By the summer of 1913, Binghamton, NY was booming.

It was the fastest-growing city in New York State. Fifteen thousand people had arrived in just three years. New neighborhoods appeared almost overnight. Factories lined the rivers. The local economy was boosted. Downtown hummed with streetcars, storefronts, the sound of industry and the sidewalks were packed with people.

On Tuesday morning, July 22nd, the city awoke, already overheated.

At 8 a.m., the temperature had already climbed into the high eighties. Windows were thrown open along Court Street. Chocolates melted in shop windows. Gas lamps baked the insides of photography studios. And at the Binghamton Clothing Company on Wall St. every window and door stood open in a losing battle against the heat.

Inside, 111 people were already at work. And the hum of the sewing machines up on the 4th floor could be heard on the streets below. Looking back, the record breaking heat feels like an eerie premonition of what was to come that fateful July afternoon at the Binghamton Clothing Company.

SOURCES:

“Devil’s Fire” WSKG Public Media Documentary: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-devils-fire-3lpvou/

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=198174

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=256771

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_Binghamton_Factory_fire

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/binghamton-clothing-factory-fire-monument

https://www.nytimes.com/1913/07/24/archives/the-fire-at-binghamton.html

On September 29th, 2015, a 40-year-old woman named Kelley Clayton was found brutally murdered in her own home in Elmira, New York. She was stabbed more than a dozen times while her children slept upstairs.

At first glance, it looked like a nightmare scenario: an unknown intruder, a violent home invasion, a family torn apart.

But as investigators would soon discover, the truth wasn’t hiding in the shadows.

It was sitting right at the kitchen table.

This is the story of Kelley Clayton, who she was, how she died, and how the person responsible tried, and failed, to get away with murder.

It’s been difficult for me to write about this case because it seems like each time I've sat down to write, I pull up my sources and I’m hoping to find something that simply isn’t there. I want to know more about Keisha but there is so little information out there about her or about her death that it’s been frustrating trying to figure out how to tell her story–because there isn’t a story here. There’s just small fragments of a larger, much more sinister story.

All we know is that on March 22, 2009 Keisha Roman went missing from her home on Oak St in Binghamton, NY. Months later on September 21 of that same year her skeletal remains were found in Susquehanna County, Pa near the Susquehanna river–her body was found in a boat launch near a marina.

Since the discovery of her remains in 2009, there have been no details released about the case or the investigation. There have been no answers for Keisha’s family & there have been no suspects ever named in the murder of Keisha Roman.

https://www.truecasefiles.com/2024/10/the-disappearance-and-murder-of-keisha.html

Submit a Tip: https://www.binghamton-ny.gov/government/departments/police-department/submit-a-tip

Some disappearances don’t fade.

They linger — because they are unresolved.

In small towns, especially, when a missing child becomes part of the landscape. A name whispered. A memory that refuses to settle.

This is the story of two teenage girls who vanished within a year of each other — in towns just miles apart — along the New York–Pennsylvania border.

One girl was never found.

The other was found murdered.

And decades later, their stories remain strangely, hauntingly connected. This is the stories of Mary Lou Bostwick & Sharon Coston.

In the early morning hours of April 2nd, 2008 police received a call that a woman’s screams were heard near the 500 Block of Jennings Creek in Killawog, NY. Killawog is located just north of Whitney Point, NY and only about 15 minutes north of Binghamton. When the police arrived at the location they did their due diligence, but found nothing out of the ordinary. What the police were unaware of, at that time, is at the exact time when the 911 call originally came in, Bethanie Lynne Dougherty mysteriously vanished from her home directly next door from where the call was made. Since that morning, there has been no sign whatsoever of where Bethanie could’ve gone or who is responsible for taking her. In this story, I’m going to share what happened in the evening leading up to Bethanie Dougherty’s disappearance and everything we know about her case. This case is truly a night mare, something truly out of the Twilight Zone.

In the quiet hours before dawn on March 17th, 2011 — St. Patrick’s Day — the city of Binghamton was asleep.

Then, at 3:30 a.m., flames erupted on the front porch of a home at 20 Milford Street.

Inside were seven members of the Aissa family.

Six would escape.

One would not.

Seventeen-year-old Jeffrey Aissa — a twin, a brother, a son — never made it out.

And for nearly fifteen years, the truth about what happened that night would remain buried beneath smoke, silence, and unanswered questions.

It was January 11th, 2006. Binghamton was cold that night, quiet in the way only a small town can be when it’s hoping to keep its secrets. Bambi Madden left her house just before 11 PM. This should have just been a quick walk to the gas station. She had told her mother she was “going to get a drink”. But Bambi was never seen again. She never made it to the store. And nearly 20 years later, this community is still baffled by her disappearance. It’s one of those stories that keeps echoing—and not because we hear it so often, but because we don’t. And, that WAS TRUE–until recently, as stories like Bambi Madden’s were beyond rare in Binghamton, NY. But, this past winter (of 2024) our small town has seen a strange spike in missing persons reports making headlines & the locals are yappinggg. In This is, afterall, the Twilight Zone. Sources: Missing Persons in America: https://missingpeopleinamerica.org/missing/Bambi-Madden?fbclid=IwY2xjawLXlZ9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFKcXJhcWR6UUtCUTc4ZFdEAR70hSaKT0QaUoIduOknJ5pA-kKRo9HrIS3gji-J371ToiHmWSSRs_OxiROiIA_aem_31MOJwt7LmLGSBhtGp4u8w Press & Sun-Bulletin: ​https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/public-safety/2016/01/29/vanished-what-really-happened-bambi-madden/78621318/ YouTube from True Crime with Nathan Adams: https://youtu.be/Kb8_LBjBJ0k?si=s7HQFwV5jbB_VD9t

She was the kind of kid who did everything right. Cheri Lindsey — just 12 years old — was known throughout her Binghamton, New York neighborhood as the girl next door. Friendly. Athletic. Dependable. She was a seventh grader at East Middle School. Bright, kind, and always lending a hand, especially to her dad, a Binghamton police officer. During Little League games, you could find her behind the scoreboard, keeping track of every play. And after school? She delivered the Press and Sun, rain or shine. One of those kids who stuck to a routine.

March 26th, 1984, was one of those ordinary days. A Friday. Cheri had gone to collect money on her paper route. She told her parents she’d be back soon. She had plans. She was collecting payments that day, earning money to help throw a baby shower for her teacher.

She left her home a little before 3 p.m. She never came back.