Rumors of Active Serial Killers in New England and Texas
We previously reported on a possible active serial killer in Portland, Oregon, but there are other areas of the United States that also have suspected active serial killers.
A large and growing number of bodies began showing up around New England in 2025, primarily in the neighboring states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. There seemed to be a pattern in where they appeared - all were in areas near highways.
Most of the deaths have gone unsolved, and while the police insist that many of them had no foul play involved, local citizens believe they have a serial killer in their midst.
On March 6, 35-year-old Paige Fannon was found in the Norwalk River in Connecticut. A human skull was discovered near Route 3 in Plymouth, Massachusetts on the same day.
On March 19, 68-year-old Suzanne Wormser's remains were located in Groton, Connecticut. Donald Coffel, her room mate, was arrested for the crime, accused not only of killing his roommate but also of living with her corpse for more than a week.
Her remains were dismembered, disposed of in trash bags, packed into a suitcase and thrown into a local cemetery. Coffel, 68, died while being held at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville, Connecticut.
His death is not considered suspicious; the 68-year-old murder suspect had pancreatic cancer. Police say he acted alone and there is no threat to the public; some have questioned how a senior citizen with pancreatic cancer could carry out such a crime.
Although he denied responsibility initially, during his third interview with police, Coffel reportedly confessed that he had hit Wormser in the head with a baseball bat multiple times, according to an affidavit. He also confessed to keeping her body for over a week before dismembering her and disposing of the remains.
On March 20, 59-year-old Denise Leary's body was found near in New Haven, Connecticut, months after she was last seen.
According to police, her cause of death was ruled undetermined. However, no sign of foul play was found during Leary’s autopsy. Denise also reportedly had a history of mental illness.
“There’s speculation rampant on social media. It seems to be growing, and there’s no basis behind it. Social media can speculate, but we have to deal in facts. There’s no facts to support this woman was murdered,” said Officer Bruckhart of the New Haven Police Department.
“I get there is a sense of wanting to investigate, interest in social media or online, but this woman had a family. She was loved. The family needs time to grieve.”
On March 26, the remains of 56-year-old Michele Romano were found in a wooded area in Foster, Rhode Island. Rhode Island State Police do not believe the case is connected to any others; they do believe her death is suspicious
On April 9, unidentified remains were found in Killingly, Connecticut. On April 10, another unidentified body was discovered in Framingham, Massachusetts. On April 20, a body was pulled from the Seekonk River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
On April 22, the body of 45-year-old Meggan Meredith was found in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her death is being investigated as a homicide. The bodies of Mary Colasanto, 72, and Jasmine Wilkes, 34, were found in the weeks that followed.
On April 27, the body of 72-year-old Mary Colasanto of Glastonbury, Connecticut was pulled from the Connecticut River in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. She was reported missing on October 8, 2023; no other details have been released in that case.
21-year-old Adriana Suazo was found dead on the morning of June 1, 2025 in a wooded area of Milton, Massachusetts, about eight miles outside Boston, according to the Norfolk District Attorney's Office.
There were no visible signs of trauma, and the cause of death is under investigation. Including the state of Maine, her death is the 13th suspicious fatality across New England since early March involving a female victims discovered in a semi remote area in the immediate vicinity of a major highway.
Residents taking to social media to spread rumors that a serial killer is responsible for many of these deaths has had real world consequences.
One Facebook post alluded to multiple bodies being buried by Scarborough Beach in Rhode Island.
Narragansett Detective Sgt. Brent Kuzman said. “Just how he described the bodies being buried, it was very interesting and almost a novelization of some form of fictional writing.”
Kuzman launched an investigation anyway after getting dozens of calls and emails from concerned residents, sending five officers on a search that took hours.
“We ran through with two state police cadaver dogs, and they searched the area,” Kuzman said. “There was no evidence of any clandestine graves.”
Kuzman told CBS that this kind of social media speculation has a real impact on policing and taxpayer resources.
“You have to have a response, you have to at least do your due diligence to debunk the claims that the poster is making even as vague as they were,” Kuzman said.
Kuzman believes the man behind the cryptic post took advantage of the internet frenzy over a suspected serial killer for attention.
“He wanted a desired reaction from the internet group," he said.
Rumors of a serial killer have also emerged in Texas after almost 40 bodies were pulled from a lake in a three year period. Locals fear that a killer nicknamed the Rainy Street Ripper is responsible.
Police insist a killer is not roaming the streets and have said only one of the cases was a homicide despite the fact that the cause of death for numerous victims has not been established.
A petition titled ‘Austin Police Department – Acknowledge That The Austin Drownings May Not Be Accidents’ that launched in 2024 now has more than 5,200 signatures, according to My San Antonio.
The petition focuses on the case of 21-year-old Christian Pugh, who disappeared after a night out on Rainey Street in November 2019.
He was found two days later so badly beaten that he fell into a coma for a month, but the official report from the Austin Police said that Pugh fell into the lake in a tragic accident.
It is somewhat common for drowning victims to appear beaten, especially in natural bodies of water, but many remain unconvinced.
Although these fears and questions are natural, Crime Culture Media firmly believes in the importance of evidence over speculation, and unlike the case in Portland, no evidence substantiates the rumors in the northeast or the southwest.