Episode 83: The Murder of Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino
Mathew Borges
On November 18th, 2016, 16-year-old Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino went missing. Lee was known as a good kid and smart student at Lawrence high school in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and it was not like him to not tell his family his whereabouts. His family filed a report with the police but rather than classifying Lee as a missing child, they said he was a runaway which potentially impaired the investigation.
Lee’s body was found on the Lawrence riverfront on December 1st, 2016 by a dog walker. His head and hands had been severed. There were also stab wounds, dozens of them, across his body. A state trooper found Lee’s head a little ways away from his body wrapped in plastic bags.
Investigators quickly honed in on Lee’s classmate, 15-year-old Mathew Borges. It was determined that Mathew had planned to distract Lee by getting him out of his apartment so that four of his friends could break in and rob Lee of his clothes and other items like his Playstation. When Mathew lured Lee out of the apartment and to the waterfront, he murdered him.
Lee’s mom Katiuska Paulino said her son was a poet, dreamer and writer and that he was "sincere, loving, responsible, charismatic and altruistic young man." Lee’s family attended the trial wearing t-shirts with Lee’s photo on it to remind the jury of the tragedy that had occurred.
Mathew was tried as an adult and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years served.
Image sources:
cbsnews.com - “Docs: Mass. teen confessed he “stabbed a kid and cut his head off”
bostonglobe.com - “Lawrence teenager sentenced to life in prison in classmate’s murder”