Last Seen
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From the fallout of a tragic homicide in Boston’s Haitian community, to the search for a real life Willy Wonka in Cambridge, WBUR’s 'Last Seen' podcast is back with a third season of all new mysteries from public radio storytellers about surprising people, places and things that have all gone ... missing.
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Mar 15, 2023
Last Seen introduces Violation, a new podcast about who pulls the levers of power in the justice system
We thought Last Seen fans would want to hear this trailer for a new podcast from WBUR.
Violation tells the story of two families bound together by an unthinkable crime. It explores America's opaque parole system and asks: How much time in prison is enough? Who gets to decide? And, when someone commits a terrible crime, what does redemption look like?
Listen to the trailer and if you like what you hear, head over to the Violation feed wherever you get your podcasts and hit subscribe so you'll get new episodes when they drop, beginning March 22.
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Dec 27, 2022
A family's peace | Part III
On a sunny Saturday in 2016, Benine Timothee left her house to visit a friend who lived close by and never returned. She had lived in the United States for only three months when she was shot and killed outside a corner store in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. No arrests have been made, and there are no suspects in the case.
This is the third and final episode of our three-part series, A Family's Peace, reported by independent investigative journalist Shannon Dooling.
Benine's homicide is still unsolved, and Boston police haven't offered updates to her family in years. In Part III, Shannon talks to the Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney to get the insider scoop on how unsolved homicide cases are handled. Feeling left behind, Andre, Benine's widower, continues to search for answers and workarounds that don't involve law enforcement.
Finally, we hear from Benine's children, Jephte and Nelissa, about how much their lives have changed since their mother's death, and how the family goes on living, with or without closure.
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Dec 20, 2022
A family's peace | Part II
On a sunny Saturday in 2016, Benine Timothee left her house to visit a friend who lived close by and never returned. She had lived in the United States for only three months when she was shot and killed outside a corner store in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. No arrests have been made, and there are no suspects in the case.
This is the second episode of our three-part series, A Family's Peace, reported by independent investigative journalist Shannon Dooling.
In part two, we learn just how hard it has been for Benine's family to get any details surrounding her death, and why. Despite the hurdles, Shannon tracks down new insights to share with Benine's family members. She also dives into a theory that has haunted Boston's Haitian community for years about who really killed Benine.
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Dec 13, 2022
A family's peace | Part I
On a sunny Saturday in 2016, Benine Timothee left her house to visit a friend who lived close by and never returned. She had lived in the United States for only three months when she was shot and killed outside a corner store in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. No arrests have been made, and there are no suspects in the case.
For six years, her family and others have been haunted by the question — what really happened to their mother, wife, and friend on that October afternoon in 2016?
In this three-part series for Last Seen, independent investigative reporter Shannon Dooling joins Benine's family members on their quest for truth and information. Together, they explore what it means to go on living, after losing a loved one so suddenly, with no explanation. And if it's possible to ever find peace, in the absence of closure.
In this first episode, we learn about Benine's life in Haiti, her family's hopes and dreams of a new life in Boston, and why her husband and children feel forgotten by law enforcement.
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Dec 6, 2022
The Guilty Plate
This week, we're bringing you another food-related mystery - this time from our friendly neighbors to the north, Vermont Public and Brave Little State producer Josh Crane.
If you go out to eat right now, you’re likely to run into restaurants that are struggling because they’re missing a crucial ingredient: staff. In this episode, Josh sets out to solve the mystery of the COVID-era restaurant industry exodus, by telling the story of one Vermont diner, The Guilty Plate.
The full version of this story was originally published on December 1, 2022 on Vermont Public's podcast, Brave Little State.
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Nov 29, 2022
Chinese pie
Mashed potatoes, corn and ground beef. These aren't the ingredients for shepherd's pie, but for Chinese pie, a traditional and very famous French Canadian dish.
WBUR producer Amanda Beland, grew up eating Chinese pie, or pâté chinois, with her French Canadian family. But the pie's origins have always been a culinary mystery. In this episode of Last Seen, Amanda talks to historians and culinary experts to reveal where pâté chinois comes from, and how it might have gotten that name.
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Nov 22, 2022
Confectioner's Row
For years, WBUR senior arts and culture reporter Andrea Shea drove by an old, mysterious factory in Cambridge, Mass. To her surprise, it turned to be the last vestige of a 20th century candy hub called Confectioner's Row.
Manufacturing jobs dried up, and only one factory, Cambridge Brands, remains. In this episode of Last Seen, Andrea walks us through the history of Confectioner's Row and meets face-to-face with the CEO of Cambridge Brands — who is touted as a real life Willy Wonka.
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Nov 14, 2022
Berried treasure
WBUR senior arts reporter Amelia Mason is on the hunt to solve a mystery that has been haunting her for years: why are black raspberries so hard to find? The answer takes us through grocery stores, farms, foraging expeditions, and Amelia's own childhood backyard.
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Nov 9, 2022
Trailer: 'Last Seen,' Season 3
The third season of Last Seen, coming November 2022, is a collection of personal and political mysteries from public radio storytellers that you won't want to miss.
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Apr 29, 2022
Tell Us What You Think of Last Seen
Season 2 of Last Seen just wrapped, which means it's time for a listener survey!
The second season of this show was one big experiment. We brought you an anthology of ten new mysteries - from the esoteric to the straight forward - told by a variety of storytellers, in a variety of styles, about all kinds of people, places and things that have gone missing.
And we're so curious to find out what YOU - our loyal listeners - thought about it!
It would mean so much to us if you'd take just a *few* minutes to give us your honest feedback on this new version of Last Seen by filling out our listener survey.
Your comments will help guide us in telling future stories for Last Seen, and will make the next season of the show even better.
Thanks. We can't wait to hear from you.
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Mar 29, 2022
Episode 10: Searching for a Miracle
On his way to Hollywood, a young Black man named Winston Willis stopped in Cleveland in 1959 to shoot a little pool and walked away $35,000 richer. He used his winnings to open over two dozen businesses on Cleveland's East Side, a vibrant area that locals referred to as "Inner City Disneyland." For a time, Willis was a multi-millionaire, the largest employer of Black people in the Midwest, and a bold business mogul with a big reputation.
Nowadays, there's no trace of the "Miracle on 105th Street". That same intersection is dominated by the campus of a non-profit hospital system. And most people growing up in Cleveland today have never heard of Winston Willis.
Cleveland writer and race educator Ajah Hales examines the forces that punished Willis for daring to live the American dream, and goes on a search for his missing legacy.
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Mar 22, 2022
Episode 9: Bad Actor
People will tell you Richard Bento is a good actor — on and off the stage. Over the past decade, he's been a pillar of the New England community theater scene - acting in and directing countless productions, and fostering the love of theater in other thespians.
But lately, he's been at the center of some real life dramas swirling behind the scenes, involving accusations of fraud, embezzlement, and other kinds of scams. After disappearing from one local theater for a time, he's been known to pop up at another and pull his stunts all over again, leaving a wake of mistrust and missing funds behind.
Reporter and producer Quincy Walters (WBUR) investigates Bento’s con artistry and his most recent vanishing act.
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Mar 15, 2022
Episode 8: The Emotional Lives of Everyday Objects
Many prized possessions and artifacts imbued with sentimental value go missing, unintentionally. But, what about when we choose to renounce the items that mean the most to us -- like that mixtape your old girlfriend made, right before she broke up with you? The Nirvana baseball cap you wore to a Kurt Cobain memorial? Or the Sorel boots your father-in-law gave you, right before he died?
Join arts and culture journalist Allyson McCabe (Lost Notes, Short Cuts) as she weaves together personal stories of objects in flux with artistic attempts to convey their spiritual significance in our everyday lives. As Allyson discovers, getting rid of your baggage isn't quite as simple as getting rid of the bags.
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Mar 8, 2022
Episode 7: A Most Unusual Houseguest
When artist Alison Byrnes opened a package she had mailed to herself two years earlier, she was expecting to find a sealed box of her prints - but that's not what was inside.
The United States Postal Service had made a rather serious mistake. Instead of artist prints, USPS delivered a little blue urn -- containing the ashes of a total stranger.
Attempts at finding the family of the deceased failed, and the cremated remains of Jennings L. Heffelfinger sat abandoned and forgotten, year after year.
That is, until 2019, when intrepid reporter Sophie Bearman took over the case. Determined to solve the mystery, Bearman embarks on a personal and professional journey to get the urn back where it belongs. But how much help is too much? Amid a pandemic that forces us to ponder mortality incessantly, Episode 7 offers a refreshing and unexpected take on life and loss.
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Mar 1, 2022
Episode 6: A Hole in the Silence
Spain has one of the highest number of forced disappearances in the world, second only to Cambodia. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and General Francisco Franco's dictatorship, fascist troops killed tens of thousands of people and threw them into mass graves.
For decades, few people knew this — and no one in Spain talked about it. But in the year 2000, a man in the middle of an identity crisis began digging into his family's past, searching for a grandfather who had gone missing in the war.
What Emilio Silva discovered not only changed his own life - it inspired a social movement to recover Memoria Histórica, or historical memory, throughout Spain.
In episode 6, audio producer and writer Isabel Cadenas Cañón (De eso no se habla) reveals the cultural transformation of a country through the personal transformation of one man.
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Feb 22, 2022
Episode 5: Belly Up
When three friends went on a rum-fueled rampage one night deep in the Nevada desert, they never expected the trouble they would find themselves in a week later.
The men broke into a remote unit of Death Valley National Park known as Devil's Hole — a mysterious flooded cave that happens to be home to the one of the rarest fish on Earth, and one that's critically endangered too.
This episode, based on Paige Blankenbuehler's High Country News feature, is a bite-size crime story starring an obscure species of tiny fish, and some hedonistic humans who stepped a little too far over the line, and suffered some big consequences.
Last Seen host Nora Saks dives into the fraught relationship between humans and nature, and the long arm of the law intended to protect our most vulnerable species.
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Feb 14, 2022
Episode 4: Africa’s Lost Year of Hope
In 1960, dubbed "The Year Of Africa", a pair of bold leaders fanned the flames of hope for a brighter future in the Belgian colony of Congo. But by the following year, that hope had been dashed by outside forces.
Using traditional griot storytelling, writer Brenton Zola transports us to a turning point in Congo's path to independence, and remembers the future that almost was.
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Feb 8, 2022
Episode 3: The Lost World
Every school kid learns that there are exactly eight planets in our solar system. But what if we told you there might be a ninth? A world that may be six times the size of Earth and take 12,000 years to orbit the Sun. The only thing is, while some scientists are convinced Planet Nine exists, no one has seen it. Yet.
Science journalist and WBUR producer Dean Russell (Endless Thread) traces the lives of two astronomers, separated by a century, bound by their thirst for finding that missing planet. This Last Seen story of obsession reveals the unexpected reward when one astronomer gets it wrong — and the fallout when another gets it, seemingly, right.
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Jan 31, 2022
Episode 2: Out of Time
Freeports are the most expensive and secretive warehouses in the world, which now hide some of the world’s cultural treasures from the public eye.
Join Ben Brock Johnson as he traces the path of one lost Modigliani painting, "Seated Man with a Cane," and attempts to catch a glimpse inside these high-tech storage dungeons.
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Jan 31, 2022
Episode 1: Murph
In 1964, Jack Murphy, or "Murph the Surf," pulled off the biggest jewel heist in New York City history only to be caught 48 hours later.
Amory Sivertson traces the enigmatic life of this folk hero and examines why men like him continue to be idolized.
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Jan 19, 2022
Trailer: 'Last Seen,' Season 2
The new season, coming out Feb. 1, has 10 new true-crime mysteries that you don’t want to miss.
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Nov 4, 2021
Coming in February: Things that have gone missing
WBUR’s popular true-crime podcast returns, with mysterious tales about people, places, ashes, planets, endangered species, feelings and much more.
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Oct 29, 2020
Last Seen Presents: Anything For Selena
Listen to the trailer for "Anything For Selena," a new podcast from WBUR and Futuro Studios coming in January 2021. Subscribe now so you don't miss it!
About The Show:
On March 31, 1995, nine-year-old Maria Garcia came home to find her mother glued to the TV, tears rolling down her rosy cheeks. The phone kept ringing. Relatives in Mexico and the States wanted to know if Maria’s family was watching, too. American networks and Mexican programming aired the same top story. Selena Quintanilla, the Grammy-winning ascending Mexican American popstar had been killed — swiftly, violently — by the president of her fan club.
The story shook the country and changed Maria’s life.
In "Anything For Selena," host Maria Garcia goes on an intimate, revelatory quest to understand how Selena has become a potent symbol for tensions around race, class and body politics in the United States.
The series weaves Maria’s personal story as a queer, first-generation Mexican immigrant with cultural a…
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Jul 8, 2020
Last Seen Presents: 'Madness'
"Madness" is a new investigative series from our fellow WBUR podcast, Endless Thread. Told in 5 parts, "Madness" unravels the shocking history of CIA-funded mind-control experiments.
In the first episode, Endless Thread presents powerful accounts of abuse at a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, and introduces the renowned doctor who conducted these disturbing experiments on his unwitting patients.
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Nov 4, 2019
Last Seen Presents: A Place Of Respite
Last Seen's sister podcast, Kind World, recently produced a special series featuring stories of kindness and compassion at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Jul 30, 2019
Last Seen Presents: The Amber Room
Last Seen fans, here's a story about one of the greatest missing treasures of all-time, The Amber Room, from our friends at WBUR's Endless Thread podcast.
The Amber Room was a treasure of kings and an architectural marvel before being stolen by Nazis and lost to history. So…what happened? It all depends on who you ask.
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May 28, 2019
Last Seen Presents: 'Infectious', Part 1
"Infectious: The Strange Past and Surprising Present of Vaccines — and Anti-Vaxxers" explores the weird, winding story of scientific innovation, medical disasters and online virality that radicalized new parents and created a movement that threatens to send us back to the disease-ridden dark ages.
Subscribe to Endless Thread wherever you get your podcasts.
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Apr 22, 2019
Last Seen Presents: Kind World
Last Seen wants to tell you about another great podcast: Kind World
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Dec 7, 2018
Last Seen Presents Endless Thread
We’re back in your feed to share a project we think you’ll love. There will be more from Last Seen in the new year. Until then, we wanted to share another mystery with you: an episode of the great WBUR podcast, Endless Thread. This story focuses on a young man who was last seen… in 1995. If you like it, subscribe to Endless Thread wherever you get your podcasts.
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Nov 19, 2018
Episode 10: 'Last Seen' Live
A behind-the-scenes conversation about how we investigated the most sensational unsolved art heist in history.
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Nov 12, 2018
Episode 9: 'The Big Dig'
We follow a mobster's tip to excavate a lot in Orlando.
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Nov 5, 2018
Episode 8: 'Flimflammer'
After a parallel heist gone wrong, did Brian McDevitt succeed at the Gardner Museum?
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Oct 29, 2018
Episode 7: 'I Was The One'
Was the world's greatest art thief the inspiration, or actually the mastermind, of the Gardner heist?
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Oct 22, 2018
Episode 6: 'Befriend And Betray'
This is a story about how to plot an art recovery, and then blow it entirely.
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Oct 15, 2018
Episode 5: 'The Bobbys'
We trace the art's possible path from Boston to Connecticut to Philadelphia.
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Oct 8, 2018
Episode 4: 'Two Bad Men'
Were George Reissfelder and David Turner involved in the Gardner heist?
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Oct 1, 2018
Episode 3: 'Not A Bunch Of Jamokes'
Was the heist planned in the belly of Boston's criminal underworld operating out of a Dorchester auto body shop?
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Sep 24, 2018
Episode 2: 'Inside Job?'
On the night of the heist, security guard Rick Abath made the critical mistake of letting the thieves into the museum. In this episode, we ask if it was indeed a mistake.
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Sep 14, 2018
Episode 1: '81 Minutes'
In 1990, two thieves stole 13 irreplaceable artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. We take a closer look at what happened that night.
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Jul 16, 2018
Introducing 'Last Seen'
A look into the largest unsolved art heist in history: the theft of 13 irreplaceable artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. "Last Seen" begins Sept. 17.
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