A man is found wrapped in blankets, laying in a stream near Route 113 in Madison, NH In the summer of 1973, the quiet, wooded landscape of Madison, New Hampshire became the scene of a somber discovery. On June 24, the body of 20-year-old Caucasian male Paul Olsen was found submerged in a stream off Route 113. He was wrapped in blankets, a detail that painted a chilling picture of his final moments. An autopsy would later confirm the grim reality that he had been the victim of foul play; the cause of death was asphyxia due to the obstruction of his mouth and nose, and it was
unequivocally ruled a homicide. A piece of tape found over his mouth served as a silent testament to the violence he had endured.
Paul Olsen, a resident of Portsmouth, had been a man at a crossroads in the time leading up to his death. Recently discharged from a three-year stint in the Marine Corps infantry, he found himself entangled in legal troubles. He was facing charges for larceny and marijuana possession and had a court date scheduled around the time his life was cut short. His body had been left in the water culvert for at least three weeks before being located, a period during which his defense attorney was unable to contact him. Adding to the unsettling circumstances, his car had been found engulfed in flames on Peirce Island in Portsmouth the previous October.
Despite the clear evidence of a homicide, the investigation into Paul Olsen's death has yielded no arrests and the case has grown cold over the decades. The New Hampshire Department of Justice lists his death as an unsolved homicide, a lingering mystery in the state's history. While one source from the era indicated that police had a suspect, no definitive progress was ever officially announced. The question of who was responsible for the death of the young Marine veteran remains unanswered, leaving behind a story without a final chapter.
