DATE OF LAST CONTACT: 3rd October 1973
MISSING FROM: Porter, Oxford County, Maine
DATE OF BIRTH: 4th November 1958
AGE AT DISAPPEARANCE: 14
HEIGHT: 5’7
WEIGHT: 130 lbs
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: White male. Brown / Auburn Hair. Hazel Eyes. The tip of Roger’s middle finger (unspecified hand) was crushed in an accident and appears flattened. Roger was wearing a purple sweatshirt, a denim jacket, jeans and sneakers.
INVESTIGATING AGENCY: Maine State Police – Major Crimes Unit South
BASIC CASE FACTS
- On Wednesday 3rd October Roger Day told his siblings that he was skipping school to visit the Fryeburg Fair. He was never seen again.
- There were some reported sightings of him that day, but nothing could ever be confirmed.
- His family and police believed that he had run away to join the fair
- In 2013 police dug in the basement of a property a few doors from Roger’s house, implicating the former occupant of that house in foul play.
Roger Day went to the fair and disappeared. That’s basically what all of the official sites like NamUs and Maine State Police say. But that’s not what happened. In fact, Roger probably didn’t even go to the fair that day.
A huge amount of the information uncovered for this entry comes from local knowledge shared online. The people of the tiny community of Porter in Maine had a monster on their midst and it was only decades later that the truth began to dawn on them. The input from family and neighbours, much of which I have been able to verify through other sources, has been instrumental in working out what may have really happened to the boy who everyone thought had run away to join the fair.
ROGER’S STORY
Roger Merton Day was born on the 4th November 1958. The second son and third child of Merton and Anne Day. Roger had an older brother and sister – Doug and Leigh Ann – and a younger sister; Beth. The family lived in the tiny community of Porter, Maine which had a population of just over a thousand people. Porter is right on the border with New Hampshire and back in the 1970s was mostly home to farmers and timber workers. The community is very rural and set in thick woods. The Day family lived at 561 Ossipee Trail (Route 25); a good sized family home set in half-an-acre of land on the main road through town. Roger’s parents were active in the local community and served on the town council as well as being active members of their local Methodist church and taking part in various local charities.
Roger was a Freshman at Sacopee Valley High school. While we don’t know a great deal about him, his older sister described him as having a strong personality and a fiery temper – particularly when it was time for his chores, which he loathed! “He just would walk off and say ‘Well, I got you to do it for me, didn’t I?'”, she said. She says that Roger just loved life, but also hinted that his personality had changed somewhat before his disappearance – his behaviour was apparently causing some trouble at home and he could be stubborn and strong-willed. Roger’s mom described him as a “homebody” and his younger sister says “I’m not saying he’s an angel but he wasn’t a kid who was in trouble before this”.
DISAPPEARANCE
It was Wednesday morning on the 3rd of October 1973 and the fair was in town. The Fryeburg Fair, located in the town of Fryeburg about 20 miles North of Porter, was a huge deal. It was a big fair akin to a county fair with rides, amusements, animal shows and food vendors and everyone in the local area looked forward to it. The roads would be busy with traffic heading to the fair and people traveled from all around to visit.
Roger’s parents had already left for work and he and his siblings ate their breakfast and were then supposed to catch the bus to school. It was at this point that Roger told them that he was going to ditch school that day and instead head to the fair. His siblings didn’t really think anything was odd about that and when asked years later if Roger made a habit of skipping school, his older sister said “Playing hooky wasn’t unusual for a teen to do. It was something kids did on a more regular basis. They would skip school and head to the fair if they had half the chance”. Roger was never seen again.
It was assumed that Roger had intended to hitchhike the twenty miles to the fair, but no one ever reported having picked him up. In fact nobody at the fair could actually confirm whether Roger was ever there.
Roger’s father tried to report Roger missing the next day when he hadn’t returned but the local sheriff refused to take a report, telling the family that young teens do this all the time and that he’ll show up eventually. It took a full week before they accepted a report and assigned detectives to the case and by then it was probably too late to follow Roger’s trail. Eventually the police and Roger’s parents settled into the belief that Roger had run away to join the fair and the case grew cold. Roger’s father went to the Fryeburg Fair every year without fail in the hopes that he would find his missing son working with the ‘carnies’ – but he never did.
SIGHTINGS
In fact, there were sightings of Roger that day and local people who knew him were convinced of what they had seen, yet the detectives didn’t seem to have followed up these potential leads; instead preferring the theory that he had run-away with the fair. The sightings would become important later on, though.
At about 11.30 that morning two ladies who owned a store on Route 25 heard a loud argument from across the street. Then a short time later a local named Ray Bickford witnessed Roger walking along Route 25, near to Percy Wentworth’s store, in the direction of the neighbouring town of Kezar Falls. He said Roger appeared to have a bloody and bruised face. There were also a number of people who claimed that they had seen Roger that night with a group of boys in the hayloft of the cowshed at the fair. None of these sightings have ever been confirmed but the direction he was seen walking was the route he would take to hitchhike to the fair.
FRYEBURG FAIR – A RED HERRING?
The Fryeburg Fair was a huge deal for the people of Maine. A huge agricultural fair where people from all over New England show their livestock; there are also animal shows, crafts, food vendors, entertainment, rides and much more – members of Roger’s own family even competed in oxen pulls! It was an event that everyone looked forward to and the roads were often blocked with traffic at this time of year. It is quite probable that Roger could have easily gotten a ride. But did he?
Roger’s parents and the local sheriff just assumed that Roger had gone to the fair and decided to run away with the fair-workers or ‘carnies’. But I don’t think that makes a lot of sense – in fact based on information presented later, I don’t think Roger was ever intending to go to the fair that day.
Despite people claiming years later that they had indeed seen Roger in the hayloft of the cowshed, it was never confirmed. In fact, years later someone found a photo they had taken at the 1973 fair which appeared to show Roger in the background! However, it turned out to be someone else, so we know there was a kid at the fair who looked like Roger. No one who claimed to have seen Roger ever mentioned that he had a bruised face like in the earlier sightings either. I don’t believe we can actually place Roger at the fair that day.
I had always found it strange that a Fourteen year old would suddenly out-of-the-blue decide he was going to skip school on a Wednesday morning to go to a fair that was twenty miles away all alone. What fun would it be without friends? Then, when I found two small, innocuous articles that appeared in local papers in the days following the disappearance, it really made me question the ‘going to the fair’ scenario.
The small notice above appeared in the Bangor Daily News the day after Roger vanished. It mentions how the harness racing had to be canceled the day that Roger disappeared due to heavy rain. When I checked the historic weather conditions for the area on that date it turns out that a heavy rain storm drenched the area, dropping half and inch of rain with strong winds. The event that was canceled was due to start at 1.30pm so the rain had already happened by then. So, right at the time Roger was supposed to be en route to the fair, the weather turned bad enough for events to be canceled. Would Roger really have chosen to go to the fair in such weather; wearing just a denim jacket and jeans?
The second thing I found was even more compelling. The below notice appeared in the Journal Tribune on the Thursday after Roger disappeared. It notes how the children at Roger’s school had had an extra-long four day weekend. On Friday 5th school was closed so that everyone could visit the fair and on the following Monday it was also closed for Columbus day. So Roger would have had four whole days to go to the fair with his school friends and family! Yet apparently, despite this, Roger seemingly chose to risk getting into trouble by skipping school to go on his own, on a Wednesday in bad weather. To me, this just doesn’t make any sense.
For Forty years the case was cold. There was no new information and no Roger and his family, although they never forgot him, moved on with their lives…until 2013.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
In 2010 the case, which had been owned by the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, was suddenly transferred to the Maine State Police Serious Crimes Unit and it appeared that there was new movement in the case – indeed there was.
Three years later in 2013 detectives and a geology professor went to the home at 535 Ossipee Trail (Route 25) with Ground Penetrating Radar and began to search the basement. Police remained tight-lipped about what they were doing but the locals in Porter knew they were looking for Roger, and they knew who used to own the house – Peter J McManus II. Police did find an anomaly in the dirt-floored basement, but it turned out to be a pig carcass in cement. There was never any explanation as to why a pig had been buried in the only part of the basement where there was any concrete. So, what exactly had led things to heat up after four decades?
PETER J MCMANUS II
In 1973 Peter McManus lived with his wife at 535 Ossipee Trail, a house just 500 feet from Roger’s home. The families knew each other well and the kids even used to play and hang at each other’s homes. Peter McManus was active locally in various groups such as the Elks and the Order of the Moose. He had seven children and many grandchildren and was a well-known figure in town. Peter McManus was also a monster hiding in plain sight.
In 1990 he was convicted of gross sexual misconduct. He had been sexually abusing his own granddaughter since 1978 when she was just five years old. It had been happening over an eleven year period at times when he and his wife were supposed to be babysitting her. Later, in 1997, the granddaughter also sued her grandmother who had been in the house at the time and allowed the abuse to happen – even going so far as to blame the child for what was happening! A transcript of the subsequent court case and ruling can be found in the Sources section below.
Back in 1973 nobody knew what was happening. Roger’s sister Leigh Anne says “There was a pedophile that lived two or three houses down. We didn’t even know it at the time”. I am not convinced that nobody in town knew. People in small towns often have a very good idea what’s happening at their neighbours homes; they choose not to get involved, this was even more true in previous decades.
Both families have commented online, as well as other local residents, and reading between the lines it seems like Peter McManus’ abuses and molestations may have been more widespread than anyone in town ever imagined; potentially involving a number of local children. Roger’s sister told the Bangor Daily News in 2015 that the house “belonged to the neighbor accused of various sexual assaults”. It is apparent that at some point the families began to put two-and-two together and realised with horror that Roger may have been one of the victims.
Urged on my members of McManus’ family, who now shunned him, the State Police Major Crimes Unit became involved. Whatever information they uncovered about what had occurred at that house it was clearly serious and plausible enough for them to go and check it out. Law enforcement has repeatedly refused to comment on the reopened investigation but Lieutenant McDonough of the State Police did confirm in 2015 that the search was looking for evidence in Roger’s disappearance.
WHAT DID HAPPEN THAT DAY?
“I really don’t think he ever made it to the fair, to tell you the truth” – Leigh Ann, Roger’s sister
For over four decades Roger was the kid who went to the fair and never came home. This is what his family believed – searching the Fryeburg Fair year after year for their missing son and brother. But the statement above by Roger’s older sister sums up what she, the people of Porter, Maine, and myself think. There’s really no evidence that Roger was ever at the Fryeburg Fair that rainy Wednesday. With this new information, and removing the fair story as a red herring, I believe it is possible to recreate a likely scenario of what may have happened that day in October 1973 – and it is the same conclusion that his sister has come to.
There is a strong likelihood that Roger was being groomed and abused by his neighbour, Peter McManus. It may have been happening for years and as Roger grew older, he began to realise what was happening to him was wrong. Roger’s sister believes that this may explain why his behaviour at home had recently begun to cause some trouble – behavioural change is something common in abused children who begin to suffer from feelings of shame and/or guilt as they get older. On that rainy Wednesday morning, Roger’s sister believes that instead of going to the fair, Roger intended to confront Peter McManus.
“Roger had a strong personality” Leigh Anne says. “He may have said to this man ‘Look, I’m done with this and I’m gonna start telling'”. It now seems likely that, for whatever reason, Roger chose that day to confront Peter McManus and put a stop to what had been happening. It is probable that after his siblings had boarded the school bus, Roger walked the few hundred yards to the McManus household.
I think we can go even further. Later sightings by people who knew him place Roger, bruised and bloody, walking along Route 25 in the direction of Kezar Falls, while witnesses state they heard an argument at around the same time. Since no one else in Porter ever came forward to say that they were the person with the bruised and bloody face then it seems likely that this was indeed Roger. I suggest that Roger did confront McManus and a physical fight ensued after which Roger left and began to walk down Route 25. Either he was on his way to tell his parents, to school, or perhaps he did now intend to head to the fair afterall.
I speculate that Peter McManus, panicking and worried about his deviant behaviour becoming known, drove after Roger and attempted a reconciliation with him – perhaps attempting to keep him quiet by bribes – he couldn’t allow Roger to reveal what had been happening. At this point I think he probably apologised and offered to drive Roger home or even to the fair and Roger relented and got into his vehicle. Whatever happened after that I think led to Roger’s murder and the concealment of his body. The last sighting of Roger was about noon on Route 25 – he was probably already dead by the time his siblings returned from school later that day.
Although police searched the basement of 535 Ossipee Trail, the owner of the house in 2013 commented that many locals told him that the search was in the wrong place and that they should in fact have been checking underneath the ‘L’ of the house:
He told police they were more than welcome to come and search other places in the home, but it seems they never took up his offer. I am not sure why locals believe this and I have to wonder whether those who were around at the time had some knowledge about what was happening in that house – his wife certainly knew. Small towns tended to keep their secrets and there is a real, unsettling possibility that people did know what was happening and chose to sweep it under the carpet.
The area where Roger disappeared is covered in dense, thick forest, ponds and a gravel pit was just across the road from where he was last seen. There were many places where someone could conceal a body – never to be found. Police are not likely to conduct another dig unless they have some compelling evidence. If Roger is ever to be found and brought home to his family then someone will need to provide compelling evidence where he may be – if you know anything, I urge you to share it and bring this young man home.
The boy who went to the fair over half a century ago and disappeared probably never even made it to the fair.
SOURCES
Bangor Daily News, 29th October 2015
Conway Daily Sun, 3rd October 2013
Maine State Police Facebook Page with many comments from locals
NAMUS – #MP19117
1997 court case naming Peter McManus as guilty of gross sexual misconduct
Lost N Missing Blog – contains text of an interview with sister Beth which is no longer available online
Never Seen Again 