MA MA - Patricia Gonyea, 17, Worcester, 22 Oct 1984

[Deleted member 165632]

http://www.worcesterma.gov/police/i...aM96vMo3Pw;thingDataId=d5fvwI60W0qnw8np5vm08A

Gonyea, Patricia

17

W/F

10/22/1984

95 Grand Street

Unsolved Homicide

Massive Head Trauma/Rape

17 year old female was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death on the railroad tracks near Southgate Street on 10-22-1984. Gonyea was found outside the window well of the Branson Wire Company.

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http://www.telegram.com/article/20090506/news/905060434

Miss Gonyea got off a bus at 11:15 p.m. Oct. 22 at Main Street across from Gates Street. She wasn’t far from her home, at 71 Southgate St. It was raining, and she took a shortcut near the former Crompton & Knowles complex to get home.​

“When I think back to the case, this girl was chased down a set of tracks in a rainstorm, beaten and her body was hidden,” Capt. McGinn said. “It was one of these cases where the victim was a true innocent.”​

Police found her nude body in a 6-foot-deep window well Oct. 23, 1984. Her clothes were discovered in an alley nearby. Authorities ruled she died from a skull fracture. Lt. Grady also found, through close scrutiny of crime scene photographs, that a wire was wrapped around her neck.
​

http://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2014/10/unsolved_murder_of_worcester_t.html

Others recalled her love of the color purple, roller skating and vacations at Old Orchard Beach in Maine.
“She was a good student, a good friend and just a good person,” L’Ecuyer said. “I looked up to her.”
She noted Gonyea worked three jobs, including as a waitress and a babysitter, and still found time to help take care of her younger siblings.

 

[STANDREID]

I hope they have DNA from clothing for this sad crime. If not and she wasn't cremated then I think an exhumation would be worth the effort.

 

[kat913]

Good to hear LE is pursuing DNA...hoping they can find who did this to her...wonder whom else has been hurt as this person has remained unknown. Thanks for the thread and keeping her name out there.

 

[Aleph]

Doesn't hiding the body indicate that the murderer was someone she knew?


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[AlienSparkle]

Did the assailant bring the wire to the crime scene? Did it match any other materials at the scene?
Was this the victims typical pattern, day/time/location?
How did police determine she was "a true innocent"?


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[CastlesBurning]

5 Investigates Case Files: Friends, family still ache over brutal 1984 murder of Worcester teen

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Police noted the call but didn’t send an officer out, the Globe reported at the time. Gonyea’s mother and neighbors began searching the area and notified police again when they found her purse on the railroad tracks.

A short time later, police found her body in a window well of a factory complex not far from her home. She had been sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death, according to police. Her body was covered with cardboard and discarded lumber, the Globe reported. An autopsy showed that she died of “multiple injuries to the head” around midnight, about 45 minutes after she got off the bus.

Her murder has never been solved.

Forty years later, the murder of Patricia Ann Gonyea, 17, of Worcester, remains unsolved - The Boston Globe

On Monday, a vigil was held in Gonyea’s memory on Canterbury Street, near where she was killed.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[Brightchaser47]

http://www.worcesterma.gov/police/i...aM96vMo3Pw;thingDataId=d5fvwI60W0qnw8np5vm08A


Worcester police tracking new evidence in 1984 slaying



Unresolved murder of Worcester teen haunts friends 30 years later

If it was someone who knew her, I wonder whether it was someone who resented or envied that she was well-known and well-liked. Maybe a guy who'd been interested in her, but that interest wasn't mutual.
Someone knows who it was. So sad and scary it happened so close to her home. jmo

 

[weepingangel]

https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/2024/10/23/killing-in-worcester-of-patricia-gonyea-40-years-ago-remains-unsolved/75736319007/

WORCESTER — At the end of Grand Street, right as the roadway crosses paths with Canterbury Street to reach the train tracks, a group of women gather on Oct. 22 every year.

No matter how much life has moved on for each since 1984, when they were all high school friends living in the same neighborhood, and no matter how much the neighborhood itself has changed, the women make some time in their calendar at 6 p.m. to do one thing: Remember Patricia Gonyea.

https://archive.ph/yfbgf

 

[Brightchaser47]

https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/2024/10/23/killing-in-worcester-of-patricia-gonyea-40-years-ago-remains-unsolved/75736319007/

WORCESTER — At the end of Grand Street, right as the roadway crosses paths with Canterbury Street to reach the train tracks, a group of women gather on Oct. 22 every year.

No matter how much life has moved on for each since 1984, when they were all high school friends living in the same neighborhood, and no matter how much the neighborhood itself has changed, the women make some time in their calendar at 6 p.m. to do one thing: Remember Patricia Gonyea.

https://archive.ph/yfbgf

The article refers to DNA fragments found, and implies multiple donors. I'd wondered at the possibility of a gang assault/murder. It seems to me something a group of juveniles would do, possibly under the influence of drugs/alcohol. I feel they definitely knew her.
ETA: This could have been committed by minors with criminal records whose records were sealed due to their ages. If so, I wonder if LE took this into account. jmo