The Unsoved Case of Travis Monroe

You won’t find the name Travis Monroe listed among the Worcester Police Department’s unresolved homicide cases.

On the morning of October 1, 2006, Travis’ body was found lying in the road on Fales Street near the corner of Gunnarson Road in Worcester’s Burncoat neighborhood.

Travis’ death certificate states the immediate cause of his death was blunt impact to his head with skull fractures and brain lacerations.

The Worcester Police determined Travis’ death to be the result of a hit-and-run. The state’s medical examiner’s report states the cause of Travis’ death is undetermined.

Travis’ mother believes her 17-year-old son may have been beaten to death.

For 17 years, the truth behind Travis’ death eludes them all. And his case remains unsolved.

John Sousa’s Body Found in Back of a Work Van –

It’s 2:15 in the afternoon on Wednesday, June 5, 2019.

Temperatures have peaked, reaching nearly 80 degrees on an overcast day in Worcester.

Police are called to Early’s towing on Park Avenue. A van had been towed to their lot minutes before. The smell coming from the van, and the hundreds of flies coming out of the van, convinced Early’s staff to call the WPD.

When police arrived, an officer climbed inside the van and found a plastic storage container under boxes of clothes, bags of trash and other junk.

The detective lifted the container’s lid to find the body of 56-year-old John Sousa crammed inside.

John had been missing for more than a month.

Richard Gragowski – Bludgeoned to Death Behind Gas Station

It’s Monday, June 15, 1992 and summer has started early in Worcester.

It’s around 12:45 p.m. Temperatures have reached a high of 75 degrees. Worcester’s public schools are already dismissed for summer vacation and Main Street is buzzing.

A young boy walking his dog down Lagrange Street has just made an alarming discovery.

At the corner of Lagrange and Main Streets, on a strip of lawn behind a Sunoco gas station, the boy found the body of 39-year-old Richard Gragowski behind a row of bushes, among old mattresses and empty wine bottles.

“the worst night ever…”

50th Anniversary of Worcester’s Deadliest Fire

Part 1

July 11, 1973.

It’s described as “the worst night ever” in Worcester’s Main South neighborhood.

Just before 3 a.m., at the back of a rooming house at 728 Main Street, an arsonist sets a fire on the second floor of the five-story building’s wooden porch.

The fire quickly spreads, engulfing the dozens of one-bedroom apartments and the tenants that live in them.

10 tenants died in the fire. 29 people were injured.

It’s the deadliest fire in Worcester’s history, and 50 years later, the arson and murder case remains unsolved.

50th Anniversary of Worcester’s Deadliest Fire

Part 2

July 11, 1973.

It’s Sunday, July 15, 1973.

At around 3 p.m., the body of 56-year-old John Lund is pulled from under the rubble. 

John marks the tenth victim from a July 11 fire that destroyed the five-story rooming house at 728 Main Street. It took demolition workmen more than 72 hours to recover John’s body from the debris.

The fire was Worcester’s deadliest in its history. And officials believed from the start that it was arson. The fire was purposefully set on the rear second floor porch. 

When the smoke cleared and all of the building’s tenants were accounted for, the investigation into who set the fire was underway and the City of Worcester started taking safety measures in hopes something like this tragedy would never happen again.

50 years later, and Worcester’s most notorious arson case remains unsolved.

Stabbed in the Heart During House Party Brawl

It’s just before 2AM on
September 21, 2008.

A fight that started at a nearby house party has spilled into the street at the corner of North Ashland and Dix streets.

In the middle of the escalating brawl, William Smith, a 19-year-old Becker College freshman, is slashed on the arm with a knife.

Moments later, as the chaos continues, William is struck again.

A knife has been driven through his chest and into his heart.

15 years later, William’s murder remains unsolved.

Body Found Beneath Expressway Overpass

It’s early in the morning, around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, October 12, 1982. 

A crew of Providence & Worcester railroad workers are on the Boston & Maine railroad tracks that run alongside Interstate 290 expressway and Crescent Street in Worcester.

As the workers make their way along the tracks, heading in the direction of Lincoln Square, they discover the naked body of 24-year-old Ethel Bosworh under the expressway overpass at Crescent Street.

Ethel’s body was badly beaten and mutilated.

The mother of three young boys had never returned home the night before. 

And more than 40 years later, Ethel’s murder remains unsolved.

Rival Gang Retaliation – Andre Edmonds and Salorin Lopez

It’s the middle of the summer. 

Worcester.

2004.

On July 18, just after 2 a.m., Andre Edmonds is shot in the chest and killed outside of the Lakeside Avenue apartment complex in Worcester’s Columbus Park neighborhood.

A month later, shortly after midnight on August 19, Sal Lopez is shot in the stomach and killed while sitting in a parked car with a friend on Hawley Street.

The Main South Woodsman Serial Killer – Part 1

This is part 1 of our two-part episode special on the alleged Worcester serial killer known as the Main South Woodsman.

In this episode, we explore the stories of five of the Main South Woodsman’s victims: Carmen Rudy, Dinelia Torres, Betzaida Montalvo, Wendy Morello and Lineida Olivera.

The remains of the five women were discovered between 2003 and 2007 and all five homicides remain unsolved.

The Main South Woodsman Serial Killer – Part 2

Nearly 20 years later after the remains of Carmen Rudy and Betzaida Montalvo were discovered in Marlborough, and more than a decade since Alex Scesny’s sentencing in the 1996 murder of Theresa Stone in Fitchburg, Scesny remains the only person of interest named in the Main South Woodsman serial killings.

No charges have ever been filed in the deaths of Carmen Rudy, Betzaida Montalvo, Dinelia Torres, Wendy Morello or Linieda Olivera. 

Their murders all remain unsolved.