Social media users fear that a serial killer is on the loose in New England after police pronounced a woman dead in Massachusetts on Tuesday.
Between March and April, three Northeastern states have reported the discovery of human remains, most of them belonging to women, according to Fox News.
This latest incident in Springfield, Massachusetts, where police responded to a call about an unresponsive woman found near a bike path, marked the eighth death that internet sleuths have attributed to a supposed killer.
It is unclear if the woman died before police arrived, but the Springfield Police Department revealed that she was dead shortly after they arrived on the scene.
While SPD has not yet determined a cause of death, the woman’s demise has fanned the flames of the ongoing rumors.
The rumors reportedly originated on a Facebook group called “New England Serial Killer,” which is changing its name due to Facebook policy. The group has more than 66,000 members.
Before this incident, four sets of remains — in different stages of decomposition — were reported in Connecticut, one in Rhode Island, and now three in Massachusetts, according to Fox News.
“The first thing that strikes me as curious is the fact that seven sets of remains have been found over the span of two months,” Peter Valentin, chair of the Forensic Science Department at the University of New Haven, told Fox News. “That in and of itself is rather curious. It’s certainly a lot to find in a little. It’s a large number of human remains to find in a short period of time.”
While the bodies were discovered over two months, each had decomposed to different degrees of severity, indicating the deaths had happened much further apart.
Is a serial killer stalking New England?
“If someone is in full rigor mortis, there is no need to try to find a pulse because the presence of rigor mortis means they are unequivocally dead. So this is a very recent death, unlike the others,” Valentin said.
One woman often mentioned online regarding the recent string of deaths is 59-year-old Denise Leary, who was found dead on March 21 near her home in New Haven, Connecticut, according to MassLive.
Statement regarding human remains found. pic.twitter.com/9KcflOgEwS
— New Haven Police Department (@NHPDnews) March 21, 2025
While online posts often identify her as a victim of the supposed killer, police have not determined her cause of death.
In fact, police have not determined a cause of death for any of the remains that have been discovered, according to MassLive.
“There’s certain things that have a mystique about them, and I think serial killers are one,” New Haven policeman Christian Bruckhart told MassLive. “A serial killer is this almost mythical figure in the zeitgeist — I mean, how many Hannibal Lecter movies have been done?”
Bruckhart cautioned internet sleuths.
“We don’t want this woman’s death to be treated as like a sideshow for people’s own personal interests,” Bruckhart said about Leary, the woman discovered in March. “At the same time, we do want to be as forthright as we can to the public, and say, ‘Hey, listen, there’s no indication that the woman was killed.’”
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