The Unanswered Questions Podcast

Thirty-nine-year-old Dave Bocks of Loveland, Ohio, worked as a pipefitter at the 1,050-acre Feed Materials Production Center in the small community of Fernald, Ohio. The facility was run by a private company called National Lead of Ohio, or N.L.O. Fernald and the facility lie in the midst of farm country, twenty miles northwest of Cincinnati.

For many years, Fernald’s main employer was the facility. The casual observer would never guess that the facility and N.L.O. were, in fact, owned by the Department of Energy. From 1953 to 1989, it was one of the few facilities in the United States that secretly processed high-grade uranium for use in nuclear weapons.Former employee Harry Easterling said that when he was hired there, he was told that it was a low-level radiation plant, that he did not have anything to worry about, and that there was nothing there that would “bother” him. He was also told not to tell anybody about what he was doing there and that “everything would be fine.” However, conditions in the facility were anything but fine.

In fall 1984, N.L.O. was rocked by a scandal of major proportions when an accident at the facility allowed a massive dose of radioactive smoke to escape into the atmosphere. An investigation later revealed that, over the years, the facility had released more than 200 tons of radioactive dust particles into the air and local water sources. Some said that the facility was, in essence, the third largest nuclear waste dump in the United States.

It was later revealed that the government officials who oversaw the facility knew about these issues but did nothing to prevent or fix them. They also reportedly lied to the employees and local residents about health risks from the facility. One employee, brought in to oversee safety there, found several serious issues. He said that half of the facility’s routine maintenance operations were “terribly inadequate.” Many of the managers did not seem to take his concerns seriously.

Investigative reporter D.C. Cole researched N.L.O. and the facility for several years. He said that the environmental disaster was just one thing. He thought that if someone did a survey around the Fernald community, they would find that very few people trust the government now. For the people of Fernald, the disastrous accident followed on the heels of another disturbing controversy involving N.L.O.

A few months earlier, in June 1984, Dave had disappeared while on the job. Though his body was never found, some of his personal effects were, and he was presumed dead. After the accident, his case took on a sinister new dimension. He had worked at the facility for three years, and all evidence indicates that he died a horrible, gruesome death there. The official ruling by the police and the company was that no foul play was involved. But his friends and family were convinced that he was murdered, and they vowed not rest until they learned how he died, and who was responsible.

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