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29 November 2020
FALL RIVER — The Bristol County DA’s office is asking the public’s help in solving a 32-year-old cold case involving the murder of an 11-year-old South End boy.
Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn, in a statement, said his cold case unit and state police investigators are actively revisiting and reviewing the unsolved murder case of Thomas Picard, who was reported missing on Oct. 2, 1988.
Quinn said scientific advances in forensic DNA technology and genetic genealogy -- which combines DNA testing and profiles with traditional genealogical methods -- “have provided new avenues for investigators to pursue” previously unsolved homicides.
Picard’s body was found more than three months later on January 7, 1989 in a shallow section of Cook Pond.
He was last seen by his mother, the day before she reported him missing, wearing gray corduroy pants, a striped shirt and white sneakers, Quinn said.
[...]
A Boston Globe story at the time reported that a medical examiner at Charlton Memorial Hospital had determined that Picard died of asphyxiation.
It also quoted the boy’s mother stating that police had told her they were close to making an arrest, and said that Picard’s fully clothed body had been found by two boys playing near Cook Pond.
Police trying to crack 1988 cold case of murdered Fall River boy
FALL RIVER — The Bristol County DA’s office is asking the public’s help in solving a 32-year-old cold case involving the murder of an 11-year-old South End boy.
Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn, in a statement, said his cold case unit and state police investigators are actively revisiting and reviewing the unsolved murder case of Thomas Picard, who was reported missing on Oct. 2, 1988.
Quinn said scientific advances in forensic DNA technology and genetic genealogy -- which combines DNA testing and profiles with traditional genealogical methods -- “have provided new avenues for investigators to pursue” previously unsolved homicides.
Picard’s body was found more than three months later on January 7, 1989 in a shallow section of Cook Pond.
He was last seen by his mother, the day before she reported him missing, wearing gray corduroy pants, a striped shirt and white sneakers, Quinn said.
[...]
A Boston Globe story at the time reported that a medical examiner at Charlton Memorial Hospital had determined that Picard died of asphyxiation.
It also quoted the boy’s mother stating that police had told her they were close to making an arrest, and said that Picard’s fully clothed body had been found by two boys playing near Cook Pond.
Police trying to crack 1988 cold case of murdered Fall River boy
