Main South Woodsman

Main South Woodsman
Main South Woodsman
Details
Victims	3–5
Span of crimes	2002 –2004; (possibly until 2007)
Country	United States
State(s)	Massachusetts

Last updated June 02, 2024

The Main South Woodsman is an unidentified serial killer who murdered between three and five prostitutes in Worcester, Massachusetts from 2002 to 2007. His nickname derives from the Main South neighborhood, where he picked up most of his victims.

The prime suspect in the murders, Alex Scesny, was identified in 2008, due to the fact he had a history of sexual abuse and was suspected in the murder of a sex worker. Although convicted of the aforementioned offenses, he has never been charged in the Main South Woodsman cases, all of which remain unsolved.

Murders

All of the Woodsman's known victims were Hispanic girls and women with slim builds, short statures, dark hair color and aged between 29 and 42 at the time of their deaths.^[1] Each of them engaged in prostitution in some way, and suffered from drug addiction.

The killer's first confirmed victim was 29-year-old Carmen Rudy, who went missing from Worcester on September 30, 2002. She had had two children. ^[2] Rudy suffered from a drug addiction for which she underwent treatment at the Linda Fay Griffin House, a substance abuse treatment facility. Her skeletonized remains were discovered almost a year after her disappearance on September 29, 2003, on the campus of the Hillside High School in Marlborough.^[1]
A few dozen meters away from where Rudy's remains were discovered, authorities also located the skeletal remains of 29-year-old Betzaida Montalvo (also known as Maritele Burgos), who had gone missing in April 2003.^[3] She was a mother of three children who had a history of prostituting herself, as well as having a drug addiction and a criminal record for possessing drugs. She had been released from a jail in Framingham in December 2002.^[4] Initially, Montalvo's identity could not be established due to the severe decomposition of her body, due to which she was named "Jane Doe No. 1" in the criminal case.^[4] In October 2003, forensic scientists reconstructed her skull and then distributed a digital rendition of what her face supposedly looked like, in addition to releasing information about her clothing and jewelry. When this failed to generate leads, her remains were sent to a Smithsonian Institution in the District of Columbia in December 2003, where a comparison of photos and the forensic sketch led to the tentative identification of Montalvo as the decedent.^[4] She was conclusively identified in April 2004, after her relatives provided a DNA sample that was matched to the remains. During the investigation, police located a witness, 59-year-old Worcester resident Joseph Parson, who claimed that he knew Carmen Rudy and that he had seen her in the company of Montalvo.^[5]
On March 3, 2004, the body of 33-year-old Dinelia Torres, missing since the fall of 2003, was found in a wooded area near Hudson, approximately two kilometers away from where the previous victims' remains had been found.^[3] Like Rudy and Montalvo, she had a history of prostitution and drug abuse.^[6] As a teenager, Torres gave birth to a child and dropped out of school, and after the baby's father left her, she developed a drug addiction.^[2] She was prosecuted for car theft in 1994, and eventually signed over guardianship of her three children over to her parents.^[6] In the early 2000s, Torres was treated in the same treatment facility as Rudy, but there is no evidence to indicate that the two women knew each other.^[4]

Suspected victims

In the early morning hours of September 5, 2004, 42-year-old Wendy A. Morrello was at home with a friend of hers when she suddenly ran out of the front door and disappeared.^[7] According to her friend, she had not slept for several days due to her heavy intake of drugs and hallucinations. Eight days later, her body was found in York, Maine, and she was identified via her tattoes. Strangely, she was found fully clothed and her jewelry had not been stolen.^[8] Like the other victims, Morello had a history of prostitution and drug abuse, having been convicted of drug possession in 1995.^[9] She had two children, but spent the last years of her life being repeatedly incarcerated, living on the streets or with acquaintances. Her cause of death was not revealed, as the police claimed that it would compromise their investigation and any possible connection she might have had with the other victims.^[9]
On September 4, 2007, the remains of 35-year-old Lineida Oliveira were found in the woods near Rutland. A mother of eleven children, she went missing in January of that year, two weeks after giving birth two twin girls. Relatives filed a missing persons report in May, claiming that Oliveira was homeless and had chronic drug problems dating back to 1997. According to her family, she arrived on the mainland from Puerto Rico in 1988, and by 1999 had six children, who were then taken away by CPS due to her lifestyle.^[10] During the investigation, investigators were inclined to believe that the killer was a person known to the victim, because according to her sister Marilyn, before going on a date with a young man, Oliveira would leave his details and cell phone number in case it was a stranger, but this time did not.^[10] This led them to believe that the last person to see her alive, who likely killed her, was probably personally acquainated with her.^[10]

Investigation

In order to solve the case, the FBI formed a task force, and with the help from profilers based in New Jersey, they made a psychological profile of the suspect.^[11] According to the profile, the perpetrator was likely a blue-collar worker (possibly a construction worker, maintenance worker or truck driver); aged 28–41; fond of fishing and hunting; likely drove a pickup truck or sport utility vehicle; from a dysfunctional family where he possibly experienced physical or sexual abuse that led to him developing feelings of hatred towards his mother; unmarried; addicted to pornography and frequented Worcester's red-light districts.^[12] Experts also speculated that he lived in Worcester or neighboring cities for a long time, had possibly been incarcerated before, was a voyeur and tortured animals.^[12]

Alex Scesny

In May 2008, the Worcester County District Attorney's Office announced that they had a prime suspect - 38-year-old Alex F. Scesny, a resident of Berlin who had recently been charged with the rape of a female friend in West Boylston and the cold case murder of 39-year-old prostitute Theresa K. Stone, who had been beaten and strangled to death in Fitchburg in 1996.^[13]

Since 1996, Scesny displayed aggressive behavior towards women and had been arrested on several occasions for assault and rape.^[14] In 1996, he was arrested on charges of beating a prostitute, rape and attempted strangulation of a woman, and sexually assaulting a young girl. However, some of the charges were later dropped after the victims failed to appear in court, and the rest were reduced, due to which he received a relatively lenient sentence.^[14]

In 2002, Scesny was indicted for the rape of a girl in Harwich, whom he had attempted to strangle with a necktie.^[14] He was eventually arrested and almost went to trial, but because his victim died, the charges against him were dropped and the criminal case closed, as the charges hinged solely on the rape victim's testimony. In addition, it was found that Scesny's family owned a farm in Marlborough, which was coincidentally near the school where the remains of Rudy, Montalvo and Torres were found. Scesny himself lived in the city at the time, and was reportedly well acquainted with the area.^[11]

Prosecution, conviction and status

When interrogated about the Woodsman murders, Scesny categorically refused to cooperate and denied guilt.^[15] In the spring of 2012, he was convicted for the murder of Stone and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was acquitted of the West Boylston rape. He attempted to have his conviction overturned in 2015, but did not succeed.^[15]

As of August 2023, Scesny has not been charged with any of the other murders, although he remains a suspect. Currently, both the confirmed and suspected murders all remain unsolved.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ipswich serial murders</span> Series of murders during 2006

The Ipswich serial murders, commonly known as the work of the Suffolk Strangler, took place between 30 October and 10 December 2006, during which time the bodies of five murdered sex workers were discovered at different locations near Ipswich, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom. Their bodies were discovered naked but there were no signs of sexual assault. Two of the victims, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell, were confirmed to have been killed by asphyxiation. A cause of death for the other victims, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls, was not established.

The Lisbon Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who, between 1992 and 1993 murdered three prostitutes in Lisbon, Portugal.

Benjamin Thomas Atkins , also known as The Woodward Corridor Killer, was an American serial killer and rapist who murdered, tortured, and raped 11 women in Highland Park and Detroit, Michigan, during a period of eight months between December 1991 and August 1992. He was apprehended after being arrested for rape charges and soon after he confessed to the murders. He was ultimately found guilty and given several life sentences in April 1994. He died from AIDS in 1997.

The New Bedford Highway Killer is an unidentified serial killer responsible for the deaths of at least nine women and the disappearances of two additional women in New Bedford, Massachusetts, between March 1988 and April 1989. The killer is also suspected to have assaulted numerous other women. All the killer's victims were known sex workers or had struggles with addiction. While the victims were taken from New Bedford, they were all found in different surrounding towns, including Dartmouth, Freetown and Westport, Massachusetts, along Route 140. The main detective that pursued the case was John Dextradeur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andre Crawford</span> Convicted American serial killer

Andre Crawford was an American serial killer, rapist and necrophile who killed 11 women between 1993 and 1999 in Chicago. Many of the women were addicted to drugs or worked as sex workers. He also had sex with their corpses. In 2009, Crawford was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

The Gilgo Beach serial killings were a series of killings between 1996 and 2011 in which the remains of 11 people were found in Gilgo Beach, located on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, United States. Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist. The perpetrator in the case is known as the Long Island Serial Killer. One of the victims was a female toddler.

The Edgecombe County serial killer is an unidentified serial killer in the surroundings of Edgecombe and Halifax counties in North Carolina, United States. There are ten suspected victims, all African-American women, and the remains of eight have been recovered. Because some of the victims had been found near the Seven Bridges Road in Rocky Mount, the culprit has also been called The Seven Bridges Killer. All the victims were black, engaged in prostitution and had problems with drug addiction at various times.

Roger Reece Kibbe was an American serial killer and rapist known as the "I-5 Strangler". Kibbe found all but one of his victims on freeways around Sacramento, California. In 1991, he was sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment for the death of Darcie Frackenpohl.

The Eastbound Strangler is an unidentified serial killer believed to be responsible for the murders of four women near Atlantic City, New Jersey in 2006. A $25,000 reward offered for information has gone unclaimed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Naso</span> American serial killer on death row

Joseph Naso, also known as Crazy Joe or the Double Initial Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist sentenced to death for the murders of four women. He was also implicated in the murders of other women.

Samuel Little was an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 93 people, nearly all women, between 1970 and 2005. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) has confirmed Little's involvement in at least 60 of the 93 confessed murders, the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in United States history.

Dr. No is the nickname given to a suspected American serial killer thought to be responsible for the murders of at least nine women and girls in Ohio, between 1981 and 1990. As victims, Dr. No primarily chose prostitutes working in parking lots and truck stops located alongside Interstate 71. There are suspicions that he committed three similar killings in New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania, between 1986 and 1988.

The Denver Prostitute Killer was an unidentified American serial killer responsible for the murder of at least 17 women and girls in Denver and its various suburbs between 1975 and 1995. In 2005, based upon results from DNA profiling, it was determined that the most likely killer was Billy Edwin Reid who was previously arrested and charged with the 1989 murder of Lannell Williams and Lisa Kelly. Reid was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for those specific murders. The killings were grouped together only in 2008 – until then, each of these crimes was considered to have been committed by different people.

The Storyville Slayer is the nickname given to an American serial killer who murdered at least 24 prostitutes and drug addicts, most of whom were women, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Through the course of the investigation, two separate suspects were considered, one of whom was convicted of one murder, leading investigators to believe that multiple killers are responsible.

Roberto Wagner Fernandes was a Brazilian serial killer and rapist who was posthumously linked to the murders of three prostitutes in Miami, Florida from 2000 to 2001. Fernandes, who had been acquitted of murder in the 1996 shooting of his wife, died in a plane crash in Paraguay before he could be arrested for his crimes, and since his identification, investigators in both the United States and Brazil have said that he might have been responsible for other murders.

Alun Kyte, known as the Midlands Ripper, is an English double murderer, serial rapist, child rapist, paedophile and suspected serial killer. He was convicted in 2000 of the murders of two sex workers, 20-year-old Samo Paull and 30-year-old Tracey Turner, whom he killed in December 1993 and March 1994 respectively. After his conviction, investigators announced their suspicions that Kyte could have been behind a number of other unsolved murders of sex workers across Britain in the 1980s and 1990s. He was apprehended due to the ground-breaking investigations of a wider police inquiry named Operation Enigma, which was launched in 1996 in response to the murders of Paull, Turner and of a large number of other sex workers. Kyte was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years imprisonment for the murders of Paull and Turner.

David Leonard Wood, known as The Desert Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist who killed at least six girls and women in El Paso, Texas between May and August 1987, burying their bodies in the desert. While he has denied culpability for the crimes, he was nonetheless convicted and sentenced to death.

Robert Sylvester Alston is an American serial killer who raped and murdered at least four women in Greensboro, North Carolina from 1991 to 1993, whose bodies he then dismembered and buried in various locations. He made anonymous phone calls to investigators about the crimes in an attempt to confuse them and gain media attention. He pleaded guilty to all charges in 1998 and received multiple life terms.

Steven Alexander Hobbs is an American murderer, rapist and suspected serial killer who is known to have sexually assaulted multiple prostitutes around Harris County, Texas from 2002 to 2011, at least two of which were murdered. After a decade-long delay in his trial, he pleaded guilty to his confirmed crimes and was sentenced to life imprisonment, but remains the prime suspect in at least one additional murder.

The San Diego serial murders were a series of murders of women that, according to the official investigation's version, occurred between 1985 and 1990 within San Diego, California, and the surrounding area. At least 28 victims were prostitutes and were known to use drugs, with four remaining unidentified.

References

1 2 Liz Mineo and Matt Lynch (July 24, 2008). "More remains found: Families' pain 'starts all over'". The MetroWest Daily News . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 Kristen Bradley (March 5, 2004). "Mother lives the nightmare again: Old wounds reopened for family of murder victim Carmen Rudy". The Milford Daily News . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 "3 Slayings May Be Connected". Los Angeles Times . March 26, 2004. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 3 4 "Suspected victim of serial killer ID'd". The Standard-Times . March 25, 2004. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
↑ "Link probed between two of the Hudson-Marlboro victims". The Portsmouth Herald . March 7, 2004. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 Sarah MacDonald (March 5, 2004). "'She was a good girl': Murder victim's family reflects on life marred by drug addiction". The Milford Daily News. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
↑ Bob Ward (September 15, 2016). "Unsolved: Police renew calls for attention to possible Worcester serial killer". WFXT . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
↑ Carolyn Kessel Stewart (February 10, 2005). "Photos released in murder case". The Milford Daily News. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 Carolyn Kessel Stewart (September 18, 2004). "Murder victim has Worcester ties: Link to possible serial killings probed". The Milford Daily News. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 3 Liz Mineo (September 25, 2007). "A serial killer victim? Sister says no, it was 'someone she knew'". The State Journal-Register . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 Kendall Hatch (April 3, 2012). "Profiler makes case for Scesny's ties to area murders". The MetroWest Daily News. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 Scott J. Croteau (September 11, 2007). "'Woodsman' profile is released". Telegram & Gazette . Archived from the original on September 1, 2023.
↑ Norman Miller (May 2, 2008). "Berlin man a 'person of interest' in Worcester prostitute murders". The Repository . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 3 Jean Hodges (May 7, 2008). "Serial killer expert can see why police have 'person of interest'". The Herald News . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
1 2 "Convicted killer Alex Scesny, person of interest in 'Main South Woodsman' case asks for conviction to be overturned". The Republican . March 9, 2015. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[:0-1] 1 2 Liz Mineo and Matt Lynch (July 24, 2008). "More remains found: Families' pain 'starts all over'". The MetroWest Daily News . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:1-2] 1 2 Kristen Bradley (March 5, 2004). "Mother lives the nightmare again: Old wounds reopened for family of murder victim Carmen Rudy". The Milford Daily News . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:2-3] 1 2 "3 Slayings May Be Connected". Los Angeles Times . March 26, 2004. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:3-4] 1 2 3 4 "Suspected victim of serial killer ID'd". The Standard-Times . March 25, 2004. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[5] "Link probed between two of the Hudson-Marlboro victims". The Portsmouth Herald . March 7, 2004. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:4-6] 1 2 Sarah MacDonald (March 5, 2004). "'She was a good girl': Murder victim's family reflects on life marred by drug addiction". The Milford Daily News. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[7] Bob Ward (September 15, 2016). "Unsolved: Police renew calls for attention to possible Worcester serial killer". WFXT . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[8] Carolyn Kessel Stewart (February 10, 2005). "Photos released in murder case". The Milford Daily News. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:5-9] 1 2 Carolyn Kessel Stewart (September 18, 2004). "Murder victim has Worcester ties: Link to possible serial killings probed". The Milford Daily News. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:6-10] 1 2 3 Liz Mineo (September 25, 2007). "A serial killer victim? Sister says no, it was 'someone she knew'". The State Journal-Register . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:7-11] 1 2 Kendall Hatch (April 3, 2012). "Profiler makes case for Scesny's ties to area murders". The MetroWest Daily News. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:8-12] 1 2 Scott J. Croteau (September 11, 2007). "'Woodsman' profile is released". Telegram & Gazette . Archived from the original on September 1, 2023.

[13] Norman Miller (May 2, 2008). "Berlin man a 'person of interest' in Worcester prostitute murders". The Repository . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:9-14] 1 2 3 Jean Hodges (May 7, 2008). "Serial killer expert can see why police have 'person of interest'". The Herald News . Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.

[:10-15] 1 2 "Convicted killer Alex Scesny, person of interest in 'Main South Woodsman' case asks for conviction to be overturned". The Republican . March 9, 2015. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]