Stephen King fans know how much the author uses New England locales like Maine and New Hampshire as the background for his horror stories. But many horrific—and real crimes—have occurred in the area. The Dark Downeast true crime podcast talks about real crimes in this part of New England. The "Downeast" part of the name comes from a slang term sailors used to describe Maine.

Journalist and host Kylie Low is a native of Maine who returned during the pandemic. She loves the state and acknowledges that there's a reason it's called "Vacationland." But the state has its share of terrible crimes. Low started the Dark Downeast podcast in 2020 for this reason.

In 2003, someone put arsenic in a Maine church's coffee urn and poisoned 16 people, with one dying. Who did it? And why? Listeners can hear about this fascinating but sad story on the podcast.

The host points out that 70 missing person cases in the state are still unsolved. The Dark Downeast podcast talks about some of these cases. Bobby Desmond was a Maine child who disappeared in 1964. His parents never even reported him missing. In 2018, Steve Borst, a Kennebunk detective, decided to examine the case. He talks on Dark Downeast about what he has discovered so far. The disappearance is still unsolved. But Desmond's half-sister told him about their abusive home. Borst asks the public on the show for help in solving the crime.

The show also talks about true crime stories in nearby New Hampshire. Carrie Moss and Sonya Moore are two 14-year-old girls who disappeared at separate times in that state in 1989 and are still missing. What happened? Are the cases related? Low explains the stories to her listeners. New episodes of Dark Downeast drop every other week.