Paula Jean Welden

In 1946, Welden was a sophomore at Bennington College in North Bennington, Vermont. Her college dormitory was Dewey House, one of the older dormitories on the college grounds, and which remains standing to this day. One day, Welden resolved to find and walk a portion of the Long Trail, a hiking route located a few miles from the campus. She tried to get some other students to join her that day, but they were busy; she ventured onto the trail by herself.

Investigators discovered that one of the last people to see Welden alive was a lumberjack named Fred Gadette, who lived along Harbour Road. Gadette was in the midst of an argument with his girlfriend when Welden walked by. He stormed off in a jealous rage shortly thereafter and, depending on different statements he made, went to his shack and spent the evening by himself or he drove up the travel portion of the trail (where Welden was heading). He lied to police on several occasions and was a person of interest, both in 1946 and when the case was revisited in 1952. Reportedly, Gadette told at least two people that he knew within a hundred feet where Welden was buried, but later claimed it was just idle talk. When no evidence was found that a crime had been committed, no body was discovered, and no forensic clues were identified, this avenue of the investigation ended.

In the same general area where Welden disappeared, at least four other unexplained vanishings were reported to have taken place between 1945 and 1950. Due to the strangeness of these events, Vermont broadcaster and author Joseph A. Citro dubbed the wilderness area northeast of Bennington "the Bennington Triangle" – a reference to unexplained disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.

Paula Jean Welden (born October 19, 1928; disappeared December 1, 1946) was an American college student who disappeared while walking on Vermont's Long Trail hiking route. Local sheriffs were criticized for errors made in the investigation, which led to the creation of the Vermont State Police. Welden's fate remains unsolved, and was one of several unexplained disappearances in the same area at the time.

Paula Jean Welden was the eldest of four daughters of the well-known industrial engineer, architect and designer William Archibald Welden (1900–1970) and his wife Jean Douglas (née Wilson; 1901-1976) of Brookdale Road, Stamford, Connecticut. Employed by the Revere Copper and Brass Company, Welden's father was the designer of many familiar household utensils, as well as stylish cocktail shakers and other objects. Welden was a 1945 graduate of Stamford High School.