Murders and Mysteries of New England · Marti Shaw

The Murder of Pamela Webb

·22 min

Host Marty Shaw presents a single-narrator true crime episode examining the 1989 disappearance and murder of 32-year-old Pamela Webb from Maine. The case is notable for its scarcity of definitive facts and its unresolved nature. Shaw primarily sources information from another podcast, "Murder, She Told," to reconstruct the known timeline. Pamela Webb, who was 5'1" and owned pets named Thumper and Hakuna, vanished on July 1, 1989, after leaving a family party to drive to her boyfriend in Mason, New Hampshire. Her blue Chevy pickup was found abandoned with a flat tire on I-95 in Biddeford, Maine, with bloodstains matching her parents' type and her earrings found nearby. Her skeletal remains were discovered weeks later in Franconia, New Hampshire, roughly 110 miles north of her intended destination. The medical examiner ruled it a homicide but could not specify the cause of death. Maine State Trooper Jeffrey Haas was fired for lying about the time he first saw her abandoned truck, having passed it multiple times before stopping. A surprising detail is that the name of Webb's cat, Hakuna, predates the popular Disney film *The Lion King*. The geographic discrepancy between where her truck broke down, where she was headed, and where her body was found is a central puzzle. Trooper Haas's obstruction, though he was cleared as a suspect, significantly hampered the early investigation. One theory involves James Robert Cruz, a trucker convicted of another killing whom the FBI investigated for potential links. The primary person of interest is trucker John Wayne Boyer, whose known victims were petite women and whose method involved interstate highways. Another speculative link to the Connecticut River Valley Killer is deemed geographically unlikely. Webb's mother believed her daughter was the victim of an opportunistic abduction while changing a tire. This case directly led the American Automobile Association to change its official safety advice, now urging motorists to stay locked inside their vehicles during a breakdown. The host personally reflects on the case's impact, noting he often passes the mile marker where Webb's truck was found. The episode maintains an educational and conversational tone, with the host openly discussing research challenges and sharing personal asides. True crime listeners interested in cold cases and historical New England mysteries will find this episode compelling. Those who prefer solved cases with clear resolutions or more action-packed narrative delivery might find the speculative nature and limited information less satisfying.

As heard by us

A thin record, a troubling timeline, and one police lie that still frames the case.

The episode frames Pamela Webb's disappearance and murder as a sparse New England case file, with only a few fixed points and much left unsettled.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Maine case that hinges on one abandoned truck and one police report that did not hold up.

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