I I didn't know anything about this case.

科迪被要求主要利用不处理现案的空闲时间调查此案。但科迪说，熊溪谋杀案的细节一直萦绕在他心头。

Cody was expected to work on the case basically in his free time whenever he wasn't working an active case. But Cody says the details of the Bear Brook murders just kept gnawing at him.

这类案件就像开始读一本引人入胜的书，你读完第一章就想接着读第二章，然后第三章，如此不断深入。

It's just it's the type of case where you start reading it. You know, it's sort of like getting into an engrossing book. You start to read the first chapter, you just wanna go on to the second, which makes you to go on to the third, etcetera.

科迪决定亲自查看证据。他来到证物存放处，看到了那个蓝色桶、塑料布和电线——这些沉寂了十五年的线索。

Cody decided to get a look at the evidence in person. He went to the evidence storage area where he saw the blue barrel, the plastic, the electrical wire, clues that had been sitting idle for fifteen years.

我是个视觉型的人，于是在某个周五，我决定实地去看看那个地方，试图通过亲身体验来理解文字描述的场景。

I'm a very visual person, so I decided one day, it was actually a Friday, and I said, I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna go see where this area is, try to try to get an idea of what it is, what I'm looking at through words.

科迪驱车前往艾伦镇走进树林，带着案卷作为指引。他首先寻找杰西·摩根和伙伴们童年时最初发现桶的位置，想象着孩子们骑着四轮车，桶藏在灌木丛中的画面。

Cody drove out to Allentown and walked into the woods. He brought the case file with him as a sort of map. First, he tried to find the area where Jesse Morgan and his friends had first found the barrel as kids. He pictured the kids on the four wheeler, the barrel in the brush.

我在那里走了很久，然后逐渐扩大搜索范围，就像往池塘扔石头后水波一圈圈扩散那样。

I was walking through that. I'd been out there for quite a while, and then I kinda just widened my area a little bit, almost like throwing a rock into a pond. You have those concentric rings that come out.

科迪离最初发现桶的位置越来越远，目光扫视着森林地面寻找异常。临近傍晚，夕阳沉入山后，光秃溪州立公园上方的树冠让光线更暗。他正考虑是否该回车上去拿手电筒。

Cody ventured further and further from the spot where the barrel was found, his eyes scanning the forest floor for anything that didn't belong. It was getting late in the afternoon. The sun was sinking behind the hills, and the canopy of trees overhead in Bare Brook State Park made it even darker. Cody was thinking about how he might need to go back out to his car for his flashlight.

就在这时，我发现了那个桶。

And that's when I came across the barrel.

一个桶侧翻在小岩石和灌木旁。科迪立刻认出了它——几天前在证物室见过的同款深蓝色55加仑桶。他决定现在正是去拿手电筒的时候。

A barrel was on its side next to a small boulder and some brush. Cody recognized it right away. He'd been looking at a barrel just like it in Evidence Storage a few days before. Dark blue, 55 gallons. Cody decided now was a good time to get the flashlight after all.

他朝树林边缘走去，脑海中思绪翻腾。

He made his way back out to the edge of the woods, his mind racing the whole time.

知道吗，我一路走向车时都在试图说服自己：这绝对不可能是我想的那个东西。

You know, I I think I was trying to talk myself out of it the whole way to the car going, this is definitely not what I think it is.

当科迪拿着手电筒回来时，他照向桶内。而我只能看到某种塑料制品。

When Cody returned with his flashlight, he shined it inside the barrel. And all I could see was some kind of plastic.

当我撕开塑料布，有某种白色的东西在黑暗中朝我反光，你知道的，在暗色背景下很显眼。我盯着它说，这看起来不妙。

And I tore the plastic away, there was something white that was shining towards me, you know, kind of sticks out of with the dark background. When I looked at it, I said, this does not look good.

这是个惊人的发现，引发了全新的疑问，其中有些让警方感到不安。约翰·科迪站立的位置距离十五年前发现第一个桶的地点仅300英尺。第二个桶里还有两具尸体。请继续关注熊溪案。当人们说'一石之遥'时，指的就是这种情况。

It was a stunning discovery, one that raised a whole new set of questions, some of them uncomfortable for police. John Cody was standing just 300 feet from where the first barrel was found a full fifteen years before. Inside the second barrel were two more bodies. Coming up on Bear Brook. When you hear the phrase a stone's throw away, this is what they're talking about.

为什么那个桶没被发现？

Why wasn't that barrel found?

我们不知道。

We don't know.

你怎么可能知道，我不清楚，对我来说这太荒谬了。

How could you know, I don't know you know, to me, that's sweet.

再次感谢大家今天到场。我们有些新的检测结果想与全世界分享。

I want to thank everyone again for coming today. We have some new testing results that we want to share with basically the world.

我推开门看见他的脸时，脊背窜过一阵前所未有的寒意。

I opened the door and saw his face. I had a chill run down my back that I've never in my life ever had before.

有时就是那种偶然运气，你碰巧发现什么，就为你打开一扇门。门一开，就像——懂我意思吗？灯光亮起，一切豁然开朗。拼图碎片都归位了。

Sometimes it's that dumb luck that you just come across something and it just opens a door for you. And once you open the door, it's like, oh, you know what I mean? The lights come on and you could see everything. The the jigsaw puzzles comes together.

《熊溪案》由我杰森·穆恩报道制作。高级制作人泰勒·昆比。剪辑协助来自科里·普林塞尔、托德·布克曼、劳伦·丘根、山姆·埃文斯·布朗、布里塔·格林和安妮·罗皮克。执行制作人埃里卡·贾尼克。NHBR新闻总监丹·巴里克。

Barebrook is reported and produced by me, Jason Moon. Taylor Quimby is senior producer. Editing help from Corey Princell, Todd Bookman, Lauren Chulgen, Sam Evans Brown, Brita Green, and Annie Roepeak. The executive producer is Erica Janek. Dan Barrick is NHBR's news director.

内容总监是莫琳·麦克默里。NHBR的数字总监是丽贝卡·拉沃伊。摄影与视频由阿里·古铁雷斯负责。图表与交互内容由莎拉·普洛德制作。本节目的原创音乐由我——杰森·穆恩和泰勒·昆比共同创作。

Director of content is Maureen McMurray. NHBR's digital director is Rebecca Lavoie. Photography and video by Ali Gutierrez. Graphics and interactives by Sarah Plourde. Original music for this show was composed by me, Jason Moon, and Taylor Quimby.

本集额外音乐来自Blue Dot Sessions和Simple Minds。欲查看1985年至2015年2月熊溪案件调查时间线，请访问我们的网站bearbrookpodcast.org。《熊溪》是新罕布什尔公共广播电台制作的节目。

Additional music in this episode from Blue Dot Sessions and Simple Minds. To see a timeline of the Bear Brook investigation from 1985 until 02/2015, go to our website, bearbrookpodcast.org. Bear Brook is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.