Police zeroed in on Connecticut and Massachusetts, believing their victims were local. They later determined through physical evidence that the two may be connected to the Albany area, said New Britain Police Chief James Wardwell. Evidence included clothing on the older woman from stores unique to the Albany area as well as a cigarette pack with an upstate tax stamp. We really concentrated our efforts in New York after years of trying in Connecticut and Massachusetts. We became increasingly convinced that they were not local to us and that ended up being exactly the case, Wardwell told The Journal News...
For years, the biggest piece to the puzzle was why no one reported them missing. It is unusual, Wardell said. But every case has a unique set of circumstances. Then last month, nearly 19 years after the bodies were found, a woman whom authorities wont name sent an email to the New York state police. She asked about relatives a mother and daughter from the Brewster area. She hadnt heard from them since 1995. The email made its way to Investigator Peter Ciacci at the Brewster barracks. He scoured the Internet and found a YouTube video from a press conference on the two victims. He also found a Brewster High School photo of the girl Elizabeth Honsch, 17. When a New Britain detective showed the yearbook photo to Wardwell, he knew the case was solved because of its resemblance to a composite sketch of the girl from years earlier.
