NH NH - Missing young women in NH

[gatetrekker44]

OK, I realize that at any given time people go missing all over the USA-but the
disappearances and murders of Amie Riley, Christine Lunceford, Sarah Langis, and the as yet unsolved disappearance of Maura Murray, all in NH, has just got me worked up. All were in the same age range, and all apparently had NO REASON to just disappear, and as time has unfortunately shown, the first three met untimely ends by a person or persons unknown. I'm sure some posters on this site will try to say that they somehow caused their own demises, but I am getting the feeling(yes, its my feeling and I'm entitled to it!)that there is something more sinister at work in the state of New Hampshire than just bad luck or bad choices. I tried to locate on a map the location each disappeared from and where they were found and it apperas that at least 3(Amie Riley, Christine Lunceford, and Maura Murray)were in fairly close proximity when they disappeared. Does anyone else have any info about any missing/murdered young women that fit the same general profile as those listed above?


Bring Maura home!

 

[Grassyknoll2]

I started looking for info on some of the names listed at www.Mauramurray.com These young woman may well be runaways, but it doesn't alter the fact that they are missing. Here are three who disappeared in 2004. Christina Lunceford was also on this list.

DOMINIKA SMOLINSKI
16 Years Old
Height: 5'7'' Weight: 120 lbs. Eyes: Hazel
Please call parents: 802-878-1078

http://www.mikconsulting.net/Dominika/



JESSICA ANN CAPILLE
NCMC1004274
-Endangered Runaway
DOB: May 21, 1989 Age: 15
Missing: Dec 8, 2004 Race: White
MANCHESTER, NH, US

http://www.melanie.web.aplus.net/id7.html



COURTNEY R. KING
NCMC980848
-Endangered Runaway
DOB: Dec 14, 1987 Age: 17
Missing: Jan 9, 2004 Race: White
PELHAM, NH, US

Circumstances: Courtney was last seen on January 9, 2004. She may still be in the local area or she may have traveled to Hobe Sound, Florida. Courtney may be in the company of an adult male. She may go by the alias name Valentyna Korol.

National Center for Missing Children

 

[pugsley]

OK, I realize that at any given time people go missing all over the USA-but the
disappearances and murders of Amie Riley, Christine Lunceford, Sarah Langis, and the as yet unsolved disappearance of Maura Murray, all in NH, has just got me worked up. All were in the same age range, and all apparently had NO REASON to just disappear, and as time has unfortunately shown, the first three met untimely ends by a person or persons unknown. I'm sure some posters on this site will try to say that they somehow caused their own demises, but I am getting the feeling(yes, its my feeling and I'm entitled to it!)that there is something more sinister at work in the state of New Hampshire than just bad luck or bad choices. I tried to locate on a map the location each disappeared from and where they were found and it apperas that at least 3(Amie Riley, Christine Lunceford, and Maura Murray)were in fairly close proximity when they disappeared. Does anyone else have any info about any missing/murdered young women that fit the same general profile as those listed above?


Bring Maura home!

Gatetrekker,

Maura, Amy & Christina did not disappear that close together. Maura is about 100 miles or 2 hrs away from Christina. Amy is in the middle of the two, closer to Christina. Christina actually lived in MA., where she was found.

Look back in the early 80's at all the missing girls around the same age, around the area where Maura disappeared if you want to see something to get your hinky meter up!

Pugsley

 

[pugsley]

In my post I meant to state MURDERED girls, from the 80's, around the area where Maura disappeared.

Sorry.

 

[Hammerized]

Christina actually lived in MA., where she was found.

No, Christina had recently moved to Nashua, NH and was no longer living in MA at the time of her disappearance.

 

[gatetrekker44]

Thanks Hammerized, I thought I had misread where Christine was living when she disappeared.

Pugsley, since I am fairly new at researching info on the mising/murdered-can you direct me to any particular site where I can view the info you were speaking about? Readin your posts gave me a definite chill and I would like to research further about those 80's cases. Thanks!

 

[JrZyChris]

Pugsley, since I am fairly new at researching info on the mising/murdered-can you direct me to any particular site where I can view the

Sorry, I hit "Reply" before reading Pugsley's post - so sorry Pugsley, I'm not dissin' you lol - I just wanted to mention to this poster that WasBlind and Kelly could probably drop you a few links to get started. Their information, since my time on this website, has been very informative.

Regards,
JrZyChris

 

[pugsley]

Thanks Hammerized, I thought I had misread where Christine was living when she disappeared.

Pugsley, since I am fairly new at researching info on the mising/murdered-can you direct me to any particular site where I can view the info you were speaking about? Readin your posts gave me a definite chill and I would like to research further about those 80's cases. Thanks!

Gatetrekker,
Never posted a link, so I don't know if this will work....


This story aired on unsolved mysteries. What amazes me is that LE in that area claim (in regards to Maura & Bri's case) that there is no serial killer out there. Um, ya...what about the one you never caught?


Thanks Hammerized for your correction, sorry, I thought she only worked in Nashua.

Pugsley

 

[gatetrekker44]

for your guidance. I was able to locate some in about those 80's cases that remain unsolved as well as the cases that were attributed to an individual dubbed the "Connecticut River killer" who confessed to a string of murders and was tried and convicted. Pugsley, I will check out your link to gather addl info. But what really concerns me is the fact that these most recent cases-and the fact that LE seems to have their collective heads in the sand about the very real possibility that a serial murderer may be in their midst! After all, that's how Ted Bundy was able to elude detection for sooooo long-I'm afraid that whoever may be responsible is just getting started...

 

[Grassyknoll2]

Hi all,

I found a little information on the Connecticut River Killer after reading, "Shadow of Death" by Philip Ginsburg. There isn't a whole lot online, but the most recent info can be found in a forum at a Brattleboro Newspaper and the VTSP website. The following is part of a post by a retired VTSP officer:

Connecticut River Serial Killer Meetup?

Authored by: Terry Martin on Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 10:22 PM EST

Hi Steve,

I "kind of scanned" through all the postings and didn't see if you had made contact or are maintaining contact with those closest to your postings - i.e. the VSP Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Rockingham?

Detective Lieutenant Tim Oliver now heads up Detectives working out of Brattleboro, Rockingham and Bethel on the Vermont Side. .....

In April 1987 until 1994, I worked out of Rockingham covering this whole Troop "D" area as the Crime Prevention/Public Information Officer and was very close to this case on the Vermont side. Off the top of my head, at that time, there were ten (10) unsolved homicides - three (3) on the Vermont side and seven (7) on the New Hampshire side. The three on our side were: Barbara Agnew, Sarah Hunter and Linda Moore. Amazingly, the majority of the woman were professionals and wore white uniforms or uniforms. ALL, as I remember, were killed by a knife as the weapon.


http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php?story=2005030514582533

Should anyone have any NEW information pertaining to this case, they should also contact Detective Lieutenant Oliver.

**********************************​

Barbara Agnew, Sarah Hunter (who isn't mentioned in the book) and Lynda Moore, as of 5 minutes ago, are all listed on the VTSP website as being unsolved.
http://www.dps.state.vt.us/vtsp/homicide/

There is also information on some of the victims at www.Mauramurray.com in the Missing & Remembered section posted by Silky. As listed in the book, the victims were:
Jo Anne Dunham 1968
Cathy Millican 1978
Elizabeth Critchley 1981
Bernice Courtemanche 1984
Ellen Fried 1984
Eva Morse 1985
Lynda Moore 1986
Barbara Agnew 1984
Woman who escaped 1988

There was a another serial killer around the same time who was caught, but the victims were younger.

 

[Sudzi]

I'm glad to see some interest in this. I live here, on the VT side.

It's something locals talk about, even if LE seems to have their heads in the sand.
It's such a ripe area for this type of crime, very rural and wooded.

 

[Boxerz]

:::::Connections?:::::

~1978. Cathy Millican, age 26, last seen Photographing birds at Chandler Brook Wetland preserve on Route 11 in New London NH at around 5:30-6:00 pm on Oct 24th. She was found the following day a few hundred yards into the same preserve, stabbed 20 plus times. Theft nor sexual assualt were a motive.

(Note the Millican 1978 similarities to Louise Chaput Nov. 2001 and Shari Lynn Roth 1977)

~1981. Elizabeth Critchley, age 23, last seen hitchhiking on I-91 near the VT/MA border on July 25th. Found in the woods near Unity stage road in Claremont NH on Aug 9th. The cause of death was never determined, or made public, but it was treated as a homicide.

~1982. Sylvia Gray, age 76, reported missing from her home near Moses Pond in Plainfield NH on Oct. 5th. Found the following day a few hundred yards from her home in the woods. She had been bludgeoned and stabbed to death.

~1984. Bearnice Courtemanche, age 16, last seen hitchhiking along Route 12 in west Claremont NH on May 30th. Her skeletal remains were found nearly 2 years later just off Cat Hole Hill road in Kellyville NH on Apr. 19th 1986. She had been hit in the head and stabbed to death.

~1984. Ellen Fried, age 27, last known to be talking on the pay telephone at Leos Market in Claremont NH on July 20th. The following day her car was found abandoned in West Claremont NH on Jarvis Lane. One year later, on Sept. 19th, 1985 her body was found in Kellyville NH, the same tract of woods where Courtemanche was later found. Ellen also had been stabbed to death.

~1985. Eva Morse, age 28, last seen hitchhiking on NH Route 12 along the Claremont/Charlestown border on July 10th. Her body was found on Apr.25th, 1986 near the Unity Stage Road. A few Hundred yards from where Critchley had been found. Eva had been stabbed to death.

~1986. Steven Hill, age 38, last seen picking up his paycheck from his workplace in Lebanon NH. on June 20th. His body was found with stab wounds along the CT River in Hartland VT at Sumners Falls two weeks later on July 15th. Sumners Falls is just across the CT River from Plainfield NH where Sylvia Gray was murdered.

~1986. Lynda Moore, age 32, last known to be at her home, outside in the yard, in Saxtons River VT. Found later that day in her livingroom, she had been stabbed to death.

~1986. Heidi Martin, age 17, last seen jogging along the Martinsville Road in Hartland VT on May 1. She was found the following day in a swampy area behind the Elementary School, a mile from where she was last seen, she had been stabbed to death. This location is roughly 4 miles south of Sumners Falls where Steven Hill was found.

~1987. Barbara Agnew, age 38, her abandoned vehicle was found in the I-91 northbound rest area in Hartford VT on Jan 10th. She was found Mar 28th, along Advent Hill road in Hartland VT, she had been stabbed to death.

 

[gatetrekker44]

murdered in similiar fashion within a specific time frame and area. It gives me pause to wonder if Brianna Maitland should also be included since her car was also found abandoned and apparently hidden. Maura Murray's car was abandoned, but I don't know if a vehicle link was ever put forth in Amie Riley's case. But reading the cases that Boxerz posted, the thing that stood out the most was that whoever committed those murders was evidently able to get close to a variety of people, commit the crimes, and seemingly vanish without being caught(at least for these crimes!). For an individual to perpetrate these acts, I believe someone possibly in a position of authority or with access to info that enabled them to impersonate an authority figure is responsible. Does anyone know what was determined as the cause of Amie Riley's death?


Bring Maura home!

 

[Boxerz]

Hey Gatekeeper....

Note also that many of the cases of the 1980s the potential perpetrator, or predator back in those days did not have to contend with a potential victim with a cell phone or pepper spray, like now.

So his M.O. has perhaps changed with the times....force or run someone off the road, create some type of road hazzard and wait? Then after the "accident" occurs, he watches and tried to figure out if the potential victim has a cell phone or is using the cell phone, or if it even works in that area.

Example: I have a cell phone and live in Rural NH..there are just a few places it actually works, because of the mountains interfere with the signal.

Perhaps this is the same perpetrator..moved north because people generally in the centarl part of the states of VT and NH were wary....Perhaps, hes in his 50s now, and just doesnt have the energy of youth to confront and subdue a potential victim, so this "trickery" is more "necessary".

He also may have moved north to the still less populated areas because he is a "loner"...its harder to hide what he has been doing where he used to because of population growth (Claremont NH, Lebanon NH, White River Jct VT) in the 1990s.

 

[Grassyknoll2]

There is another site, Ibrattleboro, where they have talked about the serial killer from the 80's. A former VTSP, named Terry Martin, states the following:

In April 1987 until 1994, I worked out of Rockingham covering this whole Troop "D" area as the Crime Prevention/Public Information Officer and was very close to this case on the Vermont side. Off the top of my head, at that time, there were ten (10) unsolved homicides - three (3) on the Vermont side and seven (7) on the New Hampshire side. The three on our side were: Barbara Agnew, Sarah Hunter and Linda Moore. Amazingly, the majority of the woman were professionals and wore white uniforms or uniforms. ALL, as I remember, were killed by a knife as the weapon.

Barbara Agnew was a Nurse at the Dartmouth/Hitchcock Clinic and was killed in the first rest area (northbound) on I-89 in Sharon - Sarah Hunter was a Golf Pro and was murdered on the westside of our state, but left in the Woodstock area - Linda Moore was killed in her home (within visible distance of I-91) in Saxtons River.

In short, then came the case where a woman was obducted when she went into the bathroom at the southbound Putney Rest Area. This woman, under horrendous conditions that followed, was very wise leaving trace evidence in a tractor and trailer rig driven by the perpitrator. This later convicted her assailant.

Since this arrest, to the best of my knowledge, there have not been any further homicides, at least in the Connecticut Valley area, either side of the river.

http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php?story=2005030514582533

There is more you might find interesting there. I would respectfully disagree with Terry Martin about there not being any further homicides...may just not in the immediate area, but Silky has given a good reasoning as to why there may not be any in that area. There is also another woman mentioned in his post that is not in Silky's list...Sarah Hunter. I've not been able to find anything on the arrest of person who abducted the woman and according to Ginsburg's book, "Shadow of Death" her description didn't match with any of the prime 'persons of interest' in the case at the time. As to Sarah Hunter, Barbara Agnew and Lynda Moore, they are all listed on the VTSP site as unsolved homicides as of five minutes ago, as is two other women I've wondered about Angela Blouin she was last seen in Derby, VT and found in Newport, VT on 5/30/93 and Catherine Maranville, she was reported missing from Glens Falls NY in 1983 and found in Chittenden, VT in 1987.

As to Aime Riley....I believe she was bludgeoned.

 

[pugsley]

These are girls missing/murdered in or near Rockingham CountySouthern NH)

Found murdered- Diane Compagna, Anne Psaradelis 1973 found in Candia, NH. (from Merrimack.)

Missing (I don't think any are classified as runaways):

Rachael Garden, Newton, NH. 1980
Laureen Rahan, Manchester, NH 1980
Shirley McBride, Concord, NH 1984
Tammy Belanger, Exeter, NH 1984

 

[pugsley]

I have no clue where that purple face came from. It was suppose to be a parenthsis.

Good thing it was frowning and not smiling.

 

[LazyCat08]

You must have hit the " : " key
: + ( =

 

[Hammerized]

As to Aime Riley....I believe she was bludgeoned.

Yes, that is all (the latest) I had read, too. Who knows what else they learned from her autopsy... probably a little more than they released, but I'd bet not much, given the state of decomposition.

I think there was talk of a sexual assault or sexual encounter that went wrong due to the clothing strewn about the area. IIRC, there was some notion that she was at least partially re-dressed in clothing other than her own. Socks, I believe.

Some information about her on the night she was last seen is that she was witnessed arguing- "in a screaming match" according to one witness- with a man in a parking lot of a bar. This was after she was asked to leave the Hog's Trough bar for being underage.

It makes me ill that local police parked 20 feet from her body for months (speed traps) and she wasn't noticed. I drove by her body 5 days a week, it was just off the road, and when she was found in the spring thaw, it made me so sad. Even the man who saw her body said that he had been looking at her for weeks out his window and "assumed" she was a pile of mud and brush at the edge of the marsh. The police parked a lot closer to her than this guy's house. Would that they had been more observant of their surroundings while sitting in the car for hours waiting to catch speeders.

 

[Boxerz]

Good point, Grassyknoll.....

Most of the earlier abductions and killings, like Sarah Hunter, were "close-quarters" types of killings, requiring the killer and victim to be well within eachothers personal space...i.e..stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning. This sometimes suggests that this person/attacker might have intimacy problems, or requires a struggle in close contact with other people in a remote setting. Abductions and control, taken to remote areas, shows a loner type of person.

Remember the movie The Vanishing (?) the English version, i think it was....where they guy spends hours and hours "practicing" in his yard on how to lure someone into his vehicle with some romantic fantasy confusing him at the same time. At one point durring the movie they show him picking people up and figuring out how to gain their trust...not killing them, or harming them, just giving them a ride and "practicing".

This is really a Jekkyl/Hyde type of person...has learned how to "act", with practice and given the situation....might be a samartitan one day to a stranded motorist, the persons worse nightmare the next day, next hour, next minute.

It is easy to imagine that this "predator" around here (VT/NH) probably has done much the same thing, even going so far as to actually picking people up along the road, or offering a ride, without doing anything...just "practicing" how to hide his real intentions or fantasies.