Mindy West, 31, was found strangled and tied to a tree on October 4, 1998, on the wooded outskirts of Manchester, New Hampshire, near Huse Road. Her family had reported her missing on July 30, 1998; she was last seen near Concord Street reportedly with her boyfriend. West was a mother to a young daughter and had struggled with drug addiction and survival sex work in the years before her death.

Early investigators faced barriers: many of Mindy’s acquaintances led transient lives and battled addiction, complicating witness cooperation and leaving the case with few concrete leads. The investigation grew cold and remained unsolved for years. In 2008 New Hampshire investigators began working with the Worcester, Massachusetts District Attorney’s office on a potential link to Alex Scesny, convicted in a 1996 murder in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and considered in another nearby unsolved 1997 killing. Scesny has not been charged in West’s death and the case remains open.

Did anyone in the Manchester area know Mindy’s movements or who she spent time with that summer of 1998?