My theory about a potential serial killer in New England

The armchair detective podcast

Today I’ll be discussing a theory that I’m working on. It involves unsolved murders and missing persons around the I-91 and I-93 and I-95 in New England. Now keep in mind this is simply a theory I have and should be taken as such.

What led me to research this phenomenon was the disappearance of U-Mass Amherst nursing student Maura Murray back on February 9th 2004. There have been some thoughts that her disappearance may have been the result of a serial killer and I wanted to look at other disappearances or unsolved cases which had similar circumstances.

This led me into the state of Maine and the unsolved murder of Pamela Webb. She was a 32 year old woman from Winthrop Maine and was reported missing on July 1st 1989. Pamela Webb was on her way to see her boyfriend in Mason NH when she disappeared. Her 1981 blue Chevrolet pick-up was located on the road in a southbound lane on I-95 in. There were signs of a struggle near the truck and also signs that her vehicle had problems since one tire was flat and a replacement tire was next to it. Her body was later found in the woods off route 3 in Franconia NH.

Now Franconia is located about 100 miles and about 2 hours and 20 minute drive from where her vehicle was located. So I asked myself, why on earth would someone abduct someone then drive 100 miles to dump her body. That’s when I was reminded of the Green River Killer. Gary Ridgeway is one if not the most prolific serial killers in US history. Ridgeway was a truck driver for the Kenworth Truck factory. What he would do is pray on vulnerable women, kill them and then dump their bodies along his truck route. He would also dump the bodies across different state lines to throw police off (especially if law enforcement looked for the missing woman where she was last seen)…. Ridgeway would also have mass dump sites for his victims and was known to return to the scenes sometimes moving bodies.

The person who picked up Pamela Webb drove past two state lines (Massachusetts and New Hampshire) then dumped her body near Franconia Notch.

Jessica Briggs, 16 was found Portland waterfront in 1989. She had been stabbed to death. I’m not sure if this case is related, however it has been speculated that it may be tied to the Connecticut river killer. Note that there was an arrest in this case. Anthony Sanborn was arrested but his sentence was overturned when it was revealed that the only eyewitness to Jessica’s murder, Hope Cady, was found to have very poor eyesight and as such her testimony was unreliable. She later admitted that she had been cohersed by Portland police to implicate Sanborn. The location of Jessica’s body is only 18 and a half miles to the location of Pamela Webb’s vehicle.

Laura Kempton was found on Sept 28, 1981 in her apartment. It was apparent that she had been beaten to death. She was a 23 year old student at the Portsmouth beauty school in Portsmouth NH which is just off the I-95.

Tammy Little was found in a similar fashion as Laura. She was in her apartment and had also been beaten to death. Like Laura she was a student at the Portsmouth Beauty school in Portsmouth NH which is again off the I-95 and located about 36 miles or a 40 minute drive from where Pamela Webb’s vehicle was located. Keep in mind, Pamela’s abductor would have needed to drive past Portsmouth NH in order to get to Franconia where her body was dumped.

Jaclynne Snyder, 22 had been visiting Pourtsmouth NH when she went missing on September 4, 1977. Her body was found on Route 155 in Lee, NH on On September 14, 1977. Her cause of death is undetermined due to decomposition.

Stella Bolton and James Moore 68 were both stabbed to death before their house was set on fire in Portsmouth NH on February 16th 1991.

Now if you go up from Portsmouth NH up to the NH-16 you find more victims. Maurice and Ellen Wilkinson, a couple in their 40’s was found in Center Ossipee, NH on August 16, 1974. Now keep in mind, Ossipee NH is only 53 miles from Portsmouth NH. Also keep in mind, it’s only 30 miles away from Conway NH at which point it joins with 302, the same road traveled by Pamela Webb’s killer.

Paul Olsen was found was found wrapped in blankets, laying in a stream near Route 113 in Madison, NH. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was due to asphyxia from obstruction of the mouth and nose. Now I don’t believe that this is related (assuming any of these are related). He was found in a secluded area unlike the others which were found on or just off main roads.

Shari Lynn Roth was found on August 21st 1977, she was 22 when she was found murdered near Sawyer Pond off Route 302 in Bartlett State Park, NH, located in the White Mountain National Park region. In my opinion there are similarities between the murder of Shari Roth and the disappearance of Maura Murray. Both women were in their early 20’s, both were athletic, both enjoyed to climb mountains and camping, both attended Umass Amherst. Both had ties to Bartlett NH. I know this is most likely just pure coincidence but I find it very interesting. It is also interesting to note that Fred Murray believes that Maura was heading to Bartlett NH, the same place Shari’s body was located.

Louise Chaput, 52 was located Jackson, NH on November 15, 2001. Her cause of death was multiple stab wounds. She had gone for a hike at Lost Pond Trail in Jackson NH. The trail is just off NH-16 and about 15 miles from Bartlett NH.

The body of Casmiro Jablonski, age 73, was found in his home just off of Bay Road in Newmarket, NH on July 6, 1977. He had been strangled to death. Now Bay Road is only 8 miles from US-4 which is also connected to the I95. Also North Bay road is only about 15 miles from Portsmouth.

On July 12, 1973 two fifteen-year-old girls from Merrimack, NH, Anne Psaradelis and Diane Compagna went missing. They had been seen at Hampton Beach and were last seen hitchhiking in the direction of Merrimack late in the afternoon of July 12th. It was first thought that they had run away, but two months went by without any word from either girl. Their badly decomposed bodies were discovered on September 29, 1973 in the woods off of New Boston Road in Candia, NH. The area is within a short distance of Route 101, which is the road leading from Merrimack to Hampton Beach. The manner of death was undetermined because of the condition of the bodies but it is believed that the girls were strangled to death. Now Hampton Beach is right off I-95 and Candia NH is close to I-93 and route 101 connects the two interstates. There is a detective in Merrimack who is convinced he knows who is responsible for the double murder and even wrote a book about the case.

On May 20, 1991 at 11:26 a.m., Manchester Police were called to respond to 700 Elm Street, the Center of NH parking garage, for a report of a female being stabbed. Upon arrival, police found Rita Roy, age 69, suffering from multiple stab wounds. Rita was transported to a local hospital where she died as a result of her injuries. An extensive investigation, spanning several months was conducted into this incident in an attempt to learn the identity of the assailant but no arrests were made. Now Elm Street is just off the I-93 and connects to route 101. She was found only 11 miles from where Anne and Diane were located in Candia NH.

“Jane Doe”, 30’s. Manner of death not disclosed, found in Bedford, NH on October 6, 1971.This unidentified female was recovered on an unused logging road in the woods at the end of Kilton Road, near Bedford, New Hampshire. Kilton Road has since been extended and is an on-ramp to Route 101 West, near Interstate 293. The victim was at this scene for up to three months prior to discovery. Now Jane Doe was located only 4 miles from where Rita Roy was located.

Sharon Johnson, 36 was found in Bedford, NH on July 28, 1988. Her cause of death was multiple stab wounds. Bedford NH runs off HWY 101 and is only 2 and a half miles from where Jane Doe’s body was found.

Mindy West, 31. Died of strangulation in her apartment in Manchester, NH on October 4, 1998. Now Manchester NH is off I-293 and is only 9 miles from where Sharon Johnson was found.

The Manchester Fire Department responded to a fire at 541-547 Chestnut Street on October 24, 1978. The State Fire Marshal determined that the fire was caused by arson. Pauline Miller, age 53, and Ray Blanchette, age 51, died of smoke inhalation in the fire. Chestnut Street is only located 2 miles away from the I-293.

Christina Lunceford. Last seen in Nashua, NH area, she was found in the Lowell, MA area on August 1, 2004. Now Nashua and Lowell both are located off US-3 which intersects with the I-95 in Manchester and the I-495 in Lowell. It is interesting that her killer took her over state lines.

Madlyn Crouse, age 74, was found strangled to death in her apartment on Main Street in Nashua, NH. She died either late at night on February 27 or early on February 28, 1976. Now Main Street is only 3 miles from US-3.

Yvonne Fine, 81. Found beaten to death outside of her residence in Concord, NH on September 7, 1981. Now Concord is 37 miles from Nashua and to get there you need to get on US-3 and then the I-93.

On May 20, 1975 at approximately 12:30 p.m., the body of Judy Lord, age 22, was discovered in her Royal Gardens apartment in Concord, NH. She had been suffocated and strangled. At the time of her murder, Judy Lord lived with her seventeen-month-old son Gregory. Judy was last seen alive on the evening of May 19, 1975 at about 10:30 p.m., when she left a volleyball game that was being played in a common area of the apartment complex.

Daniel O’Connell, age 28, of Lowell, MA, was found dead in a wooded area off of Route 106 in Loudon, NH on October 31, 1971. An autopsy revealed that Daniel died as a result of shotgun wounds. He also suffered blunt force injuries to his head and face, which contributed to his death. Now Lowell runs off US-3 and to get to Loudon, you have to continue and go on I-93 then take I-393 and then turn on Route 106. Now Daniel’s killer drove about 60 miles and crossed state lines to dispose of his body.

On February 21, 1977 the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department was performing a search warrant at a home located on Beauty Hill Road in Gilmanton, NH. The sheriffs found four tons of marijuana in an upstairs bedroom. In the bed was the body of a white male later identified as Jerome P. O’Sullivan, age 29. James died as a result of a single shot to the right side of the head just above the ear. The medical examiner was unable to determine whether Jerome died as a result of homicide or suicide. The case has been treated as a suspicious death. Gilmanton is only 12 miles from where Daniel’s body was found. I don’t believe this case is related to any of the other cases. This case is obviously drug related.

Lisa Wright, age 26, who lived at 661 Union Avenue, Laconia, NH was found strangled to death in her apartment on December 10, 1991. Lisa was last seen on the night of December 6, 1991 when she was dropped off at her apartment. In January 1992, Alan Pete was charged with Second Degree Murder for killing Lisa. The murder charge against Pete was dropped in March 1993, a few months before trial because one of the witnesses recanted earlier statements he had made to the police. No one else was ever charged in connection with this case. Lisa was located only 17 miles from where Jerome’s body was located. Union Avenue is only 9 miles from I-93.

Thirty-six-year-old Mary Morales disappeared March 3, 1999, and was found dead a day later, next to a guardrail at Exit 4 of the highway. Her nude body was found near a guardrail off I-91 in Vernon VT. Now Mary was actually from Springfield MA so her killer drove 55 miles or about an hour away crossing state lines before disposing of her body. Also, her killer would have driven past Hadley MA, which is close to Amherst where Maura Murray was a nursing student. Also, I-91 is the supposed route Maura took to get to Haverhill NH.

Mary Harrison, age 22, was reported missing by her husband, Walter Harrison, on October 15, 1981. Mary and her husband lived on Broadbrook Road in Ashuelot (Winchester), NH. Her body was found by a hunter on October 30, 1981 in the woods near Monument Road in Hinsdale. An autopsy determined that Mary died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head. Now Monument Road is located about a mile from the Connecticut river and a couple miles from I-91.

Ellen Ruth Fried, age 26, was last seen talking on a payphone outside of a convenience store in Claremont on July 22, 1984. Her skeletal remains were found in a wooded area next to the Sugar River in the Kelleyville area of Newport, NH on September 19, 1985. The autopsy revealed the cause of death to be undetermined because of the skeletal remains that were found. However, the circumstance of her disappearance and the findings at the scene were consistent with Ellen having been sexually assaulted before her death. The case has been treated as a homicide. Sugar River is located about 7 miles from where she was last seen and about 11 miles from the I-91.

On June 11, 1968 at approximately 7:10 a.m., Joanne Dunham, age 15, was last seen while walking from her home at Raiche Mobile Homes in Charlestown, NH enroute to her bus stop on her way to school. She never got on the bus. Her body was found at approximately 4:15 p.m. the following day on a roped off dirt road on Quaker City Road in Unity NH approximately 5½ miles from where she was abducted. An autopsy determined that Joanne died of asphyxiation. Quaker City Road is about 10 miles from I-91 and close to the Connecticut river.

Mary Elizabeth Critchley, age 37, was last seen on July 25, 1981 near exit 13 of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Framingham, MA. Mary had been dropped off there by a friend and was hitchhiking to Waterbury, VT, where she lived with a friend. Mary was attending classes at the University of Vermont at the time of her death. Her body was found on August 9, 1981 in the woods off of Unity Stage Road, in Unity, NH. The medical examiner was unable to determine a cause of death because of the condition of the body, but the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and death are suspicious. Again, we have a case where someone crosses state lines to dispose of a body. Her killer drove 133 miles to dispose of her body and to get to Unity Stage Road, you need to take the I-91.

The body of Eva Morse, age 27, was discovered in West Unity, NH, on April 25, 1986. Morse was last seen on the morning of July 10, 1985 hitchhiking on Route 12 in North Charlestown, NH. The medical examiner determined that Morse had been stabbed to death. Now the distance between where she was picked up and where she was dropped off is about 8 miles. The distance from where she was last seen to the I-91 is only two miles.

Bernice Courtemanche, age 17, was last seen at approximately 3:30 p.m. on May 30, 1984 in Claremont, NH. She was reported missing the following day. Her skeletal remains were found nearly two years later, on April 19, 1986 just off Cat Hole Hill Road in Newport, NH. She had been stabbed to death. The distance between she was last seen and where she was found is about 5 miles. The distance between where she was last seen and I-91 is only 5 miles.

16 yr old Heidi Martin was reported missing on 05/20/1984, after she failed to return home from a jog. Her body was found on 05/21/1984 in a brook off of a logging road, off of Martinsville Rd. Investigation confirmed she was the victim of a homicide. She was found less than a mile from where she was last seen and only 2 miles from I-91.

Steven Hill, 34. was found stabbed to death near Sumner Falls in North Hartland, VT on October 25, 1986. Sumner falls is located 13 miles from I-91 and it’s located in the Connecticut River.

There are more unsolved cases in New England but I wanted to focus on these ones. I’ve omitted two cases from the list since I wanted to talk about the cases in more detail since they are closed and I believe two men might be connected with some of the murders on this list.

The first suspect I want to discuss is Edward Mayrand. In July 1987, Amherst resident Judith Whitney went to New Hampshire with Edward Mayrand, whom she met at an Alcoholic’s Anonymous meeting the month before. She was never seen again. The last time Whitney was seen alive was in Keene, New Hampshire, on July 2,1987. Four months later, a hunter discovered her body buried in a shallow grave in Winchester, N.H. Now Winchester is about 12 miles from I-91 and located close to the Connecticut River. Police suspected Mayrand was involved, but they never had enough evidence to charge him, even though he was in possession of her car and a handgun. Mayrand had a lengthy criminal record for violent offenses and rape. In 1983 Mayrand was released on parole and during that release he met Kathleen M. Daneault and was with Daneault at Mahaki Restaurant in Gardner on Nov. 17. She was found strangled the next day and her body was located behind the restaurant. However Mayrand was never charged. He later pleaded guilty to a second degree murder charge in connection with the 1994 murder of Patricia Paquette from Providence, Rhode Island and was sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison. Mayrand died in 2011 of metastatic cancer. They were able to obtain Mayrand’s DNA before he died, and in September 2014, the DNA testing revealed that “Mayrand’s DNA was on the ligature used to strangle Kathleen Daneault,” according to the report. “This DNA finding along with other evidence convinced authorities that Edward Mayrand murdered Kathleen Daneault.

The fact that Mayrand was a serial killer and had a history of violence makes me think that Judith, Kathleen and Patricia were not his only victims. There’s a good chance that some of the victims from the list that I read were also victims of Mayrand. We will never know since Mayrand took those secrets to the grave.

The second suspect I want to discuss is Craig Conkey. He was charged in the death of both Kathleen Dempsey and Mary Lou Sale During the early morning hours of August 23, 1992, while asleep in her home in Lexington, MA, Kathy was stabbed by an intruder. She dialed 911 for help, but through a series of tragic errors by the telephone operator and the emergency dispatcher, help never came and she bled to death. The case was solved when a serial killer already serving prison time for another murder of a young woman, confessed to Kathy’s murder and received a life sentence. On Dec. 6, 1994, Mary Lou Sale’s body was discovered on her bedroom floor in her home at 915 Massachusetts Ave. in Lexington. An autopsy conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the death to be a homicide caused by asphyxiation by ligature as well as multiple blunt force trauma about the head. Craig Conkey, 46, was also charged with killing 30-year-old Theresa “Tess” Reed in her Plymouth apartment a stone’s throw from campus a week after the fall semester got underway in September 1991. In all three cases, Conkey broke into his victims apartments and violently attacked them.

There is one unsolved murder on the list I read that is similar to the three murders committed by Conkey. Lisa Wright was found in her Laconia NH apartment. She had been strangled. I suspect that Conkey is responsible for other unsolved murders due to his violent history.

Now if there is a serial killer tied to some of these cases there are a few things to consider. The oldest case happened in 1968 and some of the most recent cases are from the early 2000’s. Now let’s assume that the suspect was in his 20’s when he committed his first murder, that would mean that today he would be in his 60’s. Now take into consideration that these murders all took place near major highways, that gives one the impression that this person would have traveled a lot.

Hence my comparison to Gary Ridgeway, the Green Valley River serial killer. He was a trucker and would pick up “soft targets” or people who were vulnerable. Many of his victims were prostitutes but not all. He was known to pick up his victims and drop their bodies in different states to confuse law enforcement.

My working theory is this, there was a truck driver who drove all across new england. Like Ridgeway he had an unquenchable thirst for murder. This person’s murder spree lasted over 30 years and costing the lives of almost 50 victims. Like Ridgeway, I believe this person was a chameleon and had a wife and family who were completely unaware of his crimes in fact no one knew except for him. I believe the way he picked up his victims is that he would stop at truck stops in or near the cities, hence the proximity of the victims to major highways.

Now I will add something to my theory. There is a truck stop about 12 miles from where Maura’s vehicle was found. The truck stop is called P & H Truck Stop and is off I-91. Now if someone was at the truck stop and wanted to go from I-91 to I93 they would have to take the 302 and turn on 112. Is it possible that Maura was picked up by a trucker that was passing from I91 to I93? One this is for sure, a trucker would be able to pick up police radio signals so a trucker if at a truck stop heard that there was a young woman on the side of the road could have gone there to pick her up.

Again, this is all pure speculations and should be taken as such, but it is certainly interesting to think about. If this is the case and there is a serial killer out there in New Hampshire, he would eclipse Gary Ridgeway and might even be the most prolific serial killer in US history.

~Acdetective~