A Sister's Long Journey
Four Decades after Eve Wilkowitz Left a Bayshore Train Station and was murdered One Long Island Woman Finally Recieves Answers to Who Killed Her sister
By Shawn R. Dagle
Dressed in a purple sweatshirt - with "Love" written across the front in black letters - Irene Wilkowitz stood before the cameras clutching a tissue and photograph of her murdered sister. For decades Irene had experienced the fear and uncertainty of her sister's murderer still being at large and the dread that one day he might harm her as well. Now standing before a crowd of reporters that had gathered to hear the announcement from Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney that the man who killed her sister - publishing secretary Eve Wilkowitz - had finally been identified Irene recalled the torment she had suffered in the wake of her sister's murder and the relief that he no longer would be able to harm anyone else. "This is my first time seeing him," Irene told the press after viewing a photograph of Herbert Rice - her sister's killer. Rice had died years before DNA would allow police to link him to her sister's brutal slaying in Bayshore Long Island in March of 1980. Irene's long search for answers however was finally over. Still questions persist. Who was Herbert Rice? Why did he kill Eve Wilkowitz? And could there be more victims?
Dressed in a purple sweatshirt - with "Love" written across the front in black letters - Irene Wilkowitz stood before the cameras clutching a tissue and photograph of her murdered sister. For decades Irene had experienced the fear and uncertainty of her sister's murderer still being at large and the dread that one day he might harm her as well. Now standing before a crowd of reporters that had gathered to hear the announcement from Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney that the man who killed her sister - publishing secretary Eve Wilkowitz - had finally been identified Irene recalled the torment she had suffered in the wake of her sister's murder and the relief that he no longer would be able to harm anyone else. "This is my first time seeing him," Irene told the press after viewing a photograph of Herbert Rice - her sister's killer. Rice had died years before DNA would allow police to link him to her sister's brutal slaying in Bayshore Long Island in March of 1980. Irene's long search for answers however was finally over. Still questions persist. Who was Herbert Rice? Why did he kill Eve Wilkowitz? And could there be more victims?
Eve Wilkowitz
Climbing aboard an early morning train back to Long Island on March 22 of 1980 Eve Wilkowitz was unaware of the horrors that await her.
That evening - after wrapping up work at Macmillan Publishing Company in Manhattan where she worked as a secretary - Eve had dinner with a friend and at 12:39 a.m. boarded a train at Penn Station bound for Bayshore.
Eve's roommate – a 21-year-old construction worker – had expected her home by 2 a.m. When he woke up at 7 a.m. that morning and Eve was nowhere to be found he became worried and filed a missing person’s report.
“Three days later on March 25, 1980 her body was found on 26 Center Avenue in Bayshore – which was between the train station and her house on Fifth avenue. At that time the investigation revealed that she had been sexually assaulted [and] she had been strangled,” explained Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney during a press conference in March of 2022 announcing the identification of her killer four decades later.
Eve’s body – still clad in the light blouse and pair of jeans she had been wearing at the time of her disappearance – was found by a neighbor in front of the home on Center Street shortly before 8 a.m. that morning.
She had been strangled or garroted with a piece of rope and her wrists had been bound. Investigators told reporters at the time her body was discovered that they believed Eve had been murdered a few days after she went missing or just hours before her body was discovered. Rope marks on her wrists indicated that she had been held captive police explained.
Eve’s roommate told investigators that she had become frightened by men following her home in the past while she made the ten minute walk from the train station to their apartment.
At the time of Eve’s murder police were able to obtain a rape kit. No DNA evidence was initially able to be obtained however.
The case went cold for another 20 years until the Spring of 2000 when new DNA technology was utilized by police.
“Suffolk County homicide resubmitted the swabs taken at the time of the murder for DNA analysis and at this time they did come up with a result that could be used for comparison purposes and it was a mixture, a mixture of male and female,” explained Tierney.
The female sample was matched with Eve. The male donor remained unidentified.
“So that profile was put in the CODIS database and there were no results and there were no matches. And that was where we stood until beginning about 2019,” said Tierney.
That year a genealogical search was conducted to see if any matches to the perpetrator or one of his relatives could be found. The search however bore no fruit.
From there Suffolk County investigators reached out to the FBI for assistance. The FBI conducted a search of publicly available genealogical databases in early 2020.
“They were able to get a profile of a relative of Mr. Rice. From there they developed Mr. Rice as a suspect in the case,” said Tierney.
According to the district attorney, the Rice family cooperated with police during their investigation.
“They came in and assisted us and they were very generous in helping us to reach this conclusion today,” said Tierney.
That evening - after wrapping up work at Macmillan Publishing Company in Manhattan where she worked as a secretary - Eve had dinner with a friend and at 12:39 a.m. boarded a train at Penn Station bound for Bayshore.
Eve's roommate – a 21-year-old construction worker – had expected her home by 2 a.m. When he woke up at 7 a.m. that morning and Eve was nowhere to be found he became worried and filed a missing person’s report.
“Three days later on March 25, 1980 her body was found on 26 Center Avenue in Bayshore – which was between the train station and her house on Fifth avenue. At that time the investigation revealed that she had been sexually assaulted [and] she had been strangled,” explained Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney during a press conference in March of 2022 announcing the identification of her killer four decades later.
Eve’s body – still clad in the light blouse and pair of jeans she had been wearing at the time of her disappearance – was found by a neighbor in front of the home on Center Street shortly before 8 a.m. that morning.
She had been strangled or garroted with a piece of rope and her wrists had been bound. Investigators told reporters at the time her body was discovered that they believed Eve had been murdered a few days after she went missing or just hours before her body was discovered. Rope marks on her wrists indicated that she had been held captive police explained.
Eve’s roommate told investigators that she had become frightened by men following her home in the past while she made the ten minute walk from the train station to their apartment.
At the time of Eve’s murder police were able to obtain a rape kit. No DNA evidence was initially able to be obtained however.
The case went cold for another 20 years until the Spring of 2000 when new DNA technology was utilized by police.
“Suffolk County homicide resubmitted the swabs taken at the time of the murder for DNA analysis and at this time they did come up with a result that could be used for comparison purposes and it was a mixture, a mixture of male and female,” explained Tierney.
The female sample was matched with Eve. The male donor remained unidentified.
“So that profile was put in the CODIS database and there were no results and there were no matches. And that was where we stood until beginning about 2019,” said Tierney.
That year a genealogical search was conducted to see if any matches to the perpetrator or one of his relatives could be found. The search however bore no fruit.
From there Suffolk County investigators reached out to the FBI for assistance. The FBI conducted a search of publicly available genealogical databases in early 2020.
“They were able to get a profile of a relative of Mr. Rice. From there they developed Mr. Rice as a suspect in the case,” said Tierney.
According to the district attorney, the Rice family cooperated with police during their investigation.
“They came in and assisted us and they were very generous in helping us to reach this conclusion today,” said Tierney.
Herbert Rice
Even though she knew Rice’s name for a couple of months before the press conference Irene said she refused to Google him. “I did not want to see the last face Eve saw while she was still alive,” she told reporters.
At the time of Eve’s murder Rice was living or staying with his mother on Center Street – approximately four of five houses down from where Eve’s body was discovered by a neighbor the early morning of March 25, 1980 according to investigators.
“We know Mr. Rice would often spend time at the train station frequently drinking,” Tierney told those gathered at the press conference.
Unfortunately Rice – who is now deceased – will never face justice in a court room –having died in 1991 at the age of 40 from natural causes.
At the press conference Irene expressed sympathy for the Rice family. “His family didn’t know anything about it so I feel badly for them as well,” she said.
In the wake of her sister's murder Irene said she lived in perpetual fear, “afraid all the time that I was going to be killed next. I always thought someone was right around the corner coming after me too,” she said.
Irene was convinced that she would die young like her sister and said she never allowed herself to dream. “I still can’t believe I heard those words, 'we have identified the person responsible for the death of Eve,'” she told reporters.
Eve loved to be a big sister and to ride horses according to Irene. “She never got a chance to fulfill her dreams,” she said.
While certain details regarding Eve’s murder will perhaps never be known one question that remains is what Rice did with Eve the three days she was missing.
Police had indicated at the time of her murder and years afterward that they believed she had been held captive and killed only a few hours before her body was discovered.
At the time of her murder Rice is said to have been living with his mother – which begs the question of where she was kept and murdered. Details regarding Rice’s background also remain vague.
Whatever details remain to be revealed about Eve’s tragic murder one thing however remains certain.
Thanks to the hard work and perseverance of investigators in Suffolk County Eve’s murder has been solved – providing hope for the other thousands of unsolved murders across the country that still remain cold.
Sources:
Newsday “Victim Had Told of Being Followed” Jim Mulvaney, March 27, 1980
NBC News “She Waited 42 Years” John Schuppe March 29, 2022
Daily News “Seek Tips In Murder” Jerry Cassidy March 28, 1990
Newsday “Bay Shore Woman 20 Found Slain Near Home” March 26, 1980
At the time of Eve’s murder Rice was living or staying with his mother on Center Street – approximately four of five houses down from where Eve’s body was discovered by a neighbor the early morning of March 25, 1980 according to investigators.
“We know Mr. Rice would often spend time at the train station frequently drinking,” Tierney told those gathered at the press conference.
Unfortunately Rice – who is now deceased – will never face justice in a court room –having died in 1991 at the age of 40 from natural causes.
At the press conference Irene expressed sympathy for the Rice family. “His family didn’t know anything about it so I feel badly for them as well,” she said.
In the wake of her sister's murder Irene said she lived in perpetual fear, “afraid all the time that I was going to be killed next. I always thought someone was right around the corner coming after me too,” she said.
Irene was convinced that she would die young like her sister and said she never allowed herself to dream. “I still can’t believe I heard those words, 'we have identified the person responsible for the death of Eve,'” she told reporters.
Eve loved to be a big sister and to ride horses according to Irene. “She never got a chance to fulfill her dreams,” she said.
While certain details regarding Eve’s murder will perhaps never be known one question that remains is what Rice did with Eve the three days she was missing.
Police had indicated at the time of her murder and years afterward that they believed she had been held captive and killed only a few hours before her body was discovered.
At the time of her murder Rice is said to have been living with his mother – which begs the question of where she was kept and murdered. Details regarding Rice’s background also remain vague.
Whatever details remain to be revealed about Eve’s tragic murder one thing however remains certain.
Thanks to the hard work and perseverance of investigators in Suffolk County Eve’s murder has been solved – providing hope for the other thousands of unsolved murders across the country that still remain cold.
Sources:
Newsday “Victim Had Told of Being Followed” Jim Mulvaney, March 27, 1980
NBC News “She Waited 42 Years” John Schuppe March 29, 2022
Daily News “Seek Tips In Murder” Jerry Cassidy March 28, 1990
Newsday “Bay Shore Woman 20 Found Slain Near Home” March 26, 1980
vanished But Not forgotten
54 Years after 13-Year-old Debra Lee Spickler Disappeared From a ROckville park her family still holds out hope one day she will be found
By Shawn R. Dagle
A warm summer afternoon at Henry Park in Rockville. 13-year-old Debra Spickler's older cousin watches as the Debra (dressed in a pair of polka dot shorts and white sneakers) walks off toward the park's swimming pool. She is never seen again. Despite decades of investigation, newspaper articles, television reports, podcasts and the formation of a cold case squad no trace of Debra has ever been found. More than five decades later Debra's family still hopes one day they will learn what happened to the missing Mystic teenager. Will Debra Lee Spickler ever be found?
A warm summer afternoon at Henry Park in Rockville. 13-year-old Debra Spickler's older cousin watches as the Debra (dressed in a pair of polka dot shorts and white sneakers) walks off toward the park's swimming pool. She is never seen again. Despite decades of investigation, newspaper articles, television reports, podcasts and the formation of a cold case squad no trace of Debra has ever been found. More than five decades later Debra's family still hopes one day they will learn what happened to the missing Mystic teenager. Will Debra Lee Spickler ever be found?
Debra Spickler
More than five decades have passed since 13-year-old Debra Lee Spickler vanished from Henry Park in Rockville. Even all these years later the circumstances surrounding her disappearance continue to be shrouded in mystery.
Several different versions of what happened to Debra that afternoon have surfaced since she disappeared.
Was Debra at the Henry Park pool that afternoon to go swimming? Had she left the pool to return to her cousin's house to get a towel and never came back?
The most credible account of what happened to Debra that day comes from former Vernon Detective Lt. Bill Meier who served on the cold case squad that investigated Debra's missing persons case.
Meier told Donna Gore on her radio show Shattered Lives in 2016 that Debra (who was living in Mystic at the time of her disappearance) was visiting her cousin Linda whose family lived on Hartford Turnpike a short distance from Hennry Park.
On July 24, 1968 - the day Debra disappeared Meier said Linda and Debra had gone to a friend’s house. The friend however was not home.
The cousins then split up to find their friend - with Linda going to a nearby store and Debra leaving to see if the friend was at the Henry Park pool. When Linda returned home 15 minutes later Debra was nowhere to be found.
Linda was the last person to see Debra before she disappeared. It was as if her younger cousin had seemingly vanished into the thick summer air.
In the hours and days following her disappearance there was reason to remain optimistic that Debra would be found.
Earlier that same month another 13-year-old girl had gone missing at the Henry Park pool. The girl had left her home in Rockville to go swimming and didn’t return. Days later an off-duty police officer spotted the girl walking down a street in East Hartford and she was picked up by police.
Despite an exhaustive investigation into her disappearance no trace of Debra was found. Police traced leads all the way to Pennsylvania (where Debra’s family was originally from) with no luck.
When police learned that two teenage boys from Vernon had also gone missing at the same time as Debra there was suspicion that perhaps the two disappearances might be connected. Investigators however soon tracked the two missing teenage boys to Boston where they were located.
While other disappearances in the Rockville area led to massive searches and teams of volunteers scouring nearby woods and vacant lots it doesn’t appear (at least from the publicly available reports) that a similar search was conducted for Debra. Perhaps it was because Debra was the first of the girls to go missing. Perhaps it was because there were just too few clues about where she might have gone.
With the exception of a few brief mentions of Debra’s disappearance in the local newspapers that July there weren’t many stories regarding her case until years later when the other young girls began to disappear in the Rockville area. Even then details about Debra’s disappearance and life were few and far between.
As the years went by Debra's family clung to the hope that one day she would be found. Even now Debra is never far from her family's thoughts.
“My mom and aunts talk about her all the time,” Debra's niece Tina recently told me.
However much has changed since Debra ventured to Henry Park and was never seen again.
“Of course this happened when they were kids," Tina said. "Very sad. I wish they would find her.”
Prior to her disappearance Debra’s father Earl was a sailor with the U.S. Navy (joining in 1947).
During Spickler's 14 years with the Navy he served aboard a number of U.S. submarines including the USS Trigger (as an electrician’s mate second class) and aboard the USS Becuna - both based out of New London.
In October of 1949 Earl married Debra’s mother Edna. The couple’s wedding ceremony was held in Pennsylvania where Earl and Edna were originally from.
The wedding was attended by a large gathering of friends and relatives. Two days later the couple left Pennsylvania for the naval base in New London where Earl was stationed.
Over the next twelve years the Spicklers lived in Mystic and for a period of time in Groton (though it is unclear exactly when). In 1955 Debra was born.
When she was just four years old Debra's mother (just 28 years old at the time) passed away in their home in Mystic leaving three young daughters including Debra behind. Edna had been ill for a year - seriously for three months.
Following Edna’s death Earl quickly remarried four months later to a fellow widow named Julia Straub. That September Debra’s stepmother had discovered her 38-year-old husband – a farmer in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania – dead in his barn from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Several different versions of what happened to Debra that afternoon have surfaced since she disappeared.
Was Debra at the Henry Park pool that afternoon to go swimming? Had she left the pool to return to her cousin's house to get a towel and never came back?
The most credible account of what happened to Debra that day comes from former Vernon Detective Lt. Bill Meier who served on the cold case squad that investigated Debra's missing persons case.
Meier told Donna Gore on her radio show Shattered Lives in 2016 that Debra (who was living in Mystic at the time of her disappearance) was visiting her cousin Linda whose family lived on Hartford Turnpike a short distance from Hennry Park.
On July 24, 1968 - the day Debra disappeared Meier said Linda and Debra had gone to a friend’s house. The friend however was not home.
The cousins then split up to find their friend - with Linda going to a nearby store and Debra leaving to see if the friend was at the Henry Park pool. When Linda returned home 15 minutes later Debra was nowhere to be found.
Linda was the last person to see Debra before she disappeared. It was as if her younger cousin had seemingly vanished into the thick summer air.
In the hours and days following her disappearance there was reason to remain optimistic that Debra would be found.
Earlier that same month another 13-year-old girl had gone missing at the Henry Park pool. The girl had left her home in Rockville to go swimming and didn’t return. Days later an off-duty police officer spotted the girl walking down a street in East Hartford and she was picked up by police.
Despite an exhaustive investigation into her disappearance no trace of Debra was found. Police traced leads all the way to Pennsylvania (where Debra’s family was originally from) with no luck.
When police learned that two teenage boys from Vernon had also gone missing at the same time as Debra there was suspicion that perhaps the two disappearances might be connected. Investigators however soon tracked the two missing teenage boys to Boston where they were located.
While other disappearances in the Rockville area led to massive searches and teams of volunteers scouring nearby woods and vacant lots it doesn’t appear (at least from the publicly available reports) that a similar search was conducted for Debra. Perhaps it was because Debra was the first of the girls to go missing. Perhaps it was because there were just too few clues about where she might have gone.
With the exception of a few brief mentions of Debra’s disappearance in the local newspapers that July there weren’t many stories regarding her case until years later when the other young girls began to disappear in the Rockville area. Even then details about Debra’s disappearance and life were few and far between.
As the years went by Debra's family clung to the hope that one day she would be found. Even now Debra is never far from her family's thoughts.
“My mom and aunts talk about her all the time,” Debra's niece Tina recently told me.
However much has changed since Debra ventured to Henry Park and was never seen again.
“Of course this happened when they were kids," Tina said. "Very sad. I wish they would find her.”
Prior to her disappearance Debra’s father Earl was a sailor with the U.S. Navy (joining in 1947).
During Spickler's 14 years with the Navy he served aboard a number of U.S. submarines including the USS Trigger (as an electrician’s mate second class) and aboard the USS Becuna - both based out of New London.
In October of 1949 Earl married Debra’s mother Edna. The couple’s wedding ceremony was held in Pennsylvania where Earl and Edna were originally from.
The wedding was attended by a large gathering of friends and relatives. Two days later the couple left Pennsylvania for the naval base in New London where Earl was stationed.
Over the next twelve years the Spicklers lived in Mystic and for a period of time in Groton (though it is unclear exactly when). In 1955 Debra was born.
When she was just four years old Debra's mother (just 28 years old at the time) passed away in their home in Mystic leaving three young daughters including Debra behind. Edna had been ill for a year - seriously for three months.
Following Edna’s death Earl quickly remarried four months later to a fellow widow named Julia Straub. That September Debra’s stepmother had discovered her 38-year-old husband – a farmer in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania – dead in his barn from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Debra Spickler
A couple years after their marriage Earl left the Navy and became an electrician by trade. Julia (known for her love of children and her sense of humor) got a job with Yardney’s Electric Company in Pawcatuck.
By July of 1968 the family was living on Pequotsepos Road in Mystic. Debra went to visit her 18-year-old cousin Linda in Rockville. She was never seen again.
Even all these years later - with few answers regarding what happened to Debra that fateful July afternoon - the family still holds out hope that one day she will be found.
“I wish she was alive and my family found her. I know she would be much older, my mom is in her seventies,” Tina explained.
Tina still holds out hope of some resolution in her aunt’s case.
“I just wish my mom and her sisters and brother could get closure before they pass,” she said.
Sources:
The Daily Item October 22, 1949
The Daily Item “Mrs Edna Spickler Native of Region” January 29, 1959
The Daily Item “Earl Spickler on Sub Cruise of the Carribean” March 2, 1953
The Daily Item “Mifflinburg Seaman At Submarine Escape School” February 10, 1951
The Daily Item June 7, 1958
The Daily Item “10 Couples Apply for Licenses in Union Co.” May 25, 1959
The Daily Item Obit Julia Spickler May 4, 2001
The Press Enterprise “Young Farmer Dies Suddenly” September 18, 1958
The Press Enterprise “Grant Degree in Divorce” September 23, 1958
The Daily Item Earl Spickler Obit September 26, 1991
The Hartford Courant “Missing Girl Hunt Continues” October 8, 1968
portal.ct.gov Tolland County Cold Case Squad
Shattered Lives Radio Show 2016 Host Donna R. Gore and co host Delila Jones
The Hartford Courant “Missing Girl Hunt Continues” October 8, 1968
The Hartford Courant “Two Injured Slightly When Car Hit Tree” March 4, 1968
The Hartford Courant “Missing Girl” July 28, 196
The Hartford Courant “Police Locate Missing Girl” July 12, 1968
By July of 1968 the family was living on Pequotsepos Road in Mystic. Debra went to visit her 18-year-old cousin Linda in Rockville. She was never seen again.
Even all these years later - with few answers regarding what happened to Debra that fateful July afternoon - the family still holds out hope that one day she will be found.
“I wish she was alive and my family found her. I know she would be much older, my mom is in her seventies,” Tina explained.
Tina still holds out hope of some resolution in her aunt’s case.
“I just wish my mom and her sisters and brother could get closure before they pass,” she said.
Sources:
The Daily Item October 22, 1949
The Daily Item “Mrs Edna Spickler Native of Region” January 29, 1959
The Daily Item “Earl Spickler on Sub Cruise of the Carribean” March 2, 1953
The Daily Item “Mifflinburg Seaman At Submarine Escape School” February 10, 1951
The Daily Item June 7, 1958
The Daily Item “10 Couples Apply for Licenses in Union Co.” May 25, 1959
The Daily Item Obit Julia Spickler May 4, 2001
The Press Enterprise “Young Farmer Dies Suddenly” September 18, 1958
The Press Enterprise “Grant Degree in Divorce” September 23, 1958
The Daily Item Earl Spickler Obit September 26, 1991
The Hartford Courant “Missing Girl Hunt Continues” October 8, 1968
portal.ct.gov Tolland County Cold Case Squad
Shattered Lives Radio Show 2016 Host Donna R. Gore and co host Delila Jones
The Hartford Courant “Missing Girl Hunt Continues” October 8, 1968
The Hartford Courant “Two Injured Slightly When Car Hit Tree” March 4, 1968
The Hartford Courant “Missing Girl” July 28, 196
The Hartford Courant “Police Locate Missing Girl” July 12, 1968
Justice for Kathleen
How DNA and a Three Decade Long INvestigation Led to the Arrest of 11-YEar-old Kathleen Flynn's Alleged Murder
By Shawn R. Dagle
It was early morning. The woods where 11-year-old Kathleen Flynn went missing were still cloaked in darkness. For nearly 12 hours Kathleen had remained missing when at last officers discovered several items of clothing and a school bag discarded in the woods near Ponus Ridge Middle School in Norwalk. Kathleen's half nude body lay clumsily hidden beneath a pile of brush and tree limbs just a few hundred feet from a path she used to walk home. She had been bound and strangled. There were ligature marks on her neck and wrist. A perfunctory examination of her body revealed that she had been sexually assaulted. Hair, fiber and blood evidence - as well as seminal stains - were recovered from the scene. From the start of their investigation Norwalk Police had a person of interest in the case - 23-year-old Marc Karun. Would investigators be able to prove Karun sexually assaulted and killed young Kathleen?
It was early morning. The woods where 11-year-old Kathleen Flynn went missing were still cloaked in darkness. For nearly 12 hours Kathleen had remained missing when at last officers discovered several items of clothing and a school bag discarded in the woods near Ponus Ridge Middle School in Norwalk. Kathleen's half nude body lay clumsily hidden beneath a pile of brush and tree limbs just a few hundred feet from a path she used to walk home. She had been bound and strangled. There were ligature marks on her neck and wrist. A perfunctory examination of her body revealed that she had been sexually assaulted. Hair, fiber and blood evidence - as well as seminal stains - were recovered from the scene. From the start of their investigation Norwalk Police had a person of interest in the case - 23-year-old Marc Karun. Would investigators be able to prove Karun sexually assaulted and killed young Kathleen?
Kathleen Flynn
A night of intense searching turned up few clues regarding the whereabouts of missing 11-year-old Kathleen Flynn. Officers from the Norwalk Police Department had scoured the woods near the Ponus Ridge Middle School entrance drive and a footpath Kathleen was believed to have taken on her way home for clues but so far had come up empty.
At 5:12 p.m. the previous evening (September 23, 1986) Kathleen's mother had reported her daughter missing after Kathleen never came home from school.
After hours of searching, at approximately 2 a.m. officers discovered several items of clothing and a school bag belonging to Kathleen discarded in the woods.
A short time later officers found Kathleen's half nude body beneath a pile of brush and tree limbs.
Removing the branches and debris from her body investigators discovered ligature marks on Kathleen's neck and wrists indicating that she had been bound and strangled. A cursory examination of her body revealed that Kathleen also had been sexually assaulted.
Officers conducted an exhaustive search of the area - including the use of rakes - but were unable to find Kathleen’s underwear (including a J.C. Penny Junior Hi-Beginner size bra), gold heart earrings or the ligatures that were used to bind her.
Investigators were able to collect other forensic evidence from the scene however including hair, fiber, blood and seminal stains that were found on her body and her clothing - evidence that would later prove vital in bringing Kathleen's alleged killer to justice.
From the start of their investigation, the Norwalk Police Department considered 23-year-old Marc Karun a person of interest if not a prime suspect in Kathleen's murder.
In January of that same year Karun had been arrested for sexually assaulting a teenager in a field near Norwalk Community College according to court documents.
Karun was accused of driving the 18-year-old female victim - whom he knew from high school - to the area of the college, dragging her into the woods near the edge of a river, holding a knife to her throat, tying her hands behind her back, making her perform oral sex, blindfolding her, bringing her back to his vehicle and raping her.
Given the similarities in the two crimes detectives visited Karun’s home in Norwalk to conduct an interview. Karun’s home was just two miles from the middle school.
Outside his residence Karun told police that he had been at the school four days before Kathleen’s murder to see some teachers and had spoken with a school librarian. He also admitted to having walked the footpath the day of his visit near where Kathleen’s body would later be found according to court documents.
Karun however denied being at the school the day of Kathleen's murder. He claimed that day he was in town looking for a job after his parents had gotten on his case about finding work. He denied having known Kathleen or being involved in her murder.
Investigators however couldn’t help but notice that while Karun was cooperative he also appeared to be nervous.
Detectives visited Ponus Middle School in an attempt to verify Karun’s story. The school’s librarians and teachers however could not remember anyone matching Karun’s description visiting the school in the days prior to Kathleen’s murder.
When Detectives returned to interview Karun - this time at his new apartment in Norwalk - they asked for the name of the librarian. Karun said he couldn’t remember. He then told police he did not want to answer any more questions and wished to contact his attorney.
With a viable suspect, investigators decided to compare physical evidence they had from the scene - including hair, fiber, blood and seminal stains - to samples they had obtained from Karun. None of the material was a match.
The hair collected from the scene would later also be compared to the DNA of two other unnamed persons of interest in the case. One of the persons of interests was accused of using a ligature during a sexual assault and the other had allegedly bragged at a bar that he had killed Flynn. The two men’s DNA however did not match either.
By the late ‘90s Flynn’s murder case had gone cold. Then in June of 2002 a new detective Arthur Weisgerber was assigned to Norwalk PD’s Cold Case Unit taking over the lead in the investigation. His arrival breathed new life into the case.
In March of 2003 Weisgerber submitted hairs previously taken from Karun to a private lab. They were a mitochondrial DNA match to pubic hairs found on Flynn’s body according to court documents.
While mitochondrial DNA - which focuses on a person’s maternal line - can be helpful in eliminating known suspects it is not as definitive as traditional DNA analysis.
Not believing that they had enough to arrest Karun for Flynn’s murder detectives continued their investigation.
Eight years after Karun’s mitochondrial DNA was matched to pubic hairs found at the scene Weisgerber submitted fingernail scrapings taken from Flynn’s hands to the lab. The DNA from the scrapings matched Karun’s DNA profile say investigators.
Marc Karun
In addition to DNA investigators also turned up other circumstantial evidence potentially implicating Karun in Kathleen’s murder including a number of other assaults allegedly committed by Karun that bore a striking resemblance to Kathleen’s.
In April 1988 Karun was accused of inviting a 16-year-old girl to his apartment in Derby to play cards. When she arrived, the teenager – who thought another woman would be at the apartment – realized they were alone.
According to investigators Karun then grabbed the victim, placed her in a chokehold, tied her hands behind her back, tied her arms and feet, put a blindfold over her eyes, removed her clothing and then sexually assaulted her.
The following month police say Karun moved out of that apartment in Derby. The new tenant – a 23-year-old woman – was awoken the night she moved in to find a man inside her apartment standing over her. The woman had deadbolted and locked her door and even placed a chair against the doorknob but investigators say that Karun still had his key to the apartment and used it to gain entry.
According to investigators Karun placed a knee on the victim’s throat, tied her hands behind her back using shoelaces, put a pillowcase over her head and a gag in her mouth, took off her clothing, tied a ligature (either a rope or cord) around her neck and sexually assaulted her.
The case went unsolved for a decade until police say that DNA testing positively identified Karun as the woman’s attacker.
That same month Karun allegedly held another woman at knifepoint during the early morning hours after picking her up in his vehicle while she was walking in Norwalk. On Interstate 95 the woman was able to steer his vehicle onto a grassy median along the highway near a rest stop in Fairfield and get help according to court documents.
Then in June of 1988 Karun allegedly parked his girlfriend’s vehicle in the driveway of a home in New Caanan, hid in a crouching position and then grabbed a 41-year-old female walking down the street by her neck and attempted to force her into the vehicle at knifepoint. Two bystanders walking in the area interrupted Karun and he drove off from the scene say police.
While reviewing these past cases Weisgerber noticed a number of similarities with the kidnapping and murder of Flynn. Kathleen like the other victims had her clothing removed, including her sneakers, socks, jeans and underwear. Ligatures had also been used and her hands had been tied together at the wrist – similar to what had occurred in some of the other crimes police believe Karun had committed.
Kathleen’s missing clothing and the absence of ligatures at the scene led police to theorize that her killer had taken them as “trophies” or reminders of his crime.
In June of 2019 investigators were able to obtain a warrant to search Karun’s home in Stetson, Maine. Detectives were looking for any ligatures, Kathleen’s gold heart shaped earrings, underwear, bra or newspapers clippings related to the murder that Karun might have saved.
Believing they had enough evidence to arrest Karun for Flynn’s murder he was taken into custody by Norwalk Police on June 14 of 2019 and charged with murder and kidnapping in the first degree. He has pled not guilty and is being held on $5 million bond.
Karun’s attorneys have tried to dismiss the DNA evidence that has been collected linking Karun to the crime.
“[T]aken as a whole, the forensic evidence suggests that the relevant DNA comparisons are inconclusive,” Karun’s attorney’s argued in a recent court filing.
Their attempt to exclude the evidence was turned down by a judge.
Sources:
United States v. Marc J. Karun Opinion January 21, 2021 U.S. District Court
In April 1988 Karun was accused of inviting a 16-year-old girl to his apartment in Derby to play cards. When she arrived, the teenager – who thought another woman would be at the apartment – realized they were alone.
According to investigators Karun then grabbed the victim, placed her in a chokehold, tied her hands behind her back, tied her arms and feet, put a blindfold over her eyes, removed her clothing and then sexually assaulted her.
The following month police say Karun moved out of that apartment in Derby. The new tenant – a 23-year-old woman – was awoken the night she moved in to find a man inside her apartment standing over her. The woman had deadbolted and locked her door and even placed a chair against the doorknob but investigators say that Karun still had his key to the apartment and used it to gain entry.
According to investigators Karun placed a knee on the victim’s throat, tied her hands behind her back using shoelaces, put a pillowcase over her head and a gag in her mouth, took off her clothing, tied a ligature (either a rope or cord) around her neck and sexually assaulted her.
The case went unsolved for a decade until police say that DNA testing positively identified Karun as the woman’s attacker.
That same month Karun allegedly held another woman at knifepoint during the early morning hours after picking her up in his vehicle while she was walking in Norwalk. On Interstate 95 the woman was able to steer his vehicle onto a grassy median along the highway near a rest stop in Fairfield and get help according to court documents.
Then in June of 1988 Karun allegedly parked his girlfriend’s vehicle in the driveway of a home in New Caanan, hid in a crouching position and then grabbed a 41-year-old female walking down the street by her neck and attempted to force her into the vehicle at knifepoint. Two bystanders walking in the area interrupted Karun and he drove off from the scene say police.
While reviewing these past cases Weisgerber noticed a number of similarities with the kidnapping and murder of Flynn. Kathleen like the other victims had her clothing removed, including her sneakers, socks, jeans and underwear. Ligatures had also been used and her hands had been tied together at the wrist – similar to what had occurred in some of the other crimes police believe Karun had committed.
Kathleen’s missing clothing and the absence of ligatures at the scene led police to theorize that her killer had taken them as “trophies” or reminders of his crime.
In June of 2019 investigators were able to obtain a warrant to search Karun’s home in Stetson, Maine. Detectives were looking for any ligatures, Kathleen’s gold heart shaped earrings, underwear, bra or newspapers clippings related to the murder that Karun might have saved.
Believing they had enough evidence to arrest Karun for Flynn’s murder he was taken into custody by Norwalk Police on June 14 of 2019 and charged with murder and kidnapping in the first degree. He has pled not guilty and is being held on $5 million bond.
Karun’s attorneys have tried to dismiss the DNA evidence that has been collected linking Karun to the crime.
“[T]aken as a whole, the forensic evidence suggests that the relevant DNA comparisons are inconclusive,” Karun’s attorney’s argued in a recent court filing.
Their attempt to exclude the evidence was turned down by a judge.
Sources:
United States v. Marc J. Karun Opinion January 21, 2021 U.S. District Court
A Killer's COnfession
New Details Emerge Potentially Supporting Child Killer Charles E. Pierce's Confession to Murdering Jancie Pockett
By Shawn R. Dagle
Along a rural stretch of roadway in northwestern Massachusetts in the autumn of 1969 a motorist stops to let a group of pheasants pass in front of their vehicle. In a culvert behind a small stone wall lay the strangled, beaten body of a 13-year-old girl. Her clothes are in disarray, some items are missing and a large field stone has been placed on top of her head. She has been sexually molested, beat and strangled. A decade after the discovery of her body convicted child molester and carnival worker Charles E. Pierce will be arrested and convicted of Michelle Wilson's murder after he confesses to the crime. Pierce tells police that he has murdered as many as 22 children over a criminal career spanning more than two decades including seven-year-old Janice Pockett who went missing near her home in Tolland, Connecticut in the summer of 1973. Police however are never able to conclusively prove that Pierce was involved in Janice's disappearance. We will take a deeper look at Pierce, his confession and the details of another murdered teenager that could potentially provide credence to Pierce's claims. Did Pierce abduct and murder Janice Pockett?
Along a rural stretch of roadway in northwestern Massachusetts in the autumn of 1969 a motorist stops to let a group of pheasants pass in front of their vehicle. In a culvert behind a small stone wall lay the strangled, beaten body of a 13-year-old girl. Her clothes are in disarray, some items are missing and a large field stone has been placed on top of her head. She has been sexually molested, beat and strangled. A decade after the discovery of her body convicted child molester and carnival worker Charles E. Pierce will be arrested and convicted of Michelle Wilson's murder after he confesses to the crime. Pierce tells police that he has murdered as many as 22 children over a criminal career spanning more than two decades including seven-year-old Janice Pockett who went missing near her home in Tolland, Connecticut in the summer of 1973. Police however are never able to conclusively prove that Pierce was involved in Janice's disappearance. We will take a deeper look at Pierce, his confession and the details of another murdered teenager that could potentially provide credence to Pierce's claims. Did Pierce abduct and murder Janice Pockett?
Janice (right) and her sister Mary
13-year-old Michelle Wilson had only lived in Boxford for six weeks when she hopped on her blue bicycle and rode home from a friend's house after finishing a school project the afternoon of November 22, 1969 .
Michelle's father Donald had recently moved the family from Brunswick, Maine to take a job at a Wakefield plastics firm and despite being shy Michelle - who loved school and skiing - had been able to make friends.
Bundled up in a blue ski jacket, green sweater, white knit hat, matching gloves and pair of brown corduroy pants night was closing in and Michelle (who was afraid of the dark) was joined by her friend as she rode home that evening.
At approximately 4:30 p.m. - only part of the way home - Michelle's friend said goodbye and watched as Michelle pedaled off. She was never seen alive again.
Hours later a motorist discovered Michelle's body in a culvert behind a small stone wall not far from Baldpate Road.
In the preceding hours hundreds of police officers and volunteers had scoured the woods near Michelle Wilson’s home looking for any trace of the missing teenager after her parents had reported her missing.
A Coast Guard helicopter and blood hounds had helped in the search but still Michelle had remained missing until the motorist’s gruesome discovery.
When police arrived near the stone wall they found Michelle, her clothes in disarray. Some articles of clothing had been taken off her body and a large field stone had been placed atop her head. She had been sexually molested, beat, strangled and died of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma. Blood covered rocks were found nearby as well as some of her clothing. Her hat and mittens were missing.
Judging by the size of the rock left on her head investigators theorized that whoever had murdered Michelle must have been strong. Two men were needed to lift the heavy rock from off her body.
Michelle’s bike was discovered just 150 yards from her home. It was from here that Michelle was snatched, brought three miles away to the small, stone wall and murdered.
Police were able to lift fingerprints off Michelle’s bike but had few other clues. Eventually her murder went cold. Then – nearly ten years later and thousands of miles away – a convicted felon and carnival worker was arrested in Florida on charges of indecent assault involving teenage girls. He was convicted and sent to a state hospital where he confessed to murdering Michelle.
Tall, muscular - 200 pounds, with a gruff voice and a permanent grimace etched across his unforgiving face - Charles Pierce’s rap sheep was extensive. First arrested in 1939, as early as the age of 18, Pierce was doing time in a South Bridgewater Prison Farm in the State of Massachusetts.
In 1943 he enlisted in the Army and eventually returned to his hometown of Haverhill where he had been raised by his father Harland (a box maker) and mother Corrine. There Pierce worked at Chris’ Seafood restaurant and at a Woolworths store in nearby Lawrence. He also worked at the Topsfield Fair.
Over the next two decades Pierce would also travel across the country as a carnival worker helping to set up rides and amusements. During his travels Pierce accumulated arrests in seven states for a variety of crimes including child molestation, fraud and larceny.
Following his confession Pierce was arrested and charged with Michelle’s murder. He admitted to forcing her into his car, grabbing her around the neck and dropping a large field stone from a nearby wall onto her head.
Pierce later attempted to retract his confession – claiming he had learned the details of her murder from the newspapers. Investigators however claimed that Pierce had led them to the scene.
Despite his attempts to abandon his confession Pierce ultimately pled guilty to Wilson’s murder and was sentenced to life behind bars.
While interviewing Pierce about her murder investigators in Massachusetts became unnerved by his description of the crime. While Pierce could provide many specific details regarding how he killed Michelle he was fuzzy on others including her clothing. Investigators were left with the unsettling impression that Pierce might be confusing details from Michelle’s death with other murders. They suspected he might be involved in other crimes.
One crime in particular bore an eerie resemblance to Wilson’s abduction and murder. Seven-year-old Janice Pockett of Tolland – blonde haired and blue eyed like Michelle – had gone missing while riding her bike.
On July 26, 1973 Janice had left her home to retrieve a butterfly she had left under a rock. Janice’s bike was discovered by her mother and sister who had gone looking for her when she did not return home. It had been left by the dirt road where she had went to get the butterfly. Despite an exhaustive search no trace of Janice has ever been found.
Pierce eventually confessed to murdering Janice. Investigators took his claims seriously. In 1980 the convicted murderer was brought to Tolland where police used a backhoe and a small bulldozer to remove thousands of feet of soil searching for Janice’s remains in the woods near her home based on Pierce’s confession. The search however came up empty.
From 1954 to 1978 Pierce would claim to have murdered anywhere between 15 to 22 children. His confessions however were sometimes confused, muddled and contradictory. At one point it appears Pierce told police that he had buried Janice near her home but later would claim she was in a field in Massachusetts near another teenager he had killed around the same time.
Pierce told investigators that he had abducted and murdered an 11 or 12 year boy in Lawrence, Massachusetts around the time of Janice’s disappearance. He couldn’t name the boy but claimed that he had Janice’s body inside his vehicle at the time the boy was murdered. Pierce confessed to having sex with their dead bodies before burying them 30 feet apart in graves two feet deep using a spade that he kept in his van.
Some aspects of Pierce’s confession however didn’t add up. He recalled sites in Lawrence at the time – including the Strand Theatre – that police learned had been closed decades before Janice’s death. Then nearly as suddenly as he had made it, Pierce recanted his confession.
Michelle's father Donald had recently moved the family from Brunswick, Maine to take a job at a Wakefield plastics firm and despite being shy Michelle - who loved school and skiing - had been able to make friends.
Bundled up in a blue ski jacket, green sweater, white knit hat, matching gloves and pair of brown corduroy pants night was closing in and Michelle (who was afraid of the dark) was joined by her friend as she rode home that evening.
At approximately 4:30 p.m. - only part of the way home - Michelle's friend said goodbye and watched as Michelle pedaled off. She was never seen alive again.
Hours later a motorist discovered Michelle's body in a culvert behind a small stone wall not far from Baldpate Road.
In the preceding hours hundreds of police officers and volunteers had scoured the woods near Michelle Wilson’s home looking for any trace of the missing teenager after her parents had reported her missing.
A Coast Guard helicopter and blood hounds had helped in the search but still Michelle had remained missing until the motorist’s gruesome discovery.
When police arrived near the stone wall they found Michelle, her clothes in disarray. Some articles of clothing had been taken off her body and a large field stone had been placed atop her head. She had been sexually molested, beat, strangled and died of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma. Blood covered rocks were found nearby as well as some of her clothing. Her hat and mittens were missing.
Judging by the size of the rock left on her head investigators theorized that whoever had murdered Michelle must have been strong. Two men were needed to lift the heavy rock from off her body.
Michelle’s bike was discovered just 150 yards from her home. It was from here that Michelle was snatched, brought three miles away to the small, stone wall and murdered.
Police were able to lift fingerprints off Michelle’s bike but had few other clues. Eventually her murder went cold. Then – nearly ten years later and thousands of miles away – a convicted felon and carnival worker was arrested in Florida on charges of indecent assault involving teenage girls. He was convicted and sent to a state hospital where he confessed to murdering Michelle.
Tall, muscular - 200 pounds, with a gruff voice and a permanent grimace etched across his unforgiving face - Charles Pierce’s rap sheep was extensive. First arrested in 1939, as early as the age of 18, Pierce was doing time in a South Bridgewater Prison Farm in the State of Massachusetts.
In 1943 he enlisted in the Army and eventually returned to his hometown of Haverhill where he had been raised by his father Harland (a box maker) and mother Corrine. There Pierce worked at Chris’ Seafood restaurant and at a Woolworths store in nearby Lawrence. He also worked at the Topsfield Fair.
Over the next two decades Pierce would also travel across the country as a carnival worker helping to set up rides and amusements. During his travels Pierce accumulated arrests in seven states for a variety of crimes including child molestation, fraud and larceny.
Following his confession Pierce was arrested and charged with Michelle’s murder. He admitted to forcing her into his car, grabbing her around the neck and dropping a large field stone from a nearby wall onto her head.
Pierce later attempted to retract his confession – claiming he had learned the details of her murder from the newspapers. Investigators however claimed that Pierce had led them to the scene.
Despite his attempts to abandon his confession Pierce ultimately pled guilty to Wilson’s murder and was sentenced to life behind bars.
While interviewing Pierce about her murder investigators in Massachusetts became unnerved by his description of the crime. While Pierce could provide many specific details regarding how he killed Michelle he was fuzzy on others including her clothing. Investigators were left with the unsettling impression that Pierce might be confusing details from Michelle’s death with other murders. They suspected he might be involved in other crimes.
One crime in particular bore an eerie resemblance to Wilson’s abduction and murder. Seven-year-old Janice Pockett of Tolland – blonde haired and blue eyed like Michelle – had gone missing while riding her bike.
On July 26, 1973 Janice had left her home to retrieve a butterfly she had left under a rock. Janice’s bike was discovered by her mother and sister who had gone looking for her when she did not return home. It had been left by the dirt road where she had went to get the butterfly. Despite an exhaustive search no trace of Janice has ever been found.
Pierce eventually confessed to murdering Janice. Investigators took his claims seriously. In 1980 the convicted murderer was brought to Tolland where police used a backhoe and a small bulldozer to remove thousands of feet of soil searching for Janice’s remains in the woods near her home based on Pierce’s confession. The search however came up empty.
From 1954 to 1978 Pierce would claim to have murdered anywhere between 15 to 22 children. His confessions however were sometimes confused, muddled and contradictory. At one point it appears Pierce told police that he had buried Janice near her home but later would claim she was in a field in Massachusetts near another teenager he had killed around the same time.
Pierce told investigators that he had abducted and murdered an 11 or 12 year boy in Lawrence, Massachusetts around the time of Janice’s disappearance. He couldn’t name the boy but claimed that he had Janice’s body inside his vehicle at the time the boy was murdered. Pierce confessed to having sex with their dead bodies before burying them 30 feet apart in graves two feet deep using a spade that he kept in his van.
Some aspects of Pierce’s confession however didn’t add up. He recalled sites in Lawrence at the time – including the Strand Theatre – that police learned had been closed decades before Janice’s death. Then nearly as suddenly as he had made it, Pierce recanted his confession.
Janice's Bike by the Roadside
Investigators never entirely gave up on Pierce. Still they had a difficult time proving his involvement in Janice’s murder. According to police they were never able to find a missing persons case involving a boy from Lawrence around the time of Janice’s disappearance. It appeared as if Pierce was playing a cruel game with investigators. Then in February of 1999 Pierce died. He was never charged in Janice’s disappearance.
Investigators had other cases they suspected Pierce may have been involved in. A year prior to Janice’s abduction a young Chicago boy was taken from a carnival, strangled and left in a nature preserve. Pierce also confessed to this crime.
On June 20, 1972 10-year-old William “Billy” DeSousa went missing after leaving home with one dollar in his pocket to watch workers setting up a carnival at 79th Street and Cicero Avenue in southwest Chicago.
Dressed in an orange striped t-shirt reading “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”, blue pants and red, white and blue canvas tennis shoes Billy was last seen at the carnival at 4:30 p.m. (the exact time of Wilson disappearance).
Billy’s father Donald – a plumber at the Conrad Hilton Hotel – was supposed to give his son (who played in the Scottsdale Little League) a gift when he got home. Donald DeSousa however never got a chance to give Danny the Little League batting game he had gotten him.
Chicago police searched seven days for DeSousa and chased down 200 leads. Trailers were searched, trash cans were overturned and rides double checked but there was no sign of the missing boy.
A student at St. Bede Elementary School Billy’s home life was stable. His mother was devoutly religious and his father was so distraught by his son’s disappearance he needed medical attention.
Police and the parents received crank calls regarding Billy’s disappearance. Tracking dogs had been called in but couldn’t follow Billy’s trail, helicopters were flown overhead and police interviewed carnival workers to see where he might have gone yet it would be another two years before Billy was discovered.
In early February of 1975 – in the Swallow Cliff Forest Preserve in Palos Township – a father and son on a hike discovered the skeleton of a young boy in a densely wooded area of the forest. Close by police found bits of clothing and tennis shoes which matched the type worn by Billy the afternoon of his disappearance. They also discovered a dollar in change and a rusty key that belonged to a chain lock on his bicycle.
The identification of the remains were confirmed as belonging to Billy through dental records.
There were no bullet wounds or apparent marks indicating violence on his skeleton or skull when they were found. Investigators theorized he had been strangled. His remains had been placed on the ground and not buried.
Within days of Billy’s disappearance in June of 1972, there had been a report of a boy matching his description riding his bike in the same preserve. The area was searched at the time but nothing was uncovered.
Following Pierce’s confession in Janice Pockett’s abduction, Pierce also confessed to having murdered Billy. According to police Pierce correctly identified the carnival site and even named one of the owners. Police told reporters that Pierce was able to provide investigators with information only Billy’s killer would have known. He even admitted that at the time of Billy’s disappearance he had been questioned by police in Chicago but told them he had no knowledge of the boy’s whereabouts and was released.
While no specific details of Pierce’s other confessed crimes have ever been made public he did claim to have begun murdering children in 1954 and there is one case of a murdered boy in Maine that could collaborate Pierce’s claim to having begun his murderous two decade long crime spree that year.
In June of 1954 a 12-year-old boy was fished out of the Androscoggin River in Maine. His skull had been smashed and his lifeless body thrown into the water.
Days earlier, on June 22, Danny Wood had left his home in Gray with a fishing pole and fifteen cents in his pocket. Ten minutes later – at around noon – he called his mother from a store in the village to tell her he was bound for Lewiston to do some work for a door to door salesman. Danny’s mother warned him about leaving with a stranger. “Oh I’ll be back tonight” Danny told her and hung up the phone.
Around this same time a friend from school saw Wood in a maroon sedan with yellow license plates (the color of plates from Canada). Inside the vehicle was an older man with white hair and a dark complexion. Also in the car were a woman and two kids. The man was looking at a map, started the engine and then drove down the road toward Sebago Lake. Wood didn’t appear to be in any kind of distress and reportedly shouted hello out the car window at his friend as they passed. The girl believed the car was a 1930s era Ford. Wood was never seen alive again.
Nine days later Wood’s lifeless body was discovered in the river by two fishermen. His wrists had been bound with shoelace and he had seven fractures to his skull.
Week’s after Danny’s disappearance his clothing was found off a lover’s lane in Auburn. His jeans and t-shirt had been hidden beneath a pile of rocks with a twig poking out to mark the spot. His glasses and belt had been tossed into a nearby tree. His shoes, underwear and his fishing pole were never found. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on his body said Danny had fallen victim to a “sex maniac.” No arrests were ever made in his murder.
Decades later however an interesting story appeared in the Portland Press Herald. The story – published in 2003 – claimed that “police had tracked down a man who had served time in prison for sexually assaulting boys and had joined a carnival that had been in Portland when the boy disappeared.” The unnamed suspect tracked down years before sounded remarkably similar to Pierce who had connections to the area.
Pierce’s mother Corrine had been born and grew up in Auburn, Maine (the same town where Danny’s clothing had been discovered).
There were also other similarities between Danny’s murder and Pierce’s known or confessed crimes including the use of rocks (both at Danny’s and Michelle Wilson’s murders), the use of a stick to mark the location where Danny’s clothing was left (Pierce claimed to have left pieces of coal where he left Janice and the unknown boy in Massachusetts to mark the area where he left their bodies) and the taking of articles of clothing from the victims and the scene (Danny’s underwear and shoes were missing while Michelle Wilson’s hat and mittens were taken by Pierce). Danny and DeSousa also both went missing in June.
There also was Pierce’s confession in Janice’s abduction. He claimed the boy he had abducted and murdered shortly after Janice’s disappearance had wanted to go fishing. Danny had his fishing pole and was going to the river to fish the day of his murder. Pierce had also provided authorities in Massachusetts with memories of buildings in Lawrence that were only still around in the ‘50s when confessing to the boy and Janice’s murders. Could Pierce have been he confusing details of the boy’s murder in Lawrence in the early ‘70s with the murder of Danny Wood in Maine in 1954?
If a boy was indeed murdered by Pierce in Lawrence sometime in 1973 why have police never been able to locate an unsolved missing persons case matching Pierce’s description of the victim from that time period?
In the weeks following Janice’s disappearance in July of 1973, a teenager did indeed go missing just not from Lawrence, rather from Boston.
Composite of Man Police Wanted to Speak to in Pockett Case
On the morning of August 23, 1973 15-year-old James Teta left his home on Suffolk Avenue in Revere, Massachusetts to visit Boston. Teta’s family had recently moved from the city to Revere, where Teta had a gotten job working at a local restaurant.
At 11:30 a.m. Teta left home and was last seen two hours later near Boston’s government center. Two days later his body was found just over the border with New Hampshire in the woods near a desolate stretch of roadway in Rindge. Teta was nude, strangled and left just one mile from the state line.
Teta’s abduction and murder matches Pierce’s confession in several important ways. The ages of Teta and Pierce’s victim are roughly the same. Pierce described the boy as having olive colored skin (Teta was Italian). Pierce – a necrophiliac – claimed to have already abducted and killed Janice when he abducted the boy (Janice disappeared a few weeks before Teta was murdered). Pierce also claimed to have had sex with the boy (Teta was raped) and told police the boy’s body had been recovered (Teta’s remains were found just over the New Hampshire state line).
Pierce may have simply (as some investigators theorized when confessing to Michelle's murder) confused some of the details of Teta’s murder with that of a boy he had abducted from Lawrence. Indeed there was a boy that would disappear from a Lawrence swimming pool years after Janice and Teta disappeared and were murdered.
Interestingly two days after Teta disappeared the Trinidad Carnival was held near Boston City Hall – the same area where Teta was last seen. Pierce was associated with carnival work.
Also a Massachusetts carnival company was headquartered just a 15 minutes drive from where Teta’s body was discovered over the New Hampshire state line.
A careful examination of Janice Pockett’s abduction also provides some interesting clues that might bolster Pierce’s confession.
In his recent podcast Paper Ghosts – that covered the disappearance of Janice, Lisa White and other women who were found murdered or went missing in the area of Tolland and Vernon Connecticut in 1970s – acclaimed true crime author and former host of the Investigation Discovery series Dark Minds, M. Williams Phelps, spoke with a woman who was a neighbor of the Pockett’s the day Janice disappeared.
The neighbor claimed to have seen a station wagon blocking the road near where Janice disappeared around the time she left to retrieve the butterfly. The woman said a man near the station wagon appeared to be looking for something in the nearby woods. He was walking slow and was tall – between six foot and six feet two. According to Phelps he showed the neighbor a picture of Pierce but she did not believe he was the man she had seen.
It is important to note the neighbor was shown a photograph of Pierce more than four decades after she saw the man near the station wagon. The photograph also was most likely that of Pierce taken as he was arrested in the Michelle Wilson murder – at least some six years after Janice’s abduction.
Taken at face value the neighbor’s description of the man she saw near the station wagon that afternoon is in many ways eerily similar to what we know about Pierce.
Like the man near the station wagon Pierce was tall – approximately six feet, four inches. The neighbor described the man as walking slowly. Pierce suffered from arthritis in his back and shuffled when he walked according to a newspaper report from around the time of his arrest for the Wilson murder.
Perhaps most tellingly a newspaper report published around that same time claimed that Pierce was said to have driven a station wagon – its back windows blacked out.
There also are striking similarities between Pierce’s known victim (Michelle Wilson) and Janice Pockett’s abduction. Both girls were blonde haired and blue eyed. Both were snatched from their bicycles. Both disappeared around the same time in the afternoon. Both were taken from rural or semi-rural roadways. Janice was abducted near a small stone wall. Wilson’s body was found in a culvert beside a similar stone wall in Boxford.
Phelps’ podcast – a must listen if you haven’t already heard it – also included an interview with a former investigator who detailed phone calls the Pockett family had received claiming that if the family offered a reward they might get their daughter back. According to the police officer the calls were made from a phone booth near the Tolland jail and the caller had a gravely, distinct voice.
While to my knowledge there are no publicly available recordings of Pierce’s voice we do know that he was suffering from tuberculosis. Tuberculosis of the larynx can cause a permanent, “breathy” voice. We also know that in the case of Billy DeSousa – the ten-year-old Chicago boy that Pierce confessed to killing and that investigators claim he provided them with information only the killer would know – the parents and police had also received crank phone calls.
While none of these details prove that Pierce murdered Janice Pockett they do lend some credence to his confession and perhaps warrant a closer look at the man who nonchalantly confessed to murdering nearly two dozen children over a two decade period.
Perhaps Pierce confused some of the details regarding his murders as police came to suspect. Perhaps he intentionally provided police with only some of the details of his crimes while confusing others to manipulate and keep police from concretely proving his involvement while he played a cat and mouse game with investigators.
In 1980 Connecticut State Police searched the woods near Janice’s home based on information that Pierce provided. Nothing was uncovered.
Has a thorough search however ever been conducted in the area where James Teta’s body was discovered in Rindge, New Hampshire to see if Janice might have been buried or left nearby? The area still remains mostly undeveloped and wooded.
If nothing else Pierce – the only known person to confess to Janice’s murder – deserves a second look and closer scrutiny. Only time will tell if he ever conclusively can be linked to Janice’s kidnapping.
SOURCES
The Boston Globe November 13, 1979 “’69 Bike-Murder Suspect Found” Richard J. Connolly
The Boston Globe “Suspect Pleads Guilty in Bike Murder” Richard Connolly November 14, 1979
The Boston Globe November 24, 1969 Stephen Kurkjian
The Boston Globe “No Clues in Boxford Girls Slaying” John C. Burke December 14, 1969
The Boston Globe November 24, 1969 Gary Kayakachoian
The Boston Globe November 26, 1969 “It was Brief Funeral for Boxford Girl” Frank Donovan
The Boston Globe “Boxford Girl’s Killer Reported Admitting Slaying in Chicago” John E. Young
The Portsmouth Herald “Man Found Strangled in Rindge” AP August 27, 1973
Nashua Telegraph “Bay State Youth Is Rindge Victim” August 31, 1973
The Boston Globe “Calendar of Events”
doj.nh.gov. New Hampshire Dept. of Justice
Fitchburg Sentinel July 6, 1966
Nashua Telegraph August 31, 1973 “Bay State Youth Is Rindge Victim” AP no byline
The Brattleboro Reformer “Help Offered in N.H. Murder Probe” UPI August 31, 1973
Suburbanite Economist Chicago June 25, 1972 caption
Suburbanite Economist “June 28 1972
Suburbanite Economist August 6, 1972
The Chicago Tribune “Police Press Hunt for Missing Boy 10” Philip Wattley
Chicago Tribune “Boy 10 Hunted on W. Side” no byline
Chicago Tribune June 23, 1972 “Hundreds Hunt For Missing Boy 10”
The Wheeling Herald February 4, 1975 “Remains of Boy Missing Three Years Found” no byline
Chicago Tribune, “Tragic Ending to Search” February 4 1975 Philip Wattley
“Hundreds Join Hunt for Missing Boy, 10” Chicago Tribune June 23, 1972
Chicago Tribune “Suspect Found in Boy’s Killing” John O’Brien, October 19, 1980
The Boston Globe “Suspect Pleads Guilty in Bike Murder” Richard Connolly November 14, 1979
The Boston Globe “Boxford Girl’s Killer Reported Admitting Slaying in Chicago” John E. Young
nch.nlm.nih.gov “Effect of Laryngeal Tuberculosis on Vocal Chord Function” E. Ozudogru
1930 census
1940 Census
United States WWII Army Enlistment Records
Family search marriage record
The Bangor Daily News August 17, 1954
Bangor Daily News August 5 1954 “Danny Wood Buried As Search Goes On for Killer” AP
The Bangor Daily News August 16, 1954
The Bangor Daily News August 2, 1954 “Clothing Clues Sought” AP
The Bangor Daily News “Automobile Key May Be Link to Danny’s Murder” no byline
The Bangor Daily News July 27, 1954 “Girl Chum Saw Missing Boy in Auto” AP July 27, 1954
The Boston Globe “Youngester Found With Head Battered” Richard Oransky Augsut 1, 1954
Boston Globe “Old Car Sought in Main Slaying of Danny Wood” August 7, 1954
murderpedia.org
Portland Press Herald “Clue Surfaces in Boy’s 1953 Murder” April 7, 2003
Boston Globe “A Killer Confesses” Judith Gaines July 9, 1999
capecodtimes.com “Killer’s Confession Baffles Police” AP March 3, 1999
Hartford Courant “Convicted Murderer of Girl Is Linked to 15 Slayings” Manira Wilson March 26, 1981
The Boston Globe “His Claim Reopens Search For Girl” John E. Yang August 16, 1980
Manchester Evening Herald “Kidnap Considered in Pocket Case” August 1, 1973 Vivian Kenneson
At 11:30 a.m. Teta left home and was last seen two hours later near Boston’s government center. Two days later his body was found just over the border with New Hampshire in the woods near a desolate stretch of roadway in Rindge. Teta was nude, strangled and left just one mile from the state line.
Teta’s abduction and murder matches Pierce’s confession in several important ways. The ages of Teta and Pierce’s victim are roughly the same. Pierce described the boy as having olive colored skin (Teta was Italian). Pierce – a necrophiliac – claimed to have already abducted and killed Janice when he abducted the boy (Janice disappeared a few weeks before Teta was murdered). Pierce also claimed to have had sex with the boy (Teta was raped) and told police the boy’s body had been recovered (Teta’s remains were found just over the New Hampshire state line).
Pierce may have simply (as some investigators theorized when confessing to Michelle's murder) confused some of the details of Teta’s murder with that of a boy he had abducted from Lawrence. Indeed there was a boy that would disappear from a Lawrence swimming pool years after Janice and Teta disappeared and were murdered.
Interestingly two days after Teta disappeared the Trinidad Carnival was held near Boston City Hall – the same area where Teta was last seen. Pierce was associated with carnival work.
Also a Massachusetts carnival company was headquartered just a 15 minutes drive from where Teta’s body was discovered over the New Hampshire state line.
A careful examination of Janice Pockett’s abduction also provides some interesting clues that might bolster Pierce’s confession.
In his recent podcast Paper Ghosts – that covered the disappearance of Janice, Lisa White and other women who were found murdered or went missing in the area of Tolland and Vernon Connecticut in 1970s – acclaimed true crime author and former host of the Investigation Discovery series Dark Minds, M. Williams Phelps, spoke with a woman who was a neighbor of the Pockett’s the day Janice disappeared.
The neighbor claimed to have seen a station wagon blocking the road near where Janice disappeared around the time she left to retrieve the butterfly. The woman said a man near the station wagon appeared to be looking for something in the nearby woods. He was walking slow and was tall – between six foot and six feet two. According to Phelps he showed the neighbor a picture of Pierce but she did not believe he was the man she had seen.
It is important to note the neighbor was shown a photograph of Pierce more than four decades after she saw the man near the station wagon. The photograph also was most likely that of Pierce taken as he was arrested in the Michelle Wilson murder – at least some six years after Janice’s abduction.
Taken at face value the neighbor’s description of the man she saw near the station wagon that afternoon is in many ways eerily similar to what we know about Pierce.
Like the man near the station wagon Pierce was tall – approximately six feet, four inches. The neighbor described the man as walking slowly. Pierce suffered from arthritis in his back and shuffled when he walked according to a newspaper report from around the time of his arrest for the Wilson murder.
Perhaps most tellingly a newspaper report published around that same time claimed that Pierce was said to have driven a station wagon – its back windows blacked out.
There also are striking similarities between Pierce’s known victim (Michelle Wilson) and Janice Pockett’s abduction. Both girls were blonde haired and blue eyed. Both were snatched from their bicycles. Both disappeared around the same time in the afternoon. Both were taken from rural or semi-rural roadways. Janice was abducted near a small stone wall. Wilson’s body was found in a culvert beside a similar stone wall in Boxford.
Phelps’ podcast – a must listen if you haven’t already heard it – also included an interview with a former investigator who detailed phone calls the Pockett family had received claiming that if the family offered a reward they might get their daughter back. According to the police officer the calls were made from a phone booth near the Tolland jail and the caller had a gravely, distinct voice.
While to my knowledge there are no publicly available recordings of Pierce’s voice we do know that he was suffering from tuberculosis. Tuberculosis of the larynx can cause a permanent, “breathy” voice. We also know that in the case of Billy DeSousa – the ten-year-old Chicago boy that Pierce confessed to killing and that investigators claim he provided them with information only the killer would know – the parents and police had also received crank phone calls.
While none of these details prove that Pierce murdered Janice Pockett they do lend some credence to his confession and perhaps warrant a closer look at the man who nonchalantly confessed to murdering nearly two dozen children over a two decade period.
Perhaps Pierce confused some of the details regarding his murders as police came to suspect. Perhaps he intentionally provided police with only some of the details of his crimes while confusing others to manipulate and keep police from concretely proving his involvement while he played a cat and mouse game with investigators.
In 1980 Connecticut State Police searched the woods near Janice’s home based on information that Pierce provided. Nothing was uncovered.
Has a thorough search however ever been conducted in the area where James Teta’s body was discovered in Rindge, New Hampshire to see if Janice might have been buried or left nearby? The area still remains mostly undeveloped and wooded.
If nothing else Pierce – the only known person to confess to Janice’s murder – deserves a second look and closer scrutiny. Only time will tell if he ever conclusively can be linked to Janice’s kidnapping.
SOURCES
The Boston Globe November 13, 1979 “’69 Bike-Murder Suspect Found” Richard J. Connolly
The Boston Globe “Suspect Pleads Guilty in Bike Murder” Richard Connolly November 14, 1979
The Boston Globe November 24, 1969 Stephen Kurkjian
The Boston Globe “No Clues in Boxford Girls Slaying” John C. Burke December 14, 1969
The Boston Globe November 24, 1969 Gary Kayakachoian
The Boston Globe November 26, 1969 “It was Brief Funeral for Boxford Girl” Frank Donovan
The Boston Globe “Boxford Girl’s Killer Reported Admitting Slaying in Chicago” John E. Young
The Portsmouth Herald “Man Found Strangled in Rindge” AP August 27, 1973
Nashua Telegraph “Bay State Youth Is Rindge Victim” August 31, 1973
The Boston Globe “Calendar of Events”
doj.nh.gov. New Hampshire Dept. of Justice
Fitchburg Sentinel July 6, 1966
Nashua Telegraph August 31, 1973 “Bay State Youth Is Rindge Victim” AP no byline
The Brattleboro Reformer “Help Offered in N.H. Murder Probe” UPI August 31, 1973
Suburbanite Economist Chicago June 25, 1972 caption
Suburbanite Economist “June 28 1972
Suburbanite Economist August 6, 1972
The Chicago Tribune “Police Press Hunt for Missing Boy 10” Philip Wattley
Chicago Tribune “Boy 10 Hunted on W. Side” no byline
Chicago Tribune June 23, 1972 “Hundreds Hunt For Missing Boy 10”
The Wheeling Herald February 4, 1975 “Remains of Boy Missing Three Years Found” no byline
Chicago Tribune, “Tragic Ending to Search” February 4 1975 Philip Wattley
“Hundreds Join Hunt for Missing Boy, 10” Chicago Tribune June 23, 1972
Chicago Tribune “Suspect Found in Boy’s Killing” John O’Brien, October 19, 1980
The Boston Globe “Suspect Pleads Guilty in Bike Murder” Richard Connolly November 14, 1979
The Boston Globe “Boxford Girl’s Killer Reported Admitting Slaying in Chicago” John E. Young
nch.nlm.nih.gov “Effect of Laryngeal Tuberculosis on Vocal Chord Function” E. Ozudogru
1930 census
1940 Census
United States WWII Army Enlistment Records
Family search marriage record
The Bangor Daily News August 17, 1954
Bangor Daily News August 5 1954 “Danny Wood Buried As Search Goes On for Killer” AP
The Bangor Daily News August 16, 1954
The Bangor Daily News August 2, 1954 “Clothing Clues Sought” AP
The Bangor Daily News “Automobile Key May Be Link to Danny’s Murder” no byline
The Bangor Daily News July 27, 1954 “Girl Chum Saw Missing Boy in Auto” AP July 27, 1954
The Boston Globe “Youngester Found With Head Battered” Richard Oransky Augsut 1, 1954
Boston Globe “Old Car Sought in Main Slaying of Danny Wood” August 7, 1954
murderpedia.org
Portland Press Herald “Clue Surfaces in Boy’s 1953 Murder” April 7, 2003
Boston Globe “A Killer Confesses” Judith Gaines July 9, 1999
capecodtimes.com “Killer’s Confession Baffles Police” AP March 3, 1999
Hartford Courant “Convicted Murderer of Girl Is Linked to 15 Slayings” Manira Wilson March 26, 1981
The Boston Globe “His Claim Reopens Search For Girl” John E. Yang August 16, 1980
Manchester Evening Herald “Kidnap Considered in Pocket Case” August 1, 1973 Vivian Kenneson
Shot by the Roadside
Vermont Murder Victim Visited Connecticut Shortly Before his Death
By Shawn R. Dagle
Interstate 93. Salem, New Hampshire. Summer 1969. Workers find the partially decomposed body of a man in his thirties, dressed in a tan shirt, bluish green slacks and black shoes floating in a small watery pit beside the roadway. The man has no identification and police are unable to match his fingerprints. For more than 50 years the identity of the victim remains unknown. Then New Hampshire’s cold case unit takes a fresh look at the case. A new search of fingerprint records reveals a match. The victim is 30 year old Vermont resident Winston Richard Morris. Police track his last known whereabouts. Less than a month before his death Morris made a trip to Glastonbury, Connecticut. Could Morris' trip to Glastonbury in July of 1969 be the key to solving his murder?
Interstate 93. Salem, New Hampshire. Summer 1969. Workers find the partially decomposed body of a man in his thirties, dressed in a tan shirt, bluish green slacks and black shoes floating in a small watery pit beside the roadway. The man has no identification and police are unable to match his fingerprints. For more than 50 years the identity of the victim remains unknown. Then New Hampshire’s cold case unit takes a fresh look at the case. A new search of fingerprint records reveals a match. The victim is 30 year old Vermont resident Winston Richard Morris. Police track his last known whereabouts. Less than a month before his death Morris made a trip to Glastonbury, Connecticut. Could Morris' trip to Glastonbury in July of 1969 be the key to solving his murder?
Winston Morris in 1962
Pine Grove Cemetery. New Hampshire. The remains of an unidentified murder victim are exhumed. After decades of investigation and few leads New Hampshire’s Cold Case Unit has decided to take a new look at the man's unsolved murder. At his autopsy investigators learn the man has been shot several times in his head and torso with one bullet entering his jaw and traveling through his body to his rib cage.
While an initial search of fingerprint records conducted at the time of the man’s death in the summer of 1969 turn up no matches the cold case unit decides to search once again. To their surprise they discover a match. Their unidentified victim is a 30-year-old missing Barre, Vermont man – Winston Richard Morris.
On August 7, 1969 Morris was found floating in a small, watery pit by the side of Interstate 93 in Salem, New Hampshire. He had been shot several times and his body was badly decomposed. Morris had no personal effects and investigators could not match his fingerprints. Unable to determine his identity Morris' remains were interred in Pine Grove Cemetery where they would remain for decades.
With the 50th anniversary of his murder approaching, in June of 2019 New Hampshire’s Cold Case Unit decided to renew their efforts to solve his case. Morris' body was exhumed and DNA was obtained. Using his skull police attempted to do a facial reconstruction which they subsequently released to the media.
Despite their efforts police were not able to make a DNA match and the facial reconstruction did not result in an identification.
Investigators however had better luck with the victim’s fingerprints. A search of an FBI database in July 2019 came up with a hit.
Now that police knew the identity of their victim they reached out to Morris' family and attempted to piece together the story of his final months.
An Air Force veteran and lifelong resident of Vermont Morris was an avid hunter and fisherman and had at least one child with his wife Marilyn.
In early May of 1969 Morris was released from prison. That June he spent time in Boston and in July traveled to Glastonbury. Later that month he returned to Vermont where he was last seen in Burlington on July 25.
Morris' would be the first four murders involving men found shot to death along or near stretches of New Hampshire roadway over the next 15 years.
All the murders had one particular connection.
In the early morning of June 14, 1974, 44-year-old Domingo Valdes is found shot to death beneath overhead power lines off Gage Hill Road in Pelham, New Hampshire. He has been shot numerous times including in his chest and leg with .22 caliber ammunition. His body has been left in plain view just two football fields from the nearest home and a nearby substation.
None of the neighbors heard anything suspicious the previous night or early morning and police believe Valdes was killed elsewhere and dumped beneath the power lines.
Investigators from Lowell, Pelham and Manchester State Police take part in the case. Police discover days before his death Valdes went to Lowell Hospital after being shot in the hand. Valdes told police he shot himself by accident.
That same day Valdes and his wife had been arrested in connection to a “brawl” according to reports.
Valdes' case eventually goes cold.
Five years later in May of 1979 a 39-year-old Guilford, Connecticut man is found shot to death on Brewer Road in Kensington, New Hampshire.
Joseph Furando was on a business trip to New Hampshire and had a reservation for a Holiday Inn in Portsmouth at the time of his death. He is found lying approximately 20 feet from his vehicle with a gunshot wound to his head. He was last seen in Newton, MA.
Five years later in the summer of 1984 Brian Watson of South Boston goes missing. On September 16 his decomposed remains are found along the southbound side of I-93 on the Manchester and Londonderry town line in New Hampshire. He has been shot to death.
All four shootings remain unsolved. They also have one interesting connection. Morris, Watson, Furando and Valdes all visited or were from Boston or its surrounding suburbs just prior to their deaths.
Two months before his murder Morris visited Boston, Furando was last seen in Newton, Massachusetts the day before he was found dead, Watson was from South Boston and Valdes was from Billerica.
Despite these interesting similarities in all four cases it does not appear that police have ever been able to connect their murders.
The investigation into all four deaths remain open.
