Why is the Burke, Vermont area so murdery, by episodes?

Burke is a Vermont town of 1,722 people spread over 34 square miles in Caledonia County, up in the Northeast Kingdom, the state's northeast corner. It was first settled in 1792 and organised in 1796, and its lots went largely to Revolutionary War soldiers paid in land. The town has made its living from lumber and farming, and since the 1950s from skiing and vacation homes.

The Burke area takes in St. Johnsbury, 13 miles from the centre, and Brownington, 18 miles out, three small towns in one corner of the state. Their three murders come one per episode and one per town: a February case in 2000, a September one in 2009, a March one in 2012. That took three separate trips, since no single telling carries the count.

That makes a modest hotspot, 58th overall and third in Vermont. The murders sit across a dozen years and 25 miles, with little in common but geography. James and Jimmie got a tour of the Kingdom out of it, at least.