Author Topic: WESTPORT JANE DOE: BF, 30-40, found burned by highway in Westport, CT - 19 May 1985  (Read 121 times)

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https://www.thehour.com/news/article/A-brief-history-of-murder-in-Westport-8114655.php

A brief history of murder in Westport
Steve Kobak

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, December 9, 2011

Murders in Westport are indeed a rare occurrence.


Prior to Thursday's robbery-homicide, the last murder in Westport occurred in May 1996 when Stuart Hunter gunned down his estranged wife Harriet S. Hunter at the Temple Israel Religious School, where Harriet worked as a secretary. Stuart Hunter shot his wife twice in the head with a .357 Magnum before turning the gun on himself. The couple had been going through a messy divorce in which Stuart was accused of physically abusing his wife, and Harriet Hunter had taken out a restraining order against Stuart Hunter.

The mid-to-late-1980s were somewhat of an anomaly for the town, as a total of six murders were reported in Westport.

The peak came in 1985 when three murders were recorded. The year began with the robbery-murder of Louis P. Verda , who was shot to death and robbed by a man who rented a room at his home and an associate of the tenant. In June, two men installing carpet in a vacant office building got into a fight that ended with one of the men — Bryan Giordano — stabbing the other — Hector Fraser — several times with a carpet knife. Fraser later died at the hospital. Mark J. Iorio, 18, shot 19-year-old Christopher Costello to death during a dispute between Westport youths and Fairfield teens regarding two cases of stolen beer in November 1985. Surprisingly, none of the men convicted of the 1985 murders are currently in prison.