New England Unsolved

Wanted: Northampton, MA Arsonist

2009-12-28T16:08:00.001-05:00

Investigators are working hard to find the arsonist responsible for setting a rash of fires in the early morning hours of Sunday, December 27 in Northampton, Massachusetts. Between the hours of 2:00 AM and 3:15 AM eleven fires were set in half mile radius of downtown Northampton. One of the fires killed two people. The names of those victims have not yet been released by investigators, but they are suspected to be the 81-year-old owner of the home at 17 Fair Street and his 39-year-old son. Seven of the fires reportedly occurred in homes, while four more were started in cars left on the street.

This particular neighborhood in Northampton has been subject to random acts of arson for the past several years, but up until this point the fires had been small. Now investigators believe that the same person or persons responsible for the fires on the 27th may be responsible for all of these acts of arson.

If you have any information regarding these fires please call 413-586-5150. A $5,000 reward is available for information leading to the arrest of the arronist.

Carbon County Jane Doe/ Pennsylvania Beth Doe

2009-12-16T12:06:00.001-05:00

We never have had a case featured on this blog that wasn't in someway based in New England but I'd like to take a moment today to tell people about a case that is near and dear to me but took place outside of New England. It was one of the first stories that got me interested in looking at unidentified persons cases and I hope that even if you're here in New England, you'll take the time to read about this unidentified woman found in Pennsylvania on December 20, 1976.

On that date, a boy discovered three suitcases on the banks of the Lehigh River in White Haven, Pennsylvania. Inside the suitcases was the body of a sixteen to twenty-two year old pregnant woman. She had been shot and strangled before being dismembered and put into the suitcases. The woman was 5'4" tall, 130 to 150 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She was nine months pregnant and if her baby had been born, she would have been a healthy girl.

Could you know the true identity of this young woman?

To find out more about Beth Doe, we implore you to please visit: http://www.squidoo.com/missingwoman1976

Unidentified: Woman's Body Found in Bedford, NH October 1971

2009-12-11T11:41:00.002-05:00

On October 6, 1971, the body of an unidentified woman was found on a wooded logging road off of Kilton Rd in Bedford, NH.

The woman was estimated to be between 25 and 35 years old. She was between 5'1" and 5'5". Her hair was possibly, but not certainly, brown. The bust above is an approximation of her appearance. The color and style of her hair, as well as her eye color should not be used as identifying markers.

Her clothes may be the biggest aid in identifying her. She wore size 7 sandals, hip huggers 32" waist which had been cut short to make into shorts or cutoffs, and maroon or redish pullover blouse tied at the waist.

Authorities are unsure of how she died but note it is suspicious due to the location of the body on a then unused by the public road. The location where the body was found is now the on ramp to Route 101 West.

Anyone with information is urged to call 603-472-5113. An annonymous tip line is available at 603-472-8999.

Update: Granby Jane Doe's Shirt Released

2009-11-20T22:18:00.000-05:00

In a past entry we featured the case of Granby Jane Doe, a young woman between 19 and 26 who was found shot in the head in November, 1978 in Granby, Massachusetts. Investigators are taking a fresh look at this case and for the first time ever have released a photo of the shirt the unidentified woman was wearing. Take a look below, could you recognize something about this shirt? There was no labels or other identifying markers on it. Police have no way of knowing who manufactuered it or where it was bought. They are hoping forensic science, along with the Internet will yield new clues to this Jane Doe's identity.

If you know anything about this shirt or about the identity of this Jane Doe, you're urged to call the Northwest District Attorney's office at 413-586-5150.

Unsolved: Diane Drake, Strangled and Drowned in March, 1980

2009-11-11T16:30:00.001-05:00

Diane Drake was nineteen-year-old college student, one of nine children in a large family from Portsmouth, Rhode Island when she was found beaten and strangled in Newport, Rhode Island on March 22, 1980. Although suspects have been questioned, Drake's murder remains unsolved.

Drake was last definitively seen alive on March 21, walking to her job at Photo Patio in Middletown. Drake lived in a small cottage with a female friend about twenty minutes from Photo Patio. She was scheduled for a 2:30 shift arrival but never made it. Normally she would drive to her job, but she had recently sold her car and for the moment was without transportation. A few people claim to have seen Drake walking her way to work, but the most promising lead came from a woman who saw a man and woman matching Drake's description fighting in a car. The man was restraining the woman. The onlooker called police but by the time they arrived, the car was gone. It remains uncertain whether or not the woman seen was Drake but the assault took place just one block from Photo Patio.

Drake's roommate, Elaine Egan, who also worked at Photo Patio, became upset when her friend didn't show up for work and only grew more concerned when Drake did not return home that night. The night of the 21st, Egan organized a search party of friends and alerted the police to Drake's disappearance but still could not find the missing Roger Williams College student.

At 10:30 the next morning, Drake's body was found at Easton's Beach in Newport. She had been beaten and strangled but was still alive when she was thrown into the water. She ultimately died of drowning although it is likely she was unconscious and close to death before that point. She had fought hard against her attacker sustaining substantial defensive abrasions. Bruises on her arms and legs indicated that she had been bound. She was nude, but did not appear to be sexually assaulted. Authorities estimated she had been thrown into the water approximately eight hours earlier leaving about twelve hours of unaccounted time between the time she started walking to Photo Patio and the time she was supposedly thrown into the water, alive.

Police questioned suspects, but turned up nothing. Twenty years later in 2000, a letter from a citizen prompted further investigation including an interview with a man who had initially been questioned for the crime in 1980. Police, however, only had circumstantial evidence and the interview led nowhere. Four agencies including Middletown Police, Newport Police, Rhode Island State Police, and NCIS have investigated the case but have been unable to name Drake's killer.

If you have any information about the murder of Diane Drake please call 401-847-8300 to reach the Newport Police.

Update: Nick Nicholaou and Jane Boroski Appear Together on the Dr. Phil Show

2009-10-30T13:41:00.001-04:00

On October 27, 2009 two unlikely people met for the first time on the Dr. Phil Show. One, Nick Nicholaou, was the son of the man some feel is responsible for the Connecticut River Valley Serial Killings, another, Jane Boroski, was the last victim and only known survivor of the knife attacks that plagued the New Hampshire and Vermont area in the 1980s.

Over the past several years, Michael Nicholaou, Nick's father, has become one of the most high profile suspects in the Connecticut River Valley Serial Killings. Michael Nicholaou killed himself, his wife, and his stepdaughter in 2005. He is also suspected of being responsible for the disappearance of Nick's mother, Michelle Ashley Nicholaou from Holyoke, Massachusetts. Michelle disappeared sometime in November or December 1988. Nicholaou rose to the national spotlight as a suspect in the Valley Killer crimes when a private investigator, looking to find Michelle, discovered pieces of circumstantial evidence linking Nicholaou to the knife attacks. Now Jane Boroski believes that Nicholaou was the man who attacked her.

On Tuesday, Nick revealed that, although he is not sure his father is the perpetrater of these crimes, he feels guilty every day for what his father may have done. He also holds out hope that his mother will still be found. Jane revealed that she still struggles to lead a normal life. Ever after twenty-one-years it is difficult to fight the anger and sadness that her attack brought to her life. Her daughter's problems with Cerebral Palsy are a daily reminder of the attacks. After a very emotional meeting between the two, Dr. Phil worked with Jane on an exercise to move beyond the pain of her attack.

Aside from the emotional carthesis, perhaps one of the more revelatory pieces of information to come from the Dr. Phil show was the fact that Michelle's DNA is finally being tested against the Warwick remains we discussed in our very first profile on New England Unsolved. DNA tests are not back yet but we hope to bring you an update on that in the near future.

It is important to remember that while Nicholaou is a suspect in the Valley Killings, he is by no means the only suspsect. If you have information about the knife stabbings that took place in Vermont and New Hampshire between 1978 and 1988, you are encouraged to call 603-271-2663 or 802-241-5355. If you have information about the disappearance of Michelle Ashley Nicholaou who disappeared in late 1988 from Holyoke, Massachusetts please call 413-322-6940.

Watch Videos from the Dr. Phil Show:
Jane Describes Her Attack and Its Impact
An Emotional Meeting Between Nick and Jane
Dr. Phil Helps Jane Move Past the Attacks

Missing: Wojciech Fudali from Narragansett, Rhode Island in December, 2008

2009-10-26T16:35:00.002-04:00

On December 5, 2008, twenty-two-year-old Wojciech Fudali attended a party with college friends on East Shore Rd in Narragansett, Rhode Island. The young man, an immigrant from Poland, had graduated from the University of Rhode Island in May of that year and had many friends in the area. After the party he slept over a friend's house. When his friends woke up on December 6th though, Fudali was nowhere to be found.

Initially Fudali's friends thought it was possible he had gone for a walk, but this scenario quickly became implausible as Fudali had not only left his wallet, keys, and money behind, but also his clothes and sneakers. He had not brought a change of clothing or extra shoes.

In a highly unusual turn of events, neighbors of Fudali's friends reported seeing a young man fitting Fudali's description sitting naked on a dock at around 8:30 AM. Two hours later a friend reported seeing Fudali running nude on Galilee Escape Rd. near Galilee Bird Sanctuary. The temperatures hovered near thirty degrees that day making it unlikely that Fudali could have survived more than a few hours in the nude.

Fudali's mother talked to him a few days before his disappearance and reported that he seemed normal. However, the friends he was with thought Fudali may have been depressed and was acting strangely. His roommate reported that Fudali had developed a keen interest in nature in the days before his disappearance. He also began reading the Bible regularly.

Wojciech Fudali has brown hair and blue eyes. He is approximately 5'11" and weighs 200 pounds. He has several identifying markers including a tattoo of a black eagle on a yellow and green background below his left ribcage. He has a gap between his front teeth. He has visible acne scars on his face. He once broke his clavicle. Fudali often went by the name Tek and sometimes spelled his name "Wojtek". He grew up in Wilbraham in the western part of Massachusetts and posessed a Massachusetts based drivers license. He was born in Poland in 1986.

Anyone with information about the disappearance of Wojciech Fudali is encouraged to call the Narragansett Police Department at 401-782-0661.

Unidentified: Man in Methuen, MA Discovered in October, 2000

2009-10-12T11:02:00.001-04:00

On October 28, 2000 the body of a man was discovered wrapped in a blanket at a construction site on the corner of Pelham St and Aegean Dr in the Marsh Corner section of Methuen, MA. He was murdered in an undisclosed manner and had been at the site from six months to four years.

The victim appeared to be a white male between thirty-five to forty years old. His brown hair was greying. He was between 6'1" and 6'5" with a thin build. His most prominent characteristic was a long goatee. He was also missing several molar teeth on both his top and bottom.

The clothes he wore were not common in the Boston area at the time, but were sold in K-Mart stores across the country. His clothing included Maverick jeans with a 34 inch waist, black size 12 Texas Steer workboots, a long sleeved blue shirt with white stripes worn over a navy blue t-shirt. His underwear was size 32 Fruit of the Loom briefs.

Work rags were in his pocket and other items found with the body indicate that he was probably a mechanic or truck driver or possibly a biker.

If you have ay information about the possible identity of this man please call 978-745-8908 to reach Sgt. Barry Brodette with the Massachusetts State Police.

Missing Across New England 3

2009-10-08T14:51:00.004-04:00

Most missing persons cases we feature on New England Unsolved have extensive information about the subject and many clues about their possible whereabouts. The cases we feature in Missing Across New England are different-- these are cases where the law enforcement has few, if any clues, to work with. Usually these are adults, sometimes with transient lifestyles. The key in these cases is often recognizing a photo. So take a look below, can you help find any of these citizens missing across New England?

Frank Nash from New Fairfield, CT in 1999- Nash, 35, was last seen at his home on Newfane Rd in New Fairfield, CT on May 20, 1999. On May 21, Nash called his father to ask about car registration from a DMV in Danbury, CT. At the end of his phone call, Nash said he would be returning home on the 22nd but he had to go meet someone. He has not been heard from since. His car, a 1994 Dodge Ram was located abandoned in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 3, 1999. His clothes were inside the vehicle but there were no other signs of him. Nash has brown hair, hazel eyes, and is about 6'0" and 190 pounds. The picture on the left is an approximation. 203-312-5710

Jose Ortiz from New Haven, CT in 2005- Ortiz, 19, was last seen riding a bicycle in New Haven, CT on December 28, 2005. A firefighter may have seen Ortiz on Poplar St. near the firehouse. The firefighter reported that a man matching Ortiz's description was pulled off his bike and into a silver 1990s era Ford Taurus that had three men inside. Ortiz is a Hispanic male with brown eyes and brown hair. He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, blue jeans, and a bandanna. He is 5'10" and 140 pounds. 203-946-6316.

Siphat Chau from Portland, ME in 2005- Chau, 19, was last seen at 1:00 AM on December 24, 2005 in his family's home. When his family woke up the next morning Chau was gone, but his wallet, car keys, and car were still there. Chau was an excellent student attending the University of Maine- Orono but had recently become addicted to internet gambling and was taking a semester break from school for the Spring 2006 term. Chau's family feels he would not leave without provocation. Chau is a Vietnamese male with black hair and brown eyes, 5'8" and 140 pounds. He was wearing a red sweatshirt and blue jeans. 207-874-8575

Starlette Vining from Presque Isle, ME in 1998- Vining, 39, was last seen sometime in October, 1998 in Presque Isle. She was a reliable employee at Smythe's IGA at that time but inexplicably didn't show up for work in October and didn't pick up her last paycheck. In the past Vining has moved suddenly without telling family but she has never been missing for this period of time. She is divorced with 3 children. Vining is between 5'3" and 5'6", her weight fluctuates between 100 and 150 due to medication. She is Caucasian with brown hair and blue eyes. 207-941-4071

Melissa Fadden from Lowell, MA in 1997- Fadden, 13, was last seen in her home on March 3, 1997. Her mother thought she ran away and did not report her missing until March 5. Fadden may have been romantically involved with James Howley, 32, a man who killed an 11 year old girl from Lowell in 1999. Howley hung himself after being questioned about the 11 year old's kidnapping but DNA tied him to the case. Police believe it is possible Howley also killed Fadden although this remains uncertain. Fadden was 5'4" and 110 pounds with brown hair and green eyes. She has an "M" tattooed on her arm. 617-679-6600 or 978-937-3200

Jerald Gelb from Brookline, MA in 2001- Gelb, 40, was last seen at his parents' home in Brookline, MA on August 16, 2001. Gelb has a masters degree in Computer Science and was employed by prestegious companies up until a mental breakdown in the '80s when he became homeless. Gelb may be schizophrenic, he often called himself by a different name, and claimed to be married even though he was not. His parents believe he may be homeless. He's previously lived in Phoenix, LA, and Harrisburg. Gelb has brown hair, blue eyes, and is around 5'6" and 130 pounds. 617-730-2222

Dorothy Ann Bois from Nashua, NH in 1973- Bois, 22, was last seen on October 3, 1973 in her home on Kinsley St. Bois's husband reported that he fell asleep in front of the TV at 11:30 and when he awoke around 4:00 AM Dorothy was gone. Her purse was also missing. Bois was under stress at the time due to the poor health of her daughter and impending divorce from her husband but her family does not feel she would leave without telling someone. Bois's husband continued divorce proceedings after she vanished and remarried in 1974. Bois was 4'10" and 100 pounds Caucasian female with brown hair and hazel eyes. She sometimes went by the name Dot. 603-594-3553.

Joseph Kasak from Keene, NH in 1980- Kasak, 43, was last seen at his home in Newington, CT on May 9, 1980. At 5:10 AM on May 10, Kasak's car, presumably but not definitely driven by Kasak, was involved in a one car accident into a guardrail on Route 9 in Keene, NH. Kasak was never seen at the scene of accident and searches in that area proved fruitless. Investigators also searched for him in Connecticut but were unable to find him. Kasak is a Caucasian male with black hair and brown eyes. He is 5'7" and 185 pounds. 860-666-8445 or 603-357-9815.

Frank Mazzella from Westerly, RI in 1999- Mazzella, 39, was last seen inside his apartment on Oak Street around 9:00 AM on February 7, 1999. When he failed to pick up his son from school, his family became suspicious. All of Mazzella's belongings were found inside his apartment and his car was parked outside. One of his two pistols may have been missing. Investigators searched across the entire southern New England area for Mazzella. He is a Caucasian male with black hair and brown eyes around 5'11" and 170 pounds. He sometimes wears a mustache. Some agencies list him as Frank Mazella. 401-596-2022

Katrina McVeigh from Woonsocket, RI in 1992- McVeigh, 27, was last seen near Front and Lincoln St on May 3, 1992 but was not reported missing until June 17 of the same year. She reportedly was getting into a car. McVeigh was involved with prostitution and drugs at the time of her disappearance. She was the mother to three children. There is a strong possibility McVeigh met with foul play and police have a person of interest in the case. Her family believes she was murdered by a man she was in an abusive relationship with. McVeigh is a Caucasian female with brown hair who is approximately 5'1" and 90 pounds. 401-769-4444

Heide Wilbur from Middletown Springs, VT in 1991- Wilbur, 16, was last seen at her family's home in Middletown Springs on February 9, 1991. At the time, Wilbur was living in a foster home in Rutland, VT and under custody of the state but had obtained a pass to visit her biological family for the weekend. It is believed that she was picked up while hitchhiking. She may be missing voluntarily. Wilbur was between 5'3" and 5'4", 100-115 pounds, Caucasian female with blond hair and blue eyes. She has scars on her forehead, left wrist and hand, and right leg. She has a tattoo of a tiger on her back and a rose on her ankle. 802-773-9101

Mary Wilcox from Westford, VT in 2006- Wilcox, 78, was last seen at her home on Cambridge Rd. at around 10:00 on November 9. She was upset at the time of her disapperance and suffers from depression and Alzheimers as well as heart disease. Before her disappearance she mentioned wanting to visit relatives in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts but she has not been seen by any of those relatives. She can drive but did not have a vehicle or license when she disappeared. Wilcox is a Caucasian female, 5'0 with grey hair and blue eyes. She wears full dentures and wire rimmed glasses. 802-878-7111

Missing: Bianca Lebron from Bridgeport, CT Since November, 2001

2009-10-04T23:57:00.004-04:00

On November 7, 2001, ten-year-old Bianca Lebron told her classmates at the Elias Howe School in Bridgeport, Connecticut that she was planning a shopping spree with an uncle that day. She was an excellent student and normally did not skip school but just before the start of classes at 8:30 AM, Lebron left school and entered a two tone brown and tan van with tinted windows. Lebron has not been seen since.

Administrators at the Elias Howe School were not initially concerned about Lebron's absence since a teacher had overheard her talking to friends about her plans with her uncle. Her teacher did report her absent but did not seek to find out why the girl was not in class. This led to a delay in realizing that the girl had actually been kidnapped until 8:30 PM that night. Lebron's mother eventually sued the school for wrongful death due to their poor handling of the case. Carmelita Torres had to have her daughter declared legally dead to pursue the lawsuit.

Bianca Lebron does not have an uncle and no other members of her family own a van matching the description of the van she was seen getting into.

In April 2002, police announced they were seeking a man named Jason Gonzalez (a.k.a. Jason Lara) for questioning. Gonzalez was an acquaintance of the Lebrons and his mother dated the brother of Lebron's grandmother. There is an unsubstantiated claim that Gonzalez may have been romantically involved with the girl but police have been unable to verify this. In November, 2003, Gonzalez called into the Bridgeport police department to deny his involvement in the case. He had relocated to Fort Myers a month after the kidnapping but was brought back to Connecticut for questioning after being arrested on an unrelated charge. Gonzalez claims he has an alibi for the time the kidnapping was committed.

When she was abducted, Lebron was 4'11" and 115 pounds. She is white-Hispanic with long brown hair and hazel eyes. A mole is present on her forehead. On the day she was abducted she wore a green, beige, and brown camouflage shirt with beige pants, black boots, and a dark denim jacket. Lebron was ten at the time of her disappearance and would now be eighteen-years-old. A picture of Lebron in 2001 appears at the top of this post.

Her abductor is described as being a Hispanic male who was 20 to 30 years old in 2001. He has dark curly hair fashioned in a short afro style, long sideburns, and a beard. He was average build and 5'9" to 5'11". He had scratches on both cheeks. A forensic sketch of the man appears below. The children who witnessed Lebron getting into the van reported that the driver was wearing Fubu brand jeans with the character Fat Albert on the right pocket and a long sleeved blue shirt that said Gap on the front and sleeve. He was also wearing scuffed brown Timberland boots. The van he was driving was an older model with a two toned brown and beige color scheme, chrome trim, and tinted windows. It may have been sanded and the exterior was in poor condition.

If you have any information about the abduction of Bianca Lebron or the suspect seen taking her from Elias Howe School please contact the Bridgeport Police Department at 203-576-7671. The FBI is also handling this case and can be reached at 203-777-6311 or by e-mail at newhaven@ic.fbi.gov. Information will be kept confidential.

Missing: Leigh Savoie from Revere, MA Since April, 1974

2009-09-25T14:56:00.002-04:00

Ten year old Leigh Savoie was last seen at a Beachmont Square restaurant in Revere, Massachusetts on April 7, 1974. That day he was on his way to Suffolk Downs, a racing track in Revere where he regularly worked as a shoeshiner to earn money for candy and other treats. The owner of the restaurant reported that Savoie ate a sandwich before asking the manager if he could watch his shoeshine kit for a few minutes. Savoie then left the restaurant never to be seen again.

Hundreds of jockeys, security guards, and other personnel at Suffolk Downs were questioned along with all of Savoie's friends and neighbors. Police were unable to obtain any leads pertaining to where Savoie might have gone and the case eventually went cold. Now though officials hope Savoie's case will be reignited by a $5,000 reward as well as an age progressed photo of the boy. At a press conference on Thursday, Suffolk DA, Daniel Conley, announced that thanks to the newly granted reward money and a renewed interest in missing persons cases the district attorney is reopening the search for the long missing boy.

Leigh Savoie was 4 feet 4 inches tall and weighted 60 pounds when he disappeared. He had brown hair and brown eyes. When last seen, he was wearing blue pants, a white shirt bearing the words, "try it, you'll like it," and a blue sweater. He would now be forty-five. A picture of Savoie in 1974 as well as an approximation of his appearance now appear below. Anyone with information about the disappearance of Leigh Savoie is encouraged to call Lt. Det. Jack Lannon at 617-727-8817.

Update: Authorities Announce Possible Link Between Two 1995 Murders

2009-09-22T17:26:00.007-04:00

Today, authorities from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York joined together in a news conference to discuss possible links in two unsolved, unidentified victims previously featured on New England Unsolved. In fall 1995, two women who were were found with a single gun shot to the head near the same highway in different states. Both were described as possibly being Hispanic or mixed race and killed by the same MO, causing speculation by both authorities and amateur detectives that the two cases could be related. This was confirmed today at a news conference in Albany.

The first victim, found on September 28, 1995, was located wrapped in two sleeping bags behind a New Britain, Connecticut shopping plaza. A second victim was found in the Tolland/ East Otis, Massachusetts based Tolland State Forest on October 6, 1995. Neither victim has been identified to date.

Police released a number of new facts about the two cases during the conference:

-Both victims are strongly thought to be related by a blood relationship such as mother/daughter, two sisters, or even a aunt and niece situation. Officials did not reveal what evidence led them to believe this nor could they could confirm that both cases were definitively related.

-Never before released information about the Tolland victim revealed that a Carlton brand cigarette pack with a tax stamp originating in the Albany, NY area was found near the victim. The cigarettes belonged to the victim.

-Officials released the name of three retailers which sold the shirt the Tolland victim was found in. The shirt was sold in Schenectady, NY, Colonie, NY, and Saratoga Springs, NY and was thought to be bought sometime in 1994.

-Isotopes were studied in the Tolland victim to help determine that she spent significant time in the Albany, NY area. Isotopes have not been analyzed in the New Britain victim.

-Officials also confirmed that they felt whomever killed the victims probably used the interstate state route 8 which runs near both New Britain and Tolland.

Officials did not discuss whether the other three pairs of remains found in the same location as the New Britain victim in 2007 were related to either case.

If you have any information about either or both of these cases you are urged to call 413-747-4810 or 860-826-3069

View 1995 Shooting Victims in a larger map

Video of the news conference that took place on September 22, 2009 to discuss both victims:

Unsolved: Suzanne Jovin Stabbed in New Haven, CT in 1998

2009-09-22T12:36:00.002-04:00

The story of Annie Le, the soon-to-be bride and accomplished Yale graduate student senselessly murdered in an academic building, has gripped the nation ever since her initial disappearance on September 8, 2009. Within days of her disappearance, Le's body was recovered, a variety of suspects were interviewed, and an arrest was made. The quick turn around was a far cry from the still unsolved, and many would argue, mishandled case of Suzanne Jovin, a Yale senior stabbed to death on December 4, 1998. Tonight, we will take a second look at this perplexing unsolved murder.

At 10:00 PM on December 4, 1998, New Haven, Connecticut police detectives were called to the corner of East Rock Rd and Edgehill Rd, approximately two miles from the Yale campus. Twenty-one-year-old Suzanne Jovin had been stabbed seventeen times in her head and neck, her body left in the grassy patch between the sidewalk and the road. Four to five inches of a non-serrated carbon steel blade remained lodged in her skull. Jovin had clearly put up a struggle with her attacker as skin cells from her assailant were found in her fingernails. Close to her body lay a Fresca bottle with Jovin's fingerprints and a partial palmprint of an unknown person.

Just a few hours earlier, Jovin had handed in a draft of her senior paper on Osama Bin Ladin to her political science advisor, James Van de Velde. During the early evening hours she attended a pizza making party in New Haven that she organized for the charitable organization, Best Buddies. At around 8:45, Jovin came back to campus, parked a Yale owned car at the intersection of Edgewood and Howe Streets, and returned to her apartment, located just above a Yale police station. Around 9:00, some friends passed by Jovin's window and asked if she wanted to go out, but she rejected them saying she wanted to work on school work. At 9:02 she logged onto her Yale e-mail, sent an e-mail regarding some GRE books she planned to return a friend but first needed to get from a third party she had let borrow them, and by 9:10 logged out. At 9:15, she ran into a friend on Yale's Old Campus, whom she told she was on her way to return the keys to the Yale car she had borrowed but had no other plans for the night other than studying and sleeping. The last person to witness Jovin before her stabbing, a female Yale student who did not talk to Jovin, saw her heading north on College St at around 9:30. In front of Jovin, a black or Hispanic man was heading in the same direction while shortly behind her was a white man with blond hair and glasses.

It would be unlikely for Jovin to reach from her last known location at 9:30 to the location where she was found stabbed less than a half hour later. Law enforcement feels that she may have voluntarily entered a car which eventually drove her to the East Rock and Edgehill corner. The street she was last seen on was busy making it unlikely she was threatened to enter a car. Friends and family of Jovin feel it would be completely out of character for her to accept a ride from a stranger. This has led many authorities to believe Jovin may have known her attacker. A brown or tan van was purportedly in the area Jovin was found but no one witnessed her getting into or out of a car.

Almost from the beginning exclusive suspicion fell on Jovin's advisor, James Van de Velde. Van de Velde and Jovin were known by some to have a somewhat poor relationship as Van de Velde had not been performing adequately as an advisor, a fact Jovin complained about to her parents and fellow students. Law enforcement felt the two may have had a secret relationship but never found evidence to support this. Van de Velde voluntarily allowed police to search his home, car, and to speak with him for many hours without the assistance of a lawyer. However, the female witness who saw a white male walking behind Jovin on College St. was convinced it was Van de Velde she saw after seeing the professor on a television news story.

In 2001, previously unreleased DNA analysis found that the matter taken from underneath Jovin's fingernails was not from Van de Velde nor did he match the partial print left on the Fresca bottle. On September 18, 2009, Jovin's parents released a letter addressed to Connecticut governor, M. Jodi Rell, showing that no further samples of DNA had been tested in the case due to a 12,000 sample backup at the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory.

The accusations against Van de Velde led to his dismissal from Yale as well as a graduate program at Quinnipiac University. In 2001, Van de Velde sued Quinnipiac, eventually settling out of court. Van de Velde has also been in continuing litigation with the city of New Haven and Yale since 2001. He has lobbied throughout the decade to have the case turned over to the Connecticut Cold Case squad. As of 2007, a special team of four investigators is handling the case.

As of today, no additional suspects have been publicly named. In July 2008, a sketch was released of a man seen jogging 1/2 mile from the location Jovin was found. Police are not reporting him as a suspect but as someone who may have information about the case. The sketch may be seen below. The new investigative team also announced efforts to identify the third party who borrowed GRE books from Jovin who was referenced in an e-mail she wrote less than an hour before her stabbing. Once again, investigators have emphasized that this person is not a suspect but someone who may have further information about the case.

If you have any information about the Suzanne Jovin murder, please call 1-866-888-TIPS.

Cleaning Up Our Act

2009-09-20T15:22:00.001-04:00

As regular readers may have noticed we've recently made some changes to our blog that we hope we'll make New England Unsolved easier to read and navigate. We will continue to make usability and editorial updates in the coming weeks while simultaneously updating with new information. Please take note of the following changes:

*Title Tagging- Most blog entry titles have been revised to include one of the following tags:
Unsolved- Crimes where the identity of the perpetrator is unknown but the victim(s) identity is known
Missing- Children and adults whose whereabouts are currently unknown
Unidentified- Living subjects or remains whose identity is currently unknown
Wanted- Seeking a perpetrator who is fully or partially known to be responsible for a crime

*Labels- Every entry is now appropriately labeled with a state location, MO, or other identifying information. Labels our linked via the new sidebar making it easier for interested parties to find entries regarding a particular topic or geographic area.

*Search- A search application has been added to the sidebar for intrablog searching.

*Links- We've added links to some sites we've found incredibly helpful on the righthand sidebar. We've also added links within entries if the family or friends of a victim have a website.

*Cross referencing- References to previously covered cases brought up in a secondary entry are now linked.

*Broken pictures updated- The pictures that were previously not showing should now.

*Reformatting- We've changed our layout, which we hope makes the blog more aesthetically pleasing and easier to read. We also reformatted several entries to include more paragraph breaks, as well as rearranging photos so that most appear at the top or bottom of an entry.

*Editorial- Over time the nature of our blog has become more formal and thus our writing style has changed. We will be performing edits to some of our entries to make them easier to understand and adding or deleting information as necessary. One example of this updating is the entry regarding Lisa Ziegert.

Stay tuned! Later today (or tomorrow at the latest) we will be putting up a new entry about the murder of another Yale student-- the still unsolved case of Suzanne Jovin.

Wanted: Hit-And-Run Perpetrator in Amherst, MA

2009-09-19T17:16:00.000-04:00

On the night of September 12, 2009, Blake Goodman and John Deary were both hit by a speeding car on Montague Rd in Amherst, Massachusetts. Goodman, a 20 year old from Wakefield, MA who attended the University of Massachusetts, was killed as a result of the crash. Deary, a 24 year old resident of Amherst, sustained injuries.

The car that hit them immediately fled from the scene without stopping. On Friday, law enforcement reveled that the car involved was a black colored 1990s era Geo Prism. The car has a missing mirror on the passenger side, damage to the side panels, and possibly a broken windshield. Earlier police speculated that there may also be damage to the front end of the car.

Anyone with information about this hit-and-run should call Amherst police at 413-259-3000.

Unsolved: Darrel Smith Gunned Down in Maine in February 2008

2009-09-18T15:59:00.004-04:00

On the evening of February 6, 2008, Darrel Smith, 56, was found shot to death inside the sawmill he operated in Woodland, Maine. Law enforcement believes that Smith was gunned down in the sawmill on the afternoon of February 6th during a robbery. Cash was missing from a safe onsite and Smith was found without a wallet.

In the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday, Det Sgt John Cote speculated that whoever killed Smith was familiar with the tiny town of Woodland, near Caribou, Maine, and more specifically familiar with Smith's policy of only accepting cash at his sawmill. Furthermore, the sawmill is rather inconspicuous, appearing from the outside to only be a private residence, making it an unlikely target of a random robbery.

At noon on the day Smith was murdered a small dark pickup truck was seen on Thomas Road, the location of sawmill, with its hazard lights on and the hood up. Law enforcement is interested in finding out who the driver of this vehicle is and whether or not he or she could potentially be involved with the shooting of Smith.

A series of burglaries plagued the normally quiet Aroostook County area in northern Maine between 2006 and early 2008 leaving some investigators and the public wondering if the Smith murder was connected to other non-violent burglaries. These burglaries also targeted safes. However, Det Sgt Cote has come to the conclusion that the other burglaries were probably not related to the Smith case since they specifically targeted houses where no one was home.

A $40,000 reward for information leading to the aprehension of Smith's killer is being offered, the largest reward ever offered in Maine history. Police emphasize that if you have any information about the Darrel Smith murder, even if you think its already been reported, you should call 1-800-924-2261 or 1-800-638-TIPS.

Yes, We're Still Here!

2009-09-17T21:34:00.004-04:00

Yes, we're back once more and with any luck we hope to once again profile cases on a regular basis. I stopped writing and "websleuthing" due to a variety of personal issues but so many people have contacted me regarding this blog that I feel it is important to continue my efforts here. So I thank all of you who follow this blog and/ or have contacted me about it-- you've been a true inspiration!

Now onto a few updates on past featured cases...

Jody King- The deceased body of Jody King was found on June 18, 2009 in a drainage ditch on the Mass Mutual campus in Enfield, CT. No foul play was involved with his case but the passanger of the vehicle that crashed on the night of Jody's disappearance was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment on July 8, 2009.

Frances Moulton- The remains of Frances Moulton were found in a well in Lebanon, Maine in June, 2009. Her death was ruled a homicide but as of today, no suspects have been arrested. If you have information regarding the death of Frances Moulton please contact 207-608-9129. We thank reader, jmlh, for first alerting us to this new development.

Heidi Martin- This is less of an update and more of a correction. We erroneously listed Heidi Martin's date of death as May 1, 1986 but in fact the correct date is May 20, 1984. The incorrect date is listed on a number of websites as well as in printed media-- why this is remains a mystery, but we have corrected the date as well as adding some relevant notes on Heidi's inclusion in the CT River Valley Serial Killer potential victims list.

And a note on the nature of blogs and unsolved mysteries: As we become more popular and information from our blog filters onto other sources we'd like to remind you that although we always try to be as factual as possible, the nature of a blog on unsolved mysteries lends itself to some speculation. Sometimes this is our own speculation, sometimes it is speculation from another source that we pass on, but it is important to remember that one should not assume anything about a particular case until it has been solved by the authorities.

Finally, we always appreciate it when readers send us information on cases they would like to see featured. We already have several profiles we plan on featuring in the coming months thanks to reader mail but we're always seeking out information about new cases-- especially those that are less familiar to the public.

Missing: Jody King From Enfield, CT since April 20

2009-05-06T17:32:00.004-04:00

Twenty-eight-year-old Jody King of Ticonderoga, New York has been missing from Enfield, CT since April 20 after he was involved in a single car crash near exit 48 of I-91. Police arrived on scene at 8:57 PM and found that King was missing from his car. A search of the immediate area yielded no results. On April 22, some personal items of King's were found approximately 100 yards from the crash.

The last known sighting of King was at a bar in New Haven, CT approximately two hours before the car crash. A witness to the accident has stated that they saw someone fleeing the car to some nearby woods but it has not been confirmed whether or not this person was in fact King. It is possible, but not certain that King was traveling with a passenger.

Jody King has three young daughters and a wife and it is not believed he would leave them voluntarily. Please take a look at the photo posted above. King is 5'5", 160 pounds, with brown hair. He was last seen wearing a green long sleeved shirt and black hat. If you have any information about the location of King or his disappearance please call the CT State Police at 860-534-1000 or Ticonderoga Police at 518-585-3456.

Update: Jody King was found deceased. Click here for an update.

3 Updates from Past Posts

2009-04-22T21:09:00.003-04:00

Craigslist Killer- In our last post we reported on the "Craigslist Killer". Authorities have arrested Philip Markoff, 23, in connection with the murder of Julissa Brisman and the robbery of two other women. Markoff was a Boston University medical student living in Quincy. He has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.

Gerald Gordon Cox- The body of Gerald Gordon Cox, a man missing from Cranston, RI, was found by hikers on March 11, 2009 in West Greenwich, Rhode Island. His remains were found under some brush near the site where his car was found in 2006. The cause of his death is unknown.

Lynn Burdick- Twenty seven years ago last Friday, eighteen-year-old Lynn Burdick disappeared from a roadside store in Florida, Massachusetts. A new photograph has been released of Burdick in hopes of idenitifying her. Please take the time to read this troubling case and take a look at the photo below. If you have information regarding Lynn Burdick, please call 413-499-1112. New photo released of Lynn Burdick

Wanted: Could You Know This Suspected Boston Killer?

2009-04-17T10:52:00.007-04:00

Look closely at the image above. Could you know this man? Police in Boston are seeking the public's help in identifying this person of interest in the slaying of Julissa Brisman on April 13 and another attack on April 10.

Brisman, 26, was operating an erotic massage operation off of Craigslist. Police speculate that as she was performing a massage on the unidentified client at the Mariott Copley, the client tried to bind her hands with a plastic cord in order to rob her but when she resisted, he shot her in the torso. Witnesses reported hearing two shrieks and then found Brisman's body in the door between her hotel room and the hallway. A muscular tall blonde man can be seen on the Copley's video surveillance system leaving the hotel shortly after the killing.

The same man was seen on a surveillance video at the Westin Hotel in Boston on April 10. That night a Las Vegas based prostitute was bound, gagged, and robbed at gunpoint after she offered her erotic massage services on Craigslist. She survived the robbery and gave police a description of her attacker that matches the description of the man seen on both the Westin and Mariott surveillance cameras.

Individuals with tips on the man pictured are urged to call 617-343-4470.

Update: The man pictured has been apprehended and identified as Phillip Markoff. Please click here for an update.

Unidentified: Woman's Body Found in Granby, MA November 1978

2009-04-17T01:02:00.009-04:00

On September 26, 1998 over two dozen citizens in Granby, MA came to a grave in West Cemetery to celebrate the life of a woman none of them ever knew.

Nearly twenty years earlier on November 15, 1978, the body of a woman was discovered in a shallow grave just off of Route 116. Police estimate that she was between 19-26 with blonde or light brown hair and a tooth decay problem. Although the body had decayed, evidence suggested she was around a size 14/16. She had been shot in the temple and then dragged with a brown leather belt tied around her neck to a burial site a half a mile south of Route 116 near Amherst Rd. She had been buried under a log for 3 months to a year before being found.

Initially police believed it was possible that she was a college student-- The University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College are all on the same road as the burial site. At the time it was especially common for women from the all-female Mount Holyoke College to hitchhike on the road to get to Amherst. However, inquiries about missing female students proved fruitless.

Although it is not a spot that only locals would know about, this portion of Route 116 is far enough from the highway that it seems likely that the woman, or her killer, were somehow affiliated with the area.

For twenty years, the burial site of the woman was simply marked by a white cross reading "Unknown Girl". Then in 1998, as the twenty year anniversary of the woman's death approached, citizens of the small Massachusetts town where she was found raised funds for a proper grave stone in West Ceremony and had a service in her honor promising that although her identity was not known, her memory would never be forgotten.

If you have any information that may lead to the identity of this Jane Doe please call Louis Berry of the Granby Police at 413-467-9222.

Update: Investigators released new information about this victim including a picture of the shirt she was buried in.

Missing: Miguel Oliveras Missing from Portland, ME since September 2006

2009-02-20T16:11:00.007-05:00

At 1:00 AM on September 3, 2006, Miguel Oliveras, was caught on tape leaving the Platinum Plus exotic dancer club in Portland, Maine. He has not been seen since.

Oliveras, 24, was a resident of the Hyde Park neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. Earlier that week his ex-girlfriend had wired him money to come see her dance at the Platinum Plus in Maine but his presence at the club was hindering her ability to get tips so she instructed him to leave. He had to be escorted out of the club by an unknown man that law enforcement is still trying to identify.

Oliveras may have made it back to Boston or run into someone he knew from Boston in Portland, but neither of these scenarios can be certain. The young man was involved with some drug activity in Boston and police think its possible that he may have run into trouble with it in Boston or may have even overdosed. Law enforcement and Oliveras's family are concerned about his disappearance noting that it is suspicious, but police have stopped short of saying foul play is involved.

Oliveras did have two small children, one with severe disabilities, whom he was very close to. It is unlikely that he would abandon them without provocation.

When he was last seen Oliveras was wearing a grey camouflage long sleeved shirt under a white t-shirt with green cargo shorts and sneakers. He was 5'11", 170 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. A photo of Oliveras appears above.

Police in Portland, Boston, as well as a private investigator are inquiring into the disappearance of Miguel Oliveras. If you have any information regarding Oliveras's disappearance please call 1-800-422-0944 or Detective Rick Beaumont of the Portland Police Department at 207-874-8524. Oliveras's family and Shamshack Investigative Services have set up a website and fund for Oliveras which may be seen here.

Unidentified: Teenage Boy Found in Newburyport, MA

2009-02-11T23:00:00.006-05:00

On November 28, 1992 the body of an unidentified male teenager was found in a wooded area adjacent to I-95 near the southbound exit for Route 113 in Newburyport, MA. Police estimate that the body had been left there sometime between 1987 and 1991. The cause of death could not be determined but law enforcement believes that there is a possibility the young man could be a homicide victim.

This unidentified person has proven to be especially hard to identify since he was found significantly after his death-- his eye color, hair, and weight are all unknown. He could be between 5'6" and 5'10". He was between 13 and 17 years old, and most definitely had not reached adulthood as evidence by the fact that certain bone shafts had not fused yet which typically does not happen in males until around age 20. One characteristic that may help identify him is the fact that one of his molar teeth was impacted and had grown out sideways from his jaw, a condition which would have been very painful. He probably never received major dental treatment of any kind. He wore 36-30 Levi jeans, size 11 Reeboks, and a non-descript t-shirt without a tag.

Police believe the young man is not from the local area and believe he could be from anywhere along I-95 from Florida into Canada. A forensic sketch and model of the young man appear to the right. If you have any information about the identification of this young man or know how he died, please call Larry Marks of the Essex County Division of the Massachusetts State Police at 978-745-8908. Callers may remain anonymous.

Missing Across New England Part 2

2009-02-06T11:01:00.006-05:00

Every day across the country, people go missing. In some cases there are many clues to work with, in other cases very little is known. In Part 2 of this multipart series we will feature another six cases in New England where people have disappeared but very little is known about their disappearance.

New Hampshire
Joseph Morawski- Morawski, 72, was last seen near his house on Diamond Ave in Salem, New Hampshire on October 6, 1999. He has Alzheimer's disease and wandered away from his home. Morawski enjoys walks along Route 28 and other commercial roads in northern Massachusetts near Salem, NH. Morawski is 5'6" and 160 pounds, and has grey hair. Please call 603-893-1911 if you have information.

Dennis Towle- Towle, 59, was last seen walking his dogs in Haverhill, NH around noon on August 4, 2002. The dogs were later found in Towle's home but he was not. His medication and belongings were still in the house. Towle has been searched for in White River Junction, Vermont as well as Haverhill. He is 5'7" and 180 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. Please call 603-787-2222 if you have information.

Rhode Island
Jay Cee- Cee, 38, was last seen driving his car in Cranston, Rhode Island on February 4, 2002. His car, a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix, was found in Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina on February 18 and had been there since at least the 9th. The nearest highway is Interstate-40. He has dark brown hair and hazel eyes, is between 5'6" and 5'8" and 150 pounds. His given name is John Carbral. He had hair implant surgery before disappearing. Please call 401-942-2211.

Gerald Gordon Cox- Cox, 44, was last seen leaving his place of employment in Cranston, Rhode Island on June 2, 2006. His blue and white Chevrolet truck was found abandoned on Division Road in the Big River forest management area off I-95 in West Greenwich, Rhode Island. Cox was 6'1" and 240 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He wears semi-rimless glasses, is missing an upper left molar, and has a sugical scar on his back. Please call 401-821-4323 with information.
Update: Gerald Gordon Cox was found deceased. Please click here for an update.

Vermont
Michael Dumont- Dumont, 50, was last seen with his family in South Burlington, Vermont on November 21, 2004. He received a phone call and told his family he had to go meet someone but has not been seen since. Dumont is 5'9", 185 pounds, with greying reddish-brown hair and blue eyes. Please call 802-846-4111 if you have information.

Christopher Jarrold- Jarrold, 32, was last seen in the Ludlow/ Brattleboro, Vermont area on June 25, 1993. His 1982 Mazda disappeared with him but his motorcycle and Ford PU was found at a Hinsdale, New Hampshire repair shop. Two men were seen taking expensive collectibles and electronics from his home but all his other personal belongings were left behind. Jerrold is 5'5" and 140 pounds, he may have some scaring around his eyes from plates put into his face. Please contact 802-228-4411 if you have information.

Missing Across New England Part 1

2009-02-05T22:45:00.007-05:00

Usually the cases we feature have many details available to the public, but sometimes there are very few details in a case. Tonight, we bring you the first part in a series of posts featuring unsolved missing persons cases with few details available. Although there's not much information available in these cases we're hoping that perhaps the pictures and details posted may bring to light new clues in these long unsolved missing persons cases around New England.

Connecticut

Ande Fan- Fan, 31, was last seen on August 8, 2004 in New Haven, Connecticut in the 300 block of Eastern Street. All of his belongings were left behind. He was 5'4", 180 pounds, and had brown eyes and black hair at the time of his disappearance. He sometimes goes by the nickname Andy. If you have information regarding Fan's disappearance please call 203-946-6316.

Grendette Hooks- Hooks, 58, was last seen on the 400 block of Ferry Street of New Haven, Connecticut sometime during May 2007. She is of African-American descent and has black hair and brown eyes. She was 5'5" and 135 pounds when she was last seen. If you have information regarding Hooks' disappearance please call 203-946-6316.

Maine
Frances Moulton- Moulton, 28, was last seen getting on the back of a motorcycle of an unknown person sometime during July 2006 in Springvale, Maine. Moulton does have a history of leaving home for an extended amount of time but law enforcement believes its possible that foul play is involved. Moulton has brown hair, brown eyes, a one inch scar on her chin and a teardrop tattoo on her right ankle. Please contact the Sanford Police Department at 207-608-9129 if you have information.
Update: France Moulton has been found deceased. Please click here for an update.

Angel Antonio Torres- Torres, 21, was last seen in Biddeford, Maine at 2:00 AM on May 21, 1999 trying to obtain a ride to North Conway, New Hampshire. He had received a ride from friends from Denmark, Maine to Biddeford. He was a student at Framingham State in Massachusetts when he disappeared. Foul play is suspected. Torres is Hispanic with brown hair and brown eyes. He was 5'8" and 150 pounds. Please contact 207-657-3030 if you have any information.

Massachusetts
Simone Stephanie Ridinger- Ridinger, 17, was last seen in Sherborn, Massachusetts trying to hitchike to Cape Cod on September 2, 1977. She may have been dropped off at the Hyannis rotary near the airport but this can't be confirmed. Ridinger was 5'2", 120 pounds and had brown hair. She typically wore several rings on her fingers. Please contact the Sherborn Police Department at 508-653-2424 if you have information.

Susan Rhonda Labbe- Labbe, 17, was last seen on Andover Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts on August 8, 1974. She had been visiting family in Lawrence but decided to hitchhike home to nearby Lowell where she lived with her boyfriend. Labbe goes by the name Rhonda. Foul play is suspected. She was 5'5" and 120 pounds with brown hair and green eyes when she disappeared. Please contact 978-670-6000 if you have information.

Missing: Maura Murray from Haverhill, NH Since 2004

2009-02-04T10:21:00.005-05:00

On February 9, 2004 twenty-one-year-old Maura Murray was involved in a one car accident into a snowbank in the Woodsville section of Haverhill, NH. While a few witnesses believe they saw Murray after the accident, by the time police arrived on the scene, less than 30 minutes after it happened, Murray had disappeared and has not been seen since.

The mystery of Murray's disappearance began in the early morning hours of February 6. Murray was working at her on-campus job at the University of Massachusetts- Amherst when she suddenly began crying so much that she needed to be escorted home by her supervisor. Three hours early she had a phone conversation with her sister but otherwise the night had been a typical one.

The next day, Murray went car shopping with her father since her Saturn had not been operating properly. In the mean time, Murray's father allowed her to borrow his car. That night she drank heavily at a dorm party and decided to return the car to her father in the middle of the night. At 3:30 AM, Murray was involved in a one car accident with a guard rail on Route 9 in Hadley, MA. Murray was shook up, but her father assured her everything would be fine and the two made plans for Maura to fill out some insurance forms at the RMV.

During the day of February 9, Murray did pick up the forms required at the RMV as well as making several calls to hotels in the New Hampshire and Vermont area to see if they were available that week. She was unable to secure a reservation. In the afternoon, Murray e-mailed her boyfriend, a soldier stationed in Oklahoma, but did not mention any plans to go away. She also tried to call him but was only able to leave a message. Sometime before 4:00, Murray e-mailed her professors at UMass and her boss at a local art gallery and told them she would not be in classes that week because she had a death in the family. The Murray's have confirmed that there was no death in her family. Friends of Murray speculate that she had something on her mind that she needed to sort out away from school so she made up the story as an excuse to get away.

Murray packed some clothing and toiletries, a few textbooks, a leisure reading book, her stuffed monkey from her boyfriend, her birth control pills, her cell phone, and a diamond necklace. At 3:40, she withdrew $280, almost her entire savings from an ATM in Amherst. This, however, would not have been unusual since Murray was scheduled to receive a paycheck soon. She then purchased $30-$40 worth of alcohol. Video surveillance from both the ATM and liquor store showed Murray to be alone. Sometime after 4:00, she presumably headed north on Interstate-91 towards Vermont. By 7:29, Murray's car had crashed into a snow bank on Route 112 in Haverhill, NH, a town located near the Vermont/ New Hampshire border and a few miles from I-91.

The Westmans, a couple who lived along Route 112 where Murray crashed, were the first people to call the police and report the crash. Faith Westman reported to police that she believed she saw a man sitting in the car smoking a cigarette. This was unusual considering Murray was vehemently anti-smoking and given her long hair would most likely not be mistaken for a male. However, Faith's husband, Tim believes he saw a woman with a lit up cell phone which may resembled a cigarette.

The only person in Haverhill who claimed to have actual contact with Murray once her car crashed was Butch Atwood, a school bus driver returning home from driving students to a ski trip. Atwood's encounter with Murray remains a topic of considerable debate. A police report released four months after the accident reported that Atwood claimed Murray begged Atwood not to call the police and that she appeared intoxicated. Atwood in a later interview said that Murray said she had already called AAA, did not need assistance and did not appear intoxicated but struggled to get out of her car due to the snow on the ground. Due to the sparse cell phone coverage in the area, Murray would have been unable to call AAA at her location and it has been confirmed that Murray was never able to make that call. It is possible that Murray was frightened by Atwood and lied to get him away from her. Atwood left Murray alone and went inside to call 911 but had trouble getting through for several minutes. A few minutes after Atwood left, the Westmans reported seeing the interior lights in the Saturn go on and then saw someone standing by the trunk of the car.

At 7:46, an officer arrived at the scene of the accident to find that the car doors had been locked and Murray was nowhere to be found. Both the passenger and driver airbags had been deployed. A white rag was found in the tailpipe of the car. A box of wine was damaged in the front seat and it is possible, but not certain, Murray was drinking in the car before she crashed. Police searched the immediate area but found no signs of Murray.

A formal search for Murray did not commence until February 11, a full 36 hours from the time her car crashed. Sniffing dogs dropped Murray's scent 100 yards eastbound from her car lending credence to the fact that Murray might have gotten in a passing vehicle.

Oddly, on February 11 Bill Rauch, Murray's boyfriend, received a phone message that he felt was Murray crying. Authorities claim the call came from a Red Cross issued phone card and was not from Murray. It remains unclear how someone from the Red Cross would have gotten Rauch's phone number.

Perhaps most troubling is speculation that perhaps Murray never made it to Haverhill at all. Investigators do not believe the damage sustained by Murray's car is consistent with the accident scene at Route 112. Is it possible she had been in a prior accident? Did she meet with foul play before the accident and the accident was just a ruse? What about the fact that Faith Westman thought she saw a man in the car? Atwood has also claimed at various points that the woman he saw in the car did not look like Murray. He has since recanted that statement saying that although her hair was styled differently, the person he talked to was most likely Murray.

Searches for Murray have been fruitless for the past five years despite numerous attempts to recover evidence. It remains unclear whether Murray disappeared intentionally, committed suicide, froze to death, or met with foul play. Police initially believed Murray was suicidal, but friends and family of Murray do not believe this is the case. The fact that Murray did take medication, school books, and the insurance forms with her to New Hampshire do seem to contradict the suicide theory. More recently investigators have hinted at the fact that they may have evidence that Murray met with foul play but are hesitant to release information.

Maura Murray is 5'7" with brown hair, blue eyes, and an athletic build of about 120 pounds. She was last seen with a dark color coat and jeans. She typically wore her hair up in a bun. A picture of Murray appears above. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Maura Murray you are urged to call the Haverhill Police Department at 603-787-2222. A website devoted to the Murray disappearance has additional details on this most perplexing case.

Missing: Doreen Marfeo, Missing from Johnston, Rhode Island Since 1990

2009-02-02T22:04:00.008-05:00

According to her husband, Stephen, Doreen Marfeo, 34, intentionally disappeared without a trace from her home in Johnstown, Rhode Island on March 29, 1990. Stephen Marfeo reported a week's worth of clothing and $600 was missing from the Marfeo's in home safe. He claimed that he last saw his wife at lunchtime but when he returned home from work at 4:00, she was gone. Doreen Marfeo did not take her car, her pets, or any money out of the couples' joint saving account worth $50,000.

Law enforcement does not believe that Doreen Marfeo left on her own accord. They believe Stephen Marfeo, who had been having problems with his wife for years, is responsible for Doreen's disappearance. On the day Doreen disappeared, Stephen had taken a seventy minute lunch. Typically, his lunches only lasted twenty to thirty minutes. He had recently hired private detectives to follow his wife since he believed she was having an affair, but the detectives did not uncover any evidence of infidelity. Perhaps most damning though, in June, 1990 police received two typed notes regarding the disappearance of Marfeo. The first letter reported that Doreen was strangled by Stephen as she slept on the couch and was disposed of in a pond in Providence. The second letter reported that Doreen was having an affair with a co-worker. The second letter was linked to Stephen Marfeo's mother's typewriter and is believed to have been written by Stephen, although he denied writing either of the letters.

In 1999, Stephen Marfeo shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and wounded her boyfriend. He then drove to a secluded reservoir in Connecticut and shot himself. His suicide letter mentioned that he felt guilty for Doreen's disappearance but did not claim responsibility for it. Police still have not been able to definitively link Stephen to Doreen's disappearance and a body has never been recovered.

When Doreen Marfeo disappeared she was 34, she would now be 53. She was 5'7" and 115 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She has brown hair, green eyes, and a freckled complexion. One of her front teeth is capped and she has a large chicken pox scar on her calf. She has a strong accent characteristic of someone from southeastern Massachusetts or Rhode Island. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Doreen Marfeo please call 401-231-4210.

Unsolved: Potential Break in Two Long Unsolved Cases Brings Hope to Central Mass

2009-02-02T11:21:00.006-05:00

It started with a phone call. Bonnie Kiernan of Douglas, Massachusetts was contacted by her sister, Chrystal Morrison, with a terrible secret. Chrystal believed her boyfriend, Rodney Stanger, was involved with two unsolved crimes in Massachusetts. A week later, Ms. Morrison was stabbed 39 times and beheaded by Stanger on February 26, 2008.

On August 5 1993, ten-year-old Holly Piirainen was walking near her grandparents' home in Sturbridge, MA when she was abducted. One of Holly's shoes was found near the side of the road, but the girl was nowhere to be found. Initially, Piirainen's family considered that perhaps she was the victim of a hit and run accident, yet no one came forward to admit to that. Just over two months later, on October 23, 1993, Piirainen's remains were found buried in a wooded area of Five Bridge Road in Brimfield, MA. The site was less than five miles from the spot she was last seen.

Seven years later, on June 27, 2000, sixteen-year-old Molly Bish was abducted from Commins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts. The morning before Bish was abducted, her mother, Magi, noted that a suspicious looking man was watching Molly from a white sedan in the parking lot. He was smoking a cigarette and parked in a position so that Molly would not have been able to see him from her seat on the beach. Magi Bish waited until the man left before leaving her daughter alone at the pond. Police feel it is possible that the same man could have approached Bish through a wooded path down to the pond and may have used an injury as a ruse for luring Bish away from her post. On June 9, 2003 Bish's remains were found in a wooded area of Palmer, Massachusetts five miles from the pond. Bish's disappearance launched the largest and most expensive search for a missing person in Massachusetts but to this day her case remains unsolved.

Over the years many leads seemed promising in both cases. However, many see the Stanger lead as one of the most promising to come about in both cases. Stanger was a resident of Southbridge, a town just minutes from Sturbridge and Warren. One of Stanger's relatives lived on Five Mile Bridge Road, the location where Piirainen's remains were found. A neighbor of Stanger reported that Stanger had brought him hunting in the area where Bish's remains were found as well. Stanger was known to smoke and drive a white sedan similar to the one driven by the person of interest seen by Magi Bish at Commins Pond. He also bares a resemblance to the police sketch released by authorities in relation to the Bish case. Finally and perhaps most suspect is the fact that Stanger has shown the capacity to kill as evidenced by the murder of his girlfriend.

While nothing is certain, police remain optimistic they will solve the mystery of who killed Molly Bish and Holly Piirainen.

If you have any information regarding the murder of Molly Bish please call 413-436-5529. If you have information regarding Holly Piirainen please call Det. Peter Higgins at 413-747-4810.

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Missing: Deborah Quimby from Townsend, MA, May, 1977

2009-01-27T00:19:00.003-05:00

On May 3, 1977, thirteen-year-old Deborah Quimby left a note for her parents stating she was going to ride her bike to her grandparents house in West Townsend, 4 miles from her home, and that she would return home later that day. A friend accompanied Quimby for a portion of the trip but turned around on Turnpike Road while Quimby continued on to her grandparents house. She never made it to her grandparents camp site and neither her nor the bike she was riding have been recovered.

It was speculated that Quimby was going through some type of problem when she disappeared. Some have suggested that the thirteen-year-old was pregnant but no evidence supporting that has been found. Investigators, however, did find an unsent note in Quimby's locker stating that she was upset and wanted to speak to the friend who the note was addressed to at her grandparents house. It is possible that Quimby was on her way to speak to the friend when she vanished. In the note to her parents, Quimby also noted that she had a lot on her mind.

For twenty five years relatively few clues were found in the case. A 1993 questioning of a suspect in Virginia did not produce any viable leads. Then in November 2002, a letter was sent to police indicating Quimby's remains may be found in Walker Pond, a half mile from where she was last seen. On May 3, 2003 the pond was searched with sonar to no avail. In November 2003 another letter was sent, this one telling law enforcement to take a closer look at the pond. Authorities drained the pond and found two bicycles unrelated to Quimby's disappearance along with some clothes. The clothes are potentially from the time period Quimby disappeared, but have not yielded any publicly released clues in the case. A number of psychics have also claimed to have information about Quimby's disappearance but none of their visions have resulted in new evidence for the case.

When she disappeared Quimby had a freckled complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. She was 5'1" and 120 pounds. No identifying marks have been reported, but when she disappeared she was wearing a Pop Warner football cheerleaders jacket with her name, "Debbie" stiched on it, blue jeans, and a multicolor shirt. A picture of Quimby in 1977 and an aged progressed photo can be found below. If you have any information about the disappearance of Deborah Quimby you are urged to call the Townsend Police Department at 978-597-2242.

Missing: Russell Bovit Missing from Walden, VT Since May, 1986

2009-01-21T13:23:00.004-05:00

Russell Bovit disappeared seemingly into thin air on May 6, 1986.

Bovit owned his own dairy farm in Walden, Vermont, known as the Last Resort, and was last seen there at 9:00 PM on May 6, 1986 watching TV with friends. The next morning at 8:00 AM he was supposed to meet a real estate agent in Stowe, Vermont, but he never showed up.

His 1974 Renault was found stuck in the mud about four miles from his home with blood in the passenger seat and trunk. Blood that matched the blood found in the car was also found on Bovit's mattress which had been flipped to hide the blood. A large sum of money, Bovit's credit card, clothing, and other belongings were found undisturbed at the farm.

It may or may not be pertinent to the case that Bovit was scheduled to sell his farm to an ex-girlfriend twelve days after he disappeared.

Authorities believe Bovit was murdered. A private investigator hired by Bovit's parents believe he may have gotten caught up in a drug scheme and was murdered as a result. Bovit was not a drug user at the time. An inmate convicted of murdering a man a few months before Bovit disappeared claimed he put Bovit's body in a U-Haul and dumped it in Lake Willoughby. Investigators searched the lake with a submarine but did not find the U-Haul.

Bovit was 30 years old when he disappeared, he would now be 53. He was approximately six feet tall and one hundred sixty pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes. when he disappeared he had a mustache. He has a surgical scar at the base of his spine and bleeding warts on both hands. A picture of Bovit in 1986 appears above. If you have any information regarding Bovit's disappearance please call the Vermont State Police at 802-748-3111.

Unidentified: Woman Found in Boston Chimney in October, 2005

2009-01-15T16:29:00.005-05:00

On October 14, 2005 Boston police were called to an apartment at 1719 Winter Street in the Dorchester section of Boston. A chimney sweeper had found a woman's body entombed in an apartment building chimney that had been unused since the 1960s.

It was suspected that she had been in the chimney for three months to five years. Since 2002, the door leading to the chimney had been unlocked and whoever placed the deceased woman in the chimney would have to be aware of that fact.

The woman was most likely between 25-35 years old. Her race was of unknown origin but she appeared to be mixed race with strong Caucasian features; however, investigators have not ruled out the possibility that she may in fact be black, Hispanic, or Asian and self-identified as such. Her hair was dark brown or black and fell past her shoulders. She had a small build and was approximately 5'2". Her fingernails were acrylics painted red. Judging from grooves in her hips she had most likely given birth to at least one child. A construction of the victim's approximated appearance is available at the top of this post.

Her acrylic dental plate may provide a unique identifying characteristic. The plate was most likely a black market model that is usually used by Hatian or Jamaican dentists. The plate was designed to hold three upper teeth but only two were present on the plate. Grooves in her teeth show that she probably wore a metal plate prior to the one that was found with her body. In addition to the plate, her teeth were in bad condition with her molars and posterior lower teeth missing. Only her front lower teeth were in tact.

If you have any information regarding the unidentified woman's identity or manner of death please call Sergaent Paul Donovan at 617-343-4433.

Missing: Shirley "Tippy" McBride from Concord, NH 7/13/1984

2008-12-17T17:34:00.003-05:00

At 9:00 PM on Friday, July 13, 1984, fifteen-year-old Shirley "Tippy" McBride left her sister's house on Union Street in Concord, New Hampshire to visit her boyfriend at his place of employment, Concord Litho. She did not return home that night, but her sister did not report her missing until July 15 since McBride was known to leave home unexpectedly in the past.

It is unknown whether McBride ever reached her destination, but law enforcement does not believe she left town on her own accord. She left all her identification and money behind and has not been heard from since despite some people claiming that they may have seen her throughout New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York. Police believe that she never made it out of Concord and that this is a case of foul play.

McBride had engaged in some rebellious behavior prior to her disappearance and led a troubled homelife. She was a truant and dabbled in drugs. She occasionally visited inmates at the nearby state prison and it is possible that any of these activities may somehow be linked to her disappearance.

When she was last seen McBride was fifteen-years-old, she would now be 39. McBride was 5'6" and 110 pounds at the time of her disappeance. She has brown hair and blue eyes. Her upper front teeth are chipped. When she walks, one of her feet turns slightly inward. A picture of her in 1984 appears abive. Anyone with information about Shirley "Tippy" McBride should call the Concord Regional Crime Line at 603-226-3100. A $5000 reward is available.

Missing: Janice Pockett from Tolland, CT since July 1973

2008-12-14T23:10:00.005-05:00

On July 23, 1973 seven-year-old Janice Pockett set off on her bike alone for the first time to find a butterfly she had hid by a rock earlier. She has not been seen since.

Her mother and sister found her bike, parked with its kickstand up, later that day. It was immediately apparent that Pockett had been abducted, somehow lured off her bike just minutes from her home.

Pockett was not the first child to be abducted from the area-- five years earlier in 1968 thirteen-year-old Debra Sprikler disappeared under similar circumstances from the neighboring town of Vernon. From 1975-1977, three more girls went missing from Vernon, two of them were later found dead. The third, Lisa White, remains an unsolved missing persons case. This has bred speculation that the same individual is responsible for all five abductions.

Two suspects have emerged prominently in this case. Charles Pierce, a pedophile from Haverhill, Massachusetts, confessed to killing Janice Pockett on his deathbed and burying her in Lawrence, Massachusetts over 100 miles from Tolland. Law enforcement doubts his confession though since Pierce claims the girl he abducted was killed in the 1950s and other details appear inconsistent. Pierce also admitted to killing nine-year-old Andy Puglisi of Lawrence and burying him in the same spot as Pockett. Neither child has been found in the spot that Pierce described.

Another promising lead occurred in 2000 when the bones of an unidentified child were found in the garage of Nathan Bar-Jonah, a known child molester, who is suspected of killing a number of people. Bar-Jonah lived twenty miles from Tolland in Webster, Massachusetts at the time of Pocket's disappearance. The DNA tested against the bone proved that it was not Pockett. Bar-Jonah was awaiting further interviews regarding his potential involvement in the Pockett case when he died in a Montana prison in April 2008.

To this date, no one has been charged with Pockett's disappearance.

When she disappeared Pockett was seven-years-old, she would now be forty-four. She had blond hair and blue eyes. She had a slight gap between her teeth but no other major identifying markers. She was wearing navy shorts and blue and white striped shirt when she was last seen. If you have any information on the disappearance of Janice Pockett please contact the Connecticut State Police at 860-685-8000.

Unidentified: Man in Smithfield Rhode Island found June, 1987

2008-12-06T15:30:00.006-05:00

On June 18, 1987 police in Smithfield, Rhode Island pulled the body of an unidentified man from Stump Pond on the property of the Smithfield Police Department.

Someone had gone through incredible lengths to try to make sure the body would not float to the surface by wrapping the man in chicken wire and fastening 90 pounds of rocks and barbells to him through a coaxial cable, but after a few weeks of decomposing the body had floated to the surface and was discovered by a boater. He was the victim of a homicide, stabbed 21 times with a small instrument such as an ice pick-- 7 stab wounds in the head, 14 on his chest. Police estimated that he had been left in the pond 1 to 3 weeks prior to June 18, 1987.

The man, possibly Hispanic, was 122 pounds and 5'5". His brown hair was slightly receding and he had brown eyes. One of his only distinguishing characteristics was a scruffy beard and mustache-- he has no tattoos, scars, or other markings. A forensic sketch of the man appears above. Police believe he is between 25-35 and may potentially be from the western part of the country or even Mexico. The clothes he was wearing at his time of death include a black muscle shirt with "San Juan" on the front and back, grey sweatpants, and size 7.5 McGreggor tristar sneakers with no socks.

Comparisons to the national DNA or fingerprint databases have proven fruitless indicating he probably was never arrested, in the military, or a legal immigrant. Flyers distributed around the New England area yielded no responses. If you have any information about the identity of this man or how he may have died, please call Detective Sgt. Ken Brown at the Smithfield Police Department at 401-231-2500.

Unidentified: Woman Found in Tolland, MA in October, 1995

2008-12-03T14:02:00.006-05:00

On October 6, 1995, a camper made a grizzly discovery in the Tolland State Forest in East Otis/ Tolland, MA. A woman's partially decomposed body was found down an embankment where campers disposed of their sewage and filled up their water tanks. She had been shot in the head a single time with a .45 caliber bullet. It is most likely that she was shot approximately four days prior to October 6 in the campground.

The victim is of unknown race, but most likely a light skinned black or Hispanic woman. She was estimated to be between 30-45 years old, around 5'3" and 120-140 pounds, with brown graying hair. Most of her natural teeth were missing so she wore a pair of inexpensive dentures.

The victim had a number of identifying clothing characteristics but thus far none of these have been fruitful in identifying her. Her unique drawstring sweatshirt with the word "Trends" in diamonds on the left side and a red and black Aztec print on the hood, sleeves, and pouch is only sold in upstate New York leading law enforcement to believe she may be from that area. Her eyewear, glasses with maroon and gold frames, are from Value Eyewear Inc. of Clifton, New Jersey. Her other clothing included a pair of Bill Blass size 8 jeans, a 40B bra, size 7.5 navy blue Passport brand shoes with studs, and a long sleeved Sarah Morgan brand maroon velor shirt. Her jewelry included a plastic ring on her left index finger, a metal ring on her right index finger, several silver rings, and a gold watch with a black face worn on her left wrist. Her toenails were painted red.

Please take note the forensic sketches below along with photos of the sweatshirt and shoes she was wearing when she was killed. If you have any information about the identity of this woman or how she was murdered, please call the Hampden County Detective Unit at 413-747-4810.

Update: This woman is believed to have a familial relationship with a victim of another single gunshot wound homicide in New Britain, CT that we featured in October, 2008. More information regarding this connection may be found here. Authorities are still seeking to find her identity as well as information about her killer.

Unsolved: Theresa Corley Murdered December 5, 1978

2008-11-29T14:14:00.007-05:00

Thirty years ago this week, Theresa Corley was murdered in Bellingham, Massachusetts, but the case remains unsolved.

On the night of December 4, 1978 nineteen-year-old Corley and some friends went to a bar in Franklin, MA to celebrate a friend's birthday party. After getting drunk, Corley began fighting with one of the friends and decided to leave the bar. Without any transportation though, she was forced to hitchhike. Three men picked up her up and drove her back to their apartment in Franklin where all three attempted to sexually assault her. She ran out of the apartment with one of her own shoes and one of the assailants shoes.

On Route 140, Corley continued hithhiking. She was picked up by two separate Garelick Farms trucks running their early morning routes. Both drivers reported that Corley was intoxicated. One said that Corley told him she had been sexually assaulted so he dropped her off at the Bellingham Police Department, just one mile from Corley's house. Corley decided not to go into the police station. Instead, she was last seen hitchhiking at 5:30 AM just outside the police station.

Two days later, Corley's body was found in a ditch off the northbound side of I-495 on the Bellingham/ Medway line. She had been strangled, most likely with a ligature, and was completely nude. Her jeans and jacket were found beside her. Her top garments and shoes have never been recovered. Her body did not have any drag marks on it, leading investigators to believe that at least two people probably disposed of the body.

The day Corley was found, a man identifying himself as "John Burlington" called into the Bellingham police station on an inside (non-911) line and claimed he was from Connecticut and found a body in a ditch while urinating off the side of highway. Police immediately found this suspicious as someone from Connecticut would not know that the location on I-495 was in Bellingham and he called an inside line which only local residents would know.

Another unusual event happened later that day when a man came into the police station and asked the dispatcher if it was Theresa Corley who had been found in the ditch. This was highly suspicious since it had not been announced over the radio that a body was found in this area. It is believed that "John Burlington" and the man who came into the station are one in the same.

The man who walked into the police station is known to police but police have been unable to link him to the crime. Additionally, the three original attackers who brought Theresa to the apartment have been thoroughly questioned and are not believed to be the murders. They have not, however, been entirely ruled out as suspects.

Anyone with any information about this case should call the Theresa Corley tip hotline at the Norfolk County DA's office at 617-593-8840.

Missing: James Lusher Westfield, MA Since November,1992

2008-11-16T14:59:00.007-05:00

On November 6, 1992, James "Jamie" Lusher , 16, set out from his father's house in Westfield, MA to drive 12 miles on his bike to visit his grandmother in Blandford. The developmentally disabled young man never made it to his final destination. Five days after his disappearance his green Huffy bike was found in a wooded area in Westfield but Lusher was nowhere to be found.

Police and some family members initially believed it was possible that Lusher left on his own accord. On November 8, a waitress who knew Lusher claimed that she had served him at a Friendly's Restaurant in Westfield. A very young girl claimed she saw Lusher nearly two weeks after his disappearance in Westfield and claimed that Lusher told her he was afraid of returning home because he was in trouble. Later these sightings were dismissed as cases of mistaken identity and by the end of 1992 law enforcement was publicly stating they felt Lusher had been kidnapped.

In January 1993, police began working with police in Pittsfield, MA to see if Lusher's disappearance bore any resemblance to the murder of James Bernardo, a twelve year old boy who was killed in 1990 in Pittsfield, MA. Police determined that there was a reasonable possibility that the cases were connected. In 1996, Lewis Lent Jr. was convicted of killing James Bernardo and Sara Ann Wood, 12. Both youngsters disappeared while riding their bikes. Later, witnesses claimed that Lent, a resident of North Adams, MA, was in the Westfield area on November 6. Lent has refused to talk to police about the Lusher case. The lead investigator in the case, Lt. Michael McCabe, notes that Lent is a person of interest in the case and stated that he can not rule Lent out as a suspect.

Lusher's father does not necessarily believe that Lent is involved. Lusher's parents had divorced earlier in 1992 and although James lived with his father, their relationship was a difficult one. His father reports that because of Lusher's developmental disabilities and his diagnoses of ADHD, many people in Westfield did not get along with his son and thinks its possible someone from town may have harmed the boy.

In 1997, a body matching Lusher's description was found in Readsboro, VT. Tests conducted on the remains were inconclusive and many believed the body was Lusher's, but in April 2003 the unidentified man was determined to be Sean Lewis Cuttler, not James Lusher.

When he was last seen Lusher was 5'2" and 110 pounds. He is a Caucasian male with brown hair and blue eyes. He was diagnosed with hyperactivity and is developmentally disabled, possessing the mental capacity of a twelve year old. A photo of Lusher in 1992 appears above. He would now be 32 years old. Anyone with any information about James Lusher's disappearnce should contact Lt. Michael McCabe at the Westfield Police Department at (413)562-5411.

Missing: Judith Ann Chartier From Chelmsford, MA 1982

2008-11-03T14:27:00.005-05:00

On the night of June 5, 1982 seventeen-year-old Judith Ann Chartier was attending a party with her boyfriend in Billerica, Massachusetts. During the course of the party she got into a fight with her boyfriend, drove him home, and then returned to the party. Friends reported that she was there until around 2:00 AM. After leaving the party, Chartier and the car she was driving, a 1977 Dodge Swinger, were never seen again.

A number of people were questioned in the case including Chartier's boyfriend, father, and another young man attending the party. Reportedly, a male co-worker at the fast food restaurant in Chelmsford, MA where Chartier worked was also under suspicion. Prior to her disappearance, Chartier had confided in her mother that the co-worker had been harassing her and that she was frightened of him.

Her family believes that she was met with foul play by someone she knew, but police have pursued a number of other possibilities. Around the same time Chartier went missing, the body of a woman from Lowell was found behind a stone wall in Harvard, MA. Police could not link the killing to Chartier's disappearance but at the time suspected that they may be connected.

In another case, the FBI was investigating a counterfeit money ring when they came across the car of James DeBardeleben, a suspected killer and known counterfeiter. Inside of DeBardeleben's trunk authorities found maps of the Chemlsford area along with a motel receipt from Chelmsford dated June 4, 1982, the night before Chartier disappeared. Several photos of women engaged in sadomasochism were also found, but no definitive evidence linking DeBardeleben to Chartier's disappearance.

When she disappeared, Judith Ann Chartier was 17 and was known by the nickname "Judy". She was 5'5" and 135 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Prominent markings include a scar on her chin and left wrist along with a mole on her right calf. She was last seen wearing a long white sweater with brown toggle buttons, brown cordory pants or jeans, and tan sandles. Anyone with any information on Judith's disappearance should call Sgt. Todd Ahern with the Chelmsford Police Department at 978-256-2521.

Unsolved: 1993 Fire in Barre, MA Sparks Question About Hate Crime

2008-10-23T13:08:00.006-04:00

On April 28, 1993 Donald Carpenter's home in Barre, MA was burned to the ground in an early morning fire. The fire was so intense firefighters could not enter and used the "surround and drown" method. No one was believed to be in the house since there was no cars in the driveway, but Carpenter could not be located at his second house in Vermont.

A week after the fire, Carpenter's car was located in the Fenway section of Boston with four parking tickets attached to the windshield. Still, no one had heard from Donald Carpenter.

On May 6, a cadaver dog located Carpenter's badly burned remains at the site of the fire. Investigators reported that gasoline was spread around the house and an adjacent barn. According to one of Carpenter's siblings, at least one investigator believed that the fire was started on Carpenter's body.

Adding to the mystery of the fire was the fact that one of Carpenter's neighbors reported seeing Carpenter return home, possibly with another male before the blaze. Evidence from the fire may have possibly been in the car indicating the car was most likely abandoned by someone besides Carpenter after the fire.

During the course of the investigation, law enforcement discovered that Carpenter had been living as a closeted gay man. His family had long suspected that Carpenter was gay due to a long term relationship with a roommate. Hate crime legislation did not exist in 1993 but now Carpenter's family wonders if the arson was perpetrated because of her brother's sexuality.

Carpenter's sister also theorizes that Carpenter could have picked up a man in Boston and brought him home to Barre where something went wrong and the fire was set to cover up what happened. They remain convinced that if the case was publicized better in the Boston area more leads would have been produced.

Anyone with information about Donald Carpenter's death should call the Barre Police Department at 978-355-4991.

Unidentified: 4 bodies found behind Connecticut shopping center

2008-10-18T21:24:00.004-04:00

On September 28, 1995 law enforcement discovered the body of a young woman behind a shopping center in New Britain, Connecticut near the intersection of Routes 84 and 9. The woman was wrapped in two sleeping bags and had sustained a single gun shot wound to the head.

For many years, police assumed that she was the only body behind the strip mall, but on August 20, 2007 a person cutting through the woods behind the store noticed what appeared to be bones on the ground. Police conducted a thirty acre search of the area and uncovered bones belonging to at least three different women. Two skulls were retrieved as well as assorted remains of a third victim.

Police speculate that the same person or group could have killed all four women although it is uncertain whether they are all connected. The body discovered in 1995 was killed by a gun shot wound to the head while the others did not appear to have trauma. However, the bones appeared to be from four to twelve years old which may fit the timing of the death of the original Jane Doe.

Very little has been publicly released about the bones found in 2007, except for the fact that one woman was estimated to be in her late teens to early twenties and another was in her thirties to forties. Police report that the state missing person databases did not yield any matches but it is possible that the women are from another state as nearby I-84 runs through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania.

The original unidentified victim found in 1995 was between 17 and 20. She was 5'3" and weighed 116 pounds. Law enforcement believes she is either Hispanic or Caucasian. Her dark brown/ black hair was pulled back with bobby pins and an elastic. At the time of her death she was wearing a Croquet brand striped pullover shirt and Union Bay bibbed overalls both size small along with a size 6 1/2 LA Gear brand sneaker. Her jewelry included a Gitano brand watch with the face on the inside of her wrist, a gold herringbone necklace, a ring with a pink stone, and a silver navel ring. Authorities believe she was killed on or around September 27, 1995. A forensic reconstruction may be found above.

Anyone with information about any of these remains are urged to call the New Britain police department at 860-826-3069 or the FBI at 1-800-435-1284. A reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest.

Update: The body found in 1995 is believed to have a familial relationship connection to a body found in Tolland, MA on October 6, 1995. More information can be found here. Authorities are still seeking information about the identity of this victim as well her murderer.

Unsolved: Four Slayings in One Month Still Troubles Central MA

2008-10-17T12:53:00.001-04:00

Between September 1973 and October of the same year, four women were killed in central Massachusetts. While police do not believe these cases are the work of the same killer, all of them are connected by two similarities: all of them were stabbed to death and none of the murders have been solved 35 years later. However, thanks to new advances in DNA technology, Worcester County DA John Conte believes that all of these cases are still solvable.

Judith Vieweg- Vieweg, 31, was a popular art teacher in Towsend, MA. On September 9, 1973, neighbors noticed that the door to Vieweg's house had been left open and her dog was outside barking. The neighbors decided to search the nearby woods where Judith often went walking while her brother searched her house. The neighbors found Judith's body stabbed multiple times. The next day her car was pulled out of a landfill. Law enforcement theorizes that the perpetrator knew the area well due to the location of the car and Vieweg's body. Vieweg's brother believes that the crime was a crime of opportunity and the perpetrator was possibly a drifter. Anyone with tips regarding Judith Vieweg's death should call the Middlesex County DA's office at 617-679-6600.

Jo-Anne Muldoon and Debra Ann Johnson- Jo-Anne and Debra were friends in high school and moved into an apartment together in Fitchburg in 1973. Just 20 years old, Jo-Anne was struggling to raise her newborn son, Chris, on her own. On September 30, 1973, Muldoon's parents received a call saying that the baby had been crying constantly. Muldoon's parents came to the apartment to find that none of the lights worked. They used a lighter to light their way inside of the apartment and found Johnson stabbed to death on a sofa bed and their daughter in the same condition in the kitchen. A man had been harassing the girls in the past and Jo-Anne's parents believe he was the one who murdered the girls; however, there was never enough evidence to convict him. The same man was later convicted of stabbing another woman in Massachusetts, but was later released from prison. Anyone with information about the deaths of Jo-Anne Muldoon and Debra Ann Johnson should call the Worcester County DA's office at 508-755-8601.

Marcia Tyman- Tyman, 18, from the Auburndale section of Newton, was working as a nurse at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in October, 1973. On October 16, 1973 cleanup crews were working to close the Harvard, MA rest stop on Route 2 for the fall/winter season when they stumbled across Tyman's body. She had been stabbed over sixty times with a penknife. Immediately, the Tyman family felt they knew who the killer was. A nineteen-year-old co-worker of Marcia's was said to be infatuated with her. Tyman's sister reports that the man was questioned by police and nearly admitted to the crime, but was never convicted. Anyone with information regarding the death of Marcia Tyman should call the Worcester County DA's office at 508-755-8601.

Wanted: Florida Mall Murders Possibly Connected to New England

2008-10-16T14:32:00.002-04:00

Credit cards stolen from Randi Gorenberg, a victim of the Boca Raton Mall Murderer were used in Massachusetts and Connecticut on August 12, 2008. Authorities say that the credit cards were used by two men in the following places in August:

-At 1:02, two Playstation games were purchased from Sears in the Holyoke Mall.
-At 1:22, fast food was purchased down the road from the mall in West Springfield, MA
-At 2:20 a Playstation 3 was purchased at Toys 'R Us in Newington, CT

The photos above were taken off of security footage at the store.

Randi Gorenberg was returning to her car from a day of shopping at the Boca Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, Florida when she was abducted from the mall's parking lot. She was forced to drive her car to an ATM and withdraw money before she was bound, gagged, and shot in the head. Her purse, including her credit cards, cell phone, and shoes were missing from the crime scene. In December 2007, authorities suspect that the same man abducted, robbed, and killed Nancy Bochicchio and her seven-year-old daughter, Joey. An anonymous fourth victim reportedly survived a similar attack. The man suspected of the murders is a Caucasian or Hispanic male, 18-25 years old, 5'10" to 6" tall, medium build. He possibly wears a pony tail. He was thought to be wearing a floppy hat and sunglasses when perpetrating his crimes. A composite appears to the right. A Dateline report aired in June, 2008, theorizes that there may in fact be two perpetrators. Video from the Dateline story is available here.

Law enforcement is unclear about whether the men captured on the surveillance tape using Randi Gorenberg's credit cards are actually suspects in the crime or if they are just in possession of a clone credit card. Anyone with information about the identities of the men can submit a tip anonymously to Sgt. Springer at 561-688-4013 or Detective Romagnoli at 561-688-4065 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-TIPS or text to tips@cspbc.net. A cash reward is being offered.

Missing: James Lacouture from Hardwick, MA in October, 1988

2008-10-16T13:12:00.003-04:00

Nearly twenty years ago on October 29, 1988 James Lacouture mysteriously disappeared somewhere between Millbury and Hardwick, Massachusetts.

James and his brother, David, were working on building a house in the western section of Hardwick, Massachusetts that October. On the 29th they decided to go drinking at the Windsor Hotel in the Gilbertville section of Hardwick. Hours later, Deborah Lacouture, James' wife, returned to her home in Millbury, MA to find David passed out on the couch. David claimed that James was in the house, but he was nowhere to be found.

Concerned for her husband's safety, Deborah immediately went to Hardwick to search for James. She thought that David had left him in Hardwick and perhaps he had been injured or hit by a car but he was nowhere to be found. She called the state police but they theorized that James was on a drinking binge and would return home shortly. The Lacouture family posted fliers all over Hardwick and police dogs sniffed out the area near the unbuilt home the Lacoutre brothers were working on but did not uncover any clues.

Police and the Lacouture family were hopeful that David might remember something about what happened to his brother, but five days after James went missing, David shot himself in the head. His suicide note did not yield any information about James' disappearance.

A number of unidentified bodies found in the central and western Massachusetts areas have been compared to James, including the unidentified body we wrote about on August 23, 2008 but none of these were Lacouture. Very few tips have been called into the Millbury police department regarding Lacouture's whereabouts. He is presumed dead and most investigators now believe that he most likely was the victim of foul play or an accident.

At the time of his disappearance, James was 35 years old. He would now be 55. He has brown hair, green eyes, and a beard. He is 5'5" and 130 pounds. When he disappeared he was wearing a plaid shirt and jeans. He has a scar on his right wrist. He has had extensive dental work done including 12 fillings and a temporary composite tooth. Some of his dental records are missing or destroyed and it is probable he had more dental work than what is listed. Deborah Lacouture noted that he husband smoked and enjoyed drinking Budweiser brand beer.

Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to call Det. Nicole Oliveri of the Millbury, Massachusetts police at 508-865-3522.

Missing: Cathy Moulton from Portland, Maine Since September, 1971

2008-10-08T15:17:00.002-04:00

On September 21, 1971 sixteen-year-old Cathy Moulton was dropped up off by her father on Cumberland Ave. in downtown Portland, Maine to buy some pantyhose and toothpaste in order to get ready for a dance at the local YWCA. Law enforcement can verify the Moulton purchased the items she intended to and visited a record store where she briefly spoke to a friend about the upcoming dance. After leaving the record store, she was seen on Forest Ave. about a mile and a half away from her home. Her parents reported her missing when she did not return home for dinner.

Cathy was reportedly happy at the time of her disappearance and did not display any signs of wanting to run away. By all accounts, she was looking forward to attending the dance that night had no intent to leave the area on her own volition. The amount of money believed to be in her possession at the time of her disappearance would not have been enough to afford a bus ticket out of town.

It is possible that Cathy accepted a ride from a friend named Lester Everett who was driving a stolen 1963 blue Cadillac. A few weeks after Moulton disappeared there were reportedly sightings of Everett, Moulton, and an unidentified male working on a potato farm in Aroostook County, Maine nearly three hundred miles north of any city in Maine. A witness there reported that Moulton was begging to return home. However, police were never able to verify the validity of either sighting and it is still not known whether Moulton ever left Portland. Everett was later found alone and reportedly did not know the whereabouts of the missing girl.

In 1983, a hunter in Smyrna, a town in Aroostook County, came across a skeleton surrounded by women's clothing. Nearby there was a triangular formation of six maple syrup barrels next to an old stove. The man tried to retrace his steps to show police the body but could not. In 2004, several people reported remembering the landmark while being interviewed by police. This led to a series of unsuccessful searches in hopes of finding the remains throughout 2004 and 2005. Police have since called off the search pending new leads.

Cathy Moulton would now be fifty-three-years-old. An age progressed image of her is available to the right. When she was last seen she was sixteen-years-old, 5'4", 90 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. She had four eyeteeth removed and wore braces but her teeth were in excellent condition overall. She sometimes wore thick dark framed glasses. Scars from a wart removal were present on her feet. She also had a white spot on one elbow. When she disappeared she was wearing a navy all-weather coat, navy pants, brown shoes, and a brown leather purse.

Anyone with any information related to Moulton's disappearance is urged to call Det. Sg. Thomas P. Joyce Jr. at 207-874-8533

Missing: Audrey Groat from Montpelier, Vermont Since 1993

2008-10-06T09:29:00.002-04:00

On August 21, 1993, forty-one-year-old Audrey Groat was dropped off at the Montpelier, Vermont Park-and-Ride commuter lot at 10:00 PM by her boyfriend and was never seen again.

Her truck was found at the Park-and-Ride with the keys in the ignition. The doors were locked. The disappearance of the Northfield, Vermont mother of six was immediately considered extremely suspicious by Vermont State Police.

Groat's ex-boyfriend, Paul Jarvis, was considered the prime suspect in the case from the beginning. While Jarvis was never convicted of the crime, he was charged with assault on one of Groat's daughters. According to Groat's eldest daughter, he has not been ruled out as a suspect, but police report that he is no longer the focus of the investigation.

Over twenty investigators with the Vermont State Police have interviewed a number of suspects in connection with the case but none of these interviews have yielded an arrest. In November 2001, investigators received a tip that Groat was in the Wrightsville Reservoir but emptying the reservoir proved fruitless.

Groat was 5'6" and 120 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She has blue eyes and dyed blonde hair. She had a prominent scar on her right knee. She would now be 56 years old.

Anyone with information about Groat is encouraged to contact Det. Sgt. Michael Henry of the Vermont State Police at 802-229-9191 or mhenry@dps.state.vt.us.

Lighting the Way Home

2008-10-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

I'd like to alert everyone to a new project going on at my favorite crime solving forum, Websleuths. Lighting the Way Home is a state-by-state resource for those looking to solve missing and unidentified cases by providing information on resources available within each state for solving missing and UID cases, laws, website, and contact information for law enforcement and the media. There will be a special emphasis on collecting and adding DNA into centralized databases in order to make identification on victims more efficient. I hope you will all take the time to take a look at the two New England state forums: Massachusetts and Rhode Island. We also encourage everyone to consider volunteering for this very worthy project.

Unsolved: Kimberly Benoit and Cynthia Krizack, murdered in Berkshire County, 1970s

2008-09-22T18:11:00.001-04:00

In our last post about Lynn Burdick, we promised to bring the story of two cases that occurred in Berkshire County and are potentially related to Burdick's disappearance.

On November 16, 1974, a bow hunter found Kim Benoit, 18, at the bottom of an embankment in Florida, Massachusetts. Benoit had been strangled. She was fully clothed and did not appear to be sexually assaulted. Friends reported Benoit missing on November 4, 1974 when she failed to pick up her unemployment check. She had actually been missing since November 1 when she failed to return home from a Sons of Italy dance. Benoit was living with friends in North Adams at the time and was thought to have left on her own volition. Police reported that they had received credible tips that Benoit had been spotted in the North Adams area even after friends reported her missing.

Benoit's boyfriend was initially pegged for the crime, but later passed a lie detector test. In the book, "The Paradiso Files: Boston’s Unknown Serial Killer", Timothy Burke, a former Suffolk County homicide prosecutor, alleges that Benoit was killed by Leonard Paradiso. Paradiso was convicted of killing Marie Iannuzi in 1979, but is suspected of nearly a dozen other murders in the Boston area. He died in February 2008 without admitting to killing Benoit or any of the other women mentioned in the book. Police have not publicly accused Paradiso of murdering Benoit or any of the other women mentioned in the book.

Nearly two years later on October 7, 1976, Cynthia "Rocky" Krizack, 17, was walking from her home in Williamstown to the Williams College library when she was abducted. On October 31, 1976, Krizack was found in a remarkably similar condition to Kim Benoit. A mink trapper found Krizack strangled and dumped off an embankment in Windsor, Massachusetts. Like Benoit, she was also fully clothed, with the exception of her shoes, and not sexually assaulted. An older green BMW or Mercedes Benz was seen in the vicinity of where Krizack was abducted from. Police report that they have been close to solving the case multiple times but have not been able to close it.

It is important to note that while it is possible that these cases and the Lynn Burdick case are related, it is not definite. Readers with information about any of these cases are encouraged to contact the Berkshire County DA's office at 413-443-5951.

Missing: Lynn Burdick, Florida, Massachusetts, April, 1982

2008-09-20T22:16:00.002-04:00

On April 17, 1982, Lynn Burdick, 18, was working the Barefoot Peddler, a small store on Route 2 in Florida, Massachusetts. Normally, she was accompanied by her cousin who owned the store but on that particular night, Lynn was at the store alone. To make sure things were running smoothly, the cousin called the store regularly to check in with Lynn. Her last contact was at 8:00 PM at which point Lynn reported that there was a customer in the store and she could not talk.

Forty minutes later a customer walked into the store and found that Lynn was nowhere to be found. A book that Burdick had been reading and a soda were left on the counter, but her jacket and purse were missing. A hidden stash of money that Lynn was aware of was left untouched; however, $187 was taken from the cash register. Police immediately suspected foul play-- it is not thought that she left on her volition.

The only clue to her disappearance was the fact that forty minutes earlier a man in a dark Ford sedan attacked a woman in neighboring Williamstown. The woman was able to get away by biting her attacker's fingers and the man headed east on Route 2 towards Florida. It is likely, although uncertain, whether this attack was related to Burdick's.

In 1995, Burdick's father received an anonymous note with a Boston postmark claiming his daughter had been abducted and killed. The letter named "a North Adams man" as the murderer. Police are supposedly familiar with the suspect, but according to Burdick's father the letter, "didn't seem to amount to anything."

For months after her disappearance, volunteers and state police searched for Lynn on the ground and from the air and her family continues to search for her to this day. Some believe that the person responsible for Lynn's disappearance may also be responsible for at least two murders that occurred in the Berkshires during the 1970s. We will cover those two cases in our next blog entry.

Anyone with any information about Lynn Burdick's disappearance is encouraged to contact Sargent David Buell Jr. of the MA State Police at 413-499-1112 x306.

Unsolved: The Valley Killer, part 3

2008-09-01T19:00:00.005-04:00

This is the third post in a three part series to detail the mysterious "Valley Killer" murders that took place on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire during the 1980s. Please read part 1 and part 2 for more information about this baffling case.

Lynn-Marie Carty, a private investigator, was investigating the case of Michelle Ashley Nicholaou, a twenty-two-year-old mother of two who had inexplicably vanished from Holyoke, Massachusetts at the end of 1988, when she stumbled across a break in the case. Michelle's family was certain that Michelle's common law husband, Michael Nicholaou, had something to do with the disappearance. Michael, claimed that Michelle voluntarily left with a Cuban drug dealer or alternatively, that she had died.

Michael was known for his violent temper and when he murdered his third wife, step daughter, and himself in Tampa, Florida in 2005, many, including Carty, became even more suspicious of Michael's involvement with the disappearance of Michelle. On a hunch, Carty Googled the phrase, "1988. New England. Murder." Instantly, she found information on the so-called Connecticut River Valley Killer of Vermont and New Hampshire and became suspicious.

There were a number of pieces of circumstantial evidence that possibly linked Nicholaou to the crime. Michelle's family lived in the Connecticut River Valley of New Hampshire and he was familiar with the area. Holyoke, Massachusetts is directly on the I-91 corridor-- all the attacks took place in close proximity to the highway. Jane Boroski reported that she was gripped with a martial arts hold-- Nicholaou was a black belt. Nicholaou owned a Jeep Wagoneer, the same vehicle driven by Boroski's attacker. Nicholaou's mother was a nurse lending credence to the fact that perhaps the killer was intentionally attacking health care workers. The attacks stopped in 1988, the same time that Nicholaou moved away from the area and Michelle disappeared. But, most damning of all, Jane Boroski is convinced that Nicholaou is the man who attacked her based on photographs and one must admit that the police sketch produced based on Jane Boroski's description of her attacker does resemble Nicholaou.

Carty is not the only one who has taken an interest in the case. Police from both Vermont and New Hampshire are investigating the possibility of Nicholaou's involvement with the attacks but no concrete evidence has linked Nicholaou to the killings and police are still looking to find evidence that connects Nicholaou, or someone else, to these mysterious murders that have gone unsolved for twenty years.

Those with information about this case should contact the Vermont State Police or New Hampshire State Police. If you have any information about Michelle Ashley Nicholaou who most likely disappeared in November or December 1988, please contact Detective Kevin Boyle at 413-322-6940.

Unsolved: The Valley Killer, part 2

2008-08-31T20:21:00.005-04:00

This is the second post in a three part series to detail the mysterious "Valley Killer" murders that took place on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire during the 1980s. The first post, detailing the victims of this possible serial killer from 1978 to 1987, may be found here.

The best lead in catching the elusive killer came in 1988 when one woman managed to survive the killer's attack despite being stabbed a total of 27 times. Twenty-two-year-old Jane Boroski was seven months pregnant when she stopped at a remote convenience store in Swanzey, New Hampshire for a soda at an outdoor vending machine. While she was sitting in her car a man approached, asked her if the pay phone was working, and then pulled Boroski out of the car. Boroski tried to run but the man continued to stab her. At some point during the struggle, the man accused her of beating up his girlfriend and asked if she was from Massachusetts even though it was clear from her license plates that she was from New Hampshire. When a car drove by, the assailant got nervous and left Jane and her unborn baby to die.

Amazingly, she found the strength to drive to a nearby friend's house but her ordeal was not quite over. While driving she found that her attacker's brown wagoneer was driving in front of hers and when she stopped at her friend's the attacker actually turned his car around to see her. Noticing that she was with friends, he continued driving past the house.

Given her wounds, the manner of attack, and her location, law enforcement do believe that Jane Boroski was attacked by the same person that attacked the women discussed in part one of this series. She displayed the same upper body and V-shaped attack pattern that was present on the bodies of Cathy Millican, Lynda Moore, and Barbara Agnew.

Police were optimistic that Boroski's attack may finally bring closure to the case. She had seen the car, a dusty Jeep wagoner with faux wood paneling, although she was unable to get a clear look at the license plate. Under hypnosis she thought that it was possible the license plate had involved the numbers 6-6-2. She also thought it was possible, although not certain, that license plate was from New Hampshire. Her attacker was described as being blond with thinning hair, had a narrow face, and was between 5'7" and 5'8", 150 to 160 pounds. Police scoured the New England and New York area for leads and tracked down thousands of Wagoners but were unsuccessful in finding the suspct. It seemed like a lost casue,

That is, until a private investigator investigating a missing person in Massachusetts inadvertently stumbled across a potential break in the case. We will conclude this series with a potential break in the case tomorrow.

A clip from a 1991 "Unsolved Mysteries" depicting Jane Boroski's attack.

The Valley Killer, part 1

2008-08-30T13:10:00.010-04:00

This is the first post in a three part series to detail the mysterious "Valley Killer" murders that took place on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire during the late 1970s and into the 1980s.

For ten years between 1978 and 1988, eight women were murdered in the Connecticut River Valley region that straddles the border of Vermont and New Hampshire. All of these victims had been stabbed, many in a specific pattern across the upper body and abdomen. Two questions remain: Are all or some of these victims connected to one killer? Is one or multiple killers still free?

The Victims
Cathy Millican, 26, was photographing birds at the Chandler Brook Wetland preserve in New London, New Hampshire on October 24, 1978 when she was stabbed over twenty times. She had been stabbed in the upper body and abdomen in a V-shape that would later be present on other stabbing victims in the region. Profiler John Philpin described the attack as being sexual in nature but no sign of sexual assault was present. Her body was found just yards from where she had been taking photographs on October 25.

Mary Elizabeth Critchley, 25, was hitchhiking on the Massachusetts/ Vermont border near Interstate 91 on July 25, 1981 when she was picked up by an unknown assailant and killed. On August 9th, her body was found in a wooded area of Stage Coach Road in Claremont, New Hampshire. Her manner of death remains unknown.

Heidi Martin, 16, was last seen jogging in Hartland, Vermont on May 20, 1984. Her body was discovered in a swampy area behind an elementary school in Hartland on May 21. Delbert Tallman confessed to killing Martin in 1984 but later recanted claiming that he knew another man was the real killer. Tallman was tried and found not guilty. It remains unclear whether or not Martin's death is related to the other stabbings in the area. Tallman is not suspected of being involved with any other area murders . We have included the case of Heidi Martin due to the fact that no one has been definitively linked to her death and its similarity in terms of location and manner of death to the other cases.

Bearnice Courtemanche, 17, was last seen hitchhiking on Route 12 near Claremont, New Hampshire on May 30, 1984. She was working as assistant at a nursing home part-time while also attending high school. Nearly two years later on April 19, 1986, authorities found her body stabbed to death in the woods near Kellyville, NH. Her body was decomposed to the point where it remains uncertain whether her body shared the stabbing pattern characteristic of other killings in the Valley.

Ellen Fried, 27, was last seen talking on the phone to her sister outside of Leo's Market in Claremont, NH on July 20, 1984. Fried's sister noted that at one point during the conversation her sister told her that a car had driven by and out of fear, Fried checked to make sure the engine of her car was still working. A few days later, Fried's car was found two miles from Leo's Market, seemingly free of any sign of struggle. On September 19, 1985 her body was found stabbed to death in the same wooded area as Bernice Courtemanche.

Eva Morse, 28, was last seen hitchhiking near a vetinary clinic on the border of Charlestown and Claremont, New Hampshire on July 10, 1985. On April 25, 1986, her body was found a few yards from where Mary Elizabeth Critchley had been found in 1981. At the time of her death, Morse was raising a young daughter who she had given birth to as a teenager. She ran with a known rough group of people, which may or may not have contributed to her death. She was also the only victim known to be a practicing lesbian. Her body was too decomposed to establish a specific stabbing pattern.

Lynda Moore, 36, was last seen outside her house in Saxtons River, Vermont on April 15, 1986. That afternoon her husband found her stabbed to death in their home. Prior to being stabbed, Moore was sunbathing on her lawn. Several people were seen outside of the Moore's household including a mysterious dark haired man with cheap glasses and a blue knapsack. Although she was not left in the woods like all the other victims, Moore's body was stabbed in the specific pattern shown in other stabbing victims in the Valley. Profiler John Philpin believed it was possible that the killer had been interrupted or shaken which prevented him from moving the body to a more secluded location.

Barbara Agnew, 38, was last seen at the Stratton, Vermont ski area where she had been skiing with friends in January 1987. Her BMW was found at a I-91 northbound rest stop in Hartford, Vermont on the 10th, just a few miles from her home. It remains unclear why Agnew stopped but the snow was heavy that night and she may have wanted to throw out garbage or make a phone call from the payphone. On March 28th she was found stabbed to death in a rural area of Hartland, Vermont. She displayed the V-shaped stabbing pattern. Agnew was divorced with a young son. She was working as a nurse at a cardiac unit at the time of her death.

A final attack on Jane Boroski in 1988, also believed to be linked to the previous stabbings, will be discussed in Part 2 of this series.

Similarities Between Cases
-All of the cases, except for Critchley's, definitively involved a knife attack.
-Four of the cases had a specific stabbing pattern across the upper body and abdomen, the other cases may have also displayed this pattern but were too decomposed to tell although an attack to the upper body was present.
-With the exception of Lynda Moore and Jane Boroski all the victims were killed in a wooded area they had been transported to. Both the Boroski and Moore attacks were thought to be interrupted.
-Two sets of victims were found in very close proximaty to each other.
-Three of the victims were known to be hitchhiking.
-Two of the attacks (Fried and Boroski) definitely involved a pay phone and were near a soda machine. It is possible that this was also an element in the Agnew, Morse, Critchley, and Courtemanche cases. John Philipin once speculated it was possible the killer serviced these machines. It may also be that the killer was simply chosing to look for women near places where he knew they'd be vulnerable.
-Much speculation was centered around the possibility that the killer was targeting health care workers as Fried and Agnew were nurses and Courtemanche was an aide. This theory, while prevalent, is believed to be unlikely by many in law enforcement.

A Case Against A Serial Killer
For the past twenty years, the Vermont and New Hampshire state police have officially declared their opinion that these attacks could not all be related. One case to be made was that all of the women led very different lifestyles, had different appearances, and were a variety of ages-- serial killers often work within a particular group such as young women with blond hair. Another concern was the timing. Even if a few attacks were related and occurred within a short amount of time, what could explain the long gap between the killing of Millican and then Critchley but then a very abbreviated period of attack between the other women? To some, these attacks off the timeline seemed unrelated to the three attacks that occurred in just one year and two months in Claremont, NH. Finally, one must question why so many different suspects have arisen with different physical attributes. The person believed to be involved with Lynda Moore's attack was described as having dark hair, in Part 2 we find that Jane Boroski's attacker has blond hair. Is this just a matter of confusion amongst witnesses or a sign that there are in fact multiple killers?

While it seems likely that these case are connected and may even be connected to other cases not listed here, it will be impossible to know until at least one person is apprehended for these crimes.

The locations of the Valley Killer's victims:

View Larger Map

Missing: Laureen Rahn, from Manchester, NH Since April, 1980

2008-08-27T11:32:00.001-04:00

Fourteen-year-old Laureen Rahn disappeared from her home in Manchester, NH on April 27, 1980. There were no clues to where Laureen may have gone in the apartment. Two of Laureen's friends had been at her house just an hour before she disappeared and did not notice anything amiss.

In October 1980, Laureen's mother noticed that three calls had been charged to her phone number from Santa Monica. She thought the calls must have been charged by Laureen and enlisted the help of Santa Monica police to track where the calls were to. Two of the calls were from a motel phone in Santa Ana that was known as a hotbed of child pornography. The third call was made to a hotline for teens with questions about sex. In 1985, investigators followed a tip from the hotline that led to a plastic surgeon who claimed that several runaway teens, including one that may have been from New Hampshire, visited his house and that Annie Sprinkle, the pornographic film star, may have more information. Police questioned Sprinkle and watched several of her films hoping to see Laureen but did not find any more information.

There are other indications Laureen may still be alive. In 1981, Laureen may have been seen at a Boston, MA bus stop, just 40 miles from Manchester. Around the holidays, the Rahn residence received calls from an unidentified caller who would not say anything and hang up the phone. In 1986, an unidentified caller phoned Roger Maurais, a childhood friend of Laureen's. She claimed her name was either "Laurie" or "Laureen". Finally, a man claimed that he saw a prostitute matching Laureen's description in Anchorage, Alaska in 1988; however, this claim is contested since the description was based on when Laureen disappeared in 1980.

Laureen was 5'4" and 90 lbs when she disappeared. She has brown hair and blue eyes. She has a prominent scar on her leg. She would now be 42 years old. Please note the pictures of her below; the second one has been age progressed to 41 years old.

About a month earlier, Rachel Garden, another petite brunette around the same age as Laureen also disappeared from southern New Hampshire. Her disappearance may be related to Laureen's.

Police continue to believe that foul play is involved in Laureen's disappearance. If you have any information regarding this case, please call the Manchester Police Department at 603-668-8711.

Missing: Giovani Gonzalez from Lynn, MA

2008-08-25T12:28:00.001-04:00

Giovanni Gonzalez, 5, was reported missing on August 17, 2008 from Lynn, Massachusetts. When his mother, Daisy, went to pick him up from a scheduled visit with his father, Ernesto, the boy was nowhere to be found despite the fact that Ernesto was in the apartment.

On August 18, Ernesto was arrested for child endangerment, a charge which he has plead not guilty to. On August 22, police found a bloody mop and other blood stained objects in Ernesto's apartment.

It is possible that Giovanni is now in Puerto Rico.

Giovanni is five years old, is approximately 4'1" (124 cm), and 40 pounds (18 kg). He has black hair and brown eyes. If you have any information on him please call the Lynn Police Department (781-595-2000) or state police department (978-745-8908).

Unsolved: Lisa Ziegert, stabbed in Agawam, MA, 1992/ Ashley Turniak, 1998

2008-08-24T11:07:00.004-04:00

On April 15, 1992, twenty-four-year-old Lisa Ziegert was facing a normal day: working as a special needs teacher until 4:30 and then driving to her second job as a cashier at a gift shop, which started at 5:00.

The next morning, Ziegert's boss at the gift shop found that Ziegert's car had been left in the parking lot overnight Her purse and jacket had been left behind. All the store lights remained on and the door was unlocked. The only physical evidence that a struggle had occurred indicating Ziegert had not left voluntarily was some blood in the backroom and kick marks on the floor.

Authorities theorize that Ziegert had been abducted from the store against her will sometime between 8:40 and 9:10. This is based on the fact that a customer visited the store around this time and found that the lights were on but Ziegert was nowhere to be found. The customer reported possibly hearing noise, like a banging, from the back room but left the store without buying anything.

Four days later on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1992, her body was found stabbed in the neck and sexually assaulted 300 feet from a dirt road off Route 75 in Agawam.

A full sized utility vehicle such as a Ford Bronco in a dark color, possibly red, with an external spare tire with a light cover over the tire is thought to be involved in the crime either as a witness or a suspect. The Unsolved Mysteries report on the story noted a woman saw a car matching this description with a man and woman fighting in the back.

A week after the murder a local car wash found a men's shirt with a blood stain on it and an eight foot piece of carpet from a truck or van stuffed inside a garbage bin. This may or may not be related to Lisa Ziegert's case.

Most people in law enforcement and locals believe that this crime was committed by someone who knew the area since the location where the body was found is not a well known spot and was frequently used by people partying in the woods.

Police do have DNA evidence which can be used to identify the killer when he is found.

This highly publicized case has been on Unsolved Mysteries, Nancy Grace, and some other crime shows but still is unsolved after 16 years. The clip from Unsolved Mysteries may be viewed below.

Anyone with information on Lisa Ziegert should contact the Agawam Detective Bureau at 413-786-1717. Calls will be kept confidential.

On November 8 1998, sixteen-year-old Ashley Turniak, also from Agawam was found dead on the side of I-91 at the border of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Turniak arrived at Agawam High School at 7:25. An hour later she was seen by witnesses either being thrown from or jumping out feet first from a midsize brown vehicle (possibly a 1980s model Ford Tempo). Although this case is not related to the Ziegert murder, it is notable for being the second abduction scenario from this small town in Western Massachusetts in just six years time. If you have any information about the death of Ashley Turniak please call the State Police at 413-747-4809.

Unidentified: Woman's body parts found in Warwick, MA in June, 1989

2008-08-23T14:26:00.001-04:00

On June 24, 1989 legs and arms were found off of a rest stop on Route 78 in Warwick, MA, just 1 mile from the New Hampshire border.

The parts were originally thought to be from a man in his 30s (most newspapers reported this) but later studies suggested that the parts are actually from a woman. She was white, approximately 5'5" and "robust". The other parts of the body, including the head were never found. The body was badly decomposed and authorities are not exactly certain of when the victim died although it was likely within six months.

Newspapers reported that there was a concern about this being related to a cult or other ritualistic killing. Two corpses of headless dogs were found approximately 25 feet from the human remains. The dogs had not died from natural causes, police think they were shot. Many people in Worcester county also reported that their pets went missing around the same time (the body was left in Franklin county, but borders Worcester county). That being said, these incidents are not definitively linked to the body.

There has been efforts from the online community, Websleuths to link this unidentified victim to that of Michelle Ashley Nicholaou who disappeared from Holyoke, Massachusetts sometime after November 1988.

Authorities have compared the remains to James Lacouture and have determined he was not a match.

Welcome to New England Unsolved

2008-08-23T13:46:00.000-04:00

Welcome to New England Unsolved, a blog devoted exclusively to investigating unsolved crimes, missing persons, and unidentified persons around New England. This blog was spurred on by my interests in unsolved crimes in my region that I have found out about through sites such as Websleuths, The Doe Network, and the Unsolved Mysteries board.