MA MA - New Bedford Highway Killer (1988/89) *UNSOLVED*

[GVH]

Posting for the very large, clear pics at link.
September 2017
New Bedford Highway Serial Killer case unsolved | Daily Mail Online
''Nine women found dead, two still missing: Nearly 30 years later, the mystery of the New Bedford Highway Serial Killer who terrorized Massachusetts remains unsolved

• Women with similar backgrounds - usually involved in drug addiction and prostitution - began disappearing around New Bedford in 1988
• Nine bodies were discovered strangled and dumped near area highways, while two women remain missing to this day
• A local lawyer and former heroin addict kept emerging as a suspect in the investigation; he had known or worked for several of the victims
• The lawyer, Kenneth Ponte, had relocated to Florida but returned to Massachusetts to face a murder charge in one of the deaths
• The murder charge was eventually dropped and Ponte blamed authorities for ruining his career and his life; he died in 2010
• Another man, Tony DeGrazia, was charged separately with raping six prostitutes and was considered another suspect
• DeGrazia denied killing any women and took his own life in 1990
• Journalist Maureen Boyle, who covered the killings and investigation three decades ago, has published a new book about the unsolved serial murders ''

I have an Ancestry.com account and have yet to find a photo of her. I can reach out to a New Bedford contact and see if she has a photo from her archives. It might help put this topic in context. Will check and let you know dotr et al.

 

[GVH]

Posting for the very large, clear pics at link.
September 2017
New Bedford Highway Serial Killer case unsolved | Daily Mail Online
''Nine women found dead, two still missing: Nearly 30 years later, the mystery of the New Bedford Highway Serial Killer who terrorized Massachusetts remains unsolved

• Women with similar backgrounds - usually involved in drug addiction and prostitution - began disappearing around New Bedford in 1988
• Nine bodies were discovered strangled and dumped near area highways, while two women remain missing to this day
• A local lawyer and former heroin addict kept emerging as a suspect in the investigation; he had known or worked for several of the victims
• The lawyer, Kenneth Ponte, had relocated to Florida but returned to Massachusetts to face a murder charge in one of the deaths
• The murder charge was eventually dropped and Ponte blamed authorities for ruining his career and his life; he died in 2010
• Another man, Tony DeGrazia, was charged separately with raping six prostitutes and was considered another suspect
• DeGrazia denied killing any women and took his own life in 1990
• Journalist Maureen Boyle, who covered the killings and investigation three decades ago, has published a new book about the unsolved serial murders ''

I have an Ancestry.com account and have yet to find a photo of her. I can reach out to a New Bedford contact and see if she has a photo from her archives. It might help put this topic in context. Will check and let you know dotr et al.

 

[GVH]

Exactly what i was getting at, did his first known victim resemble his mother and was she a sex worker too? imo, speculation.

I don't think she was a sex worker... I suspect either she or her husband had an affair. Part of me wonders if Tony has a different biological mother. That would explain a lot.

 

[Tommy2step]

Tony definitely had anger toward his mother...when his mother and father were getting divorced, dad brought up mom's abuse of Tony as an example of her issues...including constantly reaching into his crib and twisting his nose, twisting his arm (which became deformed), going into his school and telling his class that he wet the bed, etc. These were all things that Tony also stated happened to him - not speculation or conjecture. You can see why he had issues with women. It's not an excuse for his behavior, just an explanation of why he behaved this way. You couple this with the breakup with his girlfriend and loss of job and finding out the girlfriend is pregnant and marrying another guy. You can see how the anger is rising...now add increasing alcohol abuse into this equation. But Tony's issues went back farther...years earlier he picked up 2 teenage girls and drove them to the woods where he was accused of raping them. At his trial, he evidently was found not guilty largely based on the testimony provided by the same girlfriend who said he was home with her at the time, but you really have to question the authenticity of that alibi. He just checks off too many boxes to be ruled out...angry, drinker, issues with women, rejection, drove a truck, strong hands, knew the roads....

 

[weepingangel]

New Bedford Highway Serial Killer Mystery Remains Unsolved More Than 30 Years Later

 

[GVH]

I think it was someone in Law Enforcement or the Coast Guard. More likely the Coast Guard. That kind of position allows one to work that entire coastal region to include Marion, MA where a suspicious murder took place around the same time.

 

[Cspearson]

Poetry by Jonathan Taylor #W-59662

I wonder if this is relevant.....?

 

[carbuff]

That's one of the weirdest f'ing things I've ever read.

 

[snooptroop88]

They're searching Westport MA looking for specific evidence of some kind. My guess is this is related to these murders, might be wrong.

Source: A spokesperson for the agency said the FBI's Evidence Response Team is out on Route 88 in Westport "in connection with an ongoing, multi-jurisdictional investigation."

Local – NBC Boston

In-depth news coverage of the Greater Boston and New England area.

www.necn.com

FBI search underway along South Coast highway

An FBI search is underway Thursday along a highway in Westport, Massachusetts.

www.wcvb.com

I saw something about how someone was asking for them to put a task force together last year in re: these murders.
I'm wondering if this is related to Heuermann, who traveled extensively, has similar victims where he's already charged, and I'm seeing the murders stopped abruptly in Sept 1988. He married in Sept 1990, so I'm wondering if his soon-to-be-wife's location became a preferred hunting ground around that time. (She was not in MA, different state bordering NY)

 

[snooptroop88]

Just an observation.. I went to UMass Dartmouth and am familiar with this area. Many parts of route 140, 195 and 88 are very straight and flat highways.. If it's night time, you could pull off on the side of them with your lights off and see for miles in either direction if headlights were approaching. Whoever the killer was I'm sure used this to their advantage when choosing where to dump the bodies.

This sounds like Ocean Parkway, used by LISK, who may be Rex Heuermann (has been charged).

 

[DS2021]

DA's office: Suspect arrested in 2005 killing of prostitute found by Westport highway

A New Bedford man has been indicted in the fatal beating and strangulation of a prostitute found by a highway in 2005.

eu.heraldnews.com

At the time, the killing raised the specter of the still-unsolved serial highway killings of the late 1980s because Alvarado, who had recently moved to New Bedford from Fall River, shared many of the same characteristics of the nine women whose badly decomposed bodies were found along and near I-195 and Route 140 in Dartmouth, Freetown, Marion and Westport.

 

[Deleted member 306806]

DA's office: Suspect arrested in 2005 killing of prostitute found by Westport highway

A New Bedford man has been indicted in the fatal beating and strangulation of a prostitute found by a highway in 2005.

www.heraldnews.com

Suspect is New Bedford resident Simao Farias, age 62.

Connected via DNA match to samples found on Alvarado's shirt and body.

I am wondering how they are proving he was the murderer, rather than a person who had intimate contact to her before her murder. IMO, lack of other DNA samples on her clothes and body. Time will tell if that is enough to make a case.