Crime Weekly - S3 Ep297: Crime Weekly News: Possible Serial Killer in New England?

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Rumors are swirling after multiple bodies have been found under similar, chilling circumstances across New England. In this episode, we break down the timeline, common threads, and theories—while asking the question everyone’s afraid to answer: Is a serial killer on the loose? Tune in as we separate fact from speculation and uncover what the media isn’t saying. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25 Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod 

We interrupt this program to bring you an important Wayfair message. Wayfair's got style tips for every home. This is Stiles McKenzie helping you make those rooms sing. Today's style tip. When it comes to making a statement, treat bold patterns like neutrals. Go wild. Like an untamed animal print area rug under a rustic farmhouse table from Wayfair.com. Powerful.

Fierce. This has been your Wayfair style tip to keep those interiors superior. Wayfair, every style, every home. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And it is great to hear my own voice in my ears and not feel sick and hear the sickness. I have to say that. We were talking about it when we were just recording our ads and

not saying I have the best voice, but it's nice to have a voice back. I get that. I totally get that. I mean, I didn't notice a huge difference. I knew you were sick. That could be an insult. No. That's borderline an insult. He's like, I'm offended by that. He's like, I didn't notice a difference.

No, I knew you were sick. But I also sound like that sometimes when I'm just tired. Yeah, I mean, me too, for sure. I felt like my voice was just failing me failing me and just, it was just not there for me anytime. How many times when we were recording was, was my voice cracking and I would have to re-say the line. So you guys don't see that, but it was just, it's nice to just speak into the microphone and have words come out. It's going to be nice for me also. Yeah, I'm sure. And you're not hearing like the blowing into the tissues and I tried to mute it as much as I could.

Or the just like, you know, water falling into a cacophony of cough. Yeah, it was. I apologize. And thank you for being a trooper. There is a richness to it that I'm picking up on now. It's nice, right? Velvety. A nice baritone. I like it. I like it. And, you know, this has been a couple of crazy weeks and it's nice. Oh my God. We've been you've been all over the place. I've been all over the place. I know you were down in Panama.

Panama City, Florida, not not Panama, South America. Yeah. And I was also on America's Most Wanted Missing Persons. Thank you to everybody who tuned in for that. We were talking about it off camera. It's great. It's great to see these big networks covering these unsolved cases. This is what we do all the time. A lot of podcasts do it. And it's good to see that there might be a change in direction for true crime. Hopefully. I was actually thinking the other day, was just sitting on my deck, and there was a couple advertisements that came up for a specific network. I won't say the name.

But, you know, we see a pattern where there'll be a case that's polarizing and everybody covers it, right? Then there's some type of adjudication where someone may be convicted, but then there's the docu-series and the special on how that person is actually innocent. Then there's the docu-series and the special on how that person is actually guilty. So they just keep replaying the same shit over and over about the same cases years later. Or if it's the JonBenet Ramsey case, we just keep getting documentary documentary about how her parents had nothing to do with it. Right.

Yeah. Well, that too. I mean, whatever, whatever it is, it just the same, like five to seven cases over and over. And I personally have no interest in watching it. And it's definitely not helping the families who need it. So good to see Fox is taking a chance. This is a limited series, but I would love to see other networks, other streaming services, enlist the help of podcasters and YouTubers, bring them on to talk about the cases that people actually want to hear about because they want to help. So thank you to everybody who supported it. We're going to keep moving over here. Crime Weekly,

we're doing our thing. Speaking of older cases, and I called you because I was in Florida, and I think this is an interesting sort of intersection, but I was in Panama City, Florida, and I went on this boat ride because I'm in Florida and there's sun and water, and I'm not used to that as a New York girl. And I'm on this boat ride and I'm talking to this woman on the boat and I'm like, yeah, you know, true crime. Do you like true crime? And we're talking about true crime. And she's like, yeah, actually, my boyfriend's a police officer.

And so then she calls her boyfriend over and he comes over and we're talking a little bit. And he's like, yeah, I'm a police officer in Tallahassee. And I'm like, oh, that's great. Like, you know, what kind of kid? And he ends up being a police officer that's on the Charlie Adelson case. Yeah. You called me like, I'm like, I'm like, you wouldn't believe it. Like, oh my goodness. And I don't want to say what he said, because as we know, a lot of, a lot of this is still being adjudicated. It's still in, in the courts. It was probably stuff we already said in the episode. We'll just put it that way. That's a

hint. Some things that we suggested could happen. more charges come you know that would be great but it's just so interesting because true crime is such a polarizing thing but also a connecting thing you know and you could be across the the and you know in a completely different state and then meet somebody and we were just talking about this case and he was like oh it's crazy you know everything about this case and i'm like well yeah i mean my my partner and i covered it on a podcast he was like, oh, it's crazy. You know everything about this case. And I'm like, well, yeah. I mean, my partner and I covered it on a podcast. And he's like, well, you have a podcast? And then we started talking about that. Doesn't everybody?

Yeah. I know he probably was like, yeah, okay. He's like, I have one too. He's like, you got a podcast. Okay. You know? But I didn't really. No, people actually listen to ours though.

Well, I don't know. I don't know. Apparently not. Because he had never heard of us. He didn't know about it. But know. Apparently not because he never heard of us. But maybe he will now. So shout out to you. Shout out if he's listening right now. Speaking of community and speaking of engaging with people and finding commonalities, I have to tell you, we've been doing Crime Weekly News for a little over a year now.

I have never received so many DMs and so many emails about what we're covering tonight, which is this potential New England serial killer. And I think one, because it's a case that's now captivating the country, everyone's covering it from the East Coast to the West Coast. It's not just New England. But I think also because I'm from the New England area. I live in Rhode Island. You're not necessarily in New England, but you're close, right?

No, New York's not considered New England. No, it is not. Oh. No, it is not. But that's okay. That's okay. It's close enough. But yeah, so I've received all the emails,

received all the DMs. You guys were sending us links. We get it. And I was trying to wait, obviously for us to record again, but also to let it unfold and let it marinate a little bit. And I'm really glad we did. And actually we should probably be waiting longer because things are

developing every single day. However, we'll get into it. We'll cover it. If there's like a major development after this, we can always cover it again, but I feel like we have enough meat on the bone to at least dive in what we have so far and give you some of the specifics. And then we'll talk about it. I'll give you my opinion. Stephanie will give you her opinion as far as whether we think there is a serial killer or not, because apparently there's a lot of people interested about it. Huge Facebook groups talking about it, thousands of people. So here we are recovering it now. And what do you got to say about all these, the kind of the timeline,

Stephanie, because that's really the breakdown. That's the start of how this all came to be, right? Yes. So I think we'll go over the timeline and sort of see where we're at with that, because this is a topic that's gripped the New England community with concern and speculation. Obviously, the discovery of multiple bodies across Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island over the past just two months. And basically, they have found 10 bodies in less than 60 days. And so obviously, whispers of a potential serial killer have spread, fueled by social media and public anxiety. Completely understandable, by the way. Can I also say real quick, I know there's people who are really invested in this. You may push back on that number a little bit. I've heard six, I've heard eight,

and then we also were able to find up to 10. So we're going with the 10. These may not all be connected, but we'd rather overshoot than undershoot. So yes, but it's 10. It looks like 10 is kind of the official from the reports and the news stories that have come out today, like within the past few hours. 10 is what is what we have now. Authorities have stated that in at least three of the cases, foul play is not suspected. And there has been an arrest made in connection with one of these cases. That's right. And that was literally yesterday.

We're recording this on the 29th. It was on the 28th. The FBI has joined some investigations and they're basically anybody who's anyone in law enforcement connected to this is emphasizing very, very, very thoroughly. Hey, we need to look at this not as as just assuming everything is connected, but we really need to look at this on a just assuming everything's connected, but we really need to look at this on a case-by-case basis, literally. But obviously, social media platforms have played a significant role in shaping public perception. There's a private Facebook group discussing the alleged New England serial killer that has amassed over 17,000 members, which is insane because,

like I said, it's only been a few months 17 000 people and i mean tiktok and other platforms have think about it serial killer i know it's such a uh a rare thing now too a rare thing you know we had the rise of serial killers back before there were cell phones and surveillance cameras everywhere. And a lot of them were long haul truckers. We've talked about this before, but obviously you don't really see a lot of serial killers now because of how much of a role technology plays in law enforcement. Yeah, science and technology has kind of nipped that in the bud a little bit. So let's go over the timeline really quick. On March 6th, 2025, the remains of 35-year-old Paige Fannin were found in the Norwalk River

following heavy rainfall in Norwalk, Connecticut. March 19th, 2025, in Groton, Connecticut, a woman's body was discovered in a suitcase near Colonel Ledyard Cemetery. March 22nd, 2025, in Foster, Rhode Island, the remains of 56-year-old Michelle Romano were found. March 28th, 2025, the body of 59-year-old Denise Leary was discovered in New Haven, Connecticut. And then in early April of 2025, we have unidentified human remains found in a place called Killingly, Connecticut. April 10th, 2025, a human skull was discovered in Plymouth, Massachusetts. A woman's body was found near a

riverfront bike path in Springfield, Massachusetts on April 22nd, 2025. I want to skip what happened on April 25th and go to April 28th, where a body was found in Taunton, Massachusetts. And then April 28th, another body was discovered in the Connecticut River in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. So there's a few things that happened before that. So on April 25th, 2025, in Groton, Connecticut, Daniel Cawful, a 68-year-old man, was arrested and charged with the murder of Suzanne Wormser. This was the body found in a suitcase on March 19th. Apparently, Daniel Koffel and Suzanne had lived together. He confessed to the crime during his third police interview. So obviously, unless Daniel Koffel is responsible for all of these, at least Suzanne Wormser is not included amongst the alleged serial killer victims.

And then April 26, 2025, in Narragansett, Rhode Island, police searched for clandestine graves near the Scarborough Beach. This was following anonymous posts in a Facebook group suggesting that multiple bodies were buried there. But this search yielded negative results and was eventually deemed a hoax. So that's kind of where we're at right now. Yeah. Yeah. I understand how just listening to that or reading that you would have some questions. But as you just said, one of these cases have already been kind of taken off the list with the arrest. So what I have here when I look at this case and I consider the fact that it could be a potential serial killer, I'm looking for some type of connecting tissue.

Something more than just being in the same geographical area that would suggest these women, at least the ones we've identified as women, are somehow connected. Commonalities, same MMOs. Yeah, we think about the victimology, right? And it has to be deeper than just that they're women and they're from the New England area. What were they doing before they went missing? What was their profession? Where were they last seen alive? What were their descriptions? What did they actually look like? Did they have similarities as far as hair color or eye color or body type? What type of crowds did they hang around with? You know, were they frequenting similar groups or organizations? It has to be more than, again, I'm going to keep repeating this, the fact that they're all found in three states, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut. And the problem with where we are right now, and as you just kind of laid out, is in many of these cases, we don't even know if foul play was involved. They've ruled it out in some cases.

Yeah, it's been ruled out in some cases and in others we're not sure because we haven't even identified the victims themselves. We don't know if it's male or female. We don't know how long they've been there. And when you start thinking about decomposition and trying to determine not only identities but whether foul play was involved, it's going to be extremely difficult when you don't have the soft tissue anymore, when you just have skeletal remains. Unless there's some obvious sign of trauma to the actual bones, it's going to be very difficult to say definitively, oh yes, they were killed by another. You also have to think about the fact that we don't know exactly how long they've been there. Some, it's more recent. Others, it could have been years. So all of this matters when it comes to determining

if there's a connection or not. But even more so than that, let's say for the sake of this conversation that we're able to determine they are all women, they're all around a similar age, they're all doing certain things, hiking, camping, whatever you may have, you, there still has to be something from an evidentiary standpoint that ties them together.

And what could those things be? It would have to be something obvious. It can't just be a homicide, right? It would have to be not only the manner of death, but also the cause of death. It wouldn't, it wouldn't be just strangulation. It would be strangulation with some type of ligature that would be specific enough to say, hmm, we had this in Groton. We also had this in Rhode Island. The cause in which they died, how they died, is very specific to this person,

and yet we're finding it with other victims as well in a similar geographical area. More than that, more than just that calling card, I would also like to have some type of forensic evidence, specifically DNA, something to say that there is DNA, unidentified DNA found at multiple crime scenes involving these victims that ties back to one person. Even more than it being DNA, I would really love to see it be some type of biological fluid DNA because that gives you context, right?

You could find someone's DNA, fingerprint, skin cells in certain areas that are tied to both victims if they're all in the camping scene or hiking scene. But if you have semen or saliva in certain areas, that again, it gives you context and suggests something that wouldn't be normal to find there. So as we sit here right now and we read between the lines of what law enforcement is saying and what they're not saying, I have talked to some people in the field, some people in Rhode Island specifically, and they're not, the chatter amongst law enforcement is they are working together with all the media attention that this is getting and it should, it should get this attention.

But as I'm hearing from behind the scenes right now, they don't think these are connected. It just seems like a time thing where there are a lot of bodies are being found in a similar area and they're investigating it as if it could be connected, right? They're not going into it, assuming there's no connection. They're looking for something that's going to tie these together because trust me, from as a detective, I would have loved the opportunity to work a serial killer case to try to track down and hunt that monster, right? Like that's something you read about in the books and you see in the movies and it's a challenge, right? You have this, this cat and mouse game. And as much as we don't want it to happen, if it did, it's, it's, it's something that can define your career. So trust me, these police officers, these detectives, if it is a serial killer out on the loose, they are going to be all hands on deck for it. And I believe they

are at this point, but based on what we're starting to find, the fact that we haven't even identified all the victims, there's, there's details in certain cases that would suggest it wasn't foul play, which if they come out and said, and there doesn't appear to be anything yet at any of these crime scenes from what's being discussed behind the, you know, behind the scenes that would suggest it was something specific there that was also found at the other crime scenes that would tie them together. That's where I sit right now. And what I know I've been talking a lot. Do you want to weigh in here? Cause I do have a lot more, but I'll take a breath. I mean, the way I look at it is it's so early. We don't really know anything like the long Island

serial killer bodies and human remains are being found in 2010. And they didn't really put the pieces together for, I mean, years and years after that. Yeah, 20 years. But I think what you said is absolutely true. We need to know more about these victims because with the Long Island serial killer, the four women initially found in December of 2010, they were all sort of similar profiles. They were young, petite, sex workers, advertising on Craigslist, right there. And by the way, not in different states. Yes.

They were like on the same street. Right. So because of the similarities in victimology and the proximity of the remains, like you just said, investigators did begin to suspect a serial killer. And that's kind of where this went. And then they widened the case in 2011. Can we dive into that quick? Because that's such a great example. Also with that case, you had these women being wrapped in a similar manner, right? They were using duck blinds to hide the bodies to whoever the killer was. So there were things about that that you wouldn't normally see. And yet you were finding different people at different times, all being kind of,

I guess, hidden in a similar manner. So that is the specificity that I'm talking about, where you have two victims who on the surface may not be connected. And yet the way they were wrapped, the way they were hidden, how they were dispersed of and how they were cut up in that particular case. Those things all add up to the same offender. Yeah. But I mean, in that case, it did take months before the police felt comfortable floating the serial killer theory. And then it took over 12 years to, after the first discovery of the body, the first body

to actually arrest a suspect and then begin tying together the forensic and circumstantial evidence. So we're not saying this absolutely isn't or that even some of these victims are not possibly linked together. We're saying that like obviously one of them definitely isn't because somebody confessed to her murder. There's, I think, at least two where police have said due to autopsies, there's no foul play here. And then there's a few other that are just skeletal where it might be difficult to figure out exactly what happened. How long they've been there? Is it male or female? Right. And if we're able to criminal coffee, right, we can speak to that. It is not easy.

Oh, God, no. It is not easy and it's very expensive, but that probably won't be an issue here. You have the FBI involved, so they'll get the resources to do that is, we can compare it to those records that were received or obtained before this person's death to try to confirm or rule out that this is in fact the person that we're thinking it might be. There's a lot of legwork that has to be done first. We have to identify every victim involved. Then the next step would be to do the research and the investigation to determine, like I already said, when they were last seen alive, who they were with, what were the surrounding circumstances? Were they going through some issues at the time? Did they make threats that they might harm themselves?

All these different things that we have to cover, like you would with anybody that's found. And then if you get to a point where you believe there's foul play, you start thinking about the cause and manner of death and if there's any connection to the others. But even with that all being said, I know we hear New England serial killer and we think it's down the road from each other. We're talking about a hundred miles. So it's not out of the realm of possibilities, but we would have to determine that it happened in a relatively reasonable amount of time to the other ones. It doesn't have to be days. It could be years, but that there's not a 10 or 20 year difference.

That would be important. And then also, like I said, something that would connect the two crime scenes, Groton and Foster, little ways away. But if you were to tell me that they were tied up with a red ribbon on their wrists and feet in both crime scenes, that's a connecting calling card. That's a factor that would tell me, at least in those two cases, more than likely it's the same offender. And that would be duplicated over every crime scene to see if you can find something in

the MO that would be specific enough to say this is the same person. Again, it can't just be cause of death, stabbing, cause of death, suffocation. It has to be more than that because that's pretty common. There would have to be something about those crime scenes that would say to you, to me, to everyone, this is the same guy. So here's my question to you then. Is it possible that, I mean, even basically just saying this and we're like, oh, you know, they have to be commonalities and serial killers do this, this and that. Is there a potential that serial killers have evolved to the point where they're like, hey, we can't have the same MO, you know, we're not tying our victims together

with a red ribbon, like where it's not, it's not a good time in 2025 to be leaving calling cards where there's DNA and cell phone data and, you know, cameras everywhere. So maybe we need to like switch it up. Is that possible? 100%. And that's why it's not just the calling card. It's everything in totality. If we're able to identify the people and we determine who they were, where they were last seen alive, what areas they frequented, get access to their call records, their phone records, there's going to be something that ties them all to one person if they're connected.

You brought up the Long Island serial killer. Once they were able to reverse engineer it, they found that there was a similar number calling these people. Well, in those cases, they were sex workers, right? So that was the commonality. That was the tie there. But there was also phone records that indicated the same person was reaching out to multiple victims.

So if we learn about the history of these victims, then maybe we can tie them together that way, but there would have to be a lot more than just they're all from the New England area. I want to say something quick before we continue, because this may come off as me discrediting what's going on here. And it's not at all, because here's what I will say, whether it's a serial killer or not. You know, I know law enforcement is saying there's no reason to be concerned right now. Let me counter that by saying there's absolutely a reason to be concerned because whether this is a serial killer or not, I can tell you with 100% certainty that there are serial killers out there right now in your, potentially in your area.

And even if this turns out not to be connected, there are people that you need to be aware of. You need to be vigilant. You need to be cognizant of your surroundings. And it shouldn't take a news story like this to get you there. We say it all the time. I'd rather be safe than sorry. I'd rather you be a little bit more concerned and a little apprehensive about the people you are around

and maybe take an extra precautionary measure or two to ensure your safety of not only you, but your friends and family. So don't let this discourage you or make you less aware or make you more complacent, whether you're from the new England area or anywhere else for that matter. There are people that are dying every day at the hands of others. So regardless of how this works out, you got to keep your level up. We just want to be factual. And I am driven by tangible evidence. And as of right now, whether that's because they're keeping it in house or because there's nothing there, there's nothing that I see at this point that says, oh, yes, these are connected. That's where I am right now. We're always going to be honest.

That's where I sit as we record this episode. Yeah. I mean, I think that, like you said earlier, this is so, so early and it's so sensationalized. There's going to be more information coming out. The police could feel that some of these are connected. They're not going to say that right now, especially with all of the public scrutiny. They're not going to want to say that and then be proven wrong. They're not going to want to say that and start a stampede of stress and anxiety from the people in New England. They don't want to do that.

And I understand from both ends, from both sides, why the public might be like, hey, if there's something going on here, we want to know, and why the police might be like, hey, we want a little bit more time before we make any strong statements. So overall, I'm not writing it off. You know me. I'm telling you where I sit, and you know me.

I'm never 100% on anything. So it's always, I'm proceeding with caution, but to come on here and just sit on the fence and say, oh, it could be either or for me, I'm not going to do that to you guys. I'm leaning towards these are not connected, at least not all of them. We don't know all the victims. We don't know their cause of death. They may be natural causes in some of them. It may be accidents in others. We have a lot of work to do. And then I would still need to see something that would connect them specifically, whether it was something as simple as them belonging to the same group

hanging out with the same person having interactions online on a similar website than to the others or something more specific like i mentioned that isn't as likely but would be great a calling card at the scene whether that's the way in which they were killed or something that was left behind or the way they were disposed of or the way they were hidden, something that would suggest the person who killed that individual also killed the individual in Groton or in Foster or wherever else we're talking about. So we need more. Does that mean it's not already there? Like you said, Stephanie, and they're just not relaying that information. But if they, if there was more, I don't think law enforcement would be coming out and saying, there's no need to be alarmed right now. I think they're kind of already going this

direction and without putting names out there, I can only tell you what I've heard. They don't believe it's a serial killer, uh, from what I've heard. And I haven't talked to everybody. It's not like I'm tapped into the FBI, but based on early accounts from what I'm hearing and what's going on in the rumblings behind closed doors, there hasn't been anything yet that has suggested these, any of these cases are tied to one another, other than the fact that they're all being found in a very short period of time in a similar geographical area,

which is something you want to investigate, but not enough to come to the conclusion that it was a serial killer. I agree, but I'm not writing it off. I love that. And we won't either. We're going to continue covering it. If there's more developments, if there's a break in the case or something that they released that suggests otherwise, it's all hands on deck, right? And regardless of whether it's a serial killer or not, let's get back to the core of this issue. We have seven people, multiple individuals who have not been identified, who are no longer with us for one reason or another. All of those individuals need to be identified and we need to know what happened to them.

They deserve that. Their families deserve that. And there are a lot of missing people out there right now who have never been found and these unidentified bodies may give those families some of the answers they've been looking for weeks, for months, for years. So that is just as important. It's not just about, oh, whether this is a serial killer or not. It's like, who are these people? What happened to them? And let's figure out if there's someone who is responsible for it, let's find them as well. That's where I sit at it, at the core of it all.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, exactly. Either way, if all of these weren't foul played, there's probably some that are. I agree with that 100%. There's people out there and individuals out there who are still responsible. And hopefully we can find who those people are. Yeah. There's already been some names that have been floated that have come forward where they're missing people from those areas.

And the families are, I guess, cautiously optimistic that maybe this is their loved one. And so I guess that's one hand they're hoping it's not and on the other they are. Because if there's one thing that we've learned over the years for It may, it may give them something that they can move forward with, whether it's just to, to heal and grow and learn and continue to go on with their lives as best as they can. But also from an investigatory standpoint, allow detectives to take this information. If they determine there's foul play, now they can go back to this known individual's last whereabouts and see who they were with. And maybe that reinvigorates the case. There is a lot of information out there. Don't just go off us. There's a lot of people out there, experts in the field who believe this could be connected. I implore you go watch their podcast, go listen to their YouTube videos,

develop your own opinions. But if you take anything from what we just covered, whether you're in the new England area or somewhere else in any part of the country, stay on your toes out there. There's bad people. They're amongst all of us. I don't care what community you live in. It can happen to anyone. So be vigilant, stay away of your surroundings and stay safe out there. We'll be back later this week with the third and final part of Lana Turner, the series has been very well received. You guys appear to be enjoying it a lot. The verdict is in, by the way. Stephanie, we'll talk about it again,

but Johnny beat Frank pretty handedly in the comments. I saw that. I did see that. It was not even fair. I did see that. It was not even a close. I actually felt bad for Frank. Yeah, it was. At some point, I was like, just stop the count.

Yeah, you were like, turn comments off. Yeah, it was not good for Frank. The slander was there, but we'll be back part three until then. Everyone stay safe out there. Have a good night. Bye.