The Girls of New England: Missing and Murdered

UPDATE on Judith Chartier case: In 2021, Hans Hug of Exeter, NH (owner of Sonar Search & Recovery) and Bruce Stebbins of Billerica, MA (familiar with the Chartier case and owner of a remotely operated vehicle) found Chartier's vehicle in the Concord River not far from where she disappeared. Police divers were then able to recover her remains nearby. 

So many girls with strawberry-blond hair missing in New England. I think I'll expand the years into the 1990s and add girls like Joleene Shaunteal Boulerisse, [Joleene Boulerisse] age 18, missing from Swanzey NH in 1994. Possible runaway? Maybe not. 

These girls (ages 14 to 17) went missing between 1979 and 1991 and are still missing.

Selinda Winegar, Rachael Garden, Laureen Rahn,  Shirley McBride, Catherine Malcolmson, Kimberly Moreau, Melanie Melanson, Jennifer Fay, Heidi Wilbur. [Elizabeth Lamotte was found deceased in TN in 1985] 

These girls (ages 14-17) are the victims of unsolved homicides between the years 1978 to 1989.

Paula Kallenback, Heidi Martin, Bernice Courtemanche, Carrie Moss, Sonya Moore


Girls to be added:

Rosanne Robinson, 17, hitch-hiking in MA. Found strangled in Lincoln, RI. June 1980.

Deanna Cremin, age 17, visited friends on March 29, 1995 in Somerville, MA and was allegedly walked halfway home by her boyfriend but never arrived at home. She was found the next day in Somerville, less than a block from her home. She was lying on her back, mostly undressed and had been strangled. "In the days following her death, police were also looking for an unidentified man - described by police as 5 feet, 11 inches tall and between 10 [sic] to 170 pounds - who was seen near the area where the body was found."   A plea from Deanna's mother.

Wanda Mitchell, age 15, Maine. 1980.

Tammy Marie Lynds, age 15, left her home in Springfield, MA on the evening of July 21, 1994 and disappeared. Her body was found November 4, 1994 in woods less than a mile from her home. Cause of death has apparently never been determined or at least not released. More on Tammy Lynds. 

I need to start adding girls over the age of 17, perhaps 18-21. There are a number of them too. 

19 yr old Brenda LaCombe disappeared from Lowell, MA in 1982. Her body was discovered weeks later in Harvard, MA.

Claire Gravel, 20 year old who disappeared June 29th, 1986 from Salem, MA and whose body was found the following day off Rte 128 in Beverly, MA.

UPDATE: 8/25/2022: Thank you to a reader of this blog who notified me that a Massachusetts inmate has been indicted this week for the murder of Claire Gravel. "John Carey, 63, was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday and will be arraigned on first-degree murder in Salem Superior Court at a later time, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett announced.

He is currently serving a prison term in Concord for a 2008 conviction of assault and attempted murder."

Mary Tanner, age 18, found beaten to death in Lyman, ME in July 1978 

****

Scott Christopher Malsky. He and his brother have quite the history and some ties to Massachusetts.

Scott

Teen-ager found days after attack  

By David Green The HERALD TRIBUNE, SARASOTA, FLORIDA    2/3/98

The man accused of beating, raping and stabbing a 14-year-old Punta Gorda girl and leaving her in the woods to die was also a suspect in an unsolved 1993 Port Charlotte murder.

Christopher Scott Malsky, 22, of Punta Gorda was a suspect in the murder of 79-year-old Pauline Farrington, according to sources at the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

Farrington was raped and stabbed numerous times in her Port Charlotte home in July 1993. Detectives received reports that a young man resembling Malsky was seen driving Farrington's stolen car in the days after her murder, but Malsky was never charged.

Malsky is now accused of abducting 14-year-old Jennifer Wolfgang last Tuesday and taking her to a remote North Port development site. Jennifer told detectives Malsky raped her, clubbed her in the head with a baseball bat, stabbed her nearly 30 times and left her to die.

Malsky was arrested Sunday in Delaware on charges of aggravated sexual battery and attempted murder in the Punta Gorda case. He is being held on $1 million bail at Gander Hill prison in Wilmington, Del., where he is fighting extradition, authorities said.

``He never acted like he would hurt anybody,'' said Dorothy Bartlett, Jennifer's mother. ``He's a damn good actor. He acted like he was all concerned (while Jennifer was missing). Nothing in his voice made him sound like he did it.''

A motorist saw the teen-ager staggering down Woodhaven Drive in North Port at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. She had been hiding in the palmetto bushes for four days.

Blinded by the bludgeoning, Jennifer told her mother that she crawled toward the sound of traffic.

``She didn't even know where she was,'' Bartlett said. ``She's angry at him. She's very angry.''

Doctors say the cold temperatures at night may have helped keep Jennifer alive, slowing her circulation and reducing blood loss from her multiple stab wounds to the neck and abdomen.

Jennifer was listed in critical but stable condition Monday at Bon Secours-St. Joseph Hospital in Port Charlotte. She underwent surgery Monday to repair a gash on her forehead and a shattered cheek, her mother said.

Malsky's older brother, Shawn Malsky, was charged in the 1990 stabbing death of a Deep Creek woman. The victim, Sharon Gill, was stabbed nearly 40 times with a pen knife.

Charges against Shawn Malsky, 28, of Charlotte County, were dropped in 1995 after prosecutors were unable to discredit his alibi that he was running errands at the time.

The similarity, however, between the excessive stab wounds in Jennifer Wolfgang's case and the Deep Creek murder has prompted Charlotte detectives to re-examine Christopher Malsky's connection to the case, sources said.

His criminal record in New Bedford, Mass., where he grew up, is extensive.

-- He was a suspect in a 1992 assault with intent to maim case, but was never charged.

-- He was charged with aggravated rape, kidnapping, assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and battery in connection with a June 1996 case in which a prostitute was raped and threatened with a

broken bottle.

After screaming at her that he hated prostitutes, the woman's attacker beat her unconscious with a board. The woman woke up and screamed. Her assailant fled.

-- Malsky was charged with aggravated rape, kidnapping, assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and battery in connection with a second crime that occurred three days after the first prostitute attack.

The second victim was raped and strangled with a piece of wire. She also yelled for help, causing her attacker to run.

Both women identified their attacker as Malsky. They described many of his 23 tattoos and the license plate number of the car.

Malsky was acquitted in September 1997 in the first attack. A jury decided it had been too dark for the victim to properly identify him.

He was acquitted two weeks ago in the second incident after friends testified he had been drinking with them at the time.

That latest acquittal, Jan. 17, freed him to journey to Port Charlotte, where he rejoined his father and brother -- and started visiting Jennifer Wolfgang's trailer at 2600 block Sunshine Blvd., Punta Gorda. Malsky knew Jennifer's mother, Dorothy Bartlett, because his brother Shawn had dated her, according to friends of the family. On Jan. 27, Christopher Malsky lured Jennifer out of the house with a promise to buy her a pack of cigarettes, friends said.

``She said she was going to the store with him,'' said Tiffany Scoles, 20. ``She gave me a hug and a kiss. That was the last time I saw her.''

As concern rose in the wake of Jennifer's disappearance, detectives grew suspicious of Malsky.

They summoned him to a sheriff's substation at noon Friday for questioning. A search of his car turned up a bag of marijuana and a pipe.

Detectives said they also found a baseball bat in the trunk -- the weapon they believe he may have used to bludgeon Jennifer so badly that her eyes swelled shut.

Malsky was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana and paraphernalia. But he was released on $1,000 bail two hours later.

Despite the fact that Malsky was a suspect in Jennifer's disappearance and had an extensive criminal history, sheriff's officials chose not to place him under surveillance after releasing him.

``We didn't know if the girl was harmed, or unharmed,'' said sheriff's Col. John Davenport. ``We didn't know if she'd run away, or been abducted. We had no indication a crime had been committed.''

Malsky fled the state in his two-door Buick that afternoon.

He was on his way back to Massachusetts, authorities believe, when Jennifer crawled from the woods where she had been hiding for 90 hours.

Malsky was arrested by Delaware State Police on Sunday after they caught him speeding on an interstate.

Two North Port police officers are traveling to Delaware today to interview him.

They will also bring Malsky's car back to Florida, where they will examine it for evidence.

Malsky sentenced to life for '93 murder
By JENNY LEE ALLEN   May 7, 2003

When Scott was 17, he raped and killed a 79 year old woman in Port Charlotte, FL, stabbed and strangled her.... 

"His older brother Shawn was charged in the 1990 murder of Deep Creek resident Sharon Gill, who was stabbed repeatedly with a penknife. The charges were dropped in 1995 because the prosecutors couldn’t discredit his alibi." (see update below)

Shawn


And he has quite the history of violence against women in Florida, perhaps partially attributed to his own childhood abuse at the hands of his mother in Massachusetts.

  2014 news article: Shawn's alibi in the Gill murder has now been discredited. 

So... back to New Bedford? Is there any chance that Shawn Malsky could be the New Bedford Highway Killer? "The victims all struggled with drug addiction, and some had histories of prostitution. But the killer was mysterious. He left few clues, and no eye witnesses..." (Bob Ward article) Did Shawn travel back and forth to New Bedford as his brother did?

From the looks of his 2017 mugshot, Shawn seems to be in poor health. Hope he lives long enough for new DNA advances to connect him to all crimes he and his brother may have committed.