MA MA - Virginia Hannon, 59, Pembroke, February 1984

[natureaker]

5 Investigates' Case Files: Pembroke murder still haunts family, police, decades later

PEMBROKE, Mass. — First responders initially thought Virginia Hannon, found under her covers in the bedroom of her Pembroke home, had died in bed of natural causes.

It was February 1984, and the broken window and pry marks on the front door of Hannon's home on West Street wasn't noticed. It wasn't until after her body was taken to a funeral home that her injuries were noticed and they were horrific.

"It was one of the most brutal murder they think we've had in the history of Pembroke," said Pembroke police Sgt. Ted Cain. "She was assaulted. She was kicked, she was punched, she was stabbed and then strangled."
[...]
It was a gruesome end to an otherwise ordinary life. Hannon worked as a lunch lady at the Bryantville Elementary School in town. Her nephew, Rich Hannon, remembers her as "the life of the party."

"She was fun," Rich Hannon told 5 Investigates' Mike Beaudet. "It definitely had a rippling effect on the family for sure. You miss that person in the center."

Plymouth Country District Attorney Tim Cruz said Virginia Hannon had been talking to friends before she was killed about a $380,000 inheritance she had received.
[...]
"Has anyone been on the radar since this happened?" Beaudet asked him.
"There have always been people that we look at and that had been on the radar, and also during that same time period back then, there were a number of solved B & Es into very similar homes," Cruz said.

But those solved house break-ins have not led to an arrest for the murder. And the killer or killers never got her inheritance, which remained in the bank.
[...]
DNA testing on evidence collected at the crime scene is ongoing. Some people have voluntarily provided DNA samples. Others have been ordered to hand over samples.

Read the full article here (Archived version)

Video

 

[natureaker]

Pembroke Police Department on Twitter with more information regarding Virginia Hannon:
PembrokeMAPolice on Twitter

 

[natureaker]

Found a couple more articles that talk about Virginia Hannon's murder

In the following newspaper article published by the Boston Globe regarding murder in the South Shore area in the years following Hannon's murder, she is mentioned along with another unsolved murder case:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23214841/nicholas_j_thambash_shot_by_joseph/

"Among those hurt most by the memories have been the relatives of two Pembroke residents whose 1984 murders remain unsolved: Virginia Hannon, 59, who was slain in her Pembroke home, and Vincent Al-dorisio, 68, who was stabbed to death at his Cambridge manufacturing company."

 

[natureaker]

Also, here's another article from 2010 published by Wicked Local:

Twenty-six years later: Cain is on the unsolved murder case

"In all his years as a resident and officer in Pembroke, Detective Ted Cain can only remember one time the community truly felt unsafe.

“When Virginia Hannon was murdered, you could hear the doors locking in Pembroke,” he said.

In mid-February of 1984, 59-year-old Virginia Hannon’s body was discovered by a visiting nurse who was tending to Hannon’s brother-in-law several houses away on West Street. Hannon was supposed to have lunch with her brother-in-law that Monday morning, but instead, her body was found bloody and beaten in her home.

Hannon, who was found strangled, beaten and stabbed, was rumored to have been tortured by her attacker so that she would reveal where she kept roughly $280,000 in inheritance money, according to reports written at the time of the murder.

Then-Plymouth County District Attorney William C. O’Malley said there had been rumors, which he believed were not true, that she kept cash in the house, adding that the rumor might have prompted a robbery attempt. According to reporters, it was later discovered that the inheritance money had been deposited in a bank.

Police said the attack might have been connected to a series of break-ins that had occurred in town around the same time, and reports state that O’Malley said police investigators also theorized Hannon may have been tortured, but the theory never made it to trial — because the crime remained unsolved.

Fourteen years after the murder, in 1998, Cain became a detective in Pembroke, and ever since then he has been working hard with State Police and the district attorney’s office to find leads in the case.

“I have a file stacked so enormous on this case,” he said. “We have cleared up a lot of discrepancies over the years. We still believe that it can be solved.”

Despite the amount of time since the murder, Cain remains optimistic, and has not stopped working the case since he was handed the file on Hannon’s grisly murder 12 years ago.

“In 1984, there was no DNA testing. Luckily, at that point the State Police, along with Pembroke Police, ended up taking evidence that is now at the Massachusetts State Police Lab and is being tested as time permits,” said Cain.

Cain has worked closely with current Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz on the homicide.

“It’s still an open, and quite honestly, an active investigation and has been since I have been DA,” said Cruz, who has been in position for nine years. “When I first came in, we opened every unsolved homicide in the county and that certainly has remained as one of the more active investigations.”

Cruz said he is as optimistic as Cain to try and find out who killed Hannon 26 years ago.

“It’s fair to say the Pembroke never forgot and we haven’t either,” he said.


The murder shaken the community, but it didn’t stop two residents from making a life of their own at the home many years later.

Bill and Lisa Cullity live in the home where Hannon was murdered, and are both acquaintances of the victim’s family.

“We just want to see justice for a nice woman,” said Lisa.

Lisa said she tends to flowers that Hannon once planted in the yard as a keepsake in her memory.

“She was an avid gardener, and she always had lots of flowers. All the day lilies, I started feeding them, taking care of them, and they started coming back,” she said. “My one hope is that she looks down and sees I restored the flowers the best I could for her.”

Much like the flowers in the yard, a part of Hannon’s legacy lives on for Cain, whose goal it is to see the unsolved case go to trial during his time as detective.

“We are just doing the best we can with what we have, but I’m confident that we can solve this case,” he said."

Twenty-six years later: Cain is on the unsolved murder case

 

[Yemelyan]

Solved!

According to a source, officials identified a suspect who recently made a deathbed confession. The source said that confession was corroborated by DNA evidence.

5 Investigates: Suspect identified in brutal 1984 homicide

 

[Fede]

It seems the case is considered solved:
Decades-Old Cold Case Killing of Pembroke Woman Solved, DA Says

 

[Ray_of_hope]

Wow, so happy they solved this case. Justice for Virginia! She was such a gentle and kind woman. I knew her in elementary school. Sad that the killer turns out to be the brother of someone I graduated high school with. Quiet and nice kid the brother was. My whole family and I are happy. Mom loved Virginia. The police did 'wicked good'!

Virginia's Hannon's unsolved killing gets 'bittersweet' resolution

 

[imstilla.grandma]

DNA testing was not available in 1984, but as technology advanced over the years, cold case detectives tested and retested the evidence found at the crime scene, which included broken glass from Hannon’s door, nylon stockings and some bloody paper towels. In May 2018, prosecutors began working with forensic experts at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab to test the items for DNA.

In January 2019, after an “exhaustive testing process,” a male genetic profile was obtained from the evidence, authorities said. Prosecutors reached out to two companies, Identifinders and Parabon Nanolabs, to conduct genetic genealogy.

Parabon has become widely known for revolutionizing the field of DNA forensics, Cruz said.

Despite their track record, neither Parabon nor Identifinders was able to identify Hannon’s killer.
Deathbed confession, DNA match lead to suspect in 37-year-old murder of school lunch lady

 

[Slawsb]

Wow, so happy they solved this case. Justice for Virginia! She was such a gentle and kind woman. I knew her in elementary school. Sad that the killer turns out to be the brother of someone I graduated high school with. Quiet and nice kid the brother was. My whole family and I are happy. Mom loved Virginia. The police did 'wicked good'!

Virginia's Hannon's unsolved killing gets 'bittersweet' resolution

My Grandparents lived right down the street.
seeing the story made me remember my parents talking about it happening so close to my Grandparents house.
so glad they solved it.
Knowing people involved in hindsight can you see a connection???

 

[Ray_of_hope]

My Grandparents lived right down the street.
seeing the story made me remember my parents talking about it happening so close to my Grandparents house.
so glad they solved it.
Knowing people involved in hindsight can you see a connection???

Not really. The killer, Jesse, was 6 years younger than me. I don't even remember seeing him around town but when I was graduating from high school, he would have been 11 years old, so sixth grade. I remember Jesse's brother Jeff. Jeff was a nice guy, quiet and never any trouble. Right after graduation I began nursing school in Boston and stayed there to work. I believe the Aylward's lived in Furnace Colony which would have been about a mile from West St where Ginny lived. The whole thing was just so horrible for our small town, something that no one ever even thought could happen.

 

[Slawsb]

Not really. The killer, Jesse, was 6 years younger than me. I don't even remember seeing him around town but when I was graduating from high school, he would have been 11 years old, so sixth grade. I remember Jesse's brother Jeff. Jeff was a nice guy, quiet and never any trouble. Right after graduation I began nursing school in Boston and stayed there to work. I believe the Aylward's lived in Furnace Colony which would have been about a mile from West St where Ginny lived. The whole thing was just so horrible for our small town, something that no one ever even thought could happen.

My Grandparents were on West and we would always visit Little Sandy Beach in the summer when visiting

 

[Ray_of_hope]

My Grandparents were on West and we would always visit Little Sandy Beach in the summer when visiting

Loved Little Sandy Beach. I lived on Furnace Pond. I keep looking for more info on the perp but crickets.

 

[Slawsb]

I stopped by there in the summer of 2019 to have a look and visit the cemetary