FILE 462 / 27 January 2024 / 72 MIN / express

The Old Flame & The Dominatrix

Ashburnham, MassachusettsListen

The town

N ↑Public placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

We're going to Ashburnham, Massachusetts, north central Massachusetts, right up near the top of the state near the border, in Worcester County, population 6,315. about 0:03:13

History, in brief

Town note

Ashburnham sits on the central New England divide at a high altitude, sending water north, south, east and west to the Merrimack River and the Connecticut River.

about 0:04:53

Town note

In the early 1800s there was enough water to power tanneries, mills and lumber operations making tubs, pails and furniture.

about 0:05:08

Town note

In that period Ashburnham was the second largest manufacturer of chairs in the world.

about 0:05:35
All 5 history facts

Town note

Ashburnham sits on the central New England divide at a high altitude, sending water north, south, east and west to the Merrimack River and the Connecticut River.

about 0:04:53

Town note

In the early 1800s there was enough water to power tanneries, mills and lumber operations making tubs, pails and furniture.

about 0:05:08

Town note

In that period Ashburnham was the second largest manufacturer of chairs in the world.

about 0:05:35

Town note

Today its largest attribute is open space: a third of its undeveloped land is state forest, town forest or private and public conservation land.

about 0:06:01

The figures, as told

Money

Median home value$358,100
Median household income$104,074
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2024

Population

"6,315"

No direction stated.

As told in 2024 about 0:04:00

Median household income

"$104,074"

Comparison: "way higher than the national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2024 about 0:04:13

Median home price

"$358,100"

Comparison: "way lower than Boston". Direction: below.

As told in 2024 about 0:04:40

The reviews

3.0 / 5 · average of 5

5 stars

“The town appears to be obsolete but the land and the view of the woods are fairly beautiful, there are no nearby shopping centres and the people are somewhat friendly.”
about 0:06:47

4 stars

“They have seen people pulled over for speeding and there is always someone with bad intentions somewhere, but they have not seen anything like that; it seems just fine.”
about 0:07:20

3 stars

“Not too much crime, it is a small town.”
about 0:07:45

2 stars

“Employment is dropping, local businesses keep closing and everyone has to drive long distances to work; they will have to move to find a good enough paying job.”
about 0:07:56

1 star

“The town is dead at night and the only food is two poor pizza places and a decent Chinese place.”
about 0:08:28

In Massachusetts

Closest episodes

  1. The Killer ProdigyGroton, Massachusetts · 13 December 202529 km / 18 miShow on map
  2. The Murder And The MiracleMont Vernon, New Hampshire · 2 October 202534 km / 21 miShow on map
  3. Dissecting An Alien VampireFramingham, Massachusetts · 6 October 202255 km / 34 miShow on map
  4. Michael Myers Is My IdolGreenfield, Massachusetts · 11 February 202356 km / 35 miShow on map
  5. Who Tasted The Blood?Salem, New Hampshire · 22 April 202359 km / 37 miShow on map

The story

The episode goes to Ashburnham, Massachusetts, a town of 6,315 people in Worcester County in the north centre of the state, close to the New Hampshire border and about an hour and ten minutes from Boston. James sketches a former mill town that made chairs, and by 1870 to 1880 was the second largest chair manufacturer in the world, and which now prizes open space. The story he tells happened in 2018.

She lived on her father's 29-acre property at Packard Hill Road, in a smaller house behind the main one. Brandon Chicklis was her classmate at Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School; they met on the school bus, dated in their sophomore and junior years and broke up. They reconnected over Facebook in late 2017. Chicklis, 20, lived in Westminster with his girlfriend, Jocelyn Williams.

On 23 June 2018 Chicklis left home at about one in the morning, telling people he was going to visit family in New Hampshire. He texted her about passing cows on the driveway. At three o'clock his phone stopped transmitting, either switched off or destroyed. At 8.15 that evening she messaged him that he never got here and asked where he was.

His family reported him missing the next day and put up posters. On 29 June his grey Honda Civic was found in the Hannaford supermarket car park on Route 202 in Rindge, New Hampshire. On 10 July a jogger found his body on Route 119 in Rindge, opposite East Main Street and about six miles from the supermarket. He had been stabbed twelve times, the wounds running vertically in a V shape across his chest, and the body had been wrapped in a Lands' End blanket, placed inside two large trash bags which were duct-taped around him, and covered with a comforter.

The investigation turned on his phone. She denied ever going into the tree house. DNA placed Chicklis in her car and in the tree house. A search of the property found animal skeletons laid out as if being rebuilt, numerous vials of blood labelled with people's names, a glass pitcher a quarter full of what appeared to be blood, a beaker containing a small animal heart, a raven or crow in a jar, knives, a bodysuit, photographs of Lind with cut marks on his back, and a notebook describing a relationship with Chicklis and a fantasy of killing a person to cure the world of overpopulation. A brass bed with restraints at each corner was in her bedroom. A neighbour, Leanne Roy, told police she had woken after midnight in June to a blood-curdling human scream.

The tree house, which stood on Roy's land, had been cleaned and given a new rug; blood had seeped through the floorboards. Handles had been fixed low on the walls at the four corners to hold restraints, and they had not been there in April. A blue tarp in an unopened package matched the colour of a cinder block at the scene. Lind's phone, meanwhile, travelled from Ashburnham toward Rindge and the body site on the evening of 23 June and back again.

The medical evidence of twelve deep vertical wounds delivered from above, while he lay on the ground, undercut that account.

The case

Murder of Brandon Chicklis

Victims

Brandon Chicklis (20). former high-school boyfriend, living in Westminster with his girlfriend Jocelyn Williams

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 27 January 2024.

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Jocelyn Williams. Brandon Chicklis's girlfriend
Leanne Roy. next-door neighbour who heard a scream and owns the tree house
Douglas Grout. state trooper who interviewed

The timeline

  1. 1997 is bornabout 0:13:14
  2. high school and Brandon Chicklis meet as classmates at Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, date in their sophomore and junior years and then break up (Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School)about 0:14:45
  3. late 2017 and Chicklis reconnect over Facebookabout 0:15:39
  4. April 2018 Chicklis, with a new phone, messages about feeling lonely and she replies that he pushes people awayabout 0:31:05
  5. April 2018 The tree house owner removes the carpet and a broken window and cleans the tree house; no restraints are there then (tree house)about 0:50:50
  6. June 22, 2018 asks Chicklis to hang out over the weekend and says she has not been to the tree house in eonsabout 0:32:00
  7. June 22, 2018 texts her boyfriend John Lind asking whether they could add bubbles to a blood bathabout 0:30:40
  8. days before June 23, 2018 has an abortionabout 0:56:18
  9. June 23, 2018, about 1 a.m. Chicklis leaves home saying he is going to visit family in New Hampshire; he is last seen in Westminster (Westminster)about 0:18:48
  10. June 23, 2018, 10:20 a.m. texts Lind that she has to attempt some things and should then have the surpriseabout 0:30:17
  11. June 23, 2018, 11:30 a.m. Chicklis arrives at the property; his phone data places him at Packard Hill Road and he texts about passing cows on the back driveway ( property)about 0:28:56
  12. June 23, 2018, 3 p.m. Chicklis's phone stops transmitting, either turned off or destroyed ( property)about 0:29:25
  13. June 23, 2018, 3 to 5:30 p.m. John Lind's phone is in the area of his and residences in Ashburnhamabout 0:52:25
  14. June 23, 2018, after midnight Neighbour Leanne Roy wakes to a blood-curdling human scream coming from the direction of the properties (Roy house)about 0:49:19
  15. June 23, 2018, 7:17 p.m. Lind's phone moves into southern New Hampshire, near the Hannaford supermarket in Rindge and near where the body is later found (Hannaford supermarket)about 0:52:44

Places and phrases

N ↑Public placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School

school

about 0:14:45

Heard in this episode