Small town tragedies have a way of hanging around, soaking into the fabric of the community, defining its residents for generations to come.

Because everyone knows everyone, everyone is affected.

And no matter how opaque the mystery, how closely guarded the secret, someone knows something.

In Arnprior, Ontario, a little boy vanished without a trace.

Adrien McNaughton was five years old, small for his age, unable to tie his own shoes.

And one day in June, while on a fishing trip with his father and siblings, he wandered into the woods and was never heard from again.

Holmes Lake, where Adrien McNaughton was last seen. (David Ridgen)

David Ridgen, the host of SKS, grew up in Arnprior, moving there shortly after the tragedy.

It was a small town with a frontier feel. Adrien's disappearance hung over the area like a dark mass.

Perhaps it was this dark mass that led Ridgen into a life as a documentarian. Perhaps this is what led him to specialize in cold cases.

Now Ridgen returns to Arnprior, to use his particular investigative skills in his own hometown, asking the questions that have been waiting for answers for over 40 years.

In the first episode, Ridgen speaks to the McNaughton family, visits the lake where the boy was last seen and uncovers a new lead about what happened before Adrien disappeared on June 12, 1972.

Someone Knows Something is an episodic series, best listened to in order. Click here to listen to the Prologue: 'Do it, David. Do it.'



Show notes

A photograph of Adrien McNaughton:

A picture of Adrien that appeared in local newspapers in 1972.

Newspaper clips from the summer that Adrien McNaughton disappeared:

The Ottawa Citizen: June, 1972

Excerpt from the story:

"About 552 civilian volunteers registered to assist the OPP dog handlers and skin divers, and the 311 military personnel involved in combing the search area, which has been expanded to cover a radius of 75 square miles.

"Several clues were followed up—including reported footprints on the west side of Centennial Lake. The tracking dogs were sent in on each of these, but again nothing concrete has turned up."

See the full article

Map of the last known location of Adrien MacNaughton:

A timeline chronicling the disappearance of Adrien MacNaughton.