Murders and Mysteries of New England · Marti Shaw

The Murder of Molly Bish

·23 min

The episode opens with a warning about sexual assault and rape. It then turns to Molly Bish, who was 16 when she disappeared while working as a lifeguard in Warren, Massachusetts, a plain starting point for a case that gets grim fast. The search took time. Her skeletal remains were found on June 9, 2003, nearly three years after she went missing, about five miles from her family home in Warren. The cause of death was never made clear. The episode says investigators could not determine it at the time, even though they presumed Molly had been murdered and believed her remains were buried in the Whiskey Hill woods. The scene was mishandled. Murders and Mysteries of New England spends real time on how the State Police Detectives Unit was not told right away, and how the crime scene had already been cleaned up or otherwise disturbed before the investigation could really use it. That loss matters. Without a secure scene, the episode keeps coming back to the missing DNA and the limits that created for later theory-building. The first read was wrong. Molly's death was initially treated as a drowning, which the episode presents as one reason the case feels frustrating from the start. A Connecticut resident comes up in 2005. The show says this person was briefly under investigation in connection with Molly's murder and disappearance. Another suspect follows later. In 2009, the episode turns to Rodney Stanger, a Florida resident convicted of murdering his girlfriend who had lived in Southbridge, Massachusetts for more than 20 years. The case still has no ending. The episode closes by saying Molly's murder remains unsolved and by directing listeners to the Molly Bish Tipbook and the Worcester County District Attorney contact for tips.

As heard by us

An unsolved Massachusetts case shaped by a destroyed crime scene and more questions than answers.

Murders and Mysteries of New England follows Molly Bish's disappearance as a Massachusetts case that never really stops feeling unfinished. It starts with the early drowning assumption, moves to the later discovery of her skeletal remains, and makes clear that investigators…

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Why you'd press play

You want a Massachusetts cold case that stays grounded in dates, places, and the limits of the evidence.

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