MA MA - Patricia Gonyea, 17, Worcester, 22 Oct 1984

Name	Gonyea, Patricia
Age	17
Race/Sex	W/F
Date of Incident	10/22/1984
Address of Incident	95 Grand Street
Type of Incident	Unsolved Homicide
Cause of Death (if applicable)	Massive Head Trauma/Rape
Image(s)
Synopsis	17 year old female was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death on the railroad tracks near Southgate Street on 10-22-1984. Gonyea was found outside the window well of the Branson Wire Company.

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Miss Gonyea got off a bus at 11:15 p.m. Oct. 22 at Main Street across from Gates Street. She wasn’t far from her home, at 71 Southgate St. It was raining, and she took a shortcut near the former Crompton & Knowles complex to get home.​

“When I think back to the case, this girl was chased down a set of tracks in a rainstorm, beaten and her body was hidden,” Capt. McGinn said. “It was one of these cases where the victim was a true innocent.”​

Police found her nude body in a 6-foot-deep window well Oct. 23, 1984. Her clothes were discovered in an alley nearby. Authorities ruled she died from a skull fracture. Lt. Grady also found, through close scrutiny of crime scene photographs, that a wire was wrapped around her neck.
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Others recalled her love of the color purple, roller skating and vacations at Old Orchard Beach in Maine.
“She was a good student, a good friend and just a good person,” L’Ecuyer said. “I looked up to her.”
She noted Gonyea worked three jobs, including as a waitress and a babysitter, and still found time to help take care of her younger siblings.

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