CT CT - Serial Killer of Young Girls in 1969: Diane Toney, 11, Mary Mount, 10, Dawn Cave, 14

[scriptgirl]

http://newcanaan.dailyvoice.com/news/wilton-death-girl-remains-unsolved-decades

WILTON, Conn. – More than 40 years ago, 10-year-old Mary K. Mount disappeared from her New Canaan neighborhood, sparking a massive manhunt throughout Fairfield County that ended tragically in Wilton.
About three weeks after she was last seen in New Canaan's Kiwanis Park, two teenagers searching for a fishing spot near the South Norwalk Reservoir discovered Mary's body in a pine grove off Old Huckleberry Road.
No one has ever been charged in Mary's disappearance and death. "There was a lengthy investigation involving the New Canaan Police, Wilton Police and the state police," said Wilton Police Lt. Donald Wakeman. "But it remains an unsolved case."
According to a United Press International story from June 18, 1969, investigators first assumed Mary's disappearance was a kidnapping. Her father, Joseph Mount, was the manager of IBM's data processing headquarters in White Plains, N.Y.


<modsnip>

 

[Laughing]

I lived within walking distance of Kiwanis Park that summer.

Think any kid on my street went outside without an adult??? The Moms called each other and took turns keeping track of us. To return to your own house, the family you were with called your house -- both parents watched you cross the day-lit street.

Maybe that's why I'm reading here right now?

Laughing

 

[meanmaryjean]

Wonder if there is any preserved evidence that might conclusively link this killer to these children? Or if the families are satisfied from the case similarities that this was the guy?

I cannot imagine the agony of never REALLY knowing....

 

[bessie]

Diane Toney, Dawn Cave, Mary Mount, Jennifer Noon

http://newcanaan.dailyvoice.com/news/wilton-death-girl-remains-unsolved-decades


May 18, 1969 -- Diane Toney, 11, Guilford

Mother Identifies Dress Fabric on Girl's Skeleton
Oct 3, 1969
Child victim gets burial 27 years later
Nov 14, 1996
"A mixup led to the girl's body being stored in a plastic bag inside a cardboard box in the New Haven prosecutor's office for two decades." :banghead:

May 26, 1969 -- Dawn Cave, 14 Bethany
Her badly decomposed body was found lying in a field.

Girl's Body Found
July 1, 1969
Youths at play find girl's bodyin Bethany field
July 1, 1969
Police compare evidence in cases of three slain girls
Oct 3, 1969

May 31, 1969 -- Mary Mount, 10 New Canaan

Girl's body found near reservior
June 18, 1969
Missing girl's body found near reservoir in Wilton
June 18, 1969
Girl's death held probable murder
June 19, 1969


Sept 2, 1970 -- Jennifer Noon, 5, New Haven

Body of Missing Girl Found, $10,000 is Offered for Clues
Sept 25, 1970
Second Girl Missing in New Haven
Sept 25, 1970
Rash of Murders Worries Community
Oct 2, 1970
We must assume foul play in child's death
Dec 18, 1970

 

[bessie]

4 Deaths: A Trail Left Cold

30 Years Later, Questions About An Unpursued Link In Killings Of Children
April 02, 2000|By DAVE ALTIMARI, COLIN POITRAS And JANE DEE; Courant Staff Writers

[snipped]
But for years, authorities have had information linking each of the killings to a man named Harold Meade, a 52-year-old former tow truck driver and ice cream vendor now serving a life term for three strikingly similar murders.

A month before Jennifer Noon's disappearance, Meade killed three mentally retarded residents of the Greater New Haven Regional Center who were out walking in the West Rock section of New Haven. The skulls of all three were smashed with rocks, their bodies left in wooded areas.

He confessed to those murders and in 1972 was sentenced to life in prison. In an interview Friday, Meade vehemently denied any other killings.
But since his arrest in the West Rock killings, according to police and other sources, he has repeatedly confided that those three were not his only victims.

In an extraordinary letter written to the state's Board of Parole nearly 20 years after the murders, New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington acknowledged that prosecutors at the time considered Meade a suspect in the girls' killings, but did not follow through because they assumed he'd be in prison for life.-- "As a result of this assumption, other serious crimes in which Mr. Mead was a suspect were not pursued to the point of arrest,'' Dearington wrote. Meade's name is spelled ``Mead'' in some official documents.

Investigators have re-examined some of the cases over the years, but none of the investigations have resulted in arrest. State police Sgt. Patrick Gaffney of the Central District Major Crime Squad said the Dawn Cave case is "under active review.''

In a phone interview Friday night, Meade said he's never admitted to any other killings and is tired of the accusations.

"If they think I'm a killer, then come and get me and take your hair samples or your DNA or a polygraph and then leave me the hell alone so I can get on with my life,'' Meade said.

"I didn't kill anyone but the three I killed in New Haven,'' he said. ``The cops all want to say I did other murders, but it's their job to prosecute them and where are they?''

Three-page article continued at the link

Suspicions Swirl In Death At Beach

Convicted Murderer's Prison Furlough Coincided With Woman's Gruesome KillingApril 04, 2000|By DAVE ALTIMARI And JANE E. DEE; Courant Staff Writers Courant Staff Writer Colin Poitras contributed to this story.

Harold Meade, who murdered three young mentally retarded people by smashing their skulls with rocks, was sent to prison for life by a judge who said he was too dangerous to ever be freed.

It took Meade 13 years to get out. Over seven years, starting in 1985, Meade had 184 one-day furloughs and 68 weekend leaves. He met and married his second wife while on furlough, and on the last weekend of June 1992, the couple celebrated their second anniversary by renting a cabin on the shore.

That special weekend for the Meades also was the last weekend of Linda Rayner's life.

 

[meanmaryjean]

WHAT?!?!?

How in the world does a convicted child killer get furloughs from prison?

Whiskey.
Tango.
Foxtrot?

 

[bessie]

It's inexcusable. They knew he was a suspect, but they didn't bother to pursue the investigation because they figured he'd be locked up for life. As a result, the girls' murders have gone unpunished, and Linda Rayner lost her life. How do you sleep with that on your conscience? :tsktsk:

 

[scriptgirl]

Joseph Groening, was let out of prison early that is how he got to Shasta and her family.

 

[PastTense]

Fifty years ago, an 11-year-old girl went missing from the annual Freddy Fixer parade in New Haven, Conn. Diane Toney was dressed for spring in a green polka-dot dress as she left home in the Hill neighborhood for the short walk to the parade route. Her mother, Juanita Reese, reported her disappearance when she failed to return that day, May 18, 1969.

Nine days later, another adolescent girl, Mary Mount, 10, went missing from a park adjacent to her home in affluent New Canaan.

And three days after that, on May 30, yet another young Connecticut girl vanished. Dawn Cave, 14, had stomped out of her home in Bethany, north of New Haven, after an argument with a sibling.

None was seen alive again, and their remains gradually revealed themselves.

Justice Story: Connecticut serial kid killer never charged

 

[PayrollNerd]

If they had any remaining evidence I wonder if they could get DNA. It would be interesting to see if the murders are truly connected.

 

[CastlesBurning]

Thanks for sharing! I have lived in CT all my life and never heard of these three girls...

 

[Laughing]

Bump, mentioned Mary Mount on the Jennifer Dulos thread.

I lived in New Canaan as a child. My Girl Scout meetings and swimming lessons were in Kiwanis Park.

After Mary Mount disappeared, we still went -- but with at least 2 moms every single trip.

Same for playing outside in the yard. In our neighbor, every family shared the "within sight of adults" rule & responsibility.

RIP, Mary Mount; peace & comfort to your family & all who remember you.

 

[Richard]

L to R: Diane Torney (11), Dawn Cave (14), Mary Mount (10), and Jennifer Noon (5)
Murdered in Connecticut in 1970

Connecticut Girl Is Found Slain, 7th Child Murder in State in '70
Sept. 30, 1970

NEW HAVEN, Sept. 29—The body of 5‐year‐old Jennifer Noon, who had been missing since Sept, 21, was found this morning in a wooded area of Hamden, a suburban community near here.

The discovery of her body brought to seven the number of children who have been slain since April in this state. The mysterious deaths began with the disappearance and subsequent death of Mary Mount, 6, daughter of an International Business Machines executive.

Among the other victims were two mentally retarded children from the New Haven Regional Center. The apparent cause of death in all cases has been severe wounds of the skull.

Sources in the New Haven Police Department said that in vestigators were working on the theory that all the slayings might be connected, because of similarities in the cases...

... Commenting on the Noon case, New Haven Police Chief James F. Ahern said late this afternoon:

“The clothing was found on the corpse and acknowledged by Mr. and Mrs. James Noon [the parents, who live at 543 Prospect Street]. The cause of death has not yet been determined, but pathologists from the state are conducting a complete investigation.”

Chief Ahern also said that the Police Department was continuing to offer a $10,000 re ward, “in light of today's developments,” to any person who could contribute further information about the death of Jennifer Noon. The police still have no leads to suspects in the case...

... Jeniffer, one of the Noons’ four children, was a kindergarten pupil at the Worthington Hooker Elementary School, near her home.

Mr. Noon is a student at the Yale Medical School.

Many parents in the area, apprehensive about the series of slayings, continued this week to drive their children to school.

“If there is a killer loose,” said one mother who asked to remain unidentified, “how can I in good conscience allow my daughter to walk to school, particularly since she goes to the same place? How do we know what this man will do next?”...

LINK:
Connecticut Girl Is Found Slain, 7th Child Murder in State in '70

 

[Rosescorned]

What i dont understand is.... He admits to the three in new haven and has since he has gotten caught from them so why do they continue to think he did the others? My thought is he really didnt do them and ct state police along with the respective town police has let another killer walk away scott free because they insist he has done them all.... And the thought on the other female killed while he has on furlough... Why would he wait so long on furlough to kill another person? What if someone killed her to make it look like he did it so he would stop getting furloughs? Im not trying to justify what he has done but to me if he was honest about killing some people why wouldnt he be honest about killing the others? He was getting a pretty sweet deal with the furloughs though so i dunno if he would risk wanting to lose them... Just my thoughts

 

[Richard]

Harold W. Meade III (August 24, 1941 – December 9, 2007)

An American murderer and suspected serial killer who bludgeoned three mentally disabled individuals to death on August 12, 1970, in New Haven, Connecticut. He was later arrested in December of the same year, and pleaded guilty to the murders in 1972. In addition to the three murders he was convicted of, Meade is suspected of committing several other killings in Connecticut dating back to 1969. In 2007, Meade died from an illness in prison...

LINKS:

Harold Meade - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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