In Boston, two heavily burnt bodies have been found within a 24 hour period, and experts are saying that it’s no coincidence. According to crime expert and Northeastern University professor James Alan Fox, the crimes contain so many similarities that one must assume that there is a connection.
Professor Fox said, “There are coincidences, but burned bodies are not the most common occurrence and the fact that they were found in such close time period is bizarre to say the least. It’s early in these investigations, but they are strange and seemingly similar.”
The burning body of one woman was found next to railroad tracks in a wooded area on Tuesday evening in the Bridgewater area. Then on Wednesday, a body was found in a torched car on a rural dirt road in Worcester.
“This doesn’t seem to be by chance. Typically, the victim is already dead. You could potentially kill someone by burning them, but you have to get close and they may try to fight back and/or thrash about,” said Fox.
In the Bridgewater case, policers found the body at about 11:40 pm on Tuesday. Officers that arrived on the scene found the burning body of a dead woman. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her feet had been bound together. She was declared dead at the scene of the crime. Experts say that it is likely that she was killed elsewhere before she was set on fire. The woman has not yet been identified.
As for the burning body in Worcester, firefighters responded to a car fire at about 10:30 pm on Wednesday in a remote part of Worcester. The firefighters quickly worked to put out the fire before discovering a body. Officials have not released any information regarding the person’s identity, gender or age. They also did not mention the make or the model of the vehicle.
Fox said, “We only have a few 100 homicides in Massachusetts to begin with. Then you take into account how many are burned? Not many. What makes serial killers tough to identify is that they move the bodies to the dumpsite. The scene of the crime is where a lot of the story is told. Moving the body takes that away, and obviously much of the DNA evidence was destroyed in the fire. This isn’t an action movie, cars aren’t really combustible. Someone had to have set it on fire.”
According to Fox, if the two incidents are indeed the work of a serial killer, then it is very likely that the victims did not know the attacker. Based on the proximity, timing and body destruction method, it is probable that there is a major connection between the two killings.
“The locations are relatively close, easily traveled, and seemingly similar, so that possibility of connection exists. Serial offenders use similar locations that they are familiar with. We can’t conclude a connection, but there are very strong similarities,” he said.
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