When Clara Provost’s two sisters found out that someone had been convicted in her killing they hugged like her murder was still fresh in their minds, according to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.
In actuality, their sister was killed 44 years prior to Ronald Dame’s arrest in 2006 and 50 years prior to his 2012 conviction, but his conviction still gave them justice and closure.
Early told reporters Thursday that moment showed him just how important unresolved cases are.
Early launched an unresolved cases unit when he took office in 2007 and announced Thursday that his office had undertaken the effort of updating its unresolved cases website.
The updated website includes a list of 35 unresolved homicides with photos of the victims – when the DA’s office has permission from the family to share them – and a narrative of the cases. The site then lists how anyone with information can reach out to the Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the office.
In addition to having the website, the DA’s office plans to highlight the cases on social media on anniversaries related to them as a way to bring them back into the public’s attention.
The decision to call the cases unresolved rather than cold cases is intentional. John Bish, the father of Molly Bish who was killed in 2000, told the DA’s office that the phrase cold case made it seem as if the cases were sitting on top of a file cabinet collecting dust and he said that’s not what the cases are.
Using the term unresolved let’s the family know the DA’s office is still working on them and it gives the families hope, Early said.
“People say, ‘Well, this has been a while, is there still an expedience to it, is there still an importance to it?’ ” Early said. “Yeah, big time, because these families want some type of justice, they want closure they want their son’s, daughter’s, brother’s, sister’s killer put behind bars so it doesn’t happen again to another family.”
Molly Bish is one of the cases listed on the site. The cases go as far back as 1951 when Massachusetts State Trooper Alje Savela was shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop in in Barre in August of that year.
The most recent case included in the list is from 2018. Lennyn Valerio, 22, was found dead on Reservoir Street in Holden in June of that year.
All the cases have been reassigned prosecutors, Early said, and the effort is going to regularly call families to let them know what they’re doing even if they have no new information to give them.
“I think one thing that we can make better is communications with the families,” Early said. “You know, all of our ADAs are overworked, our witness victims advocates are overworked, but we’ve got to remember to take the time just to be staying in touch with these families not just when we’re pursuing active leads.”
The regular conversations can also be a source of leads in the case, according to Early.
Overall, Early said the passage of time can sometimes be your friend in cases.
“After a while time becomes our friend, relationships change, people die,” Early said. “We’ve had it on several cases where they say ‘I’ve got to get this off my chest’ and that’s led to several conversations where we’ve gotten great information that has helped us make some arrests that have led to convictions.”
The tips are so important because in some cases they don’t have DNA to rely on, according to the DA, and DNA can also be a side component in cases where interrogations and eyewitness statements can prove much more powerful than DNA in solving a case.
The site also includes a list of solved cases, Early said, to give families hope.
In addition to Provost’s case, the solved cases list includes the 1996 murder of Theresa Stone who was found dead on Kinsman Road in Fitchburg. Alex Scesny was found guilty of her murder in 2012 after DNA associated with the crime tested in 2008 was a match for Scesny.
When asked what spurred the decision to revamp the website, Early said “you can always get better.”
He said the office is always looking at what other DA’s offices are doing to see what they can borrow, saying if someone does something better than you, why not ask them [how] to do it that way too.
Anyone with information regarding the unresolved cases can contact the Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the DA’s office at 508-453-7589 or WorcesterDAunresolved@mass.gov.
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