The Lost and the Found

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Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA)
September 26, 1998
Section: News
Page: 16

Stone, service in Granby honor unknown victim

GRANBY - A memorial service was held Thursday to mark the placement of a stone at the grave of a murder victim, dead for 20 years and never identified.
More than two-dozen people attended the service at the West Street Cemetery for the woman, said to be in her 20s. The stone was paid for with donations.
The ceremony was led by the Rev. Merrilyn Holcomb, pastor of the Granby United Church of Christ.
"I knew there were compassionate people in this town," Holcomb said to those assembled. "Your presence, these flowers, this stone attest to that."
"A stone has been tenderly placed before us today," Holcomb said. "It is beautiful and sturdy, an everlasting symbol of this community's care for an unnamed woman whose hopes and dreams, troubles and anxieties, are not known to us."
"We do not know the tragedy of her death and we do not know about her life, but we can honor her as a person and hope she is in God's care," she said.
Cemetery commissioners Robert Kingsley and Anthony Regan decided earlier this year to put a stone at the grave and began collecting money in May. Once the story was publicized, Regan said, they received more donations than they needed.
"I thought it might be kind of a chore, but people were really kind," Kingsley said.
"I had three people who wanted to buy me any stone we wanted, but I said no, because we already had so many donations we had to turn people away," Regan said. They collected a total of $700.
The pink granite stone that reads "Unknown; Nov. 18, 1978; In God's Care," was received from the Amherst Monument Co, in Hadley, for about $500.
"They wanted to give it to me, but I said no," Regan said.
"We're saving the rest of the money to buy her some flowers occasionally," he said.
The date on the stone marks the woman's interment. She is thought to have died three to 12 months earlier.
Her body was found by loggers in November 1978. She had been shot in the temple and shoved under a log off Amherst Street. State Police searched for clues to her identity and that of her killer, but never really had any solid leads, according to newspaper reports at the time.
Police asked for the public's help in January 1979 and described the victim as 19 to 26 years old, white, with long brown hair and a chunky build. State Police refused to discuss the case earlier this year, calling it an open and ongoing investigation.