INFAMOUS: The Vernon-Tolland Three
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, multiple young women and girls go missing in the Vernon-Tolland area of Connecticut. For years, investigators have wondered if these seemingly unrelated cases might share too strong a connection to be ignored. Three, in particular —Janice Pockett, Lisa White, and Debbie Spickler—bear striking similarities to each other, and have become known as the Vernon-Tolland Three.
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An age-progressed photo of Janice Pockett, predicting what she would look like at 54 years old.
A newspaper clipping from the Hartford Courant where police released a composite sketch of a man who was seen in the area around the time Janice disappeared.
An age-progressed photo of Lisa White, predicting what she may look like at 59 years old.
An aged-progressed photo of Debbie Spickler, predicting what she may look like at 65 years old.
From left to right: Debbie Spickler, Janice Pockett, and Lisa White who are known as the Vernon-Tolland Three.
Please contact the authorities If you have any information about the following cases:
If you have any information about any of the following cases, you can call the Tolland County Cold Case Squad at 860-870-3228. Or you can contact the Vernon police at 860-872-9126.
Janice Pockett – Tolland, CT.
Kathleen Terry – Sturbridge, MA.
Lisa White – Vernon, CT.
Susan LaRosa – Vernon, CT.
Patricia Luce – Vernon, CT.
Debbie Spickler – Vernon, CT.
You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s 24 hour hotline at 800-843-5678 for any information regarding the disappearances of Janice Pockett, Lisa White and/or Debbie Spickler.
We’d love to speak with you and see how we can support.
If you’re a law enforcement agency or family member of one of the people we mentioned in this episode, or if you’re looking for more coverage on a case, please reach out. You can email us at:
Episode Source Material
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Girl, 7 reported missing.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Search resumes today for Tolland 7-year-old, by George Gombossy.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Search for girl wanes as police seek abductor, by George Gombossy.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Identity sought.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): FBI help asked in search for missing girl, 7.
- Daily News (New York, NY): Help hunt for Janice, 100,000 urge the FBI, by Associated Press.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): FBI to hunt for girl.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Police to resume Pockett search.
- The Bridgeport Post (Bridgeport, CT): No traces of Janice, by Associated Press.
- The Bridgeport Telegram (Bridgeport, CT): Police say man ‘not a suspect’ in Pockett case, by UPI.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Police have Pockett suspects, by George Gombossy.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): State Police Cooperating in probe of Girl’s slaying, by Jon Lender.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Two Pockett suspects face possible query in new case, by George Gombossy.
- Naugatuck Daily News (Naugatuck, CT): No connection found with Pockett Case, by UPI.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Clues balk search for Pockett girl, by J. Herbert Smith.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Connection sought in kidnap cases, by Mark McGrath.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Disappearance probe criticized.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): State police to enter investigation of Vernon girl’s disappearance, by Manira Wilson.
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA): Psychic to aid in search for 3 missing girls, by Malcolm Johnson.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Children, missing, dead, leave puzzled anguish, by Howard Sherman.
- Record-Journal (Meriden, CT): Pond searched for girl’s body on psychic’s tip, by UPI.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Police give up search for Tolland girl’s body, by Manira Wilson.
- Dark Minds: Blond, Blue-Eyed and Gone (Season 2, Episode 2).
- CBS NEWS: Task force to review cases of 3 missing Connecticut girls, by Associated Press.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Vernon Remembers A Girl Missing For 40 Years, by David Owens.
- Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): Cold Case Squad Investigating 40-Year-Old Missing Girl Cases Has Leads, Suspects, by David Owens.
- Blog Talk Radio: Shattered Lives: CT Cold Case Squad and Three 40-year-old Missing Girls, by Donna R. Gore.
- Journal Inquirer (Manchester, CT): Police appeal for leads as age progression picture shows Janice Pockett at 53, by Olivia Regen.
- Patch (Vernon, CT): Prosecutor: Eerie Tips Constants In Cases Of Missing CT Girls, by Chris Dehnel.
- Paper Ghosts (Season 1, Episodes 1-10).
- Community United Effort: Janice Pockett.
- Hartford Courant: Police taking new look at 18-year0old Vernon slaying case by Mark Spencer.
- Oxygen True Crime: Who is Bob LaRosa, whose connections to an unsolved murder are investigated in ‘Paper Ghosts’? by Gina Tron.
- The Charley Project: Deborah Lee Spickler.
- Tapatalk: 1973 Pockett, Janice 7-26-1973 by ELL.
- CT.gov: Tolland County cold case squad. n.d.
- Vernon Police Department: Contact. n.d.
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