Betzaida Montalvo found on the grounds of Hillside School in Marlboro on Sept. 24 , 2003
KIN RIPS COPS FOR LETTING CASE GO COLD ; Suspected serial killer still on prowl;
Claudai Torrens, Peter Reuell, Boston Herald
The mother-in-law of a victim of a suspected suburban serial killer is crying for justice and blasting police for letting the 3- year-old case go cold.
"I am very angry. I think this is a cold case," said Valentina Montalvo, whose daughter-in-law was the first of three Worcester women found dumped on Interstate 495.
Betzaida Montalvo's skeletal remains were found on Sept. 24, 2003, in a shallow grave behind the Hillside School in Marlboro. She was 29 years old.
Five days later, the remains of Carmen Rudy, 28, were found in the same area. Six months after that, and less than two miles from that location, just over the Hudson line, a town worker found the remains of a third woman - 33-year-old Dinelia Torres.
All three are believed to be the victims of a serial killer who preyed on petite Hispanic women and then dumped their bodies off I- 495.
A headstone for Betzaida Montalvo's grave - written half in Spanish, half in English - is being etched with funds from the state's Office of Victims Assistance. Her son, Eddit, 10, is being raised by Valentina Montalvo in her Worcester home.
Life goes on, Montalvo said, but with little hope of ever knowing who killed her daughter-in-law, she said. "I don't think they are investigating this anymore," she said.
Authorities insist that's not so, with one source going so far as to say that police are moving closer to naming a person of interest in the case.
"It's still an active investigation," said Emily LaGrassa, spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney.
Still, police have made no announcements in months, and Montalvo, 67, said no one has called to give her any new information.
"I drove down to the Marlboro police station a few months ago, and they said they had nothing new. Since then, I know nothing," she said. "I fear there is a guy out there that could do this to other women."
One prominent Boston criminologist acknowledged that it may take "a stroke of luck" to catch the killer.
"Most of these serial murder cases are solved by a stroke of luck," said Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Violence at Northeastern University. "Let's hope this guy makes a mistake before he kills again."