New Boston Teen Still Missing
New Hampshire Union
Leader/New Hampshire Sunday News October 21, 1989
(PHOTO) A New Boston family is asking people to help them find
their teenage daughter. Carrie Moss, 14, has been missing since July 25,
1989. ''I'm hoping they'll give us some information,'' her mother, Sally
Moss, of Parker Road, said last night. ''She went to Goffstown to go
swimming with some friends,'' she said. ''That's the last we heard of her.''
State and local police are investigating the incident, which they are treating as a missing person case. Police records describe Carrie as 5-foot-2, 120 pounds, with fair complexion, light-brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing stone-washed jeans, a jean jacket and white, high-top sneakers.
''She could be (a runaway),'' her mother said. ''But we figured if she'd run away, the kids would have spotted her.'' Carrie's friends have told the family they haven't seen her, Sally Moss said. ''She had no reason to run away,'' her sister, 18-year-old Sherry Moss, said.
Carrie Moss was a student at Goffstown High School. In addition to speaking with her friends and police, the family has taken to putting up posters in the area, in their search for Carrie. ''We've put up 42 more posters this evening,'' Sherry said last night. Sherry and her mother sometimes drive local streets at night, looking for some sign of the girl. ''It's been quite a long time,'' sister Sherry said. ''Kids her age sometimes take off a couple of days and go drinking, experimenting. But this is ridiculous.''
Carrie is in their prayers, her mother said. ''Every night, all the time.''
The Moss family asks that anyone with any information about Carrie call her parents, Warren and Sally Moss, at 497-3564, or the state police.
Bones ID'd As Those of Missing Teen
Boston Herald August 2, 1991
NEW BOSTON, N.H. -- A skeleton found in woods last month has
been identified as a neighborhood teen-ager last seen on her bicycle in the
town two years ago. Authorities identified the skeleton Wednesday as that of
Carrie Moss, last seen in July 1989, when she was 14.
Her mother did not report her missing until
two months later, and the reporting delay is one of the questions facing
investigators. The other main question, and one that might remain unanswered
because the remains were so deteriorated is: How did the girl die?
Assistant Attorney General Michael Ramsdell
said the remains were found in woods about a half-mile from the girl's home.
Asked why there was a two-month delay in reporting her missing, Ramsdell said:
"That's what we are trying to figure out."
Moss' identification was made late Wednesday
through analysis of X-rays and dental records and items found with the remains,
authorities said.
Police Chief James McLaughlin, who took over
after the disappearance, said it's a complex case. "She was leaving to go
swimming and left on her bicycle," he said. "I have no real
understanding of why she was not reported missing until September."
There are theories, he said, one of them
being that her parents simply thought the girl would return home.
-- AP
Skeleton is identified as missing N.H. girl
Boston Globe Aug 2, 1991
Author: Ford, Royal
CONCORD, N.H. -- A skeleton found in the woods in New Boston has
been identified as that of Carrie Moss, who disappeared from her home two years
ago. She would have turned 16 in March of this year.
Roger M. Fossum, the state's chief medical examiner, confirmed
the identity yesterday, but said that even though he has a nearly complete
skeleton, he cannot tell how the teen-ager died.
Moss was last seen leaving her parents' home on July 25, 1989,
according to Kevin O'Brien of the major crimes unit of the State Police. She
said she was going to visit friends in Goffstown, though O'Brien said that the
site where her skeleton was found -- about a mile through the woods from her
parents' New Boston home -- is not on any route to Goffstown.
"It's isolated and remote," said O'Brien, the lead
investigator in the case.
He said that foul play has not been ruled out in the death, but
that police will now have to "go back to where we were on the day she
disappeared and reconstruct events from there."
"We're back at square one," added James McLaughlin,
the New Boston police chief.
"Now, at least, we probably have an idea of what questions
to ask" in reinterviewing people who might have information on the
disappearance, O'Brien said.
O'Brien said the condition of the skeleton indicates that Carrie
Moss died close to the time she was reported missing. He said those who have
reported spotting her in the meantime "were probably mistaken."
Carrie's mother did not report the girl missing until two months
after she disappeared, and the reporting delay is one of the questions
investigators are trying to unravel.
Asked why there was a two-month delay in reporting her missing,
Assistant Attorney General Michael Ramsdell said: "That's what we are
trying to figure out."
The girl's skeleton was found July 24 by a 10-year-old boy
playing in the woods.
McLaughlin said the mood in the small town west of Manchester is
"the typical scenario -- `Nothing like that ever happens here' -- but
unfortunately it did."
"Things like this do happen in both large and small
communities," McLaughlin said, noting that New Boston has changed along
with the rest of the suburban sprawl of southern New Hampshire.
"People come and they bring their baggage in a changing
population," he said.
He said Carrie Moss was not known to have had any problems
likely to have led her into trouble.
"Nothing more than your average 14-year-old going on
30," he said.
Had He Killed Before? Authorities Are Investigating Possible
Connection Between Vandebogart and Dead Teenager
New Hampshire Union Leader August 11, 1991
Author: TAMMY PLYLER
LONDONDERRY - Police
are looking for a possible link between Daniel Vandebogart and a girl whose
skeletal remains were recently found in New Boston, but so far have come up
with nothing, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Ramsdell.
Ramsdell said he heard reports that Vandebogart dated the girl, Carrie Moss, 14, but so far they have been unconfirmed - just rumors. At the suggestion of an unidentified tipster, however, Ramsdell said police are looking for a possible link to Vandebogart in Moss' disappearance.
Moss' skeletal remains were found two miles from her home on July 24, two years after she disappeared. Because her body was so badly decomposed, there is no way of telling how she died or whether she was the victim of foul play, Ramsdell said.
''We don't know whether they did date. We got information from an individual that perhaps Vandebogart should be looked at in connection with her (Moss') disappearance,'' Ramsdell said.
The investigative lead came as no surprise to Londonderry Police Chief Richard J. Bannon, who believes Vandebogart may have been a potential serial offender. Bannon said he belives there is a good possibility he committed other murders between the time he was released from prison in Montana in April 1988 and the time he was arrested for the murder of Kimberly Goss in September 1989.
''I think it's entirely possible, I really do. (The Manchester victim) and Kimberly Goss, those are the reported ones,'' Bannon said. ''It's a control thing, it has nothing to do with sex. Once they get that taste that power...if he hadn't been caught he'd have kept on going.''
''I'm not an expert. But the education and training I have leads me to believe Mr. Vandebogart could be a serial offender. He has four known offenses - all violent...and doesn't appear to have a bit of remorse. That would indicate there are some serious problems with the gentleman.''
Vandebogart, 28, formerly of 158 Bridge St., Manchester, was convicted last month of first-degree murder in connection with the September 1989 rape and strangulation death of Kimberly Goss, 29, of Londonderry. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole.
Bannon said the manner in which the evidence was found at the scene of the crime - apparently carefully placed and thought out - indicated from the start of the Goss investigation that police were dealing with something and someone out of the ordinary.
''This looked like a very clever, very shrewd individual placing things out there,'' Bannon said ''It was 'catch me if you can.' I started to think 'this guy's fooling with us, challenging us.' It was obvious we were dealing with someone who had done this before.''
Goss' body was found about 450 yards behind her Londonderry house, buried under forest vegetation.
Vandebogart's brother, Tony Vandebogart, said he provided a map to state police showing areas where he and Daniel worked for their uncle as laborers in the Goffstown, Weare and Dunbarton areas the summer Carrie Moss disappeared.
He told police about side roads in that area he was sure his brother knew about, but beside his personal feelings that his brother could have killed more than once, Tony Vandebogart said he had no concrete evidence to link his brother to Moss.
Carrie Moss was on her way to Goffstown when she left home the last time.
''I love him. He's my brother, but I don't like what he's done,'' said Tony Vandebogart, who manages a llama farm in Vermont.
It's only one of several leads on Moss' disappearance and death that police are pursuing. State Police Lt. John Barthelmes said police are also looking into a tip received last week that Moss may have travelled in the same social circle as Sonya Moore, the 14-year-old Penacook girl whose murdered body was found in Stark Pond in Dunbarton in April 1990, about five months after she disappeared.
Vandebogart was already in jail when Moore disappeared in early November 1989.
After Kimberly Goss was reported missing by her husband, it took searchers three days to find her body behind her home, but police found evidence early on and later used it at trial. A knife, sneakers and coat were all found quickly, the jacket concealed under some leaves. ''He made it semi-hard to find the jacket, easy to find the sneakers and knife, and hard to find the body,'' Bannon said about the Goss case. ''The body was quite a distance from the other things. It would indicate he spent a lot of time there.''
Bannon said an intelligence test would probably reveal Vandebogart is very smart, but he said Vandebogart outsmarted himself when he placed the body in a cool damp place. Semen found in Goss would not have deteriorated as quickly under those conditions as it would have if the body had been left in a warm, bright place.
The semen yielded DNA evidence introduced at trial. Bannon said under other conditions, it would have been unlikely police could have collected valuable seminal evidence.
Bannon said some of the things he saw at the scene of the crime and Vandebogart's subsequent behavior were consistent with his knowledge of serial offenders.
According to court testimony: * Vandebogart worked for his uncle most of the summer of 1989, starting out in the morning at a Bodwell Road garage just minutes from Kimberly Goss' Old Derry Road home. The company built houses in Dunbarton, Goffstown, Weare and Northfield.
* Vandebogart probably took Goss from her house at knifepoint. The knife was later discarded.
* Vandebogart tied Goss' wrists and ankles with pantyhose and shoelaces, and probably carried her to the woods behind her house. Police believe he gagged her with the white athletic sock he later strangled her with, left her for a few minutes, and moved his car from her home to another location on her street.
* Vandebogart forcibly sexually assaulted Goss, removing her lower clothing. * Vandebogart used considerable force in strangling Goss. * Vandebogart took a great deal of time to carefully conceal Goss' body.
* Vandebogart probably placed items of evidence at various locations around the crime scene. Police also found a riding crop, Goss' skirt and underwear, and a jar of vaseline nearby. Vandebogart's undoing was the sighting of his 1982 black Firebird near Goss' home and recording of the license plate by neighbor Carl Currier.
Bannon credited Currier with being the key to the investigation's success.
Upon checking the owner of the car and the owner's criminal record, police uncovered a pattern of crime consistent with the assault on Goss. They found Vandebogart had been twice convicted of rape, once in Virginia and once in Montana.
One victim was a male and one a female, but there were certain consistencies. * Both victims had been bound with bootlaces. * Both had been gagged. * Both had been held at knifepoint, but the knife was not used to cut. * The rapes took place in a secluded outdoor area. * Both had been bound with their hands behind their back. * Both had been gagged with white athletic socks. * Clothing was removed only from the lower body.
Vandebogart was himself a victim of sexual abuse by his parents. His mother, a tall, thin woman with reddish-blonde hair testified at his trial that she had sex with him as a young boy. The Virgina rape victim and Kimberly Goss had strawberry blonde hair as did Carrie Moss.
In addition to the two rape convictions, police discovered that at the time of Goss' murder, Vandebogart was awaiting trial on a charge he grabbed a Manchester woman by the throat after she spurned his sexual advances.
She escaped and pressed charges. Vandebogart was later convicted.
Sexual homicides are killings involving power, control, sexuality and aggressive brutality, according to a 1986 study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
Perpetrators of sexual homicides can be classified into two patterns, according to Vernon Geberth, a former New York City police officer.
According to his book, Practical Homicide Investigation, research shows there are organized, psychopathic offenders and disorganized, psychotic offenders.
While the disorganized offender's crimes are motiveless and bizarre, the organized psychopathic personality is methodical and cunning, his crimes carefully planned and carried out.
According to Geberth, he will: * Commit a crime out of his area of residency or work. * Likely own a car in good condition, be very mobile and travel more miles than the average person.
* Select a victim of the ''right'' type - someone he can control through manipulation or strength. * Usually pick strangers with common traits.
Vandebogart has been entered into the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, Bannon said.
(Staff reporter Nancy West contributed to this report.)
Ramsdell said he heard reports that Vandebogart dated the girl, Carrie Moss, 14, but so far they have been unconfirmed - just rumors. At the suggestion of an unidentified tipster, however, Ramsdell said police are looking for a possible link to Vandebogart in Moss' disappearance.
Moss' skeletal remains were found two miles from her home on July 24, two years after she disappeared. Because her body was so badly decomposed, there is no way of telling how she died or whether she was the victim of foul play, Ramsdell said.
''We don't know whether they did date. We got information from an individual that perhaps Vandebogart should be looked at in connection with her (Moss') disappearance,'' Ramsdell said.
The investigative lead came as no surprise to Londonderry Police Chief Richard J. Bannon, who believes Vandebogart may have been a potential serial offender. Bannon said he belives there is a good possibility he committed other murders between the time he was released from prison in Montana in April 1988 and the time he was arrested for the murder of Kimberly Goss in September 1989.
''I think it's entirely possible, I really do. (The Manchester victim) and Kimberly Goss, those are the reported ones,'' Bannon said. ''It's a control thing, it has nothing to do with sex. Once they get that taste that power...if he hadn't been caught he'd have kept on going.''
''I'm not an expert. But the education and training I have leads me to believe Mr. Vandebogart could be a serial offender. He has four known offenses - all violent...and doesn't appear to have a bit of remorse. That would indicate there are some serious problems with the gentleman.''
Vandebogart, 28, formerly of 158 Bridge St., Manchester, was convicted last month of first-degree murder in connection with the September 1989 rape and strangulation death of Kimberly Goss, 29, of Londonderry. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole.
Bannon said the manner in which the evidence was found at the scene of the crime - apparently carefully placed and thought out - indicated from the start of the Goss investigation that police were dealing with something and someone out of the ordinary.
''This looked like a very clever, very shrewd individual placing things out there,'' Bannon said ''It was 'catch me if you can.' I started to think 'this guy's fooling with us, challenging us.' It was obvious we were dealing with someone who had done this before.''
Goss' body was found about 450 yards behind her Londonderry house, buried under forest vegetation.
Vandebogart's brother, Tony Vandebogart, said he provided a map to state police showing areas where he and Daniel worked for their uncle as laborers in the Goffstown, Weare and Dunbarton areas the summer Carrie Moss disappeared.
He told police about side roads in that area he was sure his brother knew about, but beside his personal feelings that his brother could have killed more than once, Tony Vandebogart said he had no concrete evidence to link his brother to Moss.
Carrie Moss was on her way to Goffstown when she left home the last time.
''I love him. He's my brother, but I don't like what he's done,'' said Tony Vandebogart, who manages a llama farm in Vermont.
It's only one of several leads on Moss' disappearance and death that police are pursuing. State Police Lt. John Barthelmes said police are also looking into a tip received last week that Moss may have travelled in the same social circle as Sonya Moore, the 14-year-old Penacook girl whose murdered body was found in Stark Pond in Dunbarton in April 1990, about five months after she disappeared.
Vandebogart was already in jail when Moore disappeared in early November 1989.
After Kimberly Goss was reported missing by her husband, it took searchers three days to find her body behind her home, but police found evidence early on and later used it at trial. A knife, sneakers and coat were all found quickly, the jacket concealed under some leaves. ''He made it semi-hard to find the jacket, easy to find the sneakers and knife, and hard to find the body,'' Bannon said about the Goss case. ''The body was quite a distance from the other things. It would indicate he spent a lot of time there.''
Bannon said an intelligence test would probably reveal Vandebogart is very smart, but he said Vandebogart outsmarted himself when he placed the body in a cool damp place. Semen found in Goss would not have deteriorated as quickly under those conditions as it would have if the body had been left in a warm, bright place.
The semen yielded DNA evidence introduced at trial. Bannon said under other conditions, it would have been unlikely police could have collected valuable seminal evidence.
Bannon said some of the things he saw at the scene of the crime and Vandebogart's subsequent behavior were consistent with his knowledge of serial offenders.
According to court testimony: * Vandebogart worked for his uncle most of the summer of 1989, starting out in the morning at a Bodwell Road garage just minutes from Kimberly Goss' Old Derry Road home. The company built houses in Dunbarton, Goffstown, Weare and Northfield.
* Vandebogart probably took Goss from her house at knifepoint. The knife was later discarded.
* Vandebogart tied Goss' wrists and ankles with pantyhose and shoelaces, and probably carried her to the woods behind her house. Police believe he gagged her with the white athletic sock he later strangled her with, left her for a few minutes, and moved his car from her home to another location on her street.
* Vandebogart forcibly sexually assaulted Goss, removing her lower clothing. * Vandebogart used considerable force in strangling Goss. * Vandebogart took a great deal of time to carefully conceal Goss' body.
* Vandebogart probably placed items of evidence at various locations around the crime scene. Police also found a riding crop, Goss' skirt and underwear, and a jar of vaseline nearby. Vandebogart's undoing was the sighting of his 1982 black Firebird near Goss' home and recording of the license plate by neighbor Carl Currier.
Bannon credited Currier with being the key to the investigation's success.
Upon checking the owner of the car and the owner's criminal record, police uncovered a pattern of crime consistent with the assault on Goss. They found Vandebogart had been twice convicted of rape, once in Virginia and once in Montana.
One victim was a male and one a female, but there were certain consistencies. * Both victims had been bound with bootlaces. * Both had been gagged. * Both had been held at knifepoint, but the knife was not used to cut. * The rapes took place in a secluded outdoor area. * Both had been bound with their hands behind their back. * Both had been gagged with white athletic socks. * Clothing was removed only from the lower body.
Vandebogart was himself a victim of sexual abuse by his parents. His mother, a tall, thin woman with reddish-blonde hair testified at his trial that she had sex with him as a young boy. The Virgina rape victim and Kimberly Goss had strawberry blonde hair as did Carrie Moss.
In addition to the two rape convictions, police discovered that at the time of Goss' murder, Vandebogart was awaiting trial on a charge he grabbed a Manchester woman by the throat after she spurned his sexual advances.
She escaped and pressed charges. Vandebogart was later convicted.
Sexual homicides are killings involving power, control, sexuality and aggressive brutality, according to a 1986 study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
Perpetrators of sexual homicides can be classified into two patterns, according to Vernon Geberth, a former New York City police officer.
According to his book, Practical Homicide Investigation, research shows there are organized, psychopathic offenders and disorganized, psychotic offenders.
While the disorganized offender's crimes are motiveless and bizarre, the organized psychopathic personality is methodical and cunning, his crimes carefully planned and carried out.
According to Geberth, he will: * Commit a crime out of his area of residency or work. * Likely own a car in good condition, be very mobile and travel more miles than the average person.
* Select a victim of the ''right'' type - someone he can control through manipulation or strength. * Usually pick strangers with common traits.
Vandebogart has been entered into the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, Bannon said.
(Staff reporter Nancy West contributed to this report.)
14-year-old
murder gets another look
New Hampshire Union Leader January 6, 2005
Author: SCOTT DOLAN
NEW BOSTON -- State police yesterday said recent attempts by
detectives to contact people around town who once knew Carrie Moss when the
14-year-old New Boston girl disappeared in 1989 are "not unusual" for
an unsolved homicide.
Moss' skeletal remains were discovered in a wooded area of New Boston on July 24, 1991, a day before the second anniversary of her disappearance. A cause of death has never been determined, but police said in the past they believe she was murdered, according to Union Leader archives.
"It doesn't mean there's any new information," state police Sgt. Mark Mudgett, assistant commander of the Major Crimes Unit, said of the recent inquiries.
Mudgett said the Major Crimes Unit has many open cold cases, which detectives continually try to investigate. Renewed activity does not necessarily mean a lead or break in the case, he said.
"I can't comment specifically on Carrie Moss," he said. "It's not unusual. We're doing this for a bunch of unsolved homicides we are working on."
Moss, who had a history of running away, had left home on the day of her disappearance on July 25, 1989, to visit friends in Goffstown.
The case was complicated during the two years following her disappearance by dozens of purported sightings reported to police in places such as Lowell, Mass., and as far away as New York City. She was not reported missing until Sept. 15, 1989, according to Union Leader stories from the time.
A 10-year-old boy found Moss' remains in a wooded area off Riverdale Road, about two miles from her home on Parker Road, and authorities identified them as hers through X-rays and dental records.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery A. Strelzin, chief of his office's homicide unit, said homicide investigators working a cold case often "cover the same ground again" and re-interview people who knew the victim.
"In a case like this, you have to go back and get as much information as possible," Strelzin said.
Police in August 1991 looked at a possible link between Moss and a Manchester man, Daniel Vandebogart, who was arrested in September 1989 for another killing, that of 29-year-old Kimberly Goss of Londonderry, according to Union Leader archives.
To date, no one has been charged with Moss' death.
Moss' skeletal remains were discovered in a wooded area of New Boston on July 24, 1991, a day before the second anniversary of her disappearance. A cause of death has never been determined, but police said in the past they believe she was murdered, according to Union Leader archives.
"It doesn't mean there's any new information," state police Sgt. Mark Mudgett, assistant commander of the Major Crimes Unit, said of the recent inquiries.
Mudgett said the Major Crimes Unit has many open cold cases, which detectives continually try to investigate. Renewed activity does not necessarily mean a lead or break in the case, he said.
"I can't comment specifically on Carrie Moss," he said. "It's not unusual. We're doing this for a bunch of unsolved homicides we are working on."
Moss, who had a history of running away, had left home on the day of her disappearance on July 25, 1989, to visit friends in Goffstown.
The case was complicated during the two years following her disappearance by dozens of purported sightings reported to police in places such as Lowell, Mass., and as far away as New York City. She was not reported missing until Sept. 15, 1989, according to Union Leader stories from the time.
A 10-year-old boy found Moss' remains in a wooded area off Riverdale Road, about two miles from her home on Parker Road, and authorities identified them as hers through X-rays and dental records.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery A. Strelzin, chief of his office's homicide unit, said homicide investigators working a cold case often "cover the same ground again" and re-interview people who knew the victim.
"In a case like this, you have to go back and get as much information as possible," Strelzin said.
Police in August 1991 looked at a possible link between Moss and a Manchester man, Daniel Vandebogart, who was arrested in September 1989 for another killing, that of 29-year-old Kimberly Goss of Londonderry, according to Union Leader archives.
To date, no one has been charged with Moss' death.
Victims more than case files
The Union Leader Nov. 8, 2010
These are the six unsolved homicide investigations that are
currently the most active with the Cold Case Unit. Anyone with information
about them or any of the 125 unsolved homicides dating back to 1968 is asked to
call 271-3636, 271-2663 or e-mail coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov with tips.
Sonya Moore, 14, disappeared in 1989/1990.
Dunbarton: Sonya Moore was last seen on Nov. 2, 1989, when she
left home at 36 Summer St., Penacook. Her body was found on April 7, 1990, in
Stark Pond in Dunbarton. Sonya's body had been in the water for a significant
period of time and was discovered when the ice melted. The medical examiner
concluded that her death was result of homicidal violence of an unspecified
type.
Carrie Moss, 14, disappeared in 1989/1991
New Boston: Carrie Moss went missing on July 25, 1989, after she
had gone to visit friends in Goffstown. Carrie's skeletal remains were
discovered in a wooded area of New Boston on July 18, 1991. A cause of death
was never determined because of the decomposition; however, the case has been
treated as a homicide.
Thomas Conrad, 54, murdered in 2005
North Haverhill: On Sept. 28, 2005, Thomas Conrad died from
multiple gunshot wounds outside his home at 170 Lilly Pond Road in Pike (North
Haverhill).
David Longfellow, 17, murdered in 1974
Manchester: On Nov. 24, 1974 at 3 a.m., Manchester police were
called to Hermit Road in regards to a shooting victim. Upon arrival, they found
a male subject gunned down while he was seated inside his car. A girl was also
present at the time of the shooting but was not hurt. The male victim was
identified as David Longfellow.
Robert "Flippy" Heckbert, 30, murdered in 1988
Manchester: On the morning of March 9, 1988, at 8 a.m.,
Manchester police discovered the body of Robert "Flippy" Heckbert,
floating face down in the Merrimack River in Manchester. An autopsy revealed
that Robert died from a combination of a severe beating to the head and
drowning.
Catherine Millican,
26, murdered in 1978
New London: On Oct. 24, 1978, Catherine
Millican was photographing birds at the Chandler Brook Wetland preserve in New
London when she was stabbed more than 20 times. Her body was found just yards
from where she had been taking photographs of the birds.
26 years later, the pain of not knowing the answers remains by Cassidy Swanson Union Leader July 25, 2015
26 years later, the pain of not knowing the answers remains by Cassidy Swanson Union Leader July 25, 2015
NEW BOSTON - It's been 26 years to the day since Carrie Moss was
last seen alive.
It was July 1989, and Carrie was 14. With a black, one-piece bathing suit on underneath her stonewashed jeans, white T-shirt and white boots, Carrie hopped on her bike to meet friends in Goffstown to go swimming. It was the last time her family saw her alive.
Nearly two years later, her skeletal remains were found in a clearing just a few miles from her home.
"Carrie would've been 40," said Annette Brendle, one of Carrie's three older sisters, in an interview at her New Boston home. "She would've been married with kids. Her life was taken from her."
Her death was ruled a homicide, but remains a cold case. Now the Moss family has re-upped its efforts to find out what happened to their beloved daughter and sister.
Troubling times
Annette, who was 10 years older than Carrie, describes her little sister as "a young girl who grew up fast."
"She just . seemed to get in with the wrong group of people," she said. "She had her friends and liked to party . "
"You'd send her to school, (and) she'd leave school with friends," said Sally Moss, Carrie's mother. "Stuff like that."
At the time she went missing, Carrie was dating an 18-year-old man from Goffstown. She had been arrested for possession of marijuana, landing her under house arrest.
But after run-ins with the law, she seemed to be straightening out, her family said. She loved horseback riding and enjoyed working as a counselor at a local camp.
On the day she disappeared, Sally had cautioned her daughter not to go, as she had a court date the next day. But she went anyway.
In the weeks following Carrie's disappearance, people began to speculate about what had happened.
"We got a call from one kid - we don't know who it was - who said she was dead beside the road," Sally said. The caller, who never identified himself, hung up and never contacted the family again.
Other rumors were circulating. Annette said she'd heard that some men driving a pickup truck were spotted chasing her on her bicycle; others claimed they'd seen Carrie on the highway, trying to hitchhike to Lowell, Mass.; Carrie's boyfriend called and said she was working as a prostitute in New York City and didn't want to be found.
The family never lost hope that Carrie was alive, following all leads and searching throughout New England. When police told the family in July 1991 that remains of a young girl had been found by a 10-year-old boy and they were likely Carrie's, her mother didn't believe it, convinced she had seen Carrie on a search through Lowell.
It wasn't until dental records and a broken leg bone confirmed it was Carrie that the family had to face the truth. The family later searched the area and found clothes that belonged to Carrie less than 50 yards from where her skeleton was found.
Media attention
"It was impossible to get away from (the media)," Sally said. News vans and reporters also came up from Boston. Sally and her late husband, Warren, left town for a time, and would eventually cremate and bury Carrie's remains in a family plot in New Boston.
"I remember being upset because we couldn't get any (media) interested when she was missing," said Mike Brendle, Annette's husband. "Then all of a sudden, everyone wanted to know about it."
Renewed interest
In recent months, the family began working with the cold case unit of the New Hampshire Attorney General's office to find answers. Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati said Carrie's case is unique in that all of the possible witnesses were very young, between the ages of 12 and 22.
"It's always interesting and challenging to interview anybody within that age group," Agati said. "Sometimes, you get answers where it seems like the witness just wasn't really focused .??. You have a group of witnesses (and) some were throwing out anything they could think of, and other ones, we think, were definitely holding back on information that they had."
Agati said he is certain there are people still in the area who hold information about what happened.
"We don't see that in every one of our cases," he said. ". That can be the crack that could lead this case to break wide open."
"What we see is that, in some cases, people just say, 'Well, I was never asked,'?" said Joelle Wiggin, a cold case victim's advocate for the attorney general.
"Some people are just trying to shut it out and say, 'That was a part of my life when I was a different person,'?" Agati added. "They try not to remember that time."
Efforts continue
The Moss family has also started a blog, "Justice for Carrie Moss," to get out their story and, hopefully, find clues. The site was designed with the help of Ronda Maxwell Randal, an elementary school classmate of Annette's who also has a blog dedicated to the case of the remains of a woman and three girls who are believed to have been her children, found in Allenstown between 1985 and 2000.
"The thing that really sticks out is how few of Carrie's friends contacted the Moss family," Maxwell Randal said. She scanned and posted a handwritten list to the blog of more than 60 acquaintances of Carrie's who the family believes could have information.
"I think there probably are a number of people who know what happened to her," she said. "There hasn't really been a forum for that. My hope is that the blog becomes a place where people see Carrie as more than one description, like 'troubled runaway' . but they really see her and her family and her life, and get a better sense of who she was, and maybe will reach out to the family."
A family's plea
The family has its suspicions about who may have been involved in Carrie's disappearance - all men.
Annette says she will still approach people in public who she thinks were involved with Carrie's death.
"You want closure, but you also want someone to pay the price for taking your little sister's life," she said.
The family says it's difficult knowing there are people who likely know what happened to Carrie - but at this point, they just want answers.
"Someone out there knows something," said Leonard Moss, Carrie's only brother. "It's funny how her friends all scattered at the same time."
"Any bit of information . even if they don't think that it's important, they should come forward with (what they know)," said Wendy Plourde, another of Carrie's older sisters. "It's never too late."
Anyone with information about the disappearance and/or death of Carrie Moss should contact the New Hampshire State Police at 271-3575; the New Hampshire Attorney General, 271-3658; the New Boston Police Department, 487-2433; or the Manchester or Concord Regional Crimeline, 624-4040 or 226-3100. Tips can also be given directly to Annette Brendle by calling 486-4753, emailing carriemossnh@gmail.com or mailing her at 59 Whipplewill Road, New Boston 03070.
Best little girl in the world The Goffstown News Sep 18, 2018 by Jerel Speck
It was July 1989, and Carrie was 14. With a black, one-piece bathing suit on underneath her stonewashed jeans, white T-shirt and white boots, Carrie hopped on her bike to meet friends in Goffstown to go swimming. It was the last time her family saw her alive.
Nearly two years later, her skeletal remains were found in a clearing just a few miles from her home.
"Carrie would've been 40," said Annette Brendle, one of Carrie's three older sisters, in an interview at her New Boston home. "She would've been married with kids. Her life was taken from her."
Her death was ruled a homicide, but remains a cold case. Now the Moss family has re-upped its efforts to find out what happened to their beloved daughter and sister.
Troubling times
Annette, who was 10 years older than Carrie, describes her little sister as "a young girl who grew up fast."
"She just . seemed to get in with the wrong group of people," she said. "She had her friends and liked to party . "
"You'd send her to school, (and) she'd leave school with friends," said Sally Moss, Carrie's mother. "Stuff like that."
At the time she went missing, Carrie was dating an 18-year-old man from Goffstown. She had been arrested for possession of marijuana, landing her under house arrest.
But after run-ins with the law, she seemed to be straightening out, her family said. She loved horseback riding and enjoyed working as a counselor at a local camp.
On the day she disappeared, Sally had cautioned her daughter not to go, as she had a court date the next day. But she went anyway.
In the weeks following Carrie's disappearance, people began to speculate about what had happened.
"We got a call from one kid - we don't know who it was - who said she was dead beside the road," Sally said. The caller, who never identified himself, hung up and never contacted the family again.
Other rumors were circulating. Annette said she'd heard that some men driving a pickup truck were spotted chasing her on her bicycle; others claimed they'd seen Carrie on the highway, trying to hitchhike to Lowell, Mass.; Carrie's boyfriend called and said she was working as a prostitute in New York City and didn't want to be found.
The family never lost hope that Carrie was alive, following all leads and searching throughout New England. When police told the family in July 1991 that remains of a young girl had been found by a 10-year-old boy and they were likely Carrie's, her mother didn't believe it, convinced she had seen Carrie on a search through Lowell.
It wasn't until dental records and a broken leg bone confirmed it was Carrie that the family had to face the truth. The family later searched the area and found clothes that belonged to Carrie less than 50 yards from where her skeleton was found.
Media attention
"It was impossible to get away from (the media)," Sally said. News vans and reporters also came up from Boston. Sally and her late husband, Warren, left town for a time, and would eventually cremate and bury Carrie's remains in a family plot in New Boston.
"I remember being upset because we couldn't get any (media) interested when she was missing," said Mike Brendle, Annette's husband. "Then all of a sudden, everyone wanted to know about it."
Renewed interest
In recent months, the family began working with the cold case unit of the New Hampshire Attorney General's office to find answers. Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati said Carrie's case is unique in that all of the possible witnesses were very young, between the ages of 12 and 22.
"It's always interesting and challenging to interview anybody within that age group," Agati said. "Sometimes, you get answers where it seems like the witness just wasn't really focused .??. You have a group of witnesses (and) some were throwing out anything they could think of, and other ones, we think, were definitely holding back on information that they had."
Agati said he is certain there are people still in the area who hold information about what happened.
"We don't see that in every one of our cases," he said. ". That can be the crack that could lead this case to break wide open."
"What we see is that, in some cases, people just say, 'Well, I was never asked,'?" said Joelle Wiggin, a cold case victim's advocate for the attorney general.
"Some people are just trying to shut it out and say, 'That was a part of my life when I was a different person,'?" Agati added. "They try not to remember that time."
Efforts continue
The Moss family has also started a blog, "Justice for Carrie Moss," to get out their story and, hopefully, find clues. The site was designed with the help of Ronda Maxwell Randal, an elementary school classmate of Annette's who also has a blog dedicated to the case of the remains of a woman and three girls who are believed to have been her children, found in Allenstown between 1985 and 2000.
"The thing that really sticks out is how few of Carrie's friends contacted the Moss family," Maxwell Randal said. She scanned and posted a handwritten list to the blog of more than 60 acquaintances of Carrie's who the family believes could have information.
"I think there probably are a number of people who know what happened to her," she said. "There hasn't really been a forum for that. My hope is that the blog becomes a place where people see Carrie as more than one description, like 'troubled runaway' . but they really see her and her family and her life, and get a better sense of who she was, and maybe will reach out to the family."
A family's plea
The family has its suspicions about who may have been involved in Carrie's disappearance - all men.
Annette says she will still approach people in public who she thinks were involved with Carrie's death.
"You want closure, but you also want someone to pay the price for taking your little sister's life," she said.
The family says it's difficult knowing there are people who likely know what happened to Carrie - but at this point, they just want answers.
"Someone out there knows something," said Leonard Moss, Carrie's only brother. "It's funny how her friends all scattered at the same time."
"Any bit of information . even if they don't think that it's important, they should come forward with (what they know)," said Wendy Plourde, another of Carrie's older sisters. "It's never too late."
Anyone with information about the disappearance and/or death of Carrie Moss should contact the New Hampshire State Police at 271-3575; the New Hampshire Attorney General, 271-3658; the New Boston Police Department, 487-2433; or the Manchester or Concord Regional Crimeline, 624-4040 or 226-3100. Tips can also be given directly to Annette Brendle by calling 486-4753, emailing carriemossnh@gmail.com or mailing her at 59 Whipplewill Road, New Boston 03070.
Best little girl in the world The Goffstown News Sep 18, 2018 by Jerel Speck
A metal heart, painted crimson-red, resides pinned to a granite boulder on Gregg Mill Road in New Boston. It was originally erected in the 1950s to commemorate the spot where Eddie Boch proposed to his wife, Helen. This iron heart gives the road a certain small-town charm with its legend of everlasting love.
Riverdale Road is a little down the road from this quaint rural setting. You might see a family fishing under the bridge that goes over a branch of the Picataquog River at its beginning. Lost dog signs show up on every other telephone pole along its shoulders until it turns to dirt, about a quarter a mile in. On a country road like this, one wouldn’t think anything bad could ever happen, but something most certainly did 29 years ago.
Lying in wait:
There had been a humid stretch of weather in New Boston, well into July 24, 1991, that made enjoying the dog days of summer especially difficult for young 10-year-old Liam Fredrick Fernald and his four friends in back of his home on Riverdale Road.
Instead of seeing a deer or finding an old shot-up can in the woods, Liam and his friends would find something else in a clearing not too far from his parent’s property.
The five boys rushed back to the Fernald home and started to act very nervous in front of Liam’s mom, Sheila. She just figured they were up to no good or something, like some young boys on their summer vacation from school.
They were like, “I’m not going to tell, you tell,” to each other.
“Somebody better tell,” Sheila responded, “Somebody better say it.”
“We found a body out in the woods,” one of them replied, “And it’s human.”
“How do you know it’s human?” she said.
“It’s human, we know,” they answered back almost in unison.
Figuring they would know the difference between human and animal remains, she just reasoned, “OK, when dad comes home, we’ll tell him about it. He can go and see. Then we’ll see what we need to do.”
Liam’s mother remained calm, all things considered. This wasn’t the kind of stuff June Cleaver had to deal with on the ’50s television show, “Leave it to Beaver,” after all. Something like this was undiscovered country for an early ’90s mom raising her kids in the sticks back then.
When Liam’s father, William, came home from his job as a telephone engineer, the Fernalds were eating dinner at the table when Sheila remembered what the boys had found.
“Liam, did you tell dad what you found today?”
“No, you tell him.”
After he finished his dinner, he told Liam to direct him to the remains. Fernald had never been in that part of the woods before, as, technically, it wasn’t his property.
He had no idea where they were going or how far, as he wasn’t carrying a compass and it was getting dark fast. They came back soon after finding it.
“Yeah, that is what it was,” he told his wife as he phoned the police.
The visit:
“I get this little tap-tap on my shoulder and there’s Carrie’s face right there,” Carrie Moss’s now 75-year-old mother, Sally, said about a recent dream about her daughter.
“She’s much older now, maybe in her early 40s. She has curly hair and looked like she has been outdoors for a bit,” Sally said.
“It won’t be long now,” Carrie tells her mother with a reassuring smile.
“My husband was behind her in a wooded area of white birches and when I came to and looked, there was nothing there. I kind of wonder if it was her telling me that it wouldn’t be long now before they got the person. I laid there and thought, thought and thought for about an hour. It was definitely Carrie,” said Sally.
She then got up with Buddy, her devoted 15-year-old dog, and walked outside to collect wildflowers at her house along the Piscataquog River, the way Carrie used to do as a child.
Even at age 3, Carrie used to assure her mother, “I’ll even go down into the field and won’t go near the river.”
Carrie would fill all of these little vases throughout the house with flowers, such as lady slippers, violets and mayflowers. When they started to go by after a few days, she would go out again and pick fresh ones.
“I thought of her when I was out there, so I started picking them as I was walking with him,” Sally said, as she makes little bouquets for the same little vases Carrie used to fill.
This is how Sally keeps the daughter she lost close to her today and every day. It’s been a long road of not knowing who took Carrie’s life 29 years ago, but Sally continues to trudge along keeping her youngest daughter in her fondest memories.
The Little Pink Girl:
Carrie Esther Moss was born on March 13, 1975, as a healthy baby girl, 7 pounds, 10 ounces, at the Elliot Hospital in Manchester. She was born in the evening and came home the next day, showing that even then she was in a hurry to grow up.
The nurses would call her “The Little Pink Girl,” because of her pinkish color she had for the first week, before it eventually faded away.
Sally had let her daughters, Annette and Wendy, name Carrie when she was born. They had based her name on the youngest sibling, Carrie Ingalls, on the then-popular TV show “Little House on the Prairie.”
Her middle name, Esther, came from her 100-year-old aunt, Josephine Esther Warren.
“She was the baby of the family,” Annette remembers. “Everyone just doted over her.”
She would even make her little sister a pumpkin costume out of papier-mâché for Halloween for one year.
“She was a fun, happy, quiet kid. She loved animals,” said Annette.
Sally reminisced, “One day, I missed her and she was about 5. We had chickens on the side hill and I would take potato skins, boil them up and let them set. The next thing I knew Carrie was missing. I looked all around the house. No Carrie, and I found my pot of stuff was missing. So, I go down (to the shed) and crack the door a little bit. She is sitting on the pail saying ‘One for you, one for you…’ She had those chickens all lined up and was feeding them. She liked doing stuff like that.”
She also recalled, “Wendy had called and said that she was pregnant, with Sarah, our first grandchild, and Carrie then says, ‘You call her right back. She cannot have a baby right now, I’m not old enough!’
“When the baby was born, we went for a ride up and saw her. We get back in the truck to go home after and Carrie moves up to the rear-view mirror and says, ‘Huh. Being an aunt isn’t going to be so bad after all.’ What do you mean, by that, I ask her? ‘Well, I thought I would get all wrinkly like Aunt Agnes and I don’t think I could live that way.’”
Carrie would become a great auntie in her own right and would help watch after her many nieces and nephews.
One winter day, Carrie decided to do a little landscaping by making a hill to ski down behind her home.
She had shoveled a path in the snow and put the excess snow at the bottom in a pile.
Sally had pointed out to her that she was going to ski into it and break her leg. She went down regardless and that’s when her mom heard the screaming. Carrie was then on crutches for a few months.
Around the age of 10, this downhill racer’s interest abruptly shifted to horses.
A neighbor on Parker Road, where the Mosses lived, had horses. Carrie helped out there, as well as visiting a stable in Goffstown.
Her parents got her a railroad box car, as she kept looking for a horse she could connect with, but could only find ones too old.
She found a 3-year-old horse in Francestown, but the woman wouldn’t sell it to her because of the family’s lack of experience around horses.
When Carrie finally found one, she went to horse shows and won ribbons in various competitions.
Her interest in horses also translated to page as she wrote many horse-related stories in notebooks, with one titled “Black Magic and Me,” for instance.
The family still holds almost a dozen of these books, mainly about a girl finding adventure with her trusty steed, with the main theme generally being about taking off and being free.
Her mom, Sally, supported all this, along with ceramic painting as an effort to keep her away from the wrong crowd. In fact, Carrie had even painted a little golden-haired angel that bears an uncanny resemblance to her.
So, when Carrie’s body was recovered in 1991, after being missing for two years, the police went to notify the family after identifying Carrie by her unique strawberry-blonde hair and the knee bone from her old skiing accident.
Sally was home alone at the time as her husband was at work. She was in total disbelief, as she didn’t think that it could possibly be her daughter in that isolated clearing that the boys found.
Sally had personally looked everywhere and was positive her daughter was still out there, alive. Regardless, it certainly looked like Carrie Moss would be finally coming home.
Today:
It doesn’t seem fair that when the Mosses get together for family gatherings, Carrie isn’t there. She should be there with kids of her own for Grammie Sally to spoil.
But, here they are 29 years later and still no one has ever been apprehended for her murder.
But, rest assured, the family, police and friends will never stop looking for justice for Carrie. It might take another year or two, or even a decade, but they will never stop until they find the person or persons responsible.
“It won’t be long now,” Carrie says with a wistful smile stretched across her lips in her mother’s dream.
No, it probably won’t.
Help solve the case:
If you have any kind of information about Carrie’s disappearance or death, contact the New Hampshire State Police’s Cold Case Unit at 271-2663.
You can also reach out to her sister, Annette, at carriemoss NH@gmail.com or by calling 486-4753. Anonymous tips can also be mailed to Annette Brendle, 59 Whipple Road, New Boston, NH 03070.
This was someone’s daughter. Help bring some much-needed closure for this grieving family in our community. It’s been far too long.
COVER PHOTO: Baby Carrie Moss discovers herself in a mirror. The Moss family still seeks answers about the untimely death of their daughter in 1991.
Carrie Moss with her gerbil, Smokey.
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