NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Along the highways and off ramps of the New Bedford area, a deadly secret is still tightly kept.
It is along these lonely stretches of road that a serial killer plied his deadly trade in the late-1980s.
Nine murdered women were recovered from the area, and to this day, two remain missing.
These are the dumping grounds of the New Bedford Highway Killer, a killer who remains unmasked.
VICTIMS NOT FORGOTTEN
Wayne Perry is the brother of Debra DeMello. In November 1988, her body was found at the Reed Road Exit off Route 195 in Dartmouth
“Did you ever think this case would go unsolved for this long?” Boston 25 News Reporter Bob Ward asked Wayne Perry
“No, I never did,” he said.
It’s believed Debra DeMello vanished in July 1988, four months before her remains were found.
“She went out to work one day and she just didn’t come back,” Perry said.
SEARCH FOR SUSPECTS
The late New Bedford lawyer Kenneth Ponte was the only person ever arrested in the case, but that charge was ultimately dropped. There have been other suspects, but no other arrests.
“I’m very, very surprised that this case is not been solved,” author Maureen Boyle said.
She is the author of Shallow Graves: The Hunt for the New Bedford Highway Serial Killer. At the time of the killing spree, Maureen was a reporter for the New Bedford Standard Times. Her book is sparking new interest in the unsolved Highway Killings case.
“Why do you think the New Bedford Highway Killer has not been identified?” Ward asked.
“One of the reasons why the killer hasn’t been identified is because investigators were slow to start in the investigation, because they weren’t able to identify early on that they had a serial killer in the city,” Boyle said.
NEW TIPS REVEALED?
Until now, it’s believed no one ever caught a glimpse of the New Bedford Highway Killer.
But through his Facebook page devoted to the case, Wayne Perry heard from a man who told him an intriguing tale.
Back in the summer of 1988, the man said, he passed a van pulled over on Route 88 near Horseneck Beach in Westport. He said he saw two men struggling to throw away a large object out of the van and into the tall grass.
“He said that what was wrapped up, he said it looked to him like it was a body wrapped up in some sort of material,” Perry said.
It’s the same general area where victim Mary Rose Santos was later found in 1989.
Wayne shared pictures of suspects with the tipster and says the person twice picked out the same face.
“I believe the guy 100%,” Perry said.
The tipster later died in a house fire.
Wayne says he passed the information along to the DA’s office.
“The D.A. was given all this information back in 2017. They’ve done nothing with it,” Perry said.
Maureen Boyle tells me, since her book was published, she’s also received tips, that’s she has passed along to authorities.
“Do you think the highway killer will ever be identified?” Ward asked.
“Yes. At some point, highway killer will be identified,” Boyle said.
“Why do you feel so certain about that?”
“People cannot get away with murder. They just can’t. And from what I know of the investigators in the cold case unit, they are very determined to bring justice to victims,” Boyle said.
Anyone with information about the New Bedford Highway Killer can call the Mass State Police Cold Case Unit at 1.855.MA.SOLVE.
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