Sandra Botelho was 24 when she left her New Bedford apartment on August 11, 1988, and did not return. She vanished amid a string of disappearances in late summer 1988 that later were linked to an unidentified serial offender now called the New Bedford Highway Killer.

Her body was found on April 24, 1989, in woods alongside Interstate 195 in Marion. Investigators connected her death to at least eight other killings of women between 1988 and 1989; the victims were reported to have been involved in sex work or struggling with drug addiction.

Authorities have examined multiple persons of interest over the years. Charges against a local attorney, Kenneth Ponte, in an unrelated victim’s death were dropped; Daniel Tavares Jr., already imprisoned for another murder, sent a letter claiming responsibility but has not been charged in these killings. No one has been arrested or convicted for Sandra Botelho’s murder.

Did anyone who knew Sandra or who lived near Interstate 195 in 1988 notice anything out of the ordinary that summer?