48 Hours - Help Find Molly Bishs Killer

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

With her sister’s murder long unsolved, a woman turns to TikTok pleading for leads. Can you help? Erin Moriarty reports. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's been 7,680 days since my sister disappeared, and I've been waiting for answers on what happened to her. This is one of those cases that has haunted me my entire career. I was there from day one. This could be a very significant break in this case. June 27, 2000, I was a reporter at WBZ TV in Boston. We received word. that there was a teenager missing in Warren, Massachusetts.

It was a lifeguard who was supposed to be working at this pond. Do you remember coming here? Yes. It started like every other missing person case that I've ever worked. And about what time did Molly arrived here? We believe sometime after 9.50, Molly went to work that day, It was her eighth day as a lifeguard at Cummins Pond. She drove with her mom to work.

She stopped at an extramart and purchased a bottle of water. She went to the police station, secured a police radio. Her mom, and she then drove the short distance down to Cummins Pond. I was with Molly, and they dropped her off, and everything seemed fine. And the rest is a mystery at this point.

And what was left behind? Chair, radio, her flip-flops, a bottle of water. It was all right there. They said that she would, she would, she possibly drowned. Knowing that she probably didn't, but I ran into the water. He did. He was trying to get to the deep end.

You're just going on adrenaline. It's your baby sister. You saw, you know, fireboats coming in. You saw dive teams coming in. The state police helicopter was hovering from up above. They had cadets. from the state police. Take your time.

Doing grid searches all throughout the town, in the woods, and they were stopping cars. Was it an abduction? Did she drown? Did she walk away? I was like frantic. My mom and I were frantic. And we were just staring into this pond.

Like, it'll resurrect her or it'll tell us what happened to her. Like, it had the answers and that we didn't have. We kept to sleep with knowing where she was first time in our life. Actually on this case from the very beginning. Yes. My role is as the anthropologist, the archaeologist, they were coming to me and saying, Dr. Myers, we're not finding her.

Where could she be? They were focusing down around Cummings Pot, and I said, you need to branch out. The months went by, the years went by, and then the decades went by. So that's when I became a warrior. Ever since that day, I've been trying to find the person who took my sister, I'm asking you for help. I picked up that sword and I started marching on. To the man responsible for the abduction of my sister Molly Bish,

I want you to know, I'm coming for you. I will never give up. Maybe we won't know why, but we at least deserve to know who. I will use science. I will use technology. I will use my voice. I will not stop screaming from the mountaintops for justice for Molly. I'm coming for you.

I'm coming. Erin Moriarty reports. Help find Molly Bish's killer. Have you heard of Molly Bish? She looks like this. She was abducted in 2000. She was only 16 years old. In 2021, two decades after her sister went missing,

Heather Bish did something she never thought she would do. 40-year-old me got into the TikTok game. It's allowed me to like share my story and share Molly's story and really just be honest. It's been 7,680 days since my sister disappeared and I've been waiting for answers on what happened to her. She hopes that by going public with her TikTok videos online, she will generate tips that will finally solve her sister's case and put an end to a painful 25-year-old mystery. If you know something, please say something. The wait needs to be over.

The last time Heather Bisch saw her little sister Molly was the morning of June 27, 2000, just before Molly left for her job as a lifeguard at Cummins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts. Molly was playing with Heather's 11-month-old daughter, Michaela. She was having fun with Michaela, And I remember my mom saying, come on, we gotta go, we gotta go, you're gonna be late. But shortly after Molly was dropped off, beachgoers arrived and she wasn't there.

Police were eventually called to the scene. By the time they told Maggie Bish, Molly had been missing for three hours. And my mom was frantic on the phone. She said, she's not there, she's not there, her shoes are there. My heart dropped. I just knew something was wrong because I knew Molly wouldn't go anywhere without her shoes on. Why? Because she didn't like icky feet. When you first heard that she was missing, did you think maybe she had gone off with friends?

John Jr. is Molly Bish's brother. It's not what we do. It's not our person, not our character. We were raised better than that. 16-year-old Molly was Maggie and John Bish's third and youngest child. 48 hours interviewed John back in 2003. She was heavily involved in school with sports, with her friends. Molly was an honor roll student, varsity athlete, and she had just completed her junior year of high school. Molly was just very loud and fun.

Heather says despite their six-year age difference, they were extremely close. It was a bond she had had with Molly ever since the day she was born. I do remember thinking that, oh, that baby is my baby. too. I'm going to teach her everything I know and, you know, we're going to do this life together. Molly also had a close relationship with her brother. She very much wanted to be like my brother. I took her underneath my wing. I was a lifeguard before her. She wanted to be a lifeguard.

We played soccer together, baseball together. Molly was 5'7. You know, she was athletic and in shape and strong. So when police suggested that Molly could have drowned, they didn't believe it. When Molly went missing, I mean, it was inconceivable. And then what I was told was the first aid kit was open. Adding to the mystery, the police radio was there, but Molly had not used it for her required morning check-in. Why? So what was, what happened?

Later that afternoon, when it became clear to local police that Molly had not just walked off with friends. The canine commences water search. State police took over the investigation and launched an extensive search. I look at her 16-year-old. He name's Molly Inbush. She's the lifeboat of the town beach. Massachusetts State Police Lieutenant Colonel Dan Richard headed to Warren to help out.

I had a three-year-old daughter. Her name was Molly. She had blonde hair. She has blue eyes. This case has every day been with me. from that day to today. Also present at the scene was then Worcester District Attorney, John Conte. The state police are working around the clock on this, okay?

Detective zeroed in on everyone who was close to Molly, including family members, friends, and Molly's boyfriend, Stephen Lucas. They'd only been dating for three months and had just gone to the prom together. What raised some suspicion was that Stephen Lucas had a fat lip and he had some scratches on him. Former WBZ investigative reporter Kathy Curran. Could a young kid pull off this crime in such a short amount of time? The bishes never believed that Stephen was involved. Within 24 hours, authorities were looking at known sex offenders in the

the area. We've looked at 35 to 45 sex offenders in the area. That's been the scariest part about all this, is realizing how many bad people were within the fabric of our community. Molly's dad worked tirelessly with police. He was always going every weekend, trying to work with the police and trying to find different ways to find Molly. And despite the fact that DNA testing was still in its early stages back in 2000. Detective Richard says they did collect and document many items found in and around the pond area, including discarded cigarettes and trash. When we did the initial search, anything that wasn't there by nature or by God was at least

identified as potential evidence. As the days went by, the vicious despair grew. It wasn't like Molly was hit by a car or got sick. She was just suddenly gone. And we didn't know where she was. But it would be Maggie Bish, who would give detectives their biggest lead. We pulled into the parking lot here. The morning before Molly disappeared, as Maggie went to drop Molly off at work at Cummins Pond,

she recalled seeing a man, sitting alone in a white car that resembled this one. And I see this guy and he's just smoking a cigarette and he just gives me like a little look. And I said, oh, I can't leave her here. You know, it's like the mama bear comes out. Maggie says she waited for 20 minutes until they finally left. When she brought it up with Molly that evening, Molly didn't seem concerned. It's just, oh, no, Ma, it's just fishermen. Don't be, I'm not afraid.

The next day when Molly disappeared, Maggie told the police about what she had seen. That became very significant because now we had a piece of information. A sketch was composed based on Maggie's description, and it was released to the public. This is the individual that we're looking for in that white car. I had seen the hair. It was gray. It was very thick. It's just that smoking. You know, that doggone smoking. That's what I remembered. Almost immediately, hundreds of tips started flooding in. If you were a 50-year-old white male with a mustache in salt and pepper hair, somebody may have wanted to give us a call.

Many months later, authorities released a second different sketch. I believe that this sketch is a remarkable sketch, and it's very distinctive, and I think it's going to help us a great deal. But still, no Molly. I think that's what makes this case so difficult. You know, you have so many people who resemble that sketch. You know, when time kept going and passing, you knew it wasn't good. You just know there's somebody either has her, and that's horrendous. And then, almost three years after Molly disappeared.

Live from Warren, Kathy Curran, WBZ, Four News. Police were notified that a bathing suit have been found in the woods just five miles from Cummins Pond. It's the first major break in this case in years and a very anxious time for Molly's parents. Remember the very first time you came here? Yes, I do. It was May of 2003.

We came here from what we thought would be the recovery of Molly Bish. Three years after Molly Bish disappeared, Dr. Amory Myers, a forensic anthropologist for the Boston Medical Examiner's Office was summoned by police to the area known as Whiskey Hill, located about five miles from Cummins Pond. This is how we came in at first, so right above us here are these rock ledges,

and this is where the bathing suit was found. A local hunter had stumbled upon pieces of a weather-beaten blue bathing suit, much like the one that Molly Bisch was wearing when she disappeared. When I saw the bathing suit, I said, this is probably enough here for roughly three years. And how could you tell? It was covered by deadfall, so leaves and debris from three years of foliage dropping. But then it had also grown into the surface and roots had come up through it. I arrived with my photographer and I was lead-ed.

Acting on a tip, Kathy Curran and her crew got there in time to take pictures. pictures of the bathing suit. What's going through your head? I was sick to my stomach, just thinking about Maggie and John and knowing what it could mean. As Kathy left Whiskey Hill, she called Maggie. And she said, you know, could you show us the video? And I said, Maggie, you know, I really don't want to do that,

But, you know, if that's what you want to do, I want to do whatever I can to help. She just had a little van and had the six old TVs or whatever inside, and she showed it to us. So distinctive. It looks like hers. And I'm in the band to right down there. Let's go in a house, huh? And I went up, I locked myself in a room. I cried so hard. There was nothing. I was gut-wrenched.

It was one of the toughest days of my career, because, you know, for three years, there was still hope. And she knew at that moment that something was drastically wrong and something horrible had happened. Investigators sent the bathing suit to the Massachusetts state, police lab and a private lab in Virginia for DNA testing. So now we've got to search the area and see if we can find evidence that can help us determine what happened up there. As they waited for DNA results, under Dr. Myers' instruction...

You all know what we're looking for? A new search was launched. And that's when I basically said, we're going to go. grid this area. Anyone who has compasses were working off 110 out 110 magnetic. We did grid searching arm to arm. They were within sight of each other.

They raked. They combed the forest with rakes. And had any of that area been searched before? No. When John Bisch arrived to the scene, Dr. Myers assured him of one thing. You know, I looked him straight in the face, and I shook his hand and I said.

said, Mr. Bish, if your daughter's remains are here, we're going to bring her home to you. DA John Conti announced that the DNA results came back as inconclusive. The search continued and intensified. And it was the biggest search that's ever been conducted in Massachusetts history. And almost two weeks later, they made an horrific discovery. This afternoon, we did discover a human bone. It's the upper arm bone, and Dr. Myers does describe it as the bone of a person between 14 and 20 years of age. What did that feel like to finally find a bone?

Unbelievable, but immediately I thought of the family. We've now established the area of the area of the area of the family. established the area as a crime scene area. As days went by, investigators would come to find more human bones. It was like every day they came with small rib bones. It was like agonizing and they were trying to find Ma. And we went out every morning. We thanked the researchers.

We were so grateful that people would continue to look and help us find Ma. By the end of the three-week search, investigators found as many as 27 months. 37 bones and a human skull spread across 35 acres of forest. It was confirmed through DNA testing and dental identification that the bones were Mollies. Dr. Myers believes that Molly's killer most likely picked Whiskey Hill because of its hidden location. Do you believe the killer might have been a hunter? It's possible. It's possible.

It's possible. She also believes that after Molly was killed, a mountain lion may have scattered her remains among the 35 acres of forests. I often felt that the person knew the area and knew that there was a large animal up there. We want to tell you that Molly's come home. We are extremely saddened. depth of our sadness no family should have to endure. With the discovery of her sisters remains, Heather had a hard time accepting the tragic news.

I wanted to run away. Honestly, I just wanted to run outside of this nightmare and this life and maybe my even my own body. But I remember feeling like I wanted to run away immensely. The search for Molly Bish was now over. But the search for her killer was never more urgent. Two months after Molly Bish's bones were discovered in August of 2003, on what would have been her 20th birthday, Molly was laid to rest. We commend you now to loving care of the Lord of us all. We were so blessed.

We got to have it in a church. But after three years, the bishops still had no answers as to who could have murdered Molly. And the man in the white car, who Maggie had seen the day before Molly disappeared, had never been identified. Frustrating is a reoccurring word in this case. Maggie wasn't the only one who reported seeing a suspicious white car in the vicinity, say investigators.

On the day that Molly went missing, A white car was spotted at a car wash right down the street from the pond, and again in the cemetery, behind the pond. So where is Cummings Pond right from here? It's that direction, straight down. And you can see there's a path opening there. Yes. So somebody saw a white car where right down on that road down there?

Yes. So is the thought that if somebody brought the car down there, they could maybe grab her, pull her back up, get in the car before. That's a theory. In fact, in the early days of the investigation, search dogs did follow Molly sent from the pond leading up to the cemetery. You don't just stumble upon Cummins' Pond. That's why the person who killed Molly Bish had to have watched her,

and they had to have had a plan. But there were still so many unanswered questions, like why was the first aid kit left open? Kathy Curran believes that Molly's abductor may have pretended to be injured. And then someone either forced her or threatened her to get her up that hill because she's athletic. She's not going to go easily. Then in May of 2004, four years after Molly disappeared, D.A. John Conti called for a grand jury to be convened. Whenever you hear a grand jury in a criminal case, you think, oh, they have evidence against someone. So the hope was that the case was moving forward.

Heather, along with her family, were called to testify. They say that many of the DA's questions seemed to be. be focused on Molly's friends. I remember we were all kind of like mad because we didn't feel like they were really significant. But detectives had learned that some of Molly's friends had gathered at her boyfriend Stephen Lucas's house the morning of Molly's disappearance. We have a timeline. And they were telling police conflicting stories about what happened in the hours before

and after Molly went missing. The grand jury transcripts are sealed, so it is not known whom the investigators actually questioned, but they would later clear Stephen Lucas as a person of interest. After two long years in December of 2006, the grand jury was dismissed without an indictment. It was disappointing. It was incredibly disappointing. Just weeks after the grand jury was dismissed, John Conti retired.

And Joe Early Jr. took over as Worcester District Attorney. He says the grand jury was used as an investigative tool to preserve witnesses' testimony. You get them right in, you get them under oath, and there's a criminal penalty if they lie in the grand jury. And they can't say later, I didn't say that, because it's right there. And that is something that helps us get cases beyond a reasonable doubt and prove guilt. But Heather says not having answers as to who murdered her sister was taking its toll. I was giving up hope in a lot of areas. And things only got worse.

In 2007, her father, John Bish, who worked so closely with police, had a stroke. Heather would now face the daunting task to take over where her father had left off, and it would not be easy. The police have always stayed very careful about what they'd let us know. The police kept saying it, we're just one piece of information away. Well, where is that piece? In 2008, a man who resembled the sketch named Rodney Stanger was arrested for murdering his girlfriend in Florida. The victim's sister reached out to Heather and claimed that Stanger may have been involved in Molly's murder as well. He has this violent history.

He lived very close to where Molly trained to be a lifeguard. Was he a smoker? He was also a smoker. He was known to fish at Cummins Pond and hunt in the area where Molly was found. Police were notified about this tip. But Heather says she was told that Stanger had been. been on one of the investigators' lists of persons of interest from the very beginning. I've actually visited him in prison.

Sean Murphy is a lieutenant with the Massachusetts State Police. He didn't have much to say to me, but I attempted, and so of other investigators as well. Stanger was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2012, state police went down to Florida again to search Stanger's trailer. We did execute a search warrant at his residence with our law enforcement partners, and we did take items. Detective Murphy says the items were tested for DNA to see if they could be connected to Molly. We've tested and continued to test and move forward.

But there was not enough evidence to make him. an official suspect. And then in 2011, a private investigator came to Heather with a new tip about a man named Gerald Battistone. He had actually raped a woman in the woods where Molly was found. His ex-wife had a white car that she reported he was driving in Warren the day Molly disappeared. Heather says she took this tip to the state police, who have confirmed the police that Battastoni, who died in prison in 2014, was on their radar along with many others. There are times you could say this person's really good for this. This person's really good for that.

That's not how you solve a crime. You know, you have to have the evidence to support it. Finally, in 2021, 21 years after Molly disappeared, it looked like investigators had enough evidence. The district attorney's office officially named a person of interest. For the first time, I thought, this is it. There will be justice. Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart starts pounding, horrors, hauntings, and mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kailan Moore.

Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of The Darkly Curious, check out Heart Starts pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious. On June 3rd, 2021, more than two decades after Molly Bish disappeared, there was finally news. Tonight, a break in the murder of Molly Bish.

More than 20 years after the teenager was killed, investigators have named a new person of interest. We named the person of interest. But you had never done that before. Never done that, never done that in this case. But we did get more information to come in. We pursued those leads. And at that point, I was comfortable saying,

this person is a person of interest, yes. Francis Frank Sumner, Sr., was a local auto repair shop owner with an extensive criminal record. Kathy Curran was the first to report the details. Frank Sumner seemed like a great suspect. Frank Sumner has a violent past. He was convicted of rape and kidnapping. Was he familiar with the area?

He was familiar with the area. He was from the area. He had access to a white car. And when you compare the photo of him smoking the cigarette to the sketch, you can see a resemblance there. And just like the sketch, Sumner was photographed smoking with his left hand. DA Joe Early says Sumner, who died in 2016,

had been well known to investigators working the Bish case for years. What made Frank Sumner rise to that top to actually be called a suspect? Information that came in, some dots that were connected. Although tight-lipped about the details, the Worcester DA's office was confident, that Sumner was a viable suspect and planned to compare his DNA to DNA found at the crime scenes.

But as it turned out, they couldn't obtain Sumner's DNA. Sumner had been cremated, and his DNA had never been submitted to the National KOTUS database. I don't know who dropped the ball, but somebody dropped the ball. So authorities traveled to Ohio

to get DNA, from his son, Frank Sumner Jr. He was serving time in prison for robbery. And so we waited, and we waited, because they said we're going to, you know, do some DNA analysis. Heather, who had started that TikTok months earlier, reached out to her followers to see if she could drum up more evidence. If you know something, if you heard something, please call the state, please,

tip line. we are still waiting for answers. Heather says it took investigators about a year before they finally told her the results of the DNA testing. It was inconclusive. What do you mean inconclusive? Was he eliminated from the DNA? I don't know what that means.

Oh, you don't know. And they won't tell me. Heather wonders if authorities who collected discarded cigarettes and other evidence that come in, pond even have a viable sample of the killer's DNA. Do you have enough DNA that you could do genetic genealogy? And have you done any?

Can't speak to the DNA. I can speak in this way. We continue to test, and we've gotten well over 100 pieces of information tested, and we continue to test. You know that the bishops have been frustrated. They don't feel they're getting enough information from you. information from your office. They want to know, is the DNA being preserved properly? What kind of DNA? As a general rule of thumb, no matter what family it is, the bishops, are the families that we

have. We just don't share the information because someone might say something they shouldn't say and it can compromise the entire case. However, he says DNA is just one piece of the puzzle. This isn't just a DNA case. There's a lot of investigation that's been done. We need a little bit more. I'm not going to say what it is, but we need a little bit more to get to where we want, need to get to name a person as a defendant in this case.

But Heather says she's losing faith in the investigators. It's really a sad situation to be a victim family member in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Investigator Sean Murphy says he understands Heather's frustration. Heather is a fierce advocate for her sister and her family, and I wouldn't have it any other way, and I have no problem being held accountable by Heather, and I'm happy that she holds me accountable. 25 years after Molly Bish's murder, the case remains active, and there is a new detective who has recently joined the investigation. She has a plan.

When I dedicate myself to something, I do not stop until it's a car. In March of 2025, Detective Chelsea Saffert was hired to take over the Bish investigation. It's a perfect job for someone that has an overactive mind, thrives on challenges, and doesn't sleep much. One of her first tasks has been to weed through and organize over 80 boxes of case files that have accumulated over the years. I saw all those boxes and I just wanted to dive in. I just wanted to learn more.

Detective Safford believes the answer to Who Kill Molly may just lie within these 80 boxes. This one, I found Molly's high school yearbook, and I went through that, you know, that I have a few tips that I was trying to track down. It's part of her strength. These are all tips. To organize and look at past tips with fresh eyes.

Who else might have heard or seen something that they didn't realize was significant. That one person that we haven't spoken to, they might be the missing piece that we've been searching for this entire time. I believe that that one more piece is out there. I just have to keep digging. And Detective Safford faces an overwhelming task. She says there has been almost 8,000 tips that have come in since Molly went missing, and they keep coming. I can honestly say that since I've been in this office, I don't think a week has gone by where we haven't received a Molly Bish tip, if not multiple, throughout the weeks. Detective Safford says she's also studying the many pieces of evidence involved in Molly's case.

She allowed 48 hours to accompany her to the Massachusetts State Police Crime Labs' DNA cold storage facility in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Boy, it's shivering in here. Sherry Middlehoser is a forensic support section manager at the crime lab. And what am I looking at right in front of me? So this is a bay full of evidence, and all of these items here go with the Molly Bisholm. case. Inside some of these brown paper bags are items taken from the crime scenes. Is the swimsuit here? It is. It's this one, I believe. I don't think it says it on it, but I know it was sent out for additional testing. Are there any cigarettes here or any?

There definitely are cigarettes. Containers, ABC. There are a lot of them in ABC. ABC is this one here. They've been repackaged over the time. And they didn't test it? Oh, yeah. Chelsea, are you going to be looking at this to see if there's something else? You're thinking, why don't we try to test that? Absolutely, yes. Today, Detective Safford has her eye on one piece of evidence in particular, Molly's backpack. I'll tell you, this is the number one item that I've been looking for.

Why? I think what we carry in our backpack or a pocketbook, I think it says a lot. And I personally think learning about. the person, the victim, I think is a very important part of each case. Despite the challenges, Detective Saffert says she is determined to find answers for the Bish family. None of us can bring Molly back, but the best thing I can do is find out what happened. I see you have some of these solved, guilty, captured. Is that what you want to do in this case? It's not what I want to do. It's what I'm going to do.

do. Yes. We. We will do it. Heather Bish, who has been critical of the Massachusetts State Police investigation in the past, says she is encouraged by Detective Safford's passion. I feel like she has the same energy and commitment to solving this as I do. Heather still makes TikTok videos about Molly's case, hoping her efforts will one day generate a tip that can help Investigators. Somebody knows something and somebody knows who killed Molly Bish. I will never give up. I'll fight.

Molly deserves that justice. DA Joe Early Jr. insists that investigators are moving in the right direction. As you sit here is Frank Sumner still on the top of the list of people of interest? He's the only person of interest we've named. The only person of interest that's been named in this case. yes. On June 27, 2025, the Bish family gathered with friends and family to remember Molly, 25 years after her death.

Resty eternal grant unto her, oh Lord. First at the cemetery. And then at a more formal ceremony in the center of Warren. I feel her beside me. because of Molly I have become braver than I ever thought possible I have faced my deepest fears

I have endured unimaginable heartbreak I have survived I believe Molly's love and light have guided us through these 25 years so today we share our family's gratitude and because of Molly we have

conquered what evil could not for love is much stronger The evening ended with a gathering at Cummins Pond. I don't want people to ever forget Molly, and we will never stop honoring her. Any information that can help authorities find Molly's killer, please reach out to the Molly Bish tip line, 508-453-7575.