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When James F. Sarsfield, a plumber at the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s School, left Normal, Illinois, for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, he was never seen again. Produced and hosted by an aunt and her two teenage nieces, A Normal Disappearance blends family history, detective work, and small-town storytelling to uncover what happened to James — and why his mystery still matters today.

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We travel back to 1939 to uncover what life was like in Normal, Illinois—the town James Sarsfield called home before his disappearance. From walking the orphanage grounds to digging through museum archives and family graves, we begin to piece together the world James lived in and the community he left behind.

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