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And welcome to Missing Persons Mysteries!
The case we are bringing you today is that of Douglas Legg.
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In 1971 Douglas Legg was an eight-year-old boy who was excited to be going on a trip
with his family to the Santanoni Estate (now called the Santanoni Preserve),
near the town of Newcomb, which is located in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex, New York.
This area is also called “The Great Camps” and at
the time was considered the go-to spot for New York’s upper class and wealthy.
It was a sprawling 12,500-acre estate that featured 40 solo
buildings and a main lodge that boasted 24 rooms.
The Melvin family were the owners at the time and they were related
by blood to the Legg family and so the two families often got together and spent time,
mainly in the summer, at this beautiful and secluded little resort.
This particular trip was special though because it was to be the
final trip before the Melvins sold the whole thing and the extended
family would have to find somewhere else to spend their summer vacations.
On July 10th, 1971 eight-year-old Douglas and one of his uncles set
out for what was only meant to be a short, easy, and leisurely hike.
It was approximately 3:30 in the afternoon when his uncle realized there was a lot
of poison ivy along this particular trail and that Douglas was only wearing shorts.
He was concerned enough that he told the young boy to turn and run back to the family’s camp and
change into pants and then to meet him right back where they were and the uncle would wait for him.
The camp was described as “just a stone’s throw away” from where they were and even
though he was only 8 years old, Douglas’s uncle had no worries whatsoever about
sending the little boy to run such a short distance and back on his own.
Douglas, even at such a young age, was beginning to become an experienced hiker
and outdoorsman in his own right and he himself knew that the less than half
a mile straight trail back to the camp wouldn’t be a big deal for him to cover.
The uncle and nephew agreed and off Douglas went.
However, the more time passed the more concerned his uncle would become as Douglas
not only never made it back to their meeting spot but was never seen or heard from again.
After waiting for what is only described as “some time” his uncle
decided to go back to the camp himself and see what was holding Douglas up.
He spoke to Douglas’s older brother who had mentioned he had seen him at
the main lodge building just a short time before
but hadn’t given it another thought and hadn’t stopped to speak to him.
One of his cousins said he had also seen Douglas but at a ridge
and also hadn’t thought anything was particularly odd or off about this.
It’s also said though that all of these people assumed Douglas was off on a hike with his uncle.
Why hadn’t anyone thought it was weird then that
he was being seen off the trail and all around the lodge itself?
I’m sure I don’t know and I’m sure it’s something the family members have played
over and over again in their heads for the rest of their days on this earth.
The uncle let the rest of the family know what happened and within minutes they were
all fanned out, calling his name and looking for any sign of him anywhere but to no avail.
Eventually, night approached and there was a significant drop in temperature
this is when they all decided it was time to call the authorities.
The official search for Douglas Legg was launched that very night.
The search for the 8-year-old boy would end up being one of if not the
largest search and rescue missions New York State had ever seen at the time.
There were planes equipped with heat-detecting infrared FLIR, helicopters scanning the whole
12,500 acres, rangers, search dogs, and even a mountain rescue team who flew in from Sierra
Madre, California were all utilized in the search effort but all for nothing as there wasn’t only no
sign of Douglas but not a single clue as to what could have possibly happened to him either.
Even with about a thousand volunteers brought in
to aid in the already massive search, there was nothing.
It would later be said that despite all of this help,
the efforts were very poorly organized as well as hindered by inclement weather,
and slowed down by the very treacherous terrain of the mountains.
Desperate for any lead in the investigation the authorities even called in some psychics.
There was one point in the search where one of the bloodhounds did seem to pick up Douglas’s scent.
The animal followed it for nearly 30 miles through extremely difficult and rough terrain.
The path of the dog was choked with trees and
brush that is said would have been almost impossible for a young boy,
no matter how experienced he was, to travel by himself in such a short length of time.
This particular trail ended at a pond, which was almost immediately drained, but again to no avail.
Once it reached the pond it’s said that the scent trail ended as though it had
just evaporated into the ether, almost as if Douglas had done just the same himself.
Every crevice of that mountain and every brush and bush of that forest
was searched for a full six weeks before, after becoming no closer to figuring out
what had happened or where Douglas had ended up, it was officially called off.
They hadn’t only searched where they thought an 8-year-old would be able to get through on his
own either, they searched every single square inch of acreage and still came up with nothing at all.
At the time the assumption was made by the authorities and many involved that
the little boy had simply become a victim to the many swamps, bogs,
and marshes in the area and would never be found. A series of misadventures, in other words.
Years later some strange clues and leads would come in but nothing ever came of them enough
to really change anyone’s mind or to lead to what actually happened to this little boy.
There were, of course, those who didn’t subscribe to the “lost in the woods” theory.
After all, some had always thought,
he was running a straight shot that was less than half a mile and back.
It should’ve been extremely simple and he should have been right back.
In 1993 a man from Montana came forward and reported to authorities that,
while he was hunting on the same land where Douglas had gone missing but back in 1973,
he had come across some skeletal remains of a child.
He claimed he hadn’t ever reported it though because he was on leave
from the navy at the time of the discovery and would have gotten in
serious trouble as he wasn’t supposed to be hunting there at that particular time.
Even though only two years had passed from when the man claimed
to have come across these remains to when he finally came forward the
authorities searched the entire area of land that this man led them to.
Again though nothing came of it and they weren’t
any closer to discovering what had happened to Douglas Legg.
It’s unknown whether or not what the man believes he came across is connected to Douglas’s
disappearance or not because the authorities and officials were never able to locate the alleged
bones that the man claimed to have stumbled upon- despite their best efforts at finding them.
There was also an unnamed woman who had come forward in 1993 as well claiming that
a relative of hers had murdered Douglas and dumped his body in a lake in Lewis County.
The woman brought investigators to the exact lake where she said the boy had been left but after a
full search of the entire lake and the surrounding areas, nothing new was learned or had come up.
It was then found out that the woman was a local psychiatric patient who
had been suffering from false memory syndrome.
As recently as 2020 there was hope, just a glint and just for a moment,
that perhaps the mystery was solved once and for all when members of the New York State
Police Troop B Underwater Recovery Team were participating in a training exercise in a lake
located directly in front of the Santorini Estate and came across a piece of a skull.
They immediately thought of little Douglas Legg and sent the fraction in for testing.
Unfortunately, it was not only not connected
to the Legg disappearance at all but it wasn’t even human.
The case is still officially opened but aside from the scant information we just
presented to you here today, there has never been a single other statement,
clue or lead that has come in regarding the disappearance of little 8-year-old Douglas Legg.
Sadly, as is all to common with cases like these...
There is not much more known and we are left wondering:
What happened to Douglas?
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