Episode 98: The Connecticut River Valley Killer
Composite sketch based on witness descriptions
From 1978 to 1986, the bodies of seven young women were discovered in roughly a fifty-mile radius in the Connecticut River Valley area along the New Hampshire/Vermont border. The women were all stabbed to death multiple times with their bodies being left in remote areas to make them more difficult to be found.
The investigation started when the skeletal remains of two women were recovered within just a thousand feet of each other in a wooded area in Kelleyville, New Hampshire. The first was found in 1985 and the second in 1986. In between the discovery of the sets of remains, another woman was stabbed to death and another set of remains were found, leading detectives to look into other murders in the area and establish a connection.
On October 24, 1978, 27-year-old Catherine “Cathy” Millican had left work and went to the Chandler Brook Wetland Preserve in New London, New Hampshire to photograph birds. Her body was found the next day just several yards from where she was last seen. Cathy had suffered from over 20 stab wounds.
On July 25, 1981, 37-year-old Mary Elizabeth Critchley, who was a student at University of Vermont, was last seen near Interstate 91 where Vermont bordered Massachusetts. Mary had been hitchhiking and she was headed up to Waterbury, Vermont, and a friend dropped her off near exit 13. Almost two weeks later on August 9th, Mary’s body was found in a wooded area in Unity, New Hampshire.
On May 30th, 1984, 17-year-old Bernice Courtemanche was last seen in Claremont, New Hampshire. Bernice was still in high school and worked as a nurses aide at the Sullivan County nursing home, and that day she had gotten a ride from a friend so she could hitchhike along Route 12 on her way to Newport to see her boyfriend. When she never made it there, she was reported missing. Two years later on April 19th, 1986, a fisherman found her remains near Sugar River in Newport, New Hampshire.
On July 22, 1984, 26-year-old Ellen Ruth Fried had made a stop at about 2:00am so she could use the pay phone at Leo’s Market in Claremont, New Hampshire. She spoke to her sister Heidi, who lived in California, on the phone for an hour. During the conversation she told her sister she saw a strange car driving back and forth and circling around the parking lot. Ellen stepped away from the phone to make sure her car was going to start, and she returned and talked to her sister for a few more minutes before hanging up. Ellen worked as a supervising nurse at Valley Regional Hospital and did not report to work the next day, which was very unlike her. Her car was found abandoned on Jarvis Road, a few miles away from the market where she used the pay phone. On September 19th, 1985, Ellen’s skeletal remains were found by two men practicing shooting guns in an isolated wooded area. She was found near Sugar River in Kelleyville, New Hampshire, just eight miles outside of Claremont.
27-year-old Eva Marie Morse was last seen hitchhiking home from the factory where she worked near Claremont, New Hampshire on Route 12 on July 10th, 1985. Eva was a single mom to a 10-year-old daughter named Jenny, and she was a devoted single mom who did everything for her daughter. Eva’s remains were found by loggers on April 25th, 1986, and she was found just 500 feet from where 37-year-old Mary Elizabeth Critchley’s body was found in 1981.
On April 15, 1986, 36-year-old Lynda Moore was doing yard work alone outside her home at around 2:00pm in Saxtons River, Vermont near Route 121. Her husband was at work, and when he returned home just one hour after she was last seen he found her body brutally stabbed in the living room. She had been stabbed 25 times. Multiple witnesses reported seeing a man in his 20’s with a round face, glasses and dark hair lurking around Lynda’s home just before the attack.
On January 10, 1987, 38-year-old Barbara Agnew was coming home from a ski trip with her friends on Stratton Mountain up in Stratton, Vermont. She was last seen headed to her home in Norwich. Later that evening a snowplow driver found her green BMW at a rest stop near I-91 in Hartford, Vermont. Her door was cracked and there was blood found on the steering wheel as well as in the back seat. In a nearby dumpster there were several of Barbara’s belongings that were covered in blood. Her body was found several months later on March 28th, 1987 near an apple tree on Advent Hill Road in Hartford, Vermont, in a wooded area.
On August 6, 1988, 22-year-old Jane Boroski was coming home from a county fair in Keene, New Hampshire. She had stopped at a convenience store in West Swanzey, New Hampshire, and the convenience store was closed but Jane was able to get a soda from the vending machine. Jane was also seven months pregnant at this time. On her way back to her car, Jane saw a Jeep Wagoneer parked next to her. The driver of the car pulled her out of her car and began beating her before stabbing her 27 times. Miraculously Jane survived and drove to a friends home where she was taken to the hospital, providing police with a description of the attacker and his vehicle.
Despite witness descriptions and multiple leads, the Connecticut River Valley Killer has never been identified.
Image sources:
unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com - “Connecticut River Valley Killer”