Unsolved: Worcester

In the spring of 1991, 37-year-old Donald B. Wallace disappeared. Donald was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and had a history of mental illness. He had two steel rods in his back from an injury he sustained earlier in life. But that didn't stop him from walking everywhere. It was really what Donald was known best for in Worcester. He was last seen on April 2, 1991 standing at the corner of Park Avenue and May Street by his mother as she was driving by in her car. More than 30 years later…and we're still asking the same question: Where did Donald Wallace walk off to?

It's been nearly 14 years since 36-year-old Patricia Santos was last seen. Patricia was a recovering drug addict. She had been clean and sober for two years and employed at a woman's recovery program in Worcester when she went missing. She was last seen on May 20, 2009. Her coworkers reported her missing after she failed to show up for work for two straight days. On May 23, 2009, Patricia's ex-boyfriend was arrested after trying to flee from police in Patricia's 2000 Ford Mustang.

It's around 9 p.m. on Dec. 23, 1982. 58-year-old Marion Kerswell hangs up the phone after a short phone call with her friend. Marion has Christmas Eve plans with her daughter for some last minute shopping and Christmas dinner preparations the next day. But after hanging up the phone with her friend, Marion is never heard from again. More than 40 years later, the same question still lingers: What happened to Marion Kerswell?

Where did Waldemar Feliciano go? On a brisk fall morning in November 2005, Waldemar woke up in bed next to his girlfriend in his apartment on Eastern Avenue in Worcester. He got out of bed, put on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball hat…and told his girlfriend he had to go make some calls. He left the room and has never been seen or heard from again.

What happened to Sabrina Hatheway? Sabrina was last heard from on Dec. 20, 2014. In the weeks following, her ex-boyfriend Kevin Crozier, with the help of two friends, tried burning down his grandmother's home on Dixfield Road in Worcester in a futile attempt to collect insurance money. Three months later, in March 2015, Crozier and his co-conspirators are in court facing multiple charges, including arson. But none of the three men can provide -- or are willing to provide -- an answer on Sabrina's whereabouts.

Arguably the missing person case that has received the most attention over the past decade in Worcester is the disappearance of 23-year-old Sabrina Hatheway. Sabrina was last seen on Dec. 28, 2014, allegedly at the home of her boyfriend, Kevin Crozier, on Dixfield Road in Worcester. Twelve days later, on Jan. 1, 2015, the Worcester Fire Department responded to a structure fire at the Dixfield Road home. Officials ruled the cause of the fire to be arson.

It's been nearly five decades since 24-year-old Vicke Lee Lamberton vanished from Worcester, leaving her husband and a rumored love affair behind. No one has heard from Vicke since February 1974. And it took over 35 years for a missing persons report to be filed with the Worcester Police Department.

In this special episode, we had the opportunity of speaking with Jennifer McLellan, daughter of the late Vincent Martin. Vincent was killed outside of the three-decker he lived in on Millbury Street on Dec. 28, 1995. He was beaten to death and robbed. We shared Vincent's story in episode 8 of Unsolved: Worcester Season 2.

Unsolved: Worcester returns for Season 3 on Tuesday, Feb. 21. The new season will shine a light on 10 missing person cases currently under investigation by the Worcester Police Department's Detective Unit.

It's around 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 7, 1973. A man making his way across the parking lot of Seven Hills Plaza on Myrtle Street notices something at the bottom of an embankment on Salem Street. The man takes a closer look and finds the body of 49-year-old Roland Clarkson, face up at the bottom of the embankment. Roland's skull had been crushed. When police arrive, they find a large chunk of concrete near Roland's body. He had been mutilated.

It's February 21, 1994. 27-year-old Helen Chevalier miraculously makes it home after a harrowing night. Helen works the street as a prostitute to pay for her drug addiction. The night before she luckily escaped the clutches of a john who refused to let her out of the car and kept pulling her by her hair. 24 hours later, Helen leaves her home, saying she's going out to meet a friend. She would never be seen alive again.

It's early Thursday, December 28, 1995. It's shortly before 6 a.m. and Vincent Martin is leaving his Millbury Street apartment to get to work at Red Cab Company when he's attacked from behind. He's thrown to the ground and kicked several times while he's down. The assailants removed the cowboy boot on Vincent's right foot and struck Vincent in the head repeatedly. A few hours late, Vincent's body is discovered face up in the snow, a trail of blood leads the way from the Millbury Street sidewalk between two three decker apartment buildings.

23-year-old Sonia Blanco and 25-year-old Evelyn Cruz are not alone. Not only will their deaths forever be connected - both women killed on Feb. 4, 19-93, their bodies beaten and severely bruised, both strangled to death and dumped to the curb from a vehicle - but they're among a half a dozen or so women all killed in similar fashion over a five-year period in Worcester. Each victim violently strangled and each murder unsolved.

Does Worcester have a serial killer? That's what residents were asking Worcester Police in early 1993. From December 1992 to February 1993, four women were killed. They had all been strangled to death. On Feb. 4, 1993, the bodies of 23-year-old Sonia Blanco and 25-year-old Evelyn Cruz were discovered just a few miles apart and within 20 minutes of each other. 30 years later, the murders of Sonia Blanco and Evelyn Cruz remain unsolved.

It's May 1st, 1987. 30-year-old Brian MacAlister had just been in a heated argument involving three other men at Billy's Lounge on Millbury Street. Brian left the other men and hopped into his brown 1973 four-door Oldsmobile parked outside of the Maurice the Pants Man store. Brian, likely intoxicated, left the driver side door open to his car as he tried to tune a portable radio and smoke a cigarette. Brian's killer approached the vehicle…and fired a single gun shot into the side of Brian's head.

It's been over 24 years since 26-year-old Eddie Wheeler was gunned down near a Honey Farms parking lot at the corner of Harding Street and Lafayette Street in Worcester's Canal District. It was 1:30 a.m. on December 26, 1998. Eddie was walking down Harding Street with a group of friends when his killer ran up to him, shooting Eddie four times in the chest.

It's Monday afternoon, October 16th, 1967. A pair of part-time employees at Jack and Felicia's Cafe on Millbury Street are walking through the front door of the restaurant. They're stopped dead in their tracks as soon as the door swings open. There, lying dead on the floor of the bar, is owner John "Jack" Zuromski. A pool of blood has collected around John's head. A sledgehammer is on the ground next to him.

It's Saturday night, April 13, 1968. A call is placed to the Worcester Police Department around 11 p.m. It's Albert Morrissette of Blackstone. He's calling to report his 17-year-old daughter,Phyllis Ann Morrissette, is missing. She never returned home after visiting a friend in Boston. Phyllis Ann's body would be found the next day, Easter Sunday, floating face down in Geese Pond in Worcester.

It's around 10 p.m. on Nov. 29, 1967. 21-year-old Sarah Cox should be boarding a public bus at Clark University. She would be on the bus for roughly two miles, and when the bus approaches Lincoln Square, Sarah gets off and starts on foot in the direction of her apartment on Highland Street. But she never made it. Days later, her frozen, naked body is found in a ditch in a wooded area off Granite Street over four miles away.

In today's special episode, we had the opportunity of speaking with Peter Vasquez, the older brother of 17-year-old Nereida Melendez, who was killed on June 5, 1989. Peter shares what he remembers from the day Nereida went missing, the following day when her body was discovered on Bell Hill, the police investigation and shares some insight on a possible suspect in Nereida's murder.

Season 2 of Unsolved: Worcester starts in the late 1960s and continues across four decades. We don't stray far from the early, darker days of the city's Canal District and Green Island neighborhoods. Four women found strangled to death, five men gunned down or bludgeoned to death, and the unsolved murder of a woman, whose body was discovered only after snow had melted away. Unsolved: Worcester season 2 starts December 15.

For 35 years, Dianne Williamson worked at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, including 10 years as a general assignment and crime reporter and 25 years as a must-read columnist. During Dianne's time at the T&G, she covered many of the unsolved murder and missing person cases that will be covered over the six seasons of Unsolved: Worcester. In today's episode, Dianne will share with us her insight into three unsolved murder cases: the 2002 4th of July murder of Candace Allen Scola, the 1992 murder of John Volungis Jr., and the 1989 murder of North High School graduating senior Nereida Melendez.

It's the night of June 5, 1989, and a shadow is cast over the crowd at the Worcester Auditorium, as members of North High's class of '89 are hearing the names of their classmates called one-by-one to receive their high school diploma. One classmate isn't present. Less than a mile away up on Bell Hill, the body of Nereida Melendez is buried under a pile of wet leaves in a wooded area off Elliot Street. What's meant to be a time of celebration for these Worcester teens is quickly turned to tragedy. This is Part 2 of the Nereida Melendez story.

It's the evening of June 5, 1989. A man walking around Chandler Hill Park finds a leather purse in the wooded area of Bell Hill. He turns the purse into the Worcester Police Department's Lost and Found later that night. Less than a mile away, North High School's graduation ceremonies for the class of '89 are underway at the Worcester Auditorium. 17-year-old Nereida Melendez isn't with her classmates. She never shows up for graduation. Nereida's body is buried under a pile of leaves on Bell Hill.

It's just after 9:30 p.m. on July 3, 2012. Crowds are gathered along the lower end of Grafton Street in Worcester to watch the city's annual Independence Day fireworks display. Jonathan Kapulka is standing in a parking lot near the entrance to Walgreens pharmacy. He's with a large group of family and friends. With him are his wife and two daughters. In one of the most brazen and violent acts in recent history in Worcester, a man wearing a ski mask ran up behind Jonathan, shooting him three times. The killer ran away up Grafton Street. And for over 10 years, Jonathan's murder remains unsolved.

It's January 25, 2000. Dominick Maiorana is notified by Worcester Police Department Records Bureau that his vehicle - a silver 1999 Lexus CS300 - was towed weeks earlier to Pat's Service Center on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester. Dominick's son Paul is the only person who drove the car and Dominick hasn't seen his son since the day after Christmas, nearly a month ago. Later that same night, Paul's frozen body is found in the trunk of the Lexus at Pat's Service Center. The vehicle had been at Pat's for over a week.

On the evening of Feb. 3, 1992, Bridget DiIorio Volungis dropped her husband off at their home on Porter Street in Worcester. An hour later, DiIorio returned home to find her husband, John Volungis Jr., dead inside the entrance to their duplex home. John had been stabbed 18 times. His throat had been slit. Police believe whoever killed him was waiting inside the home for him to arrive.

It's been 10 years since Nathan Otero was found shot dead near the Indian Lake Park beach area at the end of Clason Road in Worcester. It was October 18, 2012 at 2:15 a.m. when Worcester Police received reports of gunshots from Clason Road residents. The 27-year-old man was killed in the darkness at the east side of Indian Lake. He was shot in the head.

It's been over 20 years since 32-year-old Candace Scola was found dead on the kitchen floor of her home on Knox Street in Worcester. She had been stabbed 13 times, including multiple stabbings in her chest. The only suspect in the case is her estranged husband. He was the last person to see her alive. This is Part 2 of our two-part episode series on the murder of Candace Scola.

It's been over 20 years since 32-year-old Candace Scola was found dead on the kitchen floor of her home on Knox Street in Worcester. She had been stabbed 13 times, including multiple stabbings in her chest. The only suspect in the case is her estranged husband. He was the last person to see her alive. This is Part 1 of our two-part episode series on the murder of Candace Scola.

It's around 9:45 p.m. on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 2007, when buzzers start ringing loudly for all apartment units at the entrance of 4 North Ashland Street. A first floor resident -- hearing the repeated buzzing at the front door -- approaches the entrance and sees two men standing outside the door. He opens the door to see what they want. but the men force themselves in. They sprint up the stairs to the third floor apartment where Andrew Robinson and Luis Acevedo are inside. The intruders kick the door down to Apartment 3 and quickly fire several shots, killing Andrew and Luis.

The lack of evidence around the crime scene is nearly as peculiar as the lack of evidence on the bodies of William Vega and Elizabeth Matos. There was no murder weapon at the scene. And police couldn't pin down a motive. The teenagers hadn't been robbed. There were no drugs, drug paraphernalia, cell phones, beepers, or weapons on their bodies to indicate the murders were drug-related.

Unsolved: Worcester, a series of narrative episodes examining the dozens of unsolved cold cases on file with the Worcester Police Department, will release its first episode on Oct. 18, 2022. New episodes will debut on Tuesdays and Thursdays over five-week periods in 10-episode series.