Tribeca Film Festival: Journalist Paul Solotaroff Urges Public to Stand-Up for Justice in New Podcast
Season five of Bone Valley: The Devil's Quarry revisits the 1990s murder of twelve-year-old Josette Wright, whose remains were discovered in the woods of Carmel, NY, one year after she disappeared. Investigative journalist and host Paul Solotaroff traces how law enforcement quickly focused on two local teenagers, Anthony Dipippo and Andy Krivack, building a case largely through coerced statements, manipulation, and unreliable witness testimony. As the series unfolds, listeners learn how nearly every witness eventually recanted their accusations, exposing a deeply flawed investigation that prioritized securing convictions over uncovering the truth. Through interviews, archival records, and firsthand accounts, the season reveals how fear, pressure, and institutional inexperience shaped a case that would alter lives for decades. At the center of the story is Anthony Dipippo's extraordinary fight to prove his innocence. While incarcerated, he teaches himself to read, studies law, and begins uncovering evidence that points toward a different suspect: Howard Gombert, a man repeatedly accused of predatory behavior who, according to multiple women, exhibited patterns of abuse strikingly similar to what happened to Josette. Testimony from survivors, including Josette's friend Rachel, suggests that warnings about Howard had been ignored by authorities for years. As Anthony and a new legal team work to overturn his conviction, the series expands beyond a murder investigation into a broader examination of systemic failure, corruption, and the consequences of ignoring vulnerable victims. By its conclusion, The Devil's Quarry raises troubling questions about whether law enforcement deliberately overlooked a dangerous suspect, and whether the pursuit of justice for Josette Wright was compromised from the very beginning.
The Devil's Quarry sheds light on an unjust muder case, unfamiliar to many. What intrigues you about Josette Wright's case?
It took me nine months to report and write a story. I usually report and write these deep dive investigations in three months. I had never spent this long on a story in my life. But, in the murder of Josette Wright— twelve years old, lonely, needy, and from a very small town in rural NY state— what happens in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of her skeleton is so many bowls of wrong. Her body was discovered in November, 1995 when two hunters stumbled across her remains in the woods, it was the first day of hunting season in NY state. The cops immediately showed up. And not only did the cops allow the hunters to stay, they actually allowed them to look for Josette's body. Which breaks every rule of police investigation. But it was clear that these sheriff's detectives in Putnam County had never worked a murder before. And what they found in Josette's remains is an obvious work of a serial predator. And instead of calling the FBI or state police, law enforcement instantly seized upon two utterly blameless kids, [Dipippo and Krivack].
They bullied these two kids, one of them falsely confessing to a crime he had nothing to do with. They contacted their friends, coerced, bullied and menaced them into signing false statements accusing these two boys for a crime they never did. Long story short— they go away for the rest of their lives. Anthony served 20 years, Andy 25 years.
Anthony goes to prison, teaches himself to read, then how to read the law. What Anthony did that's never been done before, is he not only proved his own innocence from prison, he also uncovered the evidence that pointed to the actual killer— this life long predator [Howard Gombert]. (Now we can't say he's the actual killer, he hasn't been charged for it.) All the witnesses, all the evidence, pointed at him. And the cops, for reasons they had never disclosed, not only did they not interview him, they never even "door-stepped" him. [Solotaroff explains Gombert was never questioned by law enforcement. There is no record of a witness statement that exculpated him.]
So what winds up happening is you send two innocent kids to prison, meanwhile you continue to give this monster a hunting license. He moves one county over to Fairfield County, CT. In a couple years, he's got two brand new victims and he is doing horrific things to a seven year-old girl. The difference is this time he gets arrested, because in Connecticut they actually take child rape seriously. He is charged with 30 years in prison. This December, at the latest January, this predator will walk out of prison a free man with no probation and no parole.
Wright's body was found in 1995, what made you decide to investigate this case further as of recent years?
Why did I come back to this story after running away from it for four years? Because I had, what I believe, was a nervous breakdown. First of my life. Because I was housing all this suffering of the surviving victims. I was hearing their screams, I was hearing their nightmares, I was hearing that no one gave them respect by listening to what they had been trying to tell the authorities. I came back because one of these victims called me and said, "he's getting out early, do something, anything, call someone."
Well I did, I put together a dream team of investigators. This time we turned over every inch of soil in Putnam County. We went to four other states. We interviewed dozens of new witnesses. We have uncovered new evidence. As a result of our intense investigation, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office is finally admitted that it fucked up. They have just reopened both Jossette Murphy [another victim] and Josette Wright's murder. Also the disappearance and suspected murder of Robin Murphy. [Her neighbor, a few years older than Josette, who went missing six months after Josette.]
Unless the public joins us and we build a huge universe of outrage, protest and demands for justice, this monster will disappear into the forest in six months. Unless enough pressure can be brought to bear on the Putnam County Sheriff"s Department, Putnam County DA's Office and the New York State Attorney General, there's every chance that this guy gets out and reoffends. The greatest horror for me, is he has been writing and threatening his surviving victims from prison. [He is] far from expressing any remorse, far from manifesting any sign that he's rehabilitated. He denied any of this ever happened, and can't wait to get vengeance on these victims.
What more does the highest echelon of law enforcement from CT and NY need to hear from this guy to finally do their job? Well, we're about to find out on June 10 when The Devil's Quarry debuts and the world hears what we've been living with for 15 months. Or for my case, almost six years.
The season begins with the murder of a twelve-year-old girl but ultimately becomes a story about the consequences of being ignored. Did you always see Josette's case through that lens, or did that theme emerge as your reporting evolved?
It was inescapable from the moment I showed up on the scene because you have these two guys doing life, without parole for a murder they didn't commit. But Josette as a victim is someone who had never been fleshed out in all the coverage of her murder. No one ever had a sense of who this child was. She was lonely, needy and very much seeking the attention and validation of men. That made her so vulnerable.
What Josette has in common with the surviving victims is that they all cried out. In the case of the surviving victims. They went to the cops accusing [Gombert] of raping and torturing them. Seven, eight, nine-year-old girls. The cops repeatedly did not take them seriously.
Part of the problem with law enforcement in small communities, there aren't enough women in the ranks of detective, commander, and lieutenant. So the male gaze is fastened on the scene and evidence. None of the officers had the decency and the manhood to say, "I believe this girl. And by the way, all the evidence is pointing to the town pedophile— let me go interview him."
As an investigative journalist, how do you navigate the tension between uncovering new evidence and recognizing that every discovery reopens wounds for victims' families and survivors?
Man, that's a hard one. And honestly, I am always sensitive to the suffering of the people reporting on whether they are the victims, or they are the survivors. It's really, really hard to do your job and be ruthless in your investigation and to go places that make these people very uncomfortable.
We're launching in two days on June 10th on all streaming platforms. We need our very large listenership to not just listen with their ears, but with their voice. We beg. We urge. We plead with our public. Add your voice to ours. Let us get justice for these two families, for the victims and for the survivors.
Solotaroff is very passionate about this case and is personally connected to the victims, claiming that, "I came back because one of these victims called me and said that ‘he's getting out early, do something, anything, call someone.'" He was fervent about the failures of local law enforcement and their inability to accurately investigate the issue. This is a timely issue, as Grombert's release is in December. Solotaroff's main goal of The Devil's Quarry is to inspire people to gain attention from law enforcement to keep Grombert off the streets.
Interview by Maya Merante, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Daniel López, Art Director, PhotoBook Magazine
*Images Courtesy of Bone Valley: The Devil's Quarry
Related Stories
