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Union Leader, The (Manchester, NH) January 3, 2000 Unsolved murders seldom forgotten Author: CISSY TAYLOR Union Leader Staff Edition: State Page: a1 Index Terms: cbt Estimated printed pages: 5 Article Text: They were infants and grandparents, teenagers and young adults. They were beaten, shot, choked or stabbed. Some died because someone else started a fire. In the past 30 years, about 80 percent of the homicides in New Hampshire have been solved and the killers brought to justice. It is the remaining, unresolved deaths that nag at investigators and prosecutors. It isn't that someone hasn't made a concerted effort to arrest, indict and convict the murderers. In some cases, investigators were able to narrow the search to a specific suspect, but for any number of reasons, there has not been enough evidence to arrest or indict those believed to have killed. State Police Sgt. David Kelley, head of the Historic Case Unit, said one of three things happens in a homicide investigation. "You have a case where you have no idea who's responsible for this, no leads, no information leading any direction," he said. "Or you have cases where you develop information, develop theories and may develop potential suspects," he said. "Then, there are the cases where you know who did it, but don't have the information to support an indictment or arrest. Those are the most frustrating." The Union Leader has been able to identify 100 victims, with assistance from representatives of the Attorney General's Office, State Police Major Crime Unit, the State Fire Marshal's Office and local police in Manchester, Concord, Nashua, Dover and Portsmouth. Each and every one is a mystery in its own way. There is David Braley, a young man from Belmont who was partying with friends at a Concord nightclub on Nov. 10, 1989. He disappeared and his body was pulled from the Merrimack River in Manchester four months later, too badly decomposed for the medical examiner to determine a cause of death. Concord Police Lt. George Pangakis said that while the medical examiner did not rule the death a homicide, the investigation suggested witnesses saw him being beaten behind the nightclub. Senior Assistant Attorney General Charles Putnam, head of the unit that is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all homicides in the state, expressed his own concern that some killers have gone unpunished. "Homicide by definition means another human being's life was erased," he said. "All of their hopes, all of their dreams, will never be realized." That is particularly true when the victims are young, he said. In 11 of the unsolved cases, the victims were teenagers, three of whom died in 1984, all at the age of 15. James Teta died of undisclosed causes and his body was found in Rindge on Aug. 25, 1984. Anne Psaradelis and Diane Compagna, 15-year-old friends from Merrimack, disappeared that July. Their bodies were found in Raymond in September. Authorities have never been able to determine exactly how they died. Two retired police officers, Joseph Horak from Merrimack and Robert Baker from Candia, have spent untold hours looking over the case. While they believe they know who killed the girls, they are unable to produce evidence to lead to an arrest. Not all of the victims have champions like Horak and Baker, who have devoted a great amount of time looking into the case, but it is rare that a case goes absolutely unnoticed. In Nashua, Detective Sgt. Frank Paison just this month pulled the file on the Gate City's only unsolved homicide in 30 years, the strangulation of a 74-year-old retired school teacher. The body of Madlyn Crouse was found Feb. 27, 1976, in her apartment. "Several people were investigated, no arrests were made. The case is still open," Paison said. "The case is still open." That phrase is spoken over and over again across the state. The statute of limitations never runs out on murder and often old cases are revisited and revived. The names of five women appear on the list as victims of what officials believe was a serial killer at work in the Connecticut River Valley in the early 1980s. The killer has never been identified. In 1984, two young women, Shirley Ann McBride, 15, of Concord, and Tammy Belanger, an 8-year-old from Exeter, disappeared in apparently unrelated incidents. The names of both appear on the unsolved homicide list because investigators are convinced they were murdered. But neither body was ever found. Belanger's case generated a lot of publicity, both then and continuing today. Hers is one of the cases that many people remember, because there have been so many stories written and told. But some on the list seem to be only remembered by their families, their friends, an investigator or a prosecutor. Thirty years is a long time to look back, one investigator suggested. If the killer was, say, a young man, in his 20s or 30s, he would be in his 50s or 60s now. Nonetheless, Putnam said, there are those in both his office and local law enforcement agencies who do pull old cases and look to see if something new can be done. State Police Lt. David Eastman, head of the Major Crime Unit that investigates probably 90 percent of the state's homicides, said the advancements in technology make a significant difference in how cases are looked at today. "You cannot apply 1990s standards to mid-'80s events," he said. "You cannot apply '90s standards to 1971 cases." For one thing, the state didn't have an office of the chief medical examiner until 1986. Before that, each of the 10 counties had its own volunteer, sometimes politically appointed medical referee, some of whom had no medical knowledge at all. The establishment of the medical examiner's office, first run by Dr. Roger Fossum, has made a big difference, Eastman said. Fossum, who died in 1993, was replaced by Dr. Thomas Andrew, who continues in the position, using all of the modern techniques available. "Wherever you take it," Eastman said, "there has been such a rapid explosion of technology . . . DNA, serology, forensics. We have seen quite an evolution of technology, policies and procedures in our lifetime." All that knowledge, however, has not yet helped identify at least three of the victims: a woman found in Bedford in 1971, and a woman and girl found in Allenstown in 1985. In the Allenstown case, the two were discovered stuffed in a barrel and were believed to have been dead from one to three years, both struck on the head. Even the release of sketches of what they would have looked like did no good. They remain unidentified, their deaths unresolved. And while any murder is wrong, it seems the deaths of children touch the hearts of everyone. In the past 30 years, four babies have died deaths that led officials to call them homicides. The 4-month-old daughter of a Keene couple, Lillian Hina, succumbed to smoke inhalation on Jan. 14, 1989, in a fire that officials declared was deliberately set. Also dying in that fire were her newlywed parents, Carl and Lori Hina, and Carl's daughter from a previous marriage, Sara, who was 12. News reports at the time said Sara was out of the apartment and being led down the stairs by a neighbor when she broke free and ran back for her parents and baby sister. The other unsolved babies' deaths are a 1-month-old, a 21-month-old and a 2-year-old. Each died of head or brain injuries, probably, Sgt. Kelley said, from what is now referred to as "shaken baby syndrome." Over the years, more than one fire was set to cover up a murder, but again, since there was no chief medical examiner until 1986, fire victims were not autopsied until Fossum came in, said State Fire Marshal Donald Bliss, whose office also investigates fatal arsons. "In addition, the State Fire Marshal's Office didn't have access to modern-day analytical equipment. "There may have been people killed prior to the fire that went unnoticed because there was no autopsy," Bliss said. Copyright 2000, 2002 Union Leader Corp. Record Number: 0F544F03F9559D88

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