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Author Topic: POSSIBLE NEW SUSPECT IN THE MURDERS OF MOLLY BISH AND HOLLY PIIRAINEN  (Read 16366 times)
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texasmom
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« on: January 12, 2012, 12:47:23 AM »

I couldn't find anything about these posted, but if I missed it would a kind mod please either move or delete...whichever is appropriate.  TIA

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/gerald_battistoni_man_eyed_in.html

Gerald Battistoni, man eyed in murder of Massachusetts girls Molly Bish and Holly Piirainen, apparently attempts suicide in prison

Published: Wednesday, November 23, 2011, 1:49 AM     Updated: Wednesday, November 23, 2011, 3:40 AM

By Robert Rizzuto, The Republican



Gerald Battistoni, a convicted child rapist from Ware who was eyed by a private investigator last week in two cold case murders in Massachusetts, has apparently attempted suicide.

According to a report by the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Battistoni, 49, slit his own throat on Saturday, amid a newspaper report linking him to the brutal murders of 16-year-old Molly Anne Bish and 10-year-old Holly Piirainen.

The newspaper cites documents reportedly provided by a source that state Battistoni, who is serving a 10-12 year prison sentence for repeatedly raping a 13-year-old girl 20 years ago, has since been transferred to the medium-security Bridgewater State Hospital for treatment.

Battistoni was a relatively unknown man until reports surfaced last week that he may have a connection to the disappearances and murders of Bish and Piirainen. According to private investigator Daniel Malley, information that couldn't be ignored was discovered when he was investigating Battistoni in relation to a custody dispute.


Family members have waited years for answers in the unsolved murders of Molly Bish, left, and Holly Piirainen. (Family file photos)

In 1993, Piirainen disappeared after taking a walk to see collie puppies near her grandmother’s Sturbridge summer home. Two and a half months later, her remains were found in woods in Brimfield.

On June 27, 2000, Bish disappeared from her lifeguard post at Comins Pond in Warren. Three years later, her remains were found, in a wooded section of Palmer known as Whiskey Hill.

According to Battistoni's second wife, on the day Bish disappeared, Battistoni said he was working on their car, a white Chevy, and had taken it for a drive in the Warren area.

Bish's mother reportedly said that she saw a man sitting in a white car smoking a cigarette when she dropped her daughter off at Comins Pond that day.


A sketch artist's rendering of the smoking man in the white car seen by Molly Bish's mother when she dropped the teen off at Comins Pond in Warren the day she disappeared. (Police sketch/File photo)

A sketch artist's rendering of the smoking man in the white car shared similarities with Battistoni, according to Bish's mother, who wonders if the convicted child rapist had anything to do with her daughter's murder.

The connection to the disappearance and murder of Piirainen lies with the child he was convicted of raping, according to the Worcester newspaper.

The Telegram & Gazette reported that the rape victim’s mother was a real estate agent, who had a home for rent with her name and photo on the sign in the yard near Holly’s grandmother’s home. Malley said that the rape victim lived in Warren, close to Comins Pond, in 2000, when Molly worked there.

When the Worcester and Hampden County district attorney's offices were contacted this week for comment on the possibility of Battistoni being a suspect, both offices said he was on their radar along with others.

 ::snipping2::
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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Beth Holloway, 2015 interview with Greta van Susteren
texasmom
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ARUBA: It's all about Natalee...we won't give up!


« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2012, 12:55:51 AM »

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/11/possible-break-unsolved-holly-piirainen-and-molly-bish-cases/fFkUXKdLMCM4pVrUVipxNL/index.html

Possible break in unsolved Holly Piirainen and Molly Bish cases

11/18/2011 12:55 PM

By Kim Ring, Telegram & Gazette Staff

She was tough as nails, never flinching as she described how the man she married hit her, asked her to download child pornography for him and forced her to put on children’s underwear.

But when she looked at a picture of Gerald B. Battistoni placed next to a sketch of a man wanted for questioning in the murder of Molly Anne Bish of Warren, the woman, his second wife, covered her face, shook her head slightly and the tears came.

The second wife asked that she not be identified. It is the policy of the Telegram & Gazette not to identify victims of sexual abuse.

Battistoni, 49, is behind bars, serving 10 to 12 years in state prison for raping the daughter of a woman he dated, but never married, around 1991. He was convicted in Springfield last August. That charge came last year after licensed private investigator and former Vermont State Trooper Daniel E. Malley, working on a child custody case involving Battistoni, tracked down information that Battistoni had raped a young girl years earlier.

When he found the victim and asked her about the allegations, she admitted she’d been raped by Battistoni, possibly 100 times or more when she was between 13 and 16 years old, and except for one of her childhood friends, had never told a soul.

The teen’s mother said Battistoni plied her daughter with cigarettes, soda and other things she wasn’t always allowed to have. The mother said he seemed to want to protect her daughter, who had been raped before by another man.

But Malley discovered Battistoni was certainly not “protecting” the teenager at all.

 ::snipping2::

During the course of the child custody investigation, Malley learned Battistoni could be linked to the area where 10-year-old Holly Kristin Piirainen disappeared in August 1993.

His rape victim’s mother, a real estate agent, had listed a home for rent with her name and photo on the sign in the yard near a home owned by Holly’s grandmother, Maureen Lemieux. Holly had been staying there when she vanished after walking to a neighbor’s with her younger brother to look at some puppies. A little checking revealed that the girl Battistoni raped in the early 1990s was, in 2000, grown and living close to Comins Pond in Warren when Molly worked as a lifeguard. Malley learned that Battistoni had been to Comins Pond in the past. He’d lived in Warren and was familiar with the area.

One of his wives said that when they lived in Ware, Battistoni often cut over Whiskey Hill to buy drugs from a dealer in Warren. Three years after she disappeared, Molly’s remains were found in a wooded area of Whiskey Hill.

When Malley compared a sketch of the man seen at Comins Pond the day before Molly’s disappearance, it bore a striking resemblance to Battistoni.

“I didn’t set out to get involved in these cases,” said Malley, the owner of Allegiant Investigations of Worcester.

“I was working a child custody case. But there were things here I could not ignore,” he said.

A review of records by the Telegram & Gazette in Palmer, Springfield, Westfield, Belchertown and Dudley courts reveals that many of Battistoni’s relationships ended with restraining orders and women swearing under oath that they were terrified of him.

At every turn, Malley became more concerned. He worked to get Battistoni prosecuted for the rapes, and with that done, started taking a closer look at possible connections to the Bish and Piirainen cases — with the blessing of the families. No one is paying him.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do. Whether he did it or not, he deserves to be looked at, and if he’s not the one, then we need to figure that out, too.”

Women who’d been involved with Battistoni described him as initially charming with underlying violent tendencies.

In an interview with the second wife, she said she called him a “hero” because he had fixed her car — a white Chevrolet. On the day Molly disappeared, he told her he had been working on the car and had taken the car out for a spin in the Warren area.

“I remember thinking that was weird for him to say,” she said, adding that Battistoni did not have a license at that time. Molly Bish’s mother, Magi, remembered seeing a man sitting in a white car smoking when she dropped off Molly for work the day before she disappeared.

When she worked with a sketch artist to produce a drawing of the man, Mrs. Bish talked about the distinctive way the man held his cigarette and glared at her.

Battistoni’s second wife said she used to get very annoyed with the way he “effeminately” held his cigarettes.

“It used to be one of those things that drove me crazy,” she said, holding her hand to her face, her fingers splayed.

She also recalled how, in the days after Molly disappeared, Battistoni took to the couch, rarely moving. He shaved his moustache and went out very little.

From the outside, Battistoni seemed to be on the right side of the law, working as a confidential informant with a drug task force; something police confirmed, and serving as a bouncer, complete with a shirt labeled “Security,” at the seedy Wolf’s Den bar in Palmer, before it closed.

But behind closed doors, he changed. In interviews, his wife and girlfriend said he used drugs, was so paranoid he once climbed into the crawl space of a ceiling in an apartment he shared with the girlfriend and barricaded himself inside his home because he was convinced the FBI was coming for him.

He rarely worked a regular job and passed the time watching “The Simpsons” and Court TV, seeing the same crime shows over and over, never tiring of them. He suffered from various mental health issues and sometimes he cut out stories about violent crimes from the newspaper leaving them where whatever woman he was with at the time would see them.

Three of the women he’d been involved with said he told them he’d killed a man in Ludlow hiding the body, which had never been found, according to court records and interviews. He threatened to do the same to them. He fancied himself to be “smarter than the cops,” his second wife said, and when they discussed the Bish case, he refused to talk about it, though he once told her, “Sometimes there’s just no evidence.”

He has a lengthy criminal record that dates to 1980, according to documents obtained by the Telegram & Gazette.

His second wife said he’d lecture her and often presented himself as an authority figure.

Twice, according to court documents, he’d been accused of impersonating a police officer. On one occasion, he carried handcuffs on a police-style belt and a Mag-Lite flashlight, a Springfield officer wrote in a 2001 report after a bartender called to report Battistoni was causing a disturbance.

Police have theorized that Molly might have been convinced by someone to leave her post at the beach. Her family said someone who seemed to be a police officer might have lured her that way.

While much of what Malley has uncovered is interesting, none of it means that Battistoni did anything more than what he’s been convicted of.

Detective Capt. Peter Higgins from Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni’s office said prosecutors have looked at Battistoni and vigorously prosecuted him for the rapes.

He said the new district attorney’s staff has familiarized themselves with the case and met with Holly’s family.

“We are following up on leads,” he said. “We did prosecute this case (the rape case) because the evidence was there.”

The captain declined comment on any possible connection between the Piirainen case and Battistoni.

Timothy J. Connolly, a spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., said detectives there, “continue to investigate the Bish case and look at any information we get.” He declined to say whether detectives believe Battistoni could be a suspect in Molly’s abduction and murder.

While both families have ridden a roller coaster of emotions with possible suspects popping up from time to time and eventually being discounted, neither Holly nor Molly’s families have given up.

Heather Bish said each time her family hears of a new suspect or a possible break in the case they’re cautiously hopeful and even if a lead is unfounded, it brings new attention to her sister’s case and might, someday, prompt someone with information to come forward.

Holly’s mother, Tina Harrington, said she also holds out hope and wonders whether Battistoni might be the one.

“If he is the guy, it’d feel really good because he’s already in jail,” she said. “It seems like a possibility, and I think they should be looking at him.”

Malley has been quiet about the case but now, he believes, is a good time to talk about it. He’s talked with investigators in the Worcester and Hampden District Attorneys’ offices and told them what he’s found.

He’s hoping that, with Battistoni securely behind bars in Walpole state prison, people with information might feel safer coming forward.

 ::snipping2::
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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Beth Holloway, 2015 interview with Greta van Susteren
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« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2012, 10:01:23 AM »

texasmom, good for this dective . . . he is working very hard on these cases.  God bless him!
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« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2012, 10:01:57 AM »

texasmom, good for this dective . . . he is working very hard on these cases.  God bless him!


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« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2012, 08:36:37 AM »

Friday, May 11, 2012

Bish family asks DA to consult with FBI
 
Sister hopes for suspect profile

WARREN —  The family of Molly Anne Bish has asked the Worcester district attorney to consult with the FBI in the more-than-decade-old case of the Warren lifeguard, who investigators have said was abducted and murdered in June 2000.
 
In a letter to Joseph D. Early Jr., Heather Bish asks that the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit be invited to review her sister’s case.
 
“The (Behavioral Analysis Unit) focuses on the ‘why’ of an investigation. Understanding the motivation behind the person who took Molly and murdered her will provide an avenue for (state police) investigators to follow to answer ‘how’ this happened,” she wrote.
BIG  ::snipping2::


Mr. Malley said yesterday he’s hopeful the district attorney will make use of every tool available to solve the Bish case.
 
“I believe the Worcester County DA’s office and the (State Police Detective Unit) would welcome the efforts of a world class investigating team such as the FBI’s Behavior Analysis Unit. It would bring fresh eyes to a case that is over a decade old,” Mr. Malley said. “I would think everyone in law enforcement and the community at large would welcome such help. I am a firm believer in bringing in all the resources you have available to bear. There is no more important goal in society the keeping our children safe.”
 
A spokesman for Mr. Early said he had received the letter from Heather Bish and responded with a written statement.
 
“The Worcester County district attorney’s office continues to use all appropriate resources to bring the person or persons responsible for the death of Molly Bish to justice. We are appreciative of the Bish family’s input concerning the investigation however, we will not comment on specific investigative techniques and procedures being utilized in this investigation,” he wrote.
 

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120511/NEWS/105119712/0/SEARCH
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« Reply #5 on: June 11, 2012, 06:31:29 AM »

Friday, June 8, 2012


More tests in Bish probe
 
New advances in DNA tools
http://www.telegram.com/article/20120608/NEWS/106089742/0/SEARCH

WORCESTER —  As they prepare to meet with members of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit to discuss the Molly Anne Bish case, state police investigators are doing new DNA testing on evidence gathered from Comins Pond in Warren where the 16-year-old lifeguard was last seen before she disappeared in June 2000.
 
Timothy Connolly, a spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., said about 20 items, some of which have been tested for DNA in the past, will be checked by the state police crime laboratory using newer techniques.
  ::snipping2::
much more

Mr. Connolly did not say whether new DNA tests on evidence from Comins Pond will attempt to match DNA from anyone in particular.
 
The Worcester district attorney does confer with investigators in Hampden County who are handling the Piirainen case “when the cases intersect,” Mr. Connolly said.
 
Detectives working on Holly's case recently named David Pouliot, a dead man who resided in Springfield, as a person of interest after new DNA testing showed he'd been near the spot on Five Bridge Road in Brimfield where her remains were found.
 
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« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2012, 01:16:46 PM »

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/17/old-wallet-belonging-to-killer-might-hold-clues-in-murder-16-year-old-molly/

Old wallet belonging to killer might hold clues in murder of 16-year-old Molly Bish
 

Quote
Fox affiliate WFXT-TV reported that Morrison's sister, Bonnie Kiernan, recently traveled to the Florida trailer home where the couple lived to retrieve items belonging to Morrison. While there, Kiernan found a wallet belonging to Stanger that was hidden inside a kitchen cabinet, according to the station. In it was a Massachusetts Firearms Identification Card, with a photo of Stanger that bears a striking resemblance to sketches made of a suspicious man seen hanging around the pond the day before Bish vanished. The F.I.D. card was renewed just two months before Bish's disappearance from Comins Pond in Warren.



 

I wonder what that safety deposit box holds.  Interesting that he never mentioned that to his atty or family.  Maybe its something he doesn't want anyone to find?  Tokens from his crimes?
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« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2012, 08:26:15 AM »

 ::snipping2:Rodney Stanger, a 64-year-old native of Southbridge, Mass., who was living in the area at the time, emerged as a person of interest in 2009. Stanger, who abruptly moved to Florida following Bish's disappearance, is serving a 25-year prison term for the 2008 stabbing death of his live-in girlfriend, Chrystal Morrison, in Summerfield, Fla.
 ::snipping2::
 
"He looks just like the sketch," Kiernan told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. "It's him. I have no doubt it's him."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/17/old-wallet-belonging-to-killer-might-hold-clues-in-murder-16-year-old-molly/#ixzz21AGg6pnB
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RIP Grumpy Cat :( I will miss you.


« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2016, 08:11:51 AM »

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/19/prosecutors-to-submit-evidence-in-molly-bish-cold-case-for-enhanced-dna-testing.html

Prosecutors to submit evidence in Molly Bish cold case for 'enhanced DNA testing'
6-19-16

Massachusetts prosecutors said Saturday they haven’t stopped trying to solve the 2000 murder of 16-year-old Molly Bish.

They are hoping to crack the Bish killing when “enhanced DNA testing” becomes available in September, Fox 25 Boston reported.

“The science is always getting better,” Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early said Saturday ahead of the 16th anniversary of Bish’s disappearance.
 

In 2009 a man named Rodney Stanger emerged as a person of interest after he was convicted of murdering his girlfriend in Florida. Stanger lived less than a mile from where Bish got her lifeguard certification that summer and may have been seen at the pond the day she disappeared, Fox 28 reported.

Detectives want a DNA lab to test 24 pieces of evidence collected during the investigation. The evidence has never been tested.

Early said Molly’s case still sparks tips to investigators on a weekly basis. He said they track down every tip.

 
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« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2016, 08:44:01 AM »

http://**/news/ci_30036099/justice-prevails-leominster

Justice prevails: Two Leominster officers, K-9 honored by Molly Bish Foundation (VIDEO)

06/20/2016

LEOMINSTER -- In recognition of their prevention of an attempted abduction in March, two local police officers and K-9 officer Justice have been named Officers of the Year by the Molly Bish Foundation.

"There isn't an officer who wouldn't do anything to save the life of a child, so we're just honored to be some of the few that are recognized," said Officer Randy Thomas, who serves as Justice's handler.

Justice, Thomas and Officer Brandon Fleming were all recognized for their efforts to apprehend Andrew C. Laliberte, a Rutland man who allegedly attempted to abduct two children on State Street in March. At the time, Laliberte had allegedly told the children that he was a police officer and they would be under arrest if they didn't go with him.



 

Looking back on being honored by the Molly Bish Foundation, Thomas described the experience as bittersweet. Parents of many of the state's missing children also attended the event.

"To see all those parents, I can't imagine the pain they must all be feeling," he said. "Obviously, the event is for them, and to help them cope with the pain they're going through, but I did feel very proud of K-9 Justice for being involved in the apprehension of this individual."

Molly Bish was a 16-year-old girl who worked as a lifeguard in Warren during the summer of 2000. She went missing, and her body was found three years later.


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Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware/Of giving your heart to a dog to tear  -- Rudyard Kipling

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'I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind' -Edgar Allen Poe
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ARUBA: It's all about Natalee...we won't give up!


« Reply #10 on: June 17, 2017, 06:55:02 PM »

http://wwlp.com/2017/06/15/underground-search-for-car-possibly-linked-to-molly-bishs-unsolved-murder/

“Compelling information” gathered in search for car linked to Molly Bish case
The car is being considered the strongest clue into Bish's disappearance.

By Ryan Walsh, 22News I-Team Reporter, Mike Masciadrelli and Anthony Fay
Published: June 15, 2017, 6:19 am  Updated: June 15, 2017, 11:51 pm

WEST BROOKFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A private investigator says that a ground-penetrating radar search of a campground in West Brookfield has yielded “compelling information” in the investigation into the 2000 murder of Warren lifeguard Molly Bish.

Dr. Sarah Stein, a private investigator who has worked for the Bish family since 2003, led the search for a white car suspected to have been buried at the Old Sawmill Campground. Bish’s mother says she saw a white car the day before her daughter vanished. It was also allegedly seen in the area on the day of her disappearance.

The car is being considered the strongest clue into Bish’s disappearance.

“We are searching for a vehicle that was in possession of our suspect at the time of her, related to her abduction and murder, and any other evidence related to her abduction and murder,” Stein said.

Bish was 16 years-old when she vanished from Comins Pond. It wasn’t until three years later in 2003 that investigators found her remains in Palmer.

In a news conference Thursday afternoon, Peter Massey of the University of New Haven (who helped conduct the search) said that Thursday’s search yielded some anomalies below the surface of the earth at the campground. He said that they are going to further map-out the area and investigate over the coming days.

Stein said that they cannot definitively say that the pattern is consistent with that of a car, but that the pattern is somewhat consistent with what they are looking for.

“We know that we found something,” Stein said.

No one has been arrested in connection to Bish’s disappearance and murder, but Stein said that they have “extremely compelling information” on a person of interest. Details about that person are not being released at this time.

Stein said that the information they obtained Thursday will lead them to further investigation there over the next several days.


Logged

I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Beth Holloway, 2015 interview with Greta van Susteren
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