Prosecutor’s Witness Vanishes Before Trial in 1978: The Unsolved Disappearance of Paul Alwardt

In 1978, Paul Alwardt found himself comingling with one of Massachusetts’s most well-known ‘bad guys’: Melvin Reine.

When most 17-year-old boys were worried about their cars, going on a date, or hanging out with their buddies, Paul was busy working for the infamous Melvin Reine, a local businessman who had multiple brushes with the law, and subsequently, would be a person of interest in other disappearances, attempted murders and even deaths.

In late March 1978, Massachusetts was preparing to emerge from a long cold winter and jump headfirst into spring. The sun began to warm their cold corner of the country, and daylight started lasting longer and longer.

It was a wonderful time of year and a time that residents looked forward to after every winter.

Paul Alwardt was a 17-year-old young man. A young man who had been a ward of the state of Massachusetts. A young man who happened to cross paths with Melvin Reine.

Reine already had a criminal record. He was someone who was feared in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Beginning in February 1968, ten years before Paul became an unwilling participant in Melvin Reine’s business, Reine and two others were charged with setting…