Since late March, rumors of a potential serial killer in New England have spread rapidly, sparked by several recent discoveries of human remains across at least three states in the region.
It’s gotten to the point where millions of views have racked up across dozens of TikTok posts on the topic. A 55,000-person Facebook group called “New England Serial Killer” gained nearly 10,000 new followers in just the last week — more than 3,000 between Friday and Saturday alone.
As of April 12, however, none of the investigating New England police departments have publicly linked any of the human remains’ discoveries as a serial killer targeting the region.
“There is no information at this time suggesting any connection to similar discoveries in RI & the CT shoreline area, and there is also no known threat to the public at this time,” a statement from Connecticut State Police on April 11 read, from Connecticut news outlets.
That hasn’t been enough to convince people spurring the conversations online who don’t seem to believe police, as theories continue to swirl.
“I don’t like that the police are like, ‘Don’t jump to conclusions,’ … this has literally got [expletive] serial killer written all over it,” a TikTok user with the screen name @sassykittypaw said in an April 10 post.
In her post, the TikToker mentioned the case of Denise Leary, a 59-year-old mother of two who went missing in September and was found dead near her home in New Haven, Conn. on March 21, by people clearing thawing brush outside their home.
Leary has been referenced in many other online posts about a possible killer, with particular attention on the fact she was last seen six months ago.
And though no cause of death has officially been ruled, New Haven police officer Christian Bruckhart said on April 11 that the investigation so far hasn’t indicated Leary was even killed.
“There’s certain things that have a mystique about them, and I think serial killers are one,” Bruckhart told MassLive. “… A serial killer is this almost mythical figure in the zeitgeist — I mean, how many Hannibal Lecter movies have been done?”
Bruckhart points out, he doesn’t speak for all New England police investigating recent cases of discovered human remains.
Though Leary’s case does not appear to be a homicide, there’s “nothing to say no one is ever going to be a serial killer again,” he said.
“They’re out there, we know that they exist. But I can only speak to my department’s investigation, in the missing person case, that there’s no indication there was any homicide,” Bruckhart said.
The discovered bodies raising concerns
At least six cases of bodies have been found in past weeks in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, in mostly geographically close towns.
With all but two unidentified, these cases include a skull unearthed in the woods of Plymouth on March 6, human remains found in at least four Connecticut towns at the end of March and start of April — in New Haven, Groton, Killingly and Danielson — and a body discovered in Foster, Rhode Island on March 27.
Killingly and Danielson, Connecticut, are adjacent towns, just over the border from Foster, Rhode Island, and about an hour from Groton and New Haven, Connecticut. Plymouth is closest to Foster, about 90 minutes away.
Detectives in New Haven and Foster have identified the remains found, both as women missing since the summer and early fall of last year. Their public identifications, combined with no official causes of death announcements, have invested the public further in to the theory of a potential New England serial killer.
Bruckhart cautions social media detectives to be sensitive to the unintended affect their relentless probing can have on others. Public focus on a case can be traumatic for a victim’s family, as it tries to search for closure.
“We don’t want this woman’s death to be treated as like a sideshow for people’s own personal interests,” Bruckhart said. “ … At the same time, we do want to be as forthright as we can to the public, and say, ‘Hey, listen, there’s no indication that the woman was killed.‘”
