On the evening of April 10, 1969, 22-year-old David Bacon, a U.S. Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, left his home in Troy, New York, for his overnight shift at the Behr-Manning factory. He was also supposed to give his brother a ride to work, but he never arrived to pick him up, nor did he ever clock in for his own shift. The following morning, his car was discovered abandoned on Oil Mill Hill near the Waterford Bridge. Inside the vehicle were his lunch and his uncashed paycheck, suggesting he did not leave of his own accord. Initially, authorities entertained the possibility that Bacon had voluntarily disappeared, but as time stretched on with no word, the likelihood of foul play became a growing concern.
The case remained cold for decades, with any initial investigation files eventually being purged from state police archives. A significant breakthrough finally occurred in 2008 when new information prompted police to reopen the case as a homicide investigation. This led them to Nelson E. Costello, who was the same age as Bacon and had worked as a part-time constable in Waterford in 1969. In January 2009, Costello, who had since relocated to Arizona, was arrested and charged with Bacon's murder. Investigators believed the motive was a rivalry over a woman to whom Bacon was engaged. Before his arrest, upon learning he was under investigation, Costello allegedly attempted to tamper with a witness to prevent them from cooperating with the police.
On the verge of his trial in October 2009, Nelson Costello pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter. He confessed to the crime, detailing how he used his authority as a constable to pull Bacon over that night under the pretense that the captain wanted to see him. Instead, Costello drove Bacon to a public boat launch area and shot him three times in the chest. He admitted to having an accomplice help him dispose of the body, though the statute of limitations prevented this individual from being charged. Costello claimed he put Bacon's body in the trunk of his car and drove to Bedford County, Virginia, where he buried him along the James River. In January 2010, Costello was sentenced to five to seventeen years in prison, offering an apology for his actions at the sentencing. Despite his confession, David Bacon's body has never been found; it is speculated that his remains may have been washed out to sea during a hurricane that caused severe flooding of the James River in 1985. The case, which began as a mysterious disappearance, was officially solved after forty years, bringing a degree of closure to a long-unanswered question, though the final peace of a proper burial for David Bacon remains elusive.
Last Seen: Apr 10, 1969
