Found Deceased MA - Henry Bedard, 15, found murdered, Swampscott, 16 Dec 1974

[EndlessEnigma]

The more recent articles, which are old now, have mentioned that they never fingerprinted Henry so LE did not know if it was Henry's partial finger print on the bat. Does anyone know if this is true?
I have always thought that even if Henry was not fingerprinted, I would think that if LE asked his family could have and would have supplied items that he had handled that had is fingerprints on them.
As far as old cold cases, I hope any discussion will somehow help to solve the case but look at the GSK. There was a Lot more physical evidence as well as eye witnesses in that case and it took decades to bring someone to justice.

As far as I know, you are correct that they did not take Henry’s prints. I understand some LE can now take a partial print and develop it but I guess they have not tried that yet.

 

[seichem745]

everyone assumes the protection is of rich influential people but what has actually been written is fear of a dangerous group of people. rich people get prosecuted all the time. I reference the case Marc furman (from oj fame) solved after decades. the killer bludgeoned a young girl with a golf club. the motive was jealousy and he lived next door.

 

[seichem745]

The more recent articles, which are old now, have mentioned that they never fingerprinted Henry so LE did not know if it was Henry's partial finger print on the bat. Does anyone know if this is true?
I have always thought that even if Henry was not fingerprinted, I would think that if LE asked his family could have and would have supplied items that he had handled that had is fingerprints on them.
As far as old cold cases, I hope any discussion will somehow help to solve the case but look at the GSK. There was a Lot more physical evidence as well as eye witnesses in that case and it took decades to bring someone to justice.

what is gsk? from what i have read hear henry was bludgeoned from behind it seems confusing to me why talk about henrys fingerprints ever even comes up?

 

[WSFalcon]

The more recent articles, which are old now, have mentioned that they never fingerprinted Henry so LE did not know if it was Henry's partial finger print on the bat. Does anyone know if this is true?
I have always thought that even if Henry was not fingerprinted, I would think that if LE asked his family could have and would have supplied items that he had handled that had is fingerprints on them.
As far as old cold cases, I hope any discussion will somehow help to solve the case but look at the GSK. There was a Lot more physical evidence as well as eye witnesses in that case and it took decades to bring someone to justice.

what is gsk? from what i have read hear henry was bludgeoned from behind it seems confusing to me why talk about henrys fingerprints ever even comes up?

GSK is the Golden State Killer that they finally caught this past year thru some type of DNA genomics matching.
It has long been reported that the bat had a partial finger print on it that does not match anything in LE data bases. I am not sure if that is solely because the prints are not in a LE data base, or if being a partial print matters for matching.
It has also been reported that LE do not know if that was Henry's print as they never fingerprinted him. I would imagine that LE may have been asked sometime if they ruled out it being Henry's print.
Henry was bludgeoned from behind so it is most likely not his print, but it would probably good to know so they don't keep trying to identify it.

 

[seichem745]

plus the keystone cops put their hands all over the bat as well. but if they have suspects and those suspects have been finger printed then they would know exactly who they are trying to match.

 

[seichem745]

does anyone here know how to research obituaries. I am looking for someone from the class of 1976 who died in the 90"s.

 

[WSFalcon]

plus the keystone cops put their hands all over the bat as well. but if they have suspects and those suspects have been finger printed then they would know exactly who they are trying to match.

I wonder if LE fingerprinted any locals/suspects? If they really had some suspects or POI, wouldn't they do this?

I do understand that the local LE stated "the town's principal investigators believe the murderer was someone who knew Bedard........."I think it was a friend of his. I think it was somebody very close to him," said Cassidy. Hanley agrees with Cassidy. "I think it was someone in his circle of friends. I firmly believe that. . . . It's a logical conclusion to make," he said.

However, those close to Henry and the area think "Bedard's closest friends scoff at the retired investigators and believe it's time to start the investigation from scratch. "After 30 years it's time for them to think outside of the box," said....."

My thinking is that LE "may" have had suspects but I do not believe that they know or have a good idea who did this.

 

[seichem745]

the moderators of the facebook page said empathically that they did have suspects! He was bullied for years, he was a very small kid. he was very popular in his circle making him a target for other circles. He was killed by someone who despised him. His circle of friends know who didnt like him. the problem is NO EVIDENCE!

 

[seichem745]

If you know who committed a crime and you have no evidence it is not helpful to LE in a legal way. I am sure they have received many, many anonymous tips telling the true story or variations of to some degree or another. enough to connect the dots, enough to paint a picture. the only people who can give useable evidence are the people who were there. it is rumored there were three people there and one is dead. that leaves 2 people who were eye witnesses. if you are an individual who heard it directly from the killers you are most likely friendly with them or afraid of them.

 

[Betty P]

does anyone here know how to research obituaries. I am looking for someone from the class of 1976 who died in the 90"s.

I might be able to help. I have a subscription to both Newspapers.com and Ancestry.com.

 

[WSFalcon]

the moderators of the facebook page said empathically that they did have suspects! He was bullied for years, he was a very small kid. he was very popular in his circle making him a target for other circles. He was killed by someone who despised him. His circle of friends know who didnt like him. the problem is NO EVIDENCE!

Agree it looks like no evidence though if his circle of friends know who despised Henry and who bullied him, you would think LE could match the fingerprints on the bats to those suspects or POI. I had heard those tips and suspects did not lead to anything.

 

[seichem745]

i read they have a half of finger print on the bat. if that matches one of the keystone cops maybe they would be embarrassed to admit that. or maybe a half of finger print isnt enough. I dont know at this point from a political standpoint how much motivation there is especially if the truth would rock the community?

 

[seichem745]

I might be able to help. I have a subscription to both Newspapers.com and Ancestry.com.

i am interested to find out if a female from henrys class died in 1994.

 

[seichem745]

falcon, they led to nothing due to NO evidence!!! that doesnt mean that they feel the suspects are innocent. The authorities are NOT looking for NEW suspects! DNA or a useable confession is what they need! The quote was "It is a matter of getting people to talk" 18 and older are the ages always repeated by individuals, that is a much harder demographic to work with. the thought that this was done by a friend or someone even close to friendly is ludicrous.

 

[WSFalcon]

i read they have a half of finger print on the bat. if that matches one of the keystone cops maybe they would be embarrassed to admit that. or maybe a half of finger print isnt enough. I dont know at this point from a political standpoint how much motivation there is especially if the truth would rock the community?

Good point on the partial fingerprint(s) on the bat that it could be one of the police, which would be embarrassing. I had not thought of that. You would think someone in LE, such as State Police, would try to rule that out as 40 years later the police still mention the partial fingerprint and I believe they even said a 2nd partial fingerprint was discovered when they sent the bat out again for analysis.

 

[WSFalcon]

falcon, they led to nothing due to NO evidence!!! that doesnt mean that they feel the suspects are innocent. The authorities are NOT looking for NEW suspects! DNA or a useable confession is what they need! The quote was "It is a matter of getting people to talk" 18 and older are the ages always repeated by individuals, that is a much harder demographic to work with. the thought that this was done by a friend or someone even close to friendly is ludicrous.

Yes, I was referring to the partial fingerprint that we keep hearing about and wondering if the police did have good suspects, did they try to match against local suspects or POI. I am assuming the police did not and like you commented, maybe they do not want to look to hard and it would rock the community.
I agree LE may not be NOT looking for NEW suspects though Henry's friend group seem to think local LE should move on from their theory of it being someone in his friend group that he knew.
If it was his friend group, it would seem his girlfriend and closest friends do not know who it was and somehow it was kept quiet in this small town, but I imagine anything is possible.
RIP Henry.

 

[UnlicensedPI]

i am interested to find out if a female from henrys class died in 1994.

I've had a lot of luck finding obituaries and other little write-ups on Find A Grave. If you need help with searching free sites, please let me know who you're looking into. I have to search through obits almost every day for my job.

 

[seichem745]

I believe that both the man and the woman described the truth extremely accurately in the best way that they could without saying too much. what the man said was exactly what happened. Henry came upon a situation that was supposed to be more of a bullying type of thing, it was planned by someone who hated Him. I dont believe it had anything to do with Henry at all except that this person was jealous of him. It escalated into murder not over rage but by the persons lack of self control. I believed Henry turned to walk away and thats why he got hit from behind. the other person mentioned bullies, people who didnt like him. The comments by the police were made by police with no experience. ( it was someone in his group of friends) just like the Martha Moxley case. I'm not blaming the police it was the times, not every small town police dept had trained homicide detectives back then.

 

[seichem745]

I've had a lot of luck finding obituaries and other little write-ups on Find A Grave. If you need help with searching free sites, please let me know who you're looking into. I have to search through obits almost every day for my job.

the "who" is what i am trying to determine. all i can say is that it is a female from Henrys class 1976 who passed away in 1994 (ish) possibly by suicide. thats all I have.

 

[jgfitzge]

the "who" is what i am trying to determine. all i can say is that it is a female from Henrys class 1976 who passed away in 1994 (ish) possibly by suicide. thats all I have.

Try this google search with these terms; Swampscott High School, obituary, 1994. See what comes up.

Also, check if there is a Swampscott High alumni page. A lot of times they have a memoriam section.