Maureen Boyle's Blog

The key to solving a cold case? It appears to be launching a cold case program. The National Institute of Justice reports that these programs help solve a wide range of cold cases, including homicides. That is good news for the 1988 New Bedford Highway Serial case. The Massachusetts State Police Cold Case Unit assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney’s office was launched more than ten years ago, primarily to solve homicides, and expanded in 2022 to include missing persons. Since the...

Retired Massachusetts State Police Lt. Jose Gonsalves The legacy of a good man is not found in money, fame or power. It is found in the quiet acts of kindness and charity. It is seen in the lines that snake through a funeral home, where those hidden stories percolate between the hundreds who wait to pay respects. It is seen in a Catholic church in Freetown, Massachusetts, where many friends and former colleagues drove or flew in to say goodbye. It is seen in the faces of the family he...

It is a cold late morning as they trudged along the leaf-strewn state forest path, not unlike that Veterans Day 47 years ago. The two retired Raynham police investigators are solemn as they point out where the girl was found, remembering a life cut short just days after her fifteenth birthday. "She was a great kid," Louis Pacheco, who was a sergeant in 1978. "I never heard one word against her. She didn't deserve this. She did not deserve this." It was on this day, when restaurants offer...

Freetown State Forest scene (photo by Maureen Boyle) Deep in the forest, in a lush sea of red and orange brush, the grim discovery was made. A hunter found the small Honda Accord with the remains of two people inside. Two lives ended in the quiet of the woods. Two lives now dissected by investigators, medical examiners and evidence technicians. Inside the car was a note. The Bristol County District Attorney's office described it as a suicide note. The press release to local media was brief,...

Mary-Lou Arruda in her cheerleading uniform (family photo courtesy of Karen Daley) Mary-Lou Arruda celebrated her fifteenth birthday 47...

Glenn Hall (photo by Kevin Kalunian) It was 2021 when we first met retired Pennsylvania State Trooper Glenn Hall at a breakfast place in...

More than 30 years ago, a group of young reporters waited in the cold along the highways ringing New Bedford, Massachusetts as body after body was discovered. Eleven women had gone missing in 1988 and, slowly, they were being found. Some by individuals stopping along the highway, others by cleanup crews, still others by search dogs.

The anguish of the families left behind as the searches, then the identifications, then the investigation dragged on was heartbreaking. The private frustration of the investigators could be seen just below the surface. It was a case that rocked the community. Who killed the women remains unknown.

Some of the reporters from that time are now retired, others died, still others found different jobs. I moved into academia to teach journalism and wrote a true crime book, Shallow Graves: The Hunt for the New Bedford Highway Serial Killer and giving talks on the case. One of the last reporters still actively working in journalism, Bob Ward, still does segments about the case as part of his series, New England's Unsolved, on Boston 25. His most recent piece notes that tips are still coming in to police and police are still working the case. You can watch his segment here: New England's Unsolved

One day we hope we can list this cases as one of New England's Solved.

December 4 marks the anniversary of the murder of Saxonburg Police Chief Greg Adams at the hands of a crook who escaped justice by hiding in the shadows for decades.

Adams left behind a wife, two young boys and a heartbroken community that refused to forget either his death or the man wanted for his murder.

It was a cold December afternoon in 1980 when the chief stopped a car not far from the police station. What Adams didn't know was the driver, a man named Donald Webb, was a wanted man.

A struggle ensued. Shots were fired. Adams was left mortally wounded behind a home next to the store. His killer sped off.

The suspect was quickly identified and was placed on the FBI Most Wanted list but it would take decades before he would be found.

For those who knew Greg Adams, his memory lives in a community that never forgot and always prayed for justice.

The book I'm writing now delves into the dark corners of murder, grief and the toll the criminal justice system takes on families and a community. While it is a haunting story, it is also one that illustrates a single person can make a difference. It can be a cop. It can be a witness. It can be a single juror. It can be a therapist. It can be a child. One voice doesn't call out in a void. It echoes into the community and grows louder.

This story is about loss but it is also about growth.

It is a story about a small community banding together, one by one, to find justice.

No matter how long it takes.

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The summer of 1988 was hot. That's what we all remember. It was a summer of beaches, pools, and seeking out air conditioning. No one expected it to also be the summer of grief.

It started on July 3, at least for the public, when the remains of a woman were found along Route 140 northbound in Freetown, a then quiet highway that ended in New Bedford at the corner of a park and zoo. She was found by a passerby who stopped to relieve herself in the bushes. The remains were partially clothed and had no identification. She would remain unidentified for months.

By month's end, on July 30, another body was found, this time on Interstate 195 in nearby Dartmouth, a town to the west of New Bedford, by two men on motorcycles who stopped to relieve themselves in the brush. The woman had no identification. She would also remain unidentified for months.

It would take months, and the reported disappearance of more women, before the community realized a killer lurked in its midst. Eleven women went missing sometime between April or March and September of that year. Nine were found; two remain missing.

In July, we should remember the first two women who were found: Debra Medeiros and Nancy Paiva. We should remember their families, including those members who passed without knowing who was responsible. Remembering is important if whoever is responsible is ever to be identified.