Kathy Williams

In the winter of 1974, the body of 16-year-old Kathleen “Kathy” Williams, a white female, was discovered in a rest area off Massachusetts Route 125 in Andover. The grim finding in December marked the beginning of a decades-long mystery that would haunt the Boston area and become entwined with a series of other unsolved killings of young women. Kathy’s life had been cut short by violence; an autopsy determined she had been strangled. Her naked body was left in the cold, a chilling testament to her final moments.

The time was one of fear and uncertainty in the region, as several young women had been murdered under brutal and perplexing circumstances. Investigators began to see a disturbing pattern in the deaths. Just a few months after Kathy’s body was found, in March 1975, 22-year-old Holly Davidson was found dead in a grassy area near Route 495 in Methuen. She, too, had been strangled. That July, the body of 26-year-old Melodie Stankiewicz was discovered in Captain's Pond in Salem, New Hampshire; she had been stabbed to death.

The similarities and geographic proximity of these homicides led Massachusetts State Police and other agencies to suspect they could be the work of a single, predatory killer. The investigation stretched on for years, with few leads and no arrests, leaving the families of the victims in a state of perpetual grief and uncertainty. The cases grew cold, but they were not forgotten.

Decades later, the name of a potential suspect would cast a long shadow over these unsolved crimes: Leonard “Lenny” Paradiso. A convicted murderer, Paradiso was found guilty in 1984 for the 1979 killing of 20-year-old Marie Iannuzzi. His name surfaced in connection with numerous other disappearances and murders of young women in the Boston area during that era. Former Suffolk County prosecutor Timothy M. Burke heavily implicated Paradiso as a serial killer in his book, "The Paradiso Files."

Burke's work detailed chilling commonalities between the murders of Kathy Williams, Holly Davidson, and Melodie Stankiewicz. Spurred by these revelations, Boston-area prosecutors announced in September 2008 that they were formally reopening the three women's cold cases. An official involved in the new investigation stated there were "too many similarities between the individual cases to ignore," breathing new life into the dormant files. This renewed focus brought a flicker of hope that answers might finally be within reach.

Despite the strong suspicions and the official re-examination of the evidence, no charges were ever filed against Leonard Paradiso in connection with Kathy Williams's murder. He died in prison from cancer in February 2008, just as his name was gaining public notoriety for these other alleged crimes, taking any secrets he held to his grave.

As of September 2008, the investigation into the murder of Kathy Williams remains open and unsolved. Her case is a painful reminder of a violent period in Massachusetts history and one of several tragic stories of young lives stolen too soon. The Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Case Unit continues to seek information that could finally bring justice for Kathy and provide closure for those who have waited for answers for more than four decades. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact them at 1-855-MA-SOLVE (1-855-627-6583).