Concerns Rise Over Potential Serial Killer in New England After Eighth Death in Quiet Towns

Social media users are raising alarms about a possible serial killer in New England after authorities in Massachusetts announced the death of a woman on Tuesday.

Since March, three states in the Northeast have reported the discovery of human remains, most of which are believed to be women, according to Fox News.

The most recent case occurred in Springfield, Massachusetts, where police responded to a report of an unresponsive woman found near a bike trail. Officers confirmed that the woman was deceased shortly after arriving at the scene, marking what internet sleuths have pointed to as the eighth suspicious death.

Although the Springfield Police Department has yet to release a cause of death, this incident has further fueled widespread speculation.

These theories appear to have originated from a Facebook group titled "New England Serial Killer," which is reportedly in the process of changing its name due to Facebook's policies. The group currently has over 66,000 members.

Prior to this latest event, four sets of human remains were discovered in Connecticut, one in Rhode Island, and now three in Massachusetts, Fox News reports.

“The first thing that strikes me as curious is the fact that seven sets of remains have been found over the span of two months,” Peter Valentin, chair of the Forensic Science Department at the University of New Haven, told Fox News. “That in and of itself is rather curious. It’s certainly a lot to find in a little. It’s a large number of human remains to find in a short period of time.”

Despite the finds occurring within a two-month window, the varying stages of decomposition suggest the deaths did not happen close together.

“If someone is in full rigor mortis, there is no need to try to find a pulse because the presence of rigor mortis means they are unequivocally dead. So this is a very recent death, unlike the others,” Valentin explained.

One woman whose name frequently comes up online in discussions about the deaths is 59-year-old Denise Leary, who was found deceased on March 21 near her home in New Haven, Connecticut, according to MassLive.

Although online commenters often list Leary among the supposed victims, authorities have yet to determine her cause of death.

In fact, according to MassLive, none of the causes of death for any of the discovered remains have been officially established.

“There’s certain things that have a mystique about them, and I think serial killers are one,” New Haven police officer Christian 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 urged caution among online investigators.

“We don’t want this woman’s death to be treated as like a sideshow for people’s own personal interests,” Bruckhart said of Leary, the woman found in March. “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.’”