Where's Molly? Bay State Mystery
Molly Bish Murder Mystery Remains Unsolved
December 3, 2003
48 hours mystery
(CBS) When a child goes missing, you do anything and everything the police ask
you to do -- because those first hours can be critical to solving the case.
But when hours turn into days and weeks, or even months and years, there’s
desperation and a willingness to look anywhere for answers.
John and Magi Bish needed to find their daughter, Molly, who disappeared in 2000
in the town of Warren, Mass. And they've been willing to work with or without
the police to find out what happened to her.
Last winter, Correspondent Susan Spencer reported on this case from a small town
that's become home to a large web of suspicion.
It is in
the Walden-like setting of Warren that one of the biggest mysteries in
Massachusetts began four years ago.
On the morning of June 27, 2000, Magi Bish was in the car with her 16-year-old
daughter Molly on the way to Comins Pond, the local swimming hole. Just a week
before, Molly had started a summer job as a lifeguard there.
They arrived just before 10 a.m. The lot was empty, except for a dump truck
dropping off a load of sand.
"What she said to me is, ‘I love you, Mom,' and that was the last I seen of
her,’" says Magi, who watched her daughter walk toward the beach. She then
waited for the dump truck to drive out before she drove away.
About 20 minutes later, Sandra Woodworth arrived at the pond with her kids. “The
first-aid kit was wide open, backpack was on the bench, her towel was draped
over the back of the chair, sandals were in the front, the Poland Springs water
bottle was right there,” says Woodworth. “But there was no Molly."
Another hour passed. Molly's boss, Parks Commissioner Ed Fett, then showed up
and realized Molly wasn't there. He also noticed her sandals and the opened
first-aid kit, which he closed. Then, he called the police.
Eventually, the Warren police arrived. Molly had been missing for over three
hours by the time they called Magi Bish.
Police at first suspected that Molly had simply abandoned her post to go and
hang out with her friends. But for people who knew Molly, that sounded almost
impossible.
“She never would just leave her job. We knew it,” says Magi. “We knew. And I
kept saying something is very wrong.”
Molly was John and Magi Bish's third and youngest child. She had just completed
her junior year of high school. A varsity athlete, Molly had attended the prom
with her boyfriend, Steve Lukas. And, like her older siblings, John and Heather,
Molly was no stranger to work.
“This was a girl who gave up her Saturdays at 16 to go train to become a
lifeguard. She took her work very seriously,” says her sister, Heather. “There's
not a doubt in my mind that she would have done anything to jeopardize that.”
Later that afternoon, when it finally became clear to police that Molly wasn't
with her boyfriend or any of her buddies, they moved on to what they considered
the next logical possibility. "They were saying she drowned and I was saying
there's no possible way,” says her brother, John.
By late that afternoon, the Massachusetts State Police had taken over the
investigation. Over the next few days, they launched a massive search, working
under Worcester County District Attorney John Conte. A battalion of volunteers
from the local area also helped search for Molly.
While the Boston media swarmed the story, the Bish family was lost in a
never-never land of fear, grief and shock. “You're breathing but you're not
alive,” says Magi. “You're walking and you can't make any sense of the world
that you trusted one day before.”
After the biggest, most costly search in Massachusetts history, the Bish family
still had no answers.
"I could read in their eyes, they wanted to bring Molly home so bad and they
couldn't,” says Magi. "You can lose your keys, and you can lose your glasses,
but how in America do you lose your child?”
While
investigators focused on local residents, John and Magi Bish were forming a
theory of their own.
“I don’t believe any of these people around here were involved in this. This is
the work of a professional, who knew what he was doing,” says John Bish.
And it wasn’t just a theory. Magi Bish believes exactly 24 hours before Molly
disappeared, she may have seen the man who abducted her.
(CBS) Molly Bish is still a living presence for her family, years after she
vanished. “I say we live between hell and hope,” says her mother, Magi Bish.
Before long, the Bish family decided to throw themselves into activism, and do
all they can to keep alive the hope that they’ll find their daughter as well.
At one event for missing children, they even met the parents of another missing
blond teenager -- Elizabeth Smart -- and began corresponding. Like the Smarts,
the Bish family couldn’t sit back and expect the police to do it alone.
John Bish makes regular pilgrimages to Comins Pond, and he has his own theory of
what happened.
It goes back to the morning before Molly vanished, when Magi Bish saw a man
sitting alone in a white car in the parking lot. She waited nervously for 20
minutes, until the man drove off. Then, Magi says, she put the incident out of
her mind until the next day.
“The man had dark hair, kind of, salt-and-peppered, though he was between..
maybe 45 and 55,” recalls Magi Bish. Police have released two composite
sketches.
Police discovered that Magi Bish wasn’t the only one who’d seen a white car in
the vicinity. Other witnesses also spotted a white car – first, near a car wash
at the base of Comins Pond Road. And later, at the end of a trail from the beach
to the cemetery.
John Bish says the scene itself provides telling hints as to exactly what
happened next, starting with that open first-aid kit: “I think this was just
someone who said, ‘I need a band-aid. I’ve cut myself. Do you have something?’”
Then, after Molly turned to open the kit, John thinks the kidnapper forced her
up the cemetery trail, since her shoes were left behind. He says she'd never
voluntarily have gone barefoot up that hill.
District Attorney John Conte pursued the white-car theory seriously, and his
team did a cursory search of 125 white cars. But his investigators believed the
abductor had to live nearby. They began interrogating local sex offenders.
At least one of those questioned, a convicted child rapist named Oscar
Baillargeon, bears a striking resemblance to the sketch. He’s also admitted to
meeting Molly at a party. But Magi Bish had doubts: “Definitely there’s
resemblance, but it’s, the hair wasn’t...”
The sketch has become one of the most recognized drawings in Massachusetts. But
police have never identified the "white car man."
“We’ve got over 4,000 leads in a database,” says Conte. “We’re looking for
evidence. We don’t have it.”
Three years after Molly disappeared, the investigation suddenly re-ignited. A
piece of Molly's clothing was discovered on a wooded hillside, five miles from
the pond where she vanished. It’s the first major clue in the case.
But the big break comes from a local ex-cop named Tim McGuigan, who had an
obsession with an entirely different crime - the abduction of another young girl
from the area.
In August 1993, Holly Piirainen, 10, went walking along a country road near her
grandmother’s house in Sturbridge, Mass., and simply vanished. All searchers
found was one small shoe.
In the following weeks, Holly’s parents, Richard and Tina, and grandmother,
Maureen, went through the same ordeal the Bish family would experience seven
years later. Ten weeks after she vanished, local hunters discovered Holly’s
remains in the woods nearby.
“The worst part of it for me was wondering who it was who did this to my
daughter,” says Holly’s mother, Tina.
Investigators were never able to figure out who killed Holly Piirainen. But
several years later, McGuigan couldn't get Holly's unsolved murder out of his
mind: "I thought of the innocence of this child and her life taken away by a
predator. It made me realize there's real evil out there. There's evil out
there. And I wanted to do everything I could do to help her."
McGuigan started his own investigation, but he says his superiors were not
sympathetic.
“What’s bigger in life than getting a predator off the street before he grabs
somebody else,” asks McGuigan, who admits that the case began to take over his
life. He started drinking heavily, his marriage fell apart, and in August 2002,
he left the force and drifted from job to job.
While writing a true crime account of Holly's murder, McGuigan became
increasingly fascinated with its similarities with the Molly Bish case. They
were both young, blonde girls who vanished in a rural area, just a few miles
apart. McGuigan now went to the Bish family asking for permission to investigate
Molly's case as well.
Two weeks later, police made a startling
announcement. They discovered pieces of a weather-beaten bathing suit, much like
the one Molly Bish was wearing. McGuigan discovered the suit, and he says a
local hunter, Ricky Beaudreau, led him to the site.
Beaudreau says he had actually seen the blue suit months earlier, but he’d
forgotten about it until he crossed paths again with McGuigan. The bathing suit
was sent to the laboratory and another intensive ground search began.
"We want to solve this case, and we want to find Molly, and we want to bring her
back to the Bishes,” says Conte.
(CBS) After one more grueling week, John and Magi Bish hear the news they have
been dreading: the discovery of a human bone, an upper arm bone from a person
14-20 years old.
Over the next few days, more grisly discoveries are made - including another rib
and vertebrae, a total of 20 bones. Finally, on June 9, investigators confirm
that the remains are those of their daughter, Molly.
“I do know that Molly’s in heaven and she doesn’t have to suffer anymore,” says
Magi Bish.
The search for Molly Bish is over, but for her family, the search for Molly’s
killer feels more urgent than ever.
“This recovery of Molly hasn’t ended anything. It’s changed the focus of the
investigation. We have to find this person, or he’s gonna hurt someone again,”
says John Bish.
Investigators begin redoubling their efforts. But while the official
investigators were on that hillside hunting for evidence, McGuigan conducted his
unofficial investigation five miles down the road - at the scene where Molly was
abducted.
With him is criminal profiler John Kelly, who has developed a profile of the
killer: “We felt he had to be a hometown guy because of the way Comins Pond is
situated. He knew which roads to take. I mean this deed was carried out in an
almost perfect way until her body was found.”
Kelly also believes the man wasn't a novice: “He wouldn’t be as good. He
wouldn’t be methodical. 'Cause bear in mind this has been the perfect crime for
three years. He got away with murder.”
The discovery of Molly’s body confirmed one of Kelly’s predictions – that the
killer would look for higher ground: “The reason for that is because if you go
up on higher ground, doing whatever you’re going to do to your victim, you can
see people coming up, you can hear people coming up. So that gives you time
either to escape or take off, or it gives you time to hide.”
McGuigan and Kelly also visited Holly’s crime scenes, and they are struck more
than ever by the similarities in the cases, and the killer’s profiles.
“This is obviously someone who knew the area extremely well, extremely well,”
says Kelly, who now believes 50-50 that these cases are connected. “I mean, this
is really out of the way. I mean he obviously realized that he wasn’t going to
be interrupted.”
Robert
Armes, the man who McGuigan has kept coming back to for three years, becomes the
focus of his investigation again.
Armes is a day laborer from Sturbridge who’s since moved to a neighboring state.
“I think that he’s involved with Holly Piirainen,” says McGuigan. “I’m not sure
of any involvement with Molly Bish. I’m absolutely sure about Holly.”
McGuigan says Armes knew the area well, and acted suspiciously after Holly’s
murder. He bought new boots the same day she was abducted, and then junked the
car he’d been driving. “He knew about physical evidence. He wanted to get rid of
physical evidence,” says McGuigan.
But perhaps most striking of all is what Armes did shortly after Holly
disappeared. He approached the family, volunteering to search and raise money.
In another strange move, Armes went to the press, declared himself a suspect,
and denied any involvement: “I have a clear conscience. I don’t need to confess
to something I didn’t do to have a clear conscience.”
Police have never been able to determine Armes’ whereabouts when the abduction
took place, but they claim that he failed a lie detector test.
In the intervening years, McGuigan has taken statements from various people who
know Armes, and claims to have overheard him implicate himself in the Piirainen
murder.
As for the official investigation, State Police
Lt. Peter Higgins says he’s grateful for McGuigan’s leads: “He has provided us
information in the past, we’ve looked at it, we’ve worked on it, and it’s proved
helpful.”
But so far, there just isn’t sufficient credible evidence to justify an arrest.
“Robert Armes knows what he did that day. He knows what he did,” says McGuigan.
“I’d like to talk to him.”
After repeated requests for an interview, 48 Hours tracked down Armes in New
Hampshire. Since moving there, Armes has been arrested numerous times on petty
offenses, and pleaded guilty to assault against his own daughter.
Spencer asked Armes if she could ask him some questions about the Holly
Piirainen case. He refused to answer. But McGuigan is still convinced that until
Armes answers some questions, he can’t be ruled out as Holly Piirainen’s killer.
There’s far less evidence, however, to link him to the murder of Molly Bish.
Armes vaguely resembles the first composite sketch of the mysterious “white car
man,” and witnesses put him in the area the week of Molly’s disappearance. But
other than the fact that he matches elements of Kelly’s profile, there’s little
else to suggest Armes had any involvement.
“Can we say Robert Armes is responsible? Absolutely not,” says Kelly. “We need
to eliminate him, and he’s certainly a person of interest who needs to be
eliminated.”
But wherever these investigations lead, McGuigan has certainly had an effect in
refocusing the police’s attention on them. “Even if I’m wrong, Molly Bish is
still going home,” says McGuigan. “There’s a lot of activity being placed on
these cases right now.”
Nearly four years after Molly Bish disappeared, there’s a permanent task force
of several detectives still investigating her murder.
Police also say they’re sharing information with the neighboring county, where
Holly Piirainen was killed, and still have not ruled out the possibility of a
connection.
On August 2, 2003, what would have been her 20th birthday, Molly Bish was laid
to rest.
Since 48 Hours first aired this story last December, Worcester County District
Attorney John Conte empaneled a grand jury to hear testimony in the Molly Bish
case. So far, no indictments.
Ex-cop Tim McGuigan, who turned up key evidence in the case, is among those
who’ve testified. He’s given up on getting back into law enforcement, and is
working on getting his book published.
Meanwhile, Molly’s parents, John and Magi Bish, have been speaking to police all
across the country, hoping to improve the way they handle missing child cases.
December 7, 2003
Holly, Molly links aired -
Cases featured on `48 Hours'
Author: Bradford L. Miner, Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
WARREN -- It's been more than 48 hours since CBS-TV's ``48 Hours Investigates'' brought national attention once again to the unsolved abduction and murder of Holly Piirainen, a Grafton 10-year-old, and Molly Anne Bish, a Warren 16-year-old whose disappearance June 27, 2000, has been a call to arms for child safety programs.
Recounting Holly's disappearance in 1993 and Molly's abduction a decade later, the hourlong program did not break any new ground in the investigation, but chronicled Timothy S. McGuigan's intense interest in both cases.
The former patrolman in North Brookfield and Sturbridge is writing a book about the experience and how his obsession with Holly's case changed his life. He believes there is evidence to link the two cases. He also said he believes Robert L. Armes of New Hampshire, formerly of Town Farm Road, Brookfield, to be a primary suspect in Holly's slaying and a possible suspect in Molly's death.
Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte told WBZ-TV Channel 4 reporter Kathy Curran that Mr. McGuigan is not a professional investigator. He said the re-enactment for CBS of the discovery of a blue bathing suit on a rocky, wooded Palmer hillside ``speaks for itself.''
It was during the filming of the re-enactment in July, after a comprehensive police search of the hillside for evidence and Molly's remains had been completed, that Mr. McGuigan and Ricky Boudreau of West Hardwick, the hunter who found the bathing suit, discovered a small scrap of blue fabric similar to the bathing suit's fabric.
The district attorney, who had subpoenaed the tape from CBS, discounted the scrap of evidence subsequently turned over to investigators as having ``no significance to the investigation.''
John and Magi Bish of South Street, but for the snowstorm, would have been out yesterday, as they are most weekends, creating child safety identification kits.
Both said they felt the broadcast was well-done, represented Molly's and Holly's story factually and drew another national audience where one person watching might hold the key to information that would solve the case.
Maureen E. Lemieux of 141 George Hill Road, Grafton, Holly's maternal grandmother, cooperated with CBS producers in filming many hours of interviews.
Mrs. Lemieux said she watched the program Wednesday night with mixed emotions.
``I thought the program was very well-done, but I wish they could have brought out more. When you have to whittle 80 hours of taping down to a one-hour program, a lot of what you'd like to see and hear isn't going to be there,'' she said.
Specifically, she said, she would have liked to have seen more about Mr. Armes.
Mrs. Lemieux said while officials may discount Mr. McGuigan's motives and credibility, the broadcast showed him to be a caring individual, a man who has daughters himself, and whose efforts led investigators last summer to the evidence that resulted in the recovery of Molly's remains.
``He's come a long way and uncovered a lot of information,'' she said.
``And if it wasn't for Tim's continuing interest in Holly's case, the `Missing Molly' broadcast might not have had anything in it about Holly's unsolved case at all,'' Mrs. Lemieux said.
Warren police Chief Glenn F. McKiel said Thursday morning the broadcast had produced a large volume of telephone calls and e-mail to the Police Department.
``We will organize them and pass them along through the proper channels to state police investigators,'' Chief McKiel said.
He said the Police Department's role in the Molly Bish investigation has been to provide personnel as requested, and information on local individuals, geography and topography.
``You might say local expertise on the community,'' he said.
``A lot of folks think the Bish investigation is simply a state police case. That's true, but it's also a local case and we are actively involved on a daily basis as time, resources and personnel allow,'' the chief said.
``We have worked side by side with state police detectives on any number of occasions, and personally I've been in regular contact with the investigators and the district attorney,'' Chief McKiel said.
The goal, he said, has been a collaborative effort of all law enforcement agencies involved to solve the case.
Mr. McGuigan said it is difficult for him to look at the program objectively, but that he feels it is an accurate portrayal of his involvement.
He said he and case profiler John Kelly had been working together on their own investigation and were confident that the continued national exposure of the two unsolved cases would eventually bear fruit.
``The longer this case is before the public, and people are thinking about what happened to Holly and Molly, the better the chance that these two cases will ultimately be solved,'' Mr. McGuigan said.
December 2, 2003
'48 Hours' to air segment on Bish
Author: KIM RING; STAFFThe Republican (Springfield, MA), kring@repub.com
An ex-police officer said one of his theories ties together 2 cases of missing girls.
The CBS television program 48 Hours will air a one-hour segment on the Molly Anne Bish case that will show footage of a piece of evidence being discovered on a remote hillside and will explore the theories of the former police officer who found the evidence.
The show airs at 10 p.m. Wednesday, and investigators are hoping the program will bring in tips that might lead to a break in the case.
Bish, a Warren teenager who police believe was abducted from her lifeguard post in June 2000, was the subject of a massive search earlier this year. The effort turned up some of her remains and police continue to search for her killer.
During taping July 1, after the search was complete, 48 Hours crew members were interviewing former police officer Timothy S. McGuigan and hunter Ricky J. Boudreau who led police to a piece of Bish's bathing suit in the woods off West Warren Road in Palmer, when a second piece of similar fabric was found by Boudreau.
McGuigan said he will name his chief suspect in the disappearance of Holly Piirainen, a 10-year-old Grafton girl who was abducted and murdered almost 10 years ago while visiting her grandparents in Sturbridge. Her remains were found in a remote area off Five Bridge Road in Brimfield, and the case remains unsolved.
"My theory is to exclude people, and there is one man I cannot exclude," McGuigan said, adding that in one of his theories the same suspect could be connected to the Bish case.
Conte said his office is ready to handle what he anticipates will be a flurry of calls after the show airs.
"Every time there's a national broadcast, if the past is any indication and I'm sure it is, we get a lot of calls," Conte said.
December 2, 2003
48 Hours' probes Molly Bish case
Author: Bradford L. Miner, Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
WARREN -- A former Sturbridge police officer, writing about the deaths of two Central Massachusetts girls, will have a national audience at 10 tomorrow night for his theories about the killings.
``CBS 48 Hours Investigates'' will broadcast ``Missing Molly,'' an hourlong program in which Timothy S. McGuigan of Auburn talks to CBS correspondent Susan Spencer about his role in the Molly Anne Bish case.
The network is promoting the program as ``the unsolved abduction of 16-year-old Molly Bish -- the biggest and most costly crime search in the state's history set deep in the woods of Central Massachusetts.''
CBS cameras were on a Palmer hillside in July, filming a re-enactment of the May discovery of the blue bathing suit Molly was wearing the day she disappeared, when West Hardwick hunter Ricky Boudreau found an additional scrap of blue fabric on the site that had been scoured a month earlier by state police. The fabric was turned over to authorities, which led to a dispute between CBS News and District Attorney John J. Conte, who subsequently subpoenaed the film footage of the discovery.
Mr. Conte said yesterday without elaborating that the dispute was ``settled very amicably.''
In a prepared statement, a CBS News spokesman said, `` `48 Hours Investigates' has reached an agreement with the Worcester County district attorney's office to produce limited videotape of the discovery of what could be a piece of evidence in the Bish case in exchange for the district attorney's abandoning efforts to procure the rest of our tapes.''
Mr. Conte said yesterday the investigation into Molly's death remains ``very intense,'' and, as in the past when the Bish case has received national publicity, he expects that state and local police will receive an increased number of calls to investigation hot lines.
Mr. McGuigan said yesterday he's not sure what to expect of the hourlong program. In addition to the Molly Bish case, the program will look at the 1993 abduction and slaying of Holly Piirainen of Grafton.
``I trust Miguel to do the right thing,'' he said of Miguel Sancho, the producer of the program.
``And I really don't care what anyone says or thinks about what I've done personally,'' Mr. McGuigan said, adding, ``my only interest is in seeing justice served.''
The program will be broadcast locally at 10 p.m. tomorrow on Channel 4, WBZ-TV, Boston.
August 8, 2003
Ex-cop charges Worcester DA mishandling Bish death probe
Author: DAVID WEBER
,
Boston Herald
A former police officer involved in finding the bathing suit that belonged to Molly Bish has accused the Worcester District Attorney's Office of shoddy work in its recent investigation of the murder and is refusing a request to take a lie detector test.
Timothy McGuigan, a former North Brookfield and Sturbridge cop who is writing a book about the disappearances of Bish and Molly Piirainen, was one of the men who found Bish's bathing suit in May after his friend, Ricky Boudreau, told him about seeing the suit while he was bow hunting in a wooded section of Palmer.
Accompanying a camera crew from CBS' "48 Hours," McGuigan returned to the site with Boudreau last month and found what he claims is another small piece of the same blue suit they found in May. McGuigan said the piece was about 1 inch long and appeared to be part of a bathing suit strap.
Boudreau said he found the piece "about six inches away" from where he originally found the suit.
"They missed that piece when they cleared the crime scene," said McGuigan, who claims Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte is trying to make him a suspect because he is blunt with his criticisms of the investigation.
McGuigan said he is reluctant to take a lie detector test requested by Conte because, as a former police officer, he knows about the test's imperfections. "And Conte has publicly said 11 people have failed the polygraph (in the Bish investigation)," said McGuigan.
Conte's office has subpoenaed videotape CBS made of Boudreau finding the second piece of the suit. "48 Hours" producer Miguel Sancho said the network is contesting the subpoena.
August 7, 2003
Conte did not return phone calls yesterday.
DA subpoenas CBS Bish film
Author: KIM RING; STAFFThe Republican (Springfield, MA)
Another piece of a bathing suit was found in the woods where the crew of "48 Hours" was filming.
WORCESTER - District Attorney John J. Conte has moved to force CBS television to turn over to him film shot for a planned segment on the Molly Anne Bish case.
Lawyers representing the program "48 Hours" are expected to argue that it should not be surrendered to him.
A subpoena requested by Conte's office has been issued, but the show's lawyers are attempting to quash the order, a spokesman for the program said this week. Documents at Worcester Superior Court relating to the subpoena have been sealed.
At least some of the requested footage depicts former police officer Timothy S. McGuigan and hunter Ricky J. Boudreau talking with a "48 Hours" crew in the woods where Boudreau found a bathing suit like the one Bish was wearing when she disappeared, McGuigan said.
During the taping July 1, Boudreau discovered what appeared to be another piece of the suit. At the time of the taping, state police had completed an intensive search of the area where they located human remains that were determined to be those of the missing lifeguard, according to McGuigan.
Boudreau picked up the fabric near the site where he had found the suit, and said the small piece of material looked like the bathing suit.
"He said, 'Look at this,' and he started looking around," McGuigan said. "I said, 'I'm not touching that thing.'"
Boudreau said he spotted the piece of fabric, which appears to be a strap section of the suit, under some leaves.
"It was about six inches from where I found the whole suit," Boudreau said. "I just saw a little glimpse of purple and I said, 'That looks like a piece of it'."
Boudreau said the fabric might have been dislodged from a clump of grass by the crew walking around the area, but he was surprised to see it.
The crew placed the fabric in a bag, drove to an area where cellular telephone service was available and called Conte's office. Because it was late, they reached only an answering machine, "48 Hours" producer Miquel A. Sancho said. The following morning they turned the material over to state police and gave statements to investigators.
Now, Conte wants not only the video from the July 1 interview, but hours of tape depicting various aspects of McGuigan's life and interviews with other subjects, McGuigan said.
"I think we're talking about the First Amendment here if I'm not wrong," McGuigan said. "I'm not sure why they want all of this. I haven't been questioned as a suspect."
McGuigan has been researching the disappearance of Holly Piirainen, a 10-year-old Grafton girl who was abducted almost 10 years ago while visiting her grandparents in Sturbridge and is writing a book about that case.
When he met Boudreau a few months ago and shared the opening chapter of his book which mentioned the Bish case, Boudreau recalled seeing a blue bathing suit in the Palmer woods off West Warren Road the previous fall. The men visited the site, located the suit and called police who conducted a search.
McGuigan now worries that the investigation may be focusing on him rather than the killer who abducted and murdered Bish. He said he hasn't been told he's a suspect and submitted a DNA sample to police.
In a telephone interview, Conte declined to name any suspects or to comment on the subpoena. He said the investigation remains focused on seven suspects and he expects to release more information in about six weeks. He said there has been a rise in the number of calls and tips he's received since Bish's highly publicized funeral last weekend.
Kim Ring can be reached at kring@repub.com
Legal
tiff over evidence in Molly case -
Investigator tells of new find
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
Author: Bradford L. Miner
A former police patrolman who is writing a book about the killings of two Central Massachusetts girls is in the middle of a legal tug-of-war between the Worcester district attorney's office and CBS regarding a videotape showing possible evidence in one case.
Timothy S. McGuigan of Auburn, an unemployed police officer who worked five years in North Brookfield and six weeks in Sturbridge, has been the object of speculation because of his investigation of the killings of Molly Anne Bish of Warren and Holly Piirainen of Grafton.
Mr. McGuigan talked about his unauthorized investigation of Holly's abduction; a scrap of blue bathing suit in Molly's case found on Whiskey Hill in Palmer after state police had completed a search of the area; and a subpoena for a CBS film crew's videotape of the possible additional evidence.
And at some point this fall, Mr. McGuigan will likely have an opportunity to tell his story to a national audience during a segment taped for ``CBS 48 Hours Investigates.'' The program will look at the ongoing investigation of the Bish and Piirainen abductions.
``I really don't care what anyone says or thinks about what I've done,'' Mr. McGuigan. ``I only want to see justice served.''
Others see it differently.
District Attorney John J. Conte declined to comment on Mr. McGuigan's involvement in Molly's case, and told reporters as recently as Saturday that there are seven primary suspects, all of whom live in the Warren area and some of whom are convicted sex offenders.
Mr. McGuigan said he has provided state police with a DNA sample but refused to take a polygraph test.
Asked why he would not take a lie detector test, Mr. McGuigan said, ``The DA has made a point of the fact that 11 people have failed a polygraph test. Am I going to make it an even dozen? It's an investigative tool, and that's all it is.''
A CBS producer has corroborated Mr. McGuigan's assertion that the Worcester district attorney's office is trying to obtain the CBS film crew's videotape of the recovery of another piece of blue bathing suit from Whiskey Hill after the intensive June search of the wooded Palmer hillside for Molly's skeletal remains and other physical evidence had concluded.
State police detectives from Hampden and Worcester counties continue to look for breaks in the two cases involving Holly, who was 10 when she was abducted Aug. 5, 1993, in Sturbridge, and Molly, who was 16 when she was abducted June 27, 2000, in Warren.
A single suspect in both cases has not been ruled out by investigators.
Holly was staying at her grandmother's cottage on South Pond in Sturbridge. She went for a walk with her brother, Zachary, to visit a neighbor's puppies and was abducted near the intersection of Allen Road and South Shore Drive. Hunters found her remains Oct. 23, 1993, on Five Bridge Road in East Brimfield.
Molly was reporting for lifeguard duty when she disappeared from the town beach at Comins Pond in Warren. Partial skeletal remains of the teenager were found on the steep, wooded Palmer hillside in early June.
Mr. McGuigan said he has had a compelling interest in the Piirainen case since November 2000.
In May, he led state police detectives to the blue bathing suit Molly was likely wearing the day she vanished. That evidence spawned a search that culminated in 40 percent of Molly's remains being recovered by searchers.
``It hasn't been an easy road by any means, and I've dealt with some difficult personal issues along the way, including a divorce, but I wouldn't have done anything differently,'' Mr. McGuigan said.
Mr. McGuigan said he and Ricky Boudreau of West Hardwick led a CBS film crew to the site where the blue bathing suit was recovered. Mr. Boudreau, a hunter, first encountered the piece of clothing partially hidden beneath leaves while bow hunting for deer last November near the Nenameseck Sportmen's Club in Palmer.
``When we went up there, it was no longer a crime scene. They (the film crew) wanted to see where we found the suit, and we showed them,'' Mr. McGuigan said.
``They had been filming for a while and Ricky looked down, turning over some leaves, and came up with a 1-inch by 1/2-inch piece of blue material, the same material from the swimsuit, possibly a piece from the shoulder strap. They've got the whole thing on tape,'' he said.
Mr. McGuigan said Mr. Boudreau handed the scrap of cloth to Miguel Sancho, CBS 48 Hours producer, who then gave it to the state police.
``Rather than thank us, District Attorney John J. Conte issued a subpoena to CBS to secure the tape,'' he said.
Reached at his office in New York City, Mr. Sancho confirmed that Mr. Conte has taken legal steps to obtain the tapes.
``We haven't been given a reason, and he (the district attorney) hasn't come out and said McGuigan is a suspect. McGuigan has been more than willing to talk to the district attorney both before and after the discovery of the swimsuit,'' Mr. Sancho said.
He confirmed Mr. McGuigan's account of the events about when the additional evidence was found.
``We're resisting the subpoena, and we've filed a motion and a brief. There's supposed to be a hearing and oral arguments at some point in Superior Court in Worcester, but I haven't been told when,'' Mr. Sancho said.
On May 16, Mr. McGuigan led state police detectives to a site 100 yards east of West Ware Road in Palmer to where two orange snow scrapers marked the location of a one-piece, lifeguard-style blue bathing suit.
Mr. McGuigan said his introduction into Molly's case was a simple matter of responding to police instincts. He said that in May he was dating Shelley Boudreau, sister of the hunter who had found the bathing suit.
``She suggested we go to her brother's house. While we were sitting, talking at the kitchen table, Ricky happened to mention a blue bathing suit he'd found in the woods in Warren while deer hunting last November. That was May 14.
``I told him it might be significant to the Bish case, and he said he thought lifeguard bathing suits were orange. I asked him to show me the next day where he found the suit,'' Mr. McGuigan said.
Mr. McGuigan said he, Mr. Boudreau and a friend, Jay Harrington, met the next day, went to the Nenameseck Sportsmen's Club, parked and walked up into the woods on the other side of West Ware Road.
``We were about 100 yards off the road, and Jay and I were ahead. Ricky shouted, `I found it,' and we turned around. He picked up the suit and put it down,'' he said.
Mr. McGuigan said he used a cell phone to try to call his friend Trooper Robert E. Benoit of Oakham.
Trooper Benoit, a 29-year state police veteran, is assigned to the Brookfield barracks.
``He wasn't home, but his wife suggested I call Troop C headquarters in Holden. Two hours later, we're being eaten alive by bugs, and it was getting late, and no one had shown up,'' Mr. McGuigan said.
He said he drove to Ware and asked for assistance from the first officer he encountered, Patrolman Paul Skutnik.
``I told him what I had, and he came up to the scene. I asked him if he had any crime scene tape, and he said no, just the orange snow scrapers that we used to mark the site,'' he said. ``The officer also informed us that we weren't in Ware or Warren, but in Palmer,'' he said.
Mr. McGuigan said that the next day, May 16, he spoke to Trooper Benoit, who assured him that state police detectives and state police crime scene services were on their way to the scene.
``I took pictures that morning of the bathing suit, before they arrived, just to protect myself. I suspected then, based on what I had found on the Internet describing what Molly was wearing when she disappeared, that this was her bathing suit,'' Mr. McGuigan said.
``We walked up into the woods, and I was surprised they (police) didn't have a shovel. They had to borrow a knife to cut away some of the roots. They put the bathing suit into a bag, gathered up some leaves and left,'' he said.
Asked what sparked his interest in the Piirainen case, Mr. McGuigan said he looks back on Nov. 30, 2000, as a day that would change his life.
He was working then as a North Brookfield patrolman. According to retired Police Chief Peter C. Fullam, Mr. McGuigan was ``an exemplary officer.''
Mr. McGuigan said a woman, whose identity he withheld, told him she was referred to him by a part-time West Brookfield patrolman.
``The gist of this woman's story was that she had overheard a conversation her boyfriend was having, during which he admitted direct involvement in Holly's abduction and murder, as well as the destruction of evidence,'' he said.
``I was stunned by what she told me, but I tried not to show it. This is the kind of tip that some guys in law enforcement go 30 years and never get,'' he said.
At that time, the 7-year-old investigation into Holly Piirainen's killing was still an active case under the Hampden County district attorney's office.
Lt. Peter J. Higgins has confirmed that Mr. McGuigan had provided information to the Hampden County district attorney's office and that detectives had followed up on it.
``Because of the politics of police work, I knew if I started poking around I was going to step on toes. I knew I couldn't do it alone, so I called Bobby Benoit,'' Mr. McGuigan said.
``Trooper Benoit and I knew each other, and more importantly, trusted each other. Based on the woman's story, we started interviewing people together,'' he said.
Less than three months later, Mr. McGuigan said, Trooper Benoit received an order from a superior officer instructing him to cease any on- or off-duty investigation of either case.
``When Bob received the letter, that's when he stopped, but I continued to poke around,'' he said.
Mr. McGuigan has two primary suspects in the Holly Piirainen case who may have been working together and discounts speculation Holly's death might have been the result of a traffic accident.
The former patrolman said he investigated scores of traffic accidents while working as a patrolman and there was no evidence at Allen Road and South Shore Drive to suggest Holly was hit by a car.
``If someone had hit the child, why would they have bothered to stop and pick her up? That's why these accidents are called hit and run. Assuming someone did hit her by accident, why wouldn't they have brought her to the nearest hospital for medical attention?'' he said.
Mr. McGuigan said his compulsion with the Holly Piirainen case ultimately cost him his job on the Sturbridge police force.
``I was spending a lot of time on the Holly case and Chief (Thomas R.) Button and I didn't see eye to eye,'' he said. ``I handed over the entire investigation I had been working on since North Brookfield and after six weeks resigned.''
Chief Button could not be reached for comment.
As for similarities between the cases, Mr. McGuigan stated, ``In both cases you have a person smart enough to leave no evidence at the crime scene. You have a victim that's consistent in appearance, despite the age difference, and profilers will tell you that many times, as a predator ages, his victims are older as well.''
Continuing, he said, ``In both cases, the bodies of the victims were found within five miles of the point where they were abducted. The person or persons who committed these crimes didn't want to be seen and certainly didn't want the victims to be seen, so on instinct each was taken to a wooded area, indicating a person who is comfortable in the woods.''
``I have no knowledge of how these children were killed, but there are similarities in the two cases, and I believe they both were sex crimes,'' Mr. McGuigan said.
The clear differences in the case, Mr. McGuigan said, is that Holly's abduction had to be chance, while there is some indication that Molly was stalked before she was abducted.
