N.E.S.K - New England Serial Killer - What We Know So Far

this because I see such a broad swath of true crime coverage and information about a variety of different deaths. You know, the country might be focused on, say, for instance, one thing that's going on like right now at the time of this taping, and we've got like the Karen Reid trial going on. We've got a variety of other things involving Coburger and Hureman and all these things that are waiting in the wings. There's a lot of ink

being slung about. And I've often thought over the years, do we develop patterns as a consumer consumer public as it applies to true crime. And the reason I ask that to my cell is that do we get so caught up in cases where because they're in the public I that maybe other things will be forgotten. I'll give you a great example, and I've talked about this case extensively and been on various television shows and stuff, And that's a piked and masker back from sixteen up in

southern Ohio. You had eight family members killed in that case, and hardly an ounce of ink was spilt over it. But yet you had other things that were singular deaths where the coverage was just intense, you know, things like I don't know the Jody Arias case going back to twenty thirteen. It all depends on what hits, you know what I mean. Right now, we're in the middle of the Hureman case, which is lisk in Gilgo Beach, and it's all the rage. Everybody wants to talk about it,

as well as should. But you know, there's another group of deaths that have made their way into the news cycle, and some people are hinting that there might be a serial killer on the loose in a specific region of our country. Now are these deaths related, I don't know. Is that a consequence of maybe all of the news about human I don't know, or is their validity to this? Are people putting two and two together? Let's chat about it.

I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body bags. I think that as humans day, our lives are all about patterns. You know, there's certain ways that we go about things. There's certain things that we view, there's certain things that we consume and read and all of those and you know, I think about things that you know, for instance, that I watch on YouTube. I watch generally nothing political. I watch nothing about true crime unless it's something that i'm studying.

Most of the time, the stuff that I direct myself toward is history. You know, I love to study history in the classics, and that's a pattern I've developed over the years. You've been in media for a long time, and you've been I don't know, I love this old term. I would classify you as a newsman. You were, You were a news reader for many years and have covered news all over the country, and I'm just I'm curious. Do you do you think the media develops pattern.

you have an expertise that very few people possess. And because it comes from an education in the classroom, and it comes in from work in the field and by the way, being successful at both at the academics and in the field, and you're able to bring that together and then you have that next level talent of being able to make people like me understand what it is you're talking about. And I don't even think you realize

how good you are at what you do. And I'm coming from broadcasting end of it, Joe, You're able to take like I'm excited about doing this particular show because it has the broadcasting end of it, the angle. We've named it already, Nesk. You mentioned the Long Island serial killer RECs hereman calling it LISK. This one has already been named NESK. The New England serial Killer is their one.

And this story has gotten legs because of social media. There are Facebook pages devoted to it, and Twitter accounts and x accounts and tiktoks are being devoted and we're talking thousands of people by the day asking questions about this story. We have right now six six female bodies recovered between March sixth and April tenth in one area of the northeast.

get attention while others don't. And now you know you mentioned piked in I. Until you and I talked about it, I did nothing about it. I knew nothing about that story. And then when I got into it, I'm like, how do we.

I don't know that there was like some huge gait that descended and everybody stopped and looked. It took a long time and a lot of people grinding over the scene, and not just not just the law enforcement people, but people in the media that knew that something was up and they tried to keep the story alive. And I think the one it's I think, I'm just curious if this is if this is fertile ground for a cautionary tale,

because I'm worried. I'm worried about this based upon somebody that has assessed cerial homicides, okay, over the course of my career, and I'm trying to understand is because there's just certain things that we look for now. I just want to know if those elements are there.

something you can teach? Is it What are we actually doing when it comes to this, because we've got armchair detectives with no education and no background that are making accusations and casting us versions and creating a media serial killer. Yet we've got three females identified that remains identified. We're talking about somebody's mother, somebody's daughter, somebody's sister that we didn't find, a body we found remains Yeah, I think there's a bit of a difference. I need you to

help me. I need you to explain to me what a serial killer is, how do you identify that? And does this fit?

definition three or more, and that number has varied for years. I think at one point in time the number was higher and then they reduced it. And I think it was reduced by the people at the Behavioral Sciences Unit in Quantico with FBI, they pulled it back down to three. I might be wrong about that, but I think initially the number was higher. So yeah, from that, from that basic precept, yeah, this would be this would qualify as a series of serialized homicides. But we still we're just

this case. We don't even know that these are homicides at this point in time. We don't because I got to be honest with you, I don't know about you. Everything I've read, I haven't seen a cause of death yet, I Joe, you know, and I just you know, what I know is that we've got there's a big similarity here, because well, let's just look at it geographically. You know, it's the northeast, and you can I don't know, I guess you could say that you could proverbial throw a

proverbial hat over the areas. I think that most of the areas where these women's bodies have been found are like in a one hundred mile radius or maybe a little bit more. Yeah, so, yeah, geographically it could fit, but we're missing huge pieces here. You know, every serialized homicide I've ever worked, and I'm thinking back right now, over the course of my career in New Orleans, I think I worked three sets of serial killings down there

somewhere somewhere. On one case in particular, I just knew that there were probably hundreds of bodies up and down IT ten and the guy had been called the IT ten killer a variety of names. I had another set that guy killed six women and he was caught actually dumping the body in the same location where he dumped all the other ones. The sheriff's office finally set up a hide and was watching literally saw it caught him pulling a body out of the trunk of a car.

you have to establish a pattern. And I think one of the big missing pieces here is that we don't if we don't have a causal statement relative to what brought about these deaths. That's a big piece, okay, because most serial killers, they have a preference for how they take people's lives. I'll give you an example. The guy was telling me about it was pulling the bodies out

of the trunk of the car. He loved to use wire to use as a groat around the necks of these prostitutes, and he would drug them beforehand, and then the groat is essentially got a one little handle and you can tighten it down, loosen it, and he would loosen it multiple times. He was driving pleasure from this guy was a sadist and filled with a lot of anger. He'd kill women. Every time he got into a fight with his fiance. He wouldn't attack her. You go out and find it prostituct killer, Oh.

worked serial killings that involved handguns or rifles even you know, it's just firearms. I don't think I ever worked Yeah, I don't think I ever worked a case involved in serial killing with an edged weapon. They now, I've had multiple people killed by one person wielding an edge weapon, but not like a series of going out and stabbing somebody or cutting their throats and that sort of thing.

they're hunting in the one little area. And I know people say that they hunt with areas they're familiar with, But if you look at long haul truckers, where are they familiar with, Well, they're familiar with their truck, that's their moving house, and they're familiar with truck stops, and so you get that, you know, quite a bit. So

there's kind of a mish mash out there. Just like over the years, there's been a a mish mash or not not a mishmash, but kind of a confusion about the number of kills that it takes to be classified as a serial killer. This area that we're talking about in the Northeast day, my gosh, there are interstates running everywhere, and so, you know, I was talking about, you know, kind of throwing the proverbial hat on this. If you're thinking about, you know, an area that's kind of circling

a particular location. How can they get in, how can they get out? What's the geography like, where are they found relative to roadways, what's the terrain like where they're recovered. Are they just being dumped out inside the road? Are they being placed in water? Which one of these cases I know was found in a river. So there's a lot to consider here, But this is what I do

know at this point in time. I do know that I don't have a cause of death on these victims, and I also know that to that end, I don't know if there is a connectivity between the types of death, the instrumentality that may or may not have been used, and also is there a common denominator relative to the perpetrator thing being called again, David was Immedia.

women who have been found. Now, I want to be really clear and how I asked this show, when I asked you about serial killers and how many serial killer cases you've worked, and is there a commonality among the victims as well as the perpetrator that.

They were all males, and with the exception of the Vine City killings in Atlanta, who were all elderly ladies, which is disgusting on another level, entirely, they were prostitutes almost to a person, you know, I didn't have this kind of like you have would BTK where he's randomly targeting. I mean literally, you know, the first the first victims that he claimed were literally a nuclear family.

in my case, at least, it's always been female prostitutes. I haven't I have not know. I have had friends that have worked or colleagues that have worked cases involving male prostitutes. Over the years. Myself, it's always been female prostitutes. The line share of them have been you know, living on the streets, had very and this is kind of a classic profile, had very little contact with their biological family. Matter of fact, many times families wouldn't even know what

had happened to him. That's what makes them such easy prey. But I don't you know as of right now, where you know if they're building out a profile. And I would assume that some of the authorities have reached out and I've got a big clue to that, and I'm going to reveal it to you about trying to build out a profile. If they are believing that these are a serialized event, you're going to want to know what these individuals backgrounds are, and you know, if there's some

kind of commonality. Now the reason that I think that a profile could be built out, and again, we don't know everything the police know at this time, and we should not know everything that the police know. You know, these are outside so horses that are putting together these things. Okay, so the police. This is the way it generally works.

If you have a serialized event and it's multi jurisdictional, the first thing you're going to do is that there will generally be a task force formed in a single jurisdiction. So let's say you've got multiple bodies that are found in the state of Connecticut. Okay, Well, under the auspices of the state, they can get together and they will

form a task force within that state. All right, Now, if you've got one case, which there is one case in this group that they've identified as nests that originates out of Rhode Island, Dave, that person will not necessarily be on the task force. And then there's another case. There's cases out of Massachusetts and I think New Hampshire as well, So you've got it's multi jurisdictional. So how

do you unite all of these people? Well, first off, you have to be able to prove that there's connectivity with physical evidence, cause of death, typology of the way they were found, what was perpetrated against them, and that includes things like any kind of instruments that we use, Was there any kind of posing that was done with the bodies, where they missing closed, where they all clothed, was their clothing manipulated, were there any kind of post

mortem amputations that people taking trophies, anything like that. And then what would happen is the next tier with this will be the FEDS, and it'll be like the FBI. They would form a federal task force and the FBI would begin to work probably on a profile of not just the victims, but also the potential perpetrator here. So there's a lot of things that have to get into motion in order to get everybody going in the correct direction.

One things I found out about being on a task force, and again I'm just a corner medical examiner kind of guy. I wasn't like going out and arresting people I was examining.

Remains the one thing that I have found though, and I was always fascinated by, was with these task force there is ego comes into it big time because everybody wants everybody wants the claim to fame if it turns out to be Let's just say, for instance, like with Lisk, if you've got a multi jurisdictional thing, you know, everybody would like to say, well, you know, we're the people

that stopped Lisk. Okay, same thing would apply here. You have to remain You have to have a leader of the group that's going to keep you focused on what the task is at hand. So if you've got this really divergent group of women we're talking six here, three of which are still unidentified to this point, are you going to be able to jam down those egos and stay focused, like a laser, focus on what the task is and that is ultimately getting this monster off the streets.

first one to go missing. Because even though they were all found in the last month or so, in the last several weeks, that doesn't mean they were killed right away or that they died right away.

was found in water after a very heavy rainfall. But that was hers was the first body located found. The next was Denise Leary. Denise Leary was found on March twentieth of twenty twenty five. Denise was reported missing Joe back last September. And that's where I look at that and go, Okay, her condition, the remains of her, is going to be a lot different than the remains of

Page Fannin. I mean, you have Paige Fannin that was actually seen the day before her body was found, right, And then we have one other woman who has been identified. Her name is Michelle Romano. Her body was found on March twenty sixth. She went missing August of last year. That is a long time, yeah, it is.

you can imagine. What a beautiful area and the nicest people I've ever met, Jerry, the nicest.

Hampton who done it, uh with with Paige Fannin. You know, she was actually from West Island, but she was down in a river in Connecticut, and so she's you know, she was found as a result of them asking for She was found with the assistance of a drone actually, and so she was up there for a reason, okay, and where she fell into and I don't know that you know, just because you fall into a very fast moving river, which she was actually found in the Norwalk River,

and it's like racing through there. And I don't know if you've ever been caught up in a current like that before in a river. I have almost drowned in a salmon fishing a river up in Michigan one day, and you know, it just kind of pulled me down the river, and I'm a pretty stout guy and I couldn't fight it. So if you're thinking about with her, what types of injuries did she display when they pulled

her out of the water. And she's only been down for a couple of days, so it's not like she was left somewhere out in the woods where she's in a state of decay. So that's kind of an interesting person that they've put into this mix. I'd like to know for my purposes as an investigator, Dave, and I'm in all honesty, I would go to the local authorities up there in Connectu. I'd say, hey, let me ask you something. How many other people have you ever had

drowned in this river? Are found dead in this river? Is this something that happens regularly or is this so rare that you're sitting here scratching your head thinking had you wind up in the river, Because this has never happened before. So I would have to kind of understand that and understand the dynamic around the river. How do you get to it? Can you fall off a bridge? Can you slip off of rocks? You know what's the story here?

somebody picked this and got discarded her body.

gone in? Did she fall into the water where she was laying her head at night to go to sleep, or was she so far away from her point of origin that you would think, hm, wow, this is kind of impressive that her body traveled all of this distance. Where did she enter the river? Also? What types of

injuries does she have to her body? I pulled a lot of bodies out of rivers, bodies of water, and it's amazing what happens to a body in in water, particularly rapidly moving water, because bodies bounce off of everything, they get scratched by limbs that are hanging out debris, they get caught up in debris. You'll see bodies that will actually have leaves and grass in their mouth and their nose. They'll be covered in mud because they'll go into like a mud bank then become dislodged. You know.

So it's a huge dynamic that you're having to deal with in a case like page fans of course.

Can I tell you this. She's in such an advanced state that the police to this day are still waiting from the medical examiner to find out what her cause of pent or death are. That's how difficult this is. And here's one other thing about her that if you begin to kind of profile victims and try to understand, because you have to understand where they come from, you know, what their background is, what would well, allegedly, you know,

miss Leary had suffered from paranoid schizphrenia. Now that doesn't mean on any level that people that are dealing with psychopathology can't be victims of serial killers, Okay, because there are a lot of people out on the streets that have terrible mental health issues, and there's weak as lambs. You might be terrified of them when you're standing around them, but they really are. They don't have the ability necessarily to defend themselves, particularly a defended a diminutive little woman

like miss Leary. So if if she's out there, yeah, could she potentially be prey for a serial killer? Yeah? I suppose that she could be. How she getting by if she's living on the streets, how she getting by on the read? Did she have family members who regularly checked in with Was she eating regularly? You know? Was she taking medication? Because if she's been diagnosed with paranoids goods, you have to think that she's got a doctor or

a therapist that's having to maintenance her. When's the last time they saw When's the last time she had her meds? So that's that's a big question here. But she's found in a brushy area and she's in an advanced state of decomposition. Was she drug there to be hidden? You know? From view? Well, it was the status of her clothing, because even if you've got a decomposing body, I think the people think that the clothing decomposes as well. I actually have students say that to me at one point

in time. Clothing is very resilient. So even as the body swells and then begins to contract back, the clothing is still going to be in place. If they were closed to begin with, so that's something that you would certainly consider in this case.

a lot of ways. Michelle Romano Joe Michelle Romano went missing on August eighteenth of last year. Her remains were discovered on March twenty sixth, and her remains were found or the Rhode Island State Police reported this one. This goes back to you. I didn't. I'm going to be honest with you, and I hope a lot of people caught you when you said this earlier about the different jurisdictions that are going to be dealing with all of these.

As we collectively look at six women who have been found dead in this very small geographic area, I think each one of them is in a different law enforcement jurisdiction. And how will that play into solving this, right, if they're tied together.

Romano is found. First off, miss Ramano was reported missing back on August eighteenth of twenty twenty four. Well, you know that's that's dredibly close to you know, the same date with you know, miss Leary, she's September twenty ninth of two thousand and four. And again, mister Romano is not found until March twenty sixth of twenty five. And here's the other commonality between Leary and Romano. They're both

found in wooded areas. Okay, so you know, if you're looking for little things to kind of pin together here, remember that connective thread that runs through that would be that would be significant, I think, you know, because and again, how were the bodies found? I always returned back to this because I worked a case where guy was always posing bodies a series of cases, and I think I

caught like two of them. But there were people from Jacksonville, Florida, all the way to Beaumont, Texas that had caught cases that they believed were related. And this guy always posed the bodies. So that's one, you know, I'm kind of prejudice in my mind relative to that. I always want to know the position of the body, you know. I always want to where they seated, where they sprawled out,

you know. And he also had an affinity for taking their underwear off, turning it inside out, and putting it back on the body. You know. So there's those little bitty nuanced things that you look for in all of these cases. And again they haven't released information to let us know that, you know, what that commonality is that runs through. Is there any anything here between these two

cases that you can kind of hitch them together. I think that that's that's that's very important age groupings as well.

in serial killing. And that's that's Bundy. You know, there's that famous have you ever seen that that famous collage of images of all of the victims together, and they've all got brown or black long hair, you know, and he had a type going back to the forty four caliber killer with Son of Sam remembered, well, women up there in that area, in the New York area were actually changing their hairstyles because of him, because they said

he was targeting a certain type. And so that's that's a big thing, you know, with them, what what are they looking for? And type can be appearance, it can be age. Okay. You think of Von City in Atlanta, Well, you're looking at victims in their seventies, in their eighties, you know, and I know what you you know, Look, Dave and I look at each other with the camera

and you're shaking his head and you're right. But you know, you think you know what's the driver behind this, what's the psychopathology that goes into the individual that's choosing to do this to these people. But again, we still don't know. With these three women that we've mentioned to date that are identified, we don't know what their cause and manner of death is, and two of them is they're so

advanced in decomposition that I don't know. And you know it wouldn't surprise me tell truth that that we're going to have we're going to have this come out and they're going to say something like if they rule it as a homicide, will be nonspecific homicidal violence. We hear that term all the time, and I understand why they do it, because it's hard to explain away why the bodies were there, why they were in the condition that

they were there. Would they have just gone there and died of natural causes if you don't see any instrumentality that's associated with them having taken their own life like an old rusted pistol or maybe an open vial of drugs, a empty vole of drugs. Then you have to assume that it's something other than taking your own life or homicide. I don't know. You know, in the cases of Denise Leary and Paige Fannin and of course Michelle Romano, their loved ones, they know where they are, they know that

they are in fact decease. They've been positively identified. But with these all the cases in total in question, there's still three that remain unidentified to this moment time when I'm recording this. You know, one found in March nineteenth in Connecticut, one found April ninth and killingly, and another found actually on April the tenth in Framingham. They're unidentified to this point, and also to this point we don't

know who they are or what became of them. One interesting little aside is that the remains that were found in Groton, Connecticut on March the nineteenth, this individual who is female, actually presented with a condition. And listen to this. It's called Turner syndrome, and Turner syndrome is a genetic condition where the individual will present and it's something that's

diagnosed early on in life. Generally, the individuals are shortened stature, they have delayed puberty, they have heart defects, Generally they're infertile, and also there is a pigmentation issue with their skin.

This is very, very definitive as far as this person is concerned. I would urge anybody within the sound of my voice that if you know someone or you have a loved one that might be missing that has been diagnosed with Turner syndrome, and again this only occurs in females, you probably ought to reach out to the authorities in Growton, Connecticut, because this might be somebody that they're looking for. But we're going to keep our eye on all of these

cases and see where the road leads. I'm Joseph Scott Moore and and this is body Bags. Mhm mhm.