6 episodes

True Crime Podcast, for mature audiences. Buried, Not Forgotten is about the mysterious deaths of Walter Smith and Peter Hauer, in the summer of 1975. Smith never returned from a bike ride from his summer job at Watoga State Park in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. A large-scale search was initiated that week, and volunteer cavers and West Virginia State Police would eventually discover Walter Smith’s body in a cave, under a pile of rocks, on private property. The property owner, Peter Hauer, was a leading expert on saltpeter mining, an accomplished cave explorer, historian and treasurer of the American Spelean History Association. Hauer went missing that same week, shortly after being interviewed by investigators. Some people believe the story in the police report; Peter killed Walter, then took his own life, but many friends and neighbors refuse to believe that is what really happened. In the course of the project, Buried Not Forgotten uncovered information about the police report, FBI investigation, and first-hand accounts that paint a very different picture from what police believed in 1975. Listen to those closest to the case, in their own words, as the truth gets even stranger than it seems at first.

Buried Not Forgotten Buried Not Forgotten

    • True Crime
    • 4.9 • 18 Ratings

True Crime Podcast, for mature audiences. Buried, Not Forgotten is about the mysterious deaths of Walter Smith and Peter Hauer, in the summer of 1975. Smith never returned from a bike ride from his summer job at Watoga State Park in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. A large-scale search was initiated that week, and volunteer cavers and West Virginia State Police would eventually discover Walter Smith’s body in a cave, under a pile of rocks, on private property. The property owner, Peter Hauer, was a leading expert on saltpeter mining, an accomplished cave explorer, historian and treasurer of the American Spelean History Association. Hauer went missing that same week, shortly after being interviewed by investigators. Some people believe the story in the police report; Peter killed Walter, then took his own life, but many friends and neighbors refuse to believe that is what really happened. In the course of the project, Buried Not Forgotten uncovered information about the police report, FBI investigation, and first-hand accounts that paint a very different picture from what police believed in 1975. Listen to those closest to the case, in their own words, as the truth gets even stranger than it seems at first.

    6. Not My Report

    6. Not My Report

    It took a while to receive a copy of the police report, and when we first read it we had no reason to doubt any of it. But then, we started noticing things. Little errors. How some of the dates didn’t line up quite right, or some of the attached exhibits were missing. You heard from Chad in episode 4, the state trooper that was in charge of the investigation, and we asked if he wouldn’t mind reading over the report that he’d written, 45 years earlier.We continue our shocking conversation with...

    • 31 min
    5. Ripple Effect

    5. Ripple Effect

    In the last episode we mentioned how we were going to be talking with two veteran police investigators who are familiar with this case. We will get to that next episode, instead we wanted to bring you something completely different. You’ll be listening to a very personal interview with Nicole, Angelo, and Peter Hauer’s niece, Meg.This podcast is a work in progress, and we are hopeful the attention the podcast gets could lead to new information. That happened last week, and we’re going t...

    • 36 min
    4. Don't Go Out the Backside

    4. Don't Go Out the Backside

    This week we hear from Peter Hauer’s next door neighbor and his long time girlfriend.The neighboring family that Peter Hauer was closest with, refuse to believe, even to this day, that Peter killed Walter Smith. The week the crime took place, Peter had been driving the grandmother every day to see her sick husband in the hospitalWe heard that Peter went through the trouble of doing his laundry, and he’d made a bulk food purchase the week that Walter Smith was missing, friends and neighbors qu...

    • 34 min
    3. The Witches

    3. The Witches

    The mystery unfolds in The Witches, this week’s episode of Buried, Not Forgotten. Two police officers struggle to make sense of evidence, like an altar with candles in another cave and a misunderstood group called The Red Hood.

    • 27 min
    2. Reason to be Scared

    2. Reason to be Scared

    Episode 2 includes the cave search and rescue team that discovered Walter's remains, the questionable "Last Will" that was found with Pete's typewriter, and a nearby house that had been riddled with bullet holes. So just to remind you, Peter Hauer moved to Pocahontas County, West Virginia in 1971. He bought a little farm for $4,500, and his place served as a kind of flophouse for his cave exploring friends, who were from all over the country. In Episode 1, we talked about how years later...

    • 30 min
    1. The Cave

    1. The Cave

    People in the area are still talking about, and haunted by, this case today. It was hard to believe that no one had ever investigated the rumors in forty years. So after we first heard the story from neighbors, we wanted to know if the official report was different than the things we’d been hearing.One question led to two more and after dozens of interviews, reviewing press coverage, Freedom of Information Act requests, and a trove of primary source documents, we knew there was something to t...

    • 32 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
18 Ratings

18 Ratings

Sfryhvdyhagkf ,

Interesting

Very interesting, all the interviews, coincidence, all the inventive time and energy you’ve taken, it all absolutely amazing and interesting! Great job!

dcutlip57 ,

Great!

Very well done! Looking forward to next week

inkamama ,

Buried but not Forgotten

This is so interesting and well done . Captivating!

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