Molly Bish
The Murder of Molly Bish
Unsolved Cold Case
Crime Spree: June 27, 2000
Molly Anne Bish was a sixteen-year-old American girl from rural Worcester County, Massachusetts, who disappeared while working as a lifeguard in her hometown of Warren, Massachusetts. Her remains were found three years later in neighboring Hampden County after what became the largest search in the state’s history. Police believe Molly Anne was murdered and several suspects have been publicly identified, but the case remains officially unresolved as of 2021.
The Disappearance
In the summer of 2000, Molly Bish began working as a lifeguard at Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts. On June 26, the day before her disappearance, her mother, Magi, saw a mustached man in a white car parked in the lot of the beach where Bish’s lifeguard post was located. Although he seemed suspicious at the time, she thought no further about him until after Molly’s disappearance.
On June 27, Magi drove her daughter to Comins Pond and dropped her off near the lifeguard station. Magi reportedly saw no sign of the stranger from the previous day or his white sedan. However, another witness reported that he saw a man matching the stranger’s description in the pond’s parking lot just minutes before Molly and her mother arrived.
A local worker also reported that he saw a similar car parked at a cemetery connected to the pond by a path. Magi Bish was the last known person to see her daughter before her disappearance. Several hours later, police contacted Molly Bish’s parents, informing them that no lifeguard had been on duty all day and that Molly Anne’s belongings had been left unattended at her station.
The Discovery
A search for Molly Bish was immediately launched. It was to become the largest and most expensive search for a missing person ever undertaken in Massachusetts.
A hunter had seen a blue bathing suit in the woods on Whiskey Hill in Palmer, in late fall 2002 but it wasn’t until May in 2003 that he mentioned this to Tim McGuigan, who contacted police. An intense search of the area soon located Bish’s body. On June 9, 2003, her body was found just 5 miles from her home. A cause of death was not determined, but investigators presume Molly Anne Bish had been murdered.
The Investigation
In 2005, a resident of Connecticut, charged with an attempted kidnapping in Connecticut, was briefly under investigation in connection with the murder of Molly Bish case.
In 2009, another suspect was investigated. Rodney Stanger, a Florida resident convicted of murdering his girlfriend, had lived in Southbridge, Massachusetts at the time of Molly’s disappearance. Stanger moved to Florida a year after the Bish murder. Following the murder of his girlfriend of 20 years, her sister alerted the Massachusetts authorities. Rodney Stanger was known to have access to a white car similar to the one seen the day before Bish’s disappearance. He was also known to fish in Comins Pond and hunt in the woods where Bish’s body was found. In addition, Stanger closely matched the description provided by Magi Bish of the man seen in the white sedan the day before Molly Bish’s disappearance.
In 2009, when Stanger was being investigated for the Molly Bish murder, police also questioned him in connection with the 1993 murder of Holly Piirainen who went missing in Sturbridge. Molly Bish and Piirainen were the same age in 1993 and Molly had written a letter of hope to Piirainen’s parents in 1993 after Holly went missing. Stanger was not charged in this case. In 2012, forensic evidence led authorities to name David Pouliot as a person of interest in the Piirainen case. Pouliot died in 2003, never being charged.
In November 2011, Gerald Battistoni, became a person of interest in the Molly Bish investigation. Battistoni served time in prison for repeatedly raping a teenage girl in the early 1990’s. He attempted suicide in prison after newspaper articles identified him as a potential suspect in the Bish and Piirainen’s deaths. Battistoni, who had a criminal record dating back to 1980, had been in the area where Bish’s body was found and resembles a composite sketch of the man Magi saw in the parking lot on the day before Bish disappeared. Gerald Battistoni died in 2014, never being charged.
No arrests have been made to date in the murder of Molly Bish and the case remains unsolved.
Source: wikipedia
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