MA MA - Holly Piirainen, 10, Sturbridge, 5 Aug 1993

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Family of Holly Piirainen hopes I-93 billboard provides clues about the 10-year-old's unsolved abduction and slaying

The family of Holly Piirainen hopes that a digital billboard featuring a picture of the 10-year-old Grafton girl who was abducted and murdered in 1993 will finally bring the answers they have been seeking for the past 18 years.

[snip]

Holly disappeared after taking a walk to see collie puppies near her grandmother’s Sturbridge summer home that August. Two and a half months later, her remains were found in woods in Brimfield.

More: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/family_of_holly_piirainen_hope.html

 

[Dionysia]

Possible Break in Piirainen and Bish Cases

 

[Analyze This]

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1392420

Looks like there may be some movement in this case.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

New lead in 1993 Holly Piirainen slaying to be announced today

Eighteen years after the kidnapping and killing of a 10-year-old girl, authorities said they have new evidence they hope will help solve a mystery that has stymied investigators since the child vanished during a family vacation in Sturbridge.


More: http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/0...unced-today/Pi66zFq5Ayk1uHDYmfxm5J/story.html

 

[mrsu]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/massachusetts-cold-case-linked-dead-man/story?id=15280841#.TwNp4ko5A8Y

Cold Case Murder of Holly Piirainen, 10, Linked to Dead Man

Now, nearly two decades later, police using enhanced forensic techniques say they have identified someone who they believe was at the scene of the girl's murder.

That person, identified as David Pouliot, died in 2003. The cause of death is unidentified at this time.

Investigators in 1993 collected several items of possible evidence near where Piirainen's body was discovered in October 1993. Those items were reexamined with enhanced forensics methods earlier this year, and one was determined to be linked to David Pouliot.

"An indisputable match in identification was made," Mastrioanni said. "It is a very significant lead."

 

[hmg]

This has been all over the news around here today and I'm praying that they find out more information about David Pouliot and why he may be connected to this case. Holly's family has been waiting a long time to find out these answers.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/holly_piirainens_family_member.html

 

[CrimeSolver]

Wow, except for the missing mustache, this Battistoni looks a lot like the sketch of the character in the Bish case:

 

[sandbox]

Battistoni looks like he would have been blond, though. (Thanks for finding the pic.)

Boy, western MA seems like a hotbed of psycho hunters.

I can't keep all these guys straight.

? - police sketch of smoking guy with the white car at Comins Pond

David Pouliot, deceased hunter/fisherman, linked forensically to Piirainen crime scene

Gerald Battistoni, child rapist, driving a white Chevy the day Molly Bish disappeared

Rodney Stanger, hunter/fisherman, had white car, murdered girlfriend, girlfriend told her sister that she believed RS was tied to Bish and Piirainen murders

Robert Burno, accosted a jogger; haven't heard anything else about him since

 

[CrimeSolver]

You're right, sandbox, both those guys uncannily resemble the Bish suspect as well, especially Burno. I found Battistoni's beady, suspicious eyes and "angry" eyebrows spot-on as far as corresponding with the drawing.

 

[KarlK]

That looks like Stalin

 

[hmg]

There's not much information here, but the DA reports that there have been many new tips called in about the Piirainen case ever since the announcement about David Pouloit.

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/i_team/DA-New-leads-in-Piirainen-case

 

[hmg]

A video segment by Fox 25 Boston has some new details I've never heard before regarding Randy Stanger, the brother of Rodney Stanger, who is a suspect in the Molly Bish case:

http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/20142417/2012/11/19/new-details-emerge-in-hunt-for-holly-piirainen

Basically, it's all circumstantial, but an interesting lead none the less.

 

[ThinkHard]

Holly Piiranean was abducted on my 11th Birthday.

I grew up in a heavily wooded central mass town just west of worcester, and a few towns north of Sturbridge. One of my gymnastics friends at the time was a classmate and good friend of Holly's.

The day of my 11th birthday when I found out about her disapearance I immediately thought of standing up on a chair having happy birthday sung to me at my daycare that day, I remember thinking for some reason that at the exact moments I was being sung happy birthday, Holly was being grabbed and forced into a car.

Not a single birthday goes by that I do not think of Holly. I think of her frequently actually, and often check the web to see if any new developments have been made. This case has always been and always remains close to my heart. I pray every single day that her case will one day be solved.

 

[DixieDawn84]

I hope they find him. I have a friend who was born in or near Sturbridge in 1983, I'll have to ask if she knew her.

 

[ThinkHard]

I hope they find him. I have a friend who was born in or near Sturbridge in 1983, I'll have to ask if she knew her.

Holly grew up in Grafton MA. Her grandparents lived in Sturbridge.

 

[CanManEh]

It's To bad that this Pouliot guy happens to be deceased . He prolly took alot if not all the awnsers to the grave .Hopefully he died accidentlly cause if he took his own life he prolly got rid of everything but if it was say a car accident he wouldn't have thought anything before hand so it would be left at his house still ..

 

[hmg]

Unfortunately this doesn't have the full story I saw on the local news last night but during the interview Holly's aunt mentioned they're looking for information on two men suspected to be with Pouliot at the time of Holly's murder.

"At the 13 th annual Missing Children’s Day on Beacon Hill, families remembered their missing children. The family of Holly Piirainen, who went missing in 1993, presented an award to the Hampden County District Attorney. Last year, the office announced that new forensic evidence found by Holly’s body led them to David Pouliot, a Springfield man who died in 2003.

“Unfortunately the other evidence connecting him to the case didn’t really match up. We are still hoping to find two people who were with him on the day after Holly’s abduction,” said Karen Jolin, Holly’s aunt."


http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/politi...amilies-ask-for-help-in-missing-kids-cases-cl

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

On the 13th anniversary of the day teenage lifeguard Molly Anne Bish disappeared, 100 people gathered at the town common on Thursday night to honor her memory and to remember that her killer has never been found.

[snip]

A photograph of a smiling Molly was set on a table by a bouquet of yellow roses. A moment of silence was held for all the missing children, and one by one, candles were lit to represent the missing and murdered children: Molly Bish, Holly Piirainen, Lisa Ziegert, Sarah Pryor, Jeffrey Curley, Danielle and Dorothy Pitcher, and Caleigh Harrison.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/slain_warren_teenager_molly_an.html#/0

 

[Pettibon Junction]

Does anyone know specifically what the police recovered from the site where Holly's body was found that link her to David Pouliot or whether any of this evidence has been re-tested in recent years?

 

[Kell1]

Ive never been completely convinced the Bish and Piirainen cases are related.

I know its a popular theory, however Holly's murder seems to be more of an opportunity grab, if everything I read on the case is accurate, where as Molly's abduction and murder seem to bear the earmarks of true predatory abduction, by an individual highly likely to commit further crimes.