The Unsolved Murder of Renee Freer
A backyard adventure, 1977
After concocting their plan over a series of notes they exchanged at school, two young girls—both eight years old—were finally having the backyard adventure they’d hoped for. It was the night of Friday, June 17th, 1977, and 8-year-old Renee Freer was spending the night at her friend Abby’s house. Though the backyard treehouse belonged to Abby’s older brother, he had lent it to his younger sister and her friend for the night.
The moon was but a sliver in the sky, and the darkness of the forest could be menacing, so Renee and Abby dragged a 100-foot extension cord across the yard and up into the tree to give them some needed light.
They listened to the sounds of the forest—the rhythmic chant of the late spring peepers filled their ears. Renee was a little nervous, being away from home—her mom wouldn’t even let her play too far from the house—but Abby was a comfort to her. They both lived in the small town of Monroe, Connecticut, about ten miles north of Bridgeport, the nearest city. They were third graders at Stepney Elementary School.
The two girls scuttled back and forth from the treehouse to the big house as they became scared, and after a respite, brave yet again. After several stealthy runs to and fro, they decided that it would be safer to finish their sleepover indoors, so they crashed in Abby’s bedroom.
After Renee left the next morning, Abby took out the note that her friend had given her as they were laying their plans at school leading up to their adventure. In the tidy scrawl of an innocent young girl, it read,
“Dear Abby,
Thank you very much for that letter. It was lovely. I think you draw terrific. You are one of my loveliest friends ever to be seen. I hope I sleep over, too.
Love,
Renee”
Alongside the note was a drawing of a heart, complete with eyes, lips, and two fanciful antennas—or perhaps hands—on the top. Rene added a few words — “True Friends Forever.”
Abby, now an adult, keeps the card in a frame and it hangs in her home. It serves as a reminder of the friend she lost.
Renee Freer — an eight-year-old girl, nicknamed “Giggles,” — in five short days, would be murdered.
Who is Renee Freer?
Renee Freer was born on September 8, 1968 to parents Felicia and John Freer. We don’t know a lot about Renee’s early life with both of her parents, but by 1975, when Renee was 6 years old, and her brother, Nathan, was 2 years old, her parents split. Renee and Nathan went with their mom. Her father, John Freer, lived about 20-minutes away from them in Bethel, CT.
Renee’s maternal grandparents rented a single-family home in Monroe, Connecticut, the town where her mom had grown up. Monroe is a bedroom community in the woods and the rolling hills of Connecticut, 12 miles north of Bridgeport. The town is known for its beautiful parks, safe neighborhoods and good school system; at the time, it was home to 12,000 residents.
The five of them—Renee, Nathan, her mom, Felicia, and her maternal grandparents—lived together at 33 Williams Drive. The road has since been renamed to Williams Road, so I’ll refer to their address by its current name—33 Williams Road. Their little two-road community was dotted with about 30 homes.
The house was a recently-built three-bedroom ranch that sat on just over an acre of land on the quiet street. A densely-wooded area bordered the home and the neighborhood. Neighborhood children would often play in the small wilderness just outside their doorsteps, building forts and going on adventures.
Neighbors described Renee as “a cute little doll” who was “apt to talk to anyone.”
Tawny, friend and classmate, said, “She had the most infectious laugh.”
A friend of Renee’s, Laura Johnson, later recalled that she was,
“A friend when I really needed one. The bus picked her up after me. I was shy and awkward and sat alone on the bus. Everyone had their friends and were buddied up. I would carry a book with me to pretend that it didn’t matter. [But she] saw through that. She made it a point to sit by me and talk to me and make me laugh, [and] I loved her for that.”
Laura, too, referred to Renee by her nickname — “Giggles.”
The day of Renee’s murder
June 22, 1977 was an early summer day in Monroe, CT with temperatures in the mid-60s. The school year was just wrapping up. Renee left home that morning, and walked to the end of her street, as usual, to wait for her school bus at the intersection of Williams Road and Hattertown Road. The bus took her to school, and she had a normal day—probably with some excitement about the impending summer break. It was the next-to-last day of school.
She returned home by bus that afternoon, and we know little of her specific activities in the hours between roughly 3:00PM and 5:30PM. Neighbors recalled seeing her playing around the neighborhood with other children.
That afternoon, Renee delivered home-grown strawberries to an elderly couple down the street.
Renee and her little brother, Nathan, ate dinner with their mother and grandparents before leaving the house again to play some more.
Her mom, Felicia, was planning to bake cookies for a party at Renee’s school the next day to celebrate the final day of the school year, and she needed to go do some grocery shopping.
According to the Monroe PD, Renee was last seen around 6:30 PM at her neighbor’s home, who lived directly next door at 39 Williams Road. She went to the back sliding glass door looking for their daughter, Bonnie. Bonnie wasn’t home. She was already out playing in the neighborhood. Her mom answered the door and told Renee as much. Renee thanked her and set off again on her own, hoping to find Bonnie before her mom called her back home.
She was with Nathan at different points this evening, but Nathan was playing a few doors down without Renee when she went missing.
At 7:00PM, Felicia stuck her head out and called for Renee, but she didn’t respond, which was odd. So, she went on to do the grocery shopping by herself. She returned home, and by 8:00PM she started to worry that Renee wasn’t back. Sunset was at 8:29PM, and it was starting to get dark. With her growing concerns, Felicia and neighbors began looking for Renee.
Throughout the evening there were neighborhood kids that were playing at the end of Renee’s street—the intersection of Hattertown Road and Williamstown Road—the same place where she had caught her bus that morning. None of those kids reported having seen Renee.
At 8:30PM, a neighbor at 12 Williams was just returning home from a Little League game and found the neighborhood in an uproar. Everyone was talking about the missing girl.
By 9:15PM, with no sign of Renee, Felicia reported her missing to the Monroe Police Department. At the time, there was a training being conducted at the station, and Chief Robert Wesche sent all 15 officers to the area to search for the girl, including off-duty officers and some newly sworn-in part-time cops. Wesche had only been chief for three weeks, and he had no idea what he was walking into. Members of the Stepney Volunteer Fire Department joined in on the search, and the neighborhood and surrounding wooded areas were scoured by officers for any signs of Renee.
At 10:12PM, Renee’s body was found by two special policemen, Kevin Cahill and Robert Ventrilio, in a wooded area off of Williams Road. Reports from the time differ, but Renee was found just a short walk from the safety of her home—about 300 feet from the road, in the woods directly behind their house—perhaps only 100 feet from her back door. She was still dressed in the halter-style top and shorts she’d been wearing that night, but the collar of her blouse had been torn. Her clothing was otherwise undamaged, and save for some scratches on her neck, there were no overt signs of a struggle. The area was described as a heavily wooded incline behind her house, in the direction of Hattertown Road. Renee was known to sometimes use paths in the woods to visit nearby horse barns, but this location was not in that direction. Bonnie, her best friend and neighbor, said, “She wasn’t the type to go in the woods by herself.” In April 2024, Edward Kamas wrote in a Facebook post that Renee had been found on his parent’s property, 281 Hattertown Road, which bordered the length of Williams Road.
A large rock covered in blood was found near Renee’s body, and was presumed to be the blunt instrument used to bludgeon the eight-year-old girl to death. Reports would indicate she had been struck with the 8-pound rock twice in the head. She was found lying on her back and there were no footprints at the scene, due to the number of leaves on the ground. There were signs that she had been dragged to the location, and as police studied the crime scene, they found blood in two areas of the woods.
Kevin McKellick, currently working on the case with the Monroe PD, said,
“There were different sections in the woods where there was blood on the leaves. There were disturbances to the flora on the ground in the woods, and the position of the body led us to believe that she had been dragged from one location to another.”
Someone had brutally beaten the life out of Renee’s small body, but who, and why?
Some accounts of the crime scene suggested that her head had been struck with such force that it had been indented into the ground.
“When she was found in the woods behind her house, it was obvious that she'd been bludgeoned to death with a large rock. We've heard stories over the years that she was hit so hard that her head was indented into the ground. All the reports that I've read and that Detective Marcel has read, and [from] the photos from the crime scene that day, there's no evidence that her head was indented in the ground. That being said, she was brutally, brutally murdered with that rock.”
Around 11:00PM, police notified Felicia that her daughter had been found. According to a neighbor, Carol Ogrinc, Felicia screamed and she had to be held back from running to go see her daughter’s remains. Renee’s body was identified by her grandfather, Ted, before being transported to St. Vincent’s Medical Center for autopsy the following day.
Late that night, Principal Jerome Greenburg of Stepney Elementary was notified that Renee had been found dead. The loss of one of his students cast a dark shadow over the final day of classes to come.
The news hits the community
Thursday, June 23, the last day of classes at Stepney Elementary, was a somber day. That morning, Principal Greenburg informed his staff what had happened. A friend and classmate of Renee’s, Kerri Keeler, remembered walking into the classroom that day. She said,
“Mrs. Sampley’s desk was at the left front corner as you stepped into the room, and that’s where she was—head down into her folded arms, sobbing in a way I had never heard. My table was in the back just beside the coatroom. Abby, Renee, and I sat together at that table every day—just us three. But that day, it was just Abby and me. Everything we’d known was about to get turned upside down. And this was the last day of school. Welcome to summer.”
Monroe Superintendent Edwin Merritt made arrangements with the police to have a patrol car in the area where the children were dismissed from school. Many parents were concerned about safety. Some forbade their children from waiting at bus stops alone. Renee’s death seemed random—could the killer, many wondered, strike again?
Parents in Monroe, Connecticut, were afraid, and Renee’s death brought them together.
Stepney Elementary’s PTA announced that they planned to establish a fund in memory of Renee. They intended to coordinate with other organizations that might contribute, accepting donations from individuals and providing food to the Freer family.
Investigation and autopsy
Elsewhere that morning, police searched a three-acre patch of woods off of Williams Road and Hattertown Road. State Police and K-9 Units were called in to assist with the search effort. A K-9 officer searched the wooded area behind the family’s home with his bloodhound, Missy. Investigators canvassed the neighborhood, trying to assemble a single accurate picture from everyone’s memories.
Ordinarily Renee would have had a forensic autopsy, like any other likely murder victim in the state of Connecticut, but because there had been three murders in the state that day, Renee, instead, had a, “pathological autopsy,” also known as a “hospital autopsy.” It’s unclear exactly what the differences were between a forensic and a pathological autopsy in 1977, but suffice it to say that it has caused some consternation amongst the cops who have worked the case. It could be that the doctor who performed the autopsy was less trained in forensics than a typical medical examiner, and therefore made fewer observations that would aid the investigation.
Because the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was otherwise disposed, Renee’s autopsy was performed that day at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, CT. Cause of death was determined to be “two crushing blows” to the head. The autopsy report indicated that there was no evidence of sexual assault. That same day, there was a specialist team from Long Island, New York, that attempted to obtain fingerprints from her body.
Monroe PD had also been in contact with the FBI—they planned to send them evidence for further testing. The murder of a child was beyond the scope of what the department usually handled, and they could use all the help they could get.
That night, Monroe PD’s chief conducted a “round table” meeting with all Monroe PD members about the case. The chief was focusing all the resources he had available.
The cops are wearing out their shoe leather
On Friday, June 24, 1977, investigators provided an update on the case, informing the public that “many adults and young people” had been questioned in Renee’s death, and they had many more people to speak to. Chief Wesche said four teams of interrogators were returning to the neighborhood to ask additional questions that day. Police had been working around the clock, going home only for a few hours at a time to sleep. They encouraged anyone with information to call, any time—day or night—and assured that all calls would be strictly confidential.
“There are an ungodly amount of interviews that took place. They followed every single lead that they had. And there were leads that came from everywhere. They didn't disregard any of them—even some more wild goose chases that led to nowhere. But they still put in the effort. At some point in time in the case, they involved psychics, they involved hypnotists, they involved Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were Monroe residents at the time... quite literally did just about anything they possibly could to try to get a resolution to this case.”
Renee’s funeral
On Saturday morning, the family gathered at Frank Radorycki and Sons funeral home at 9:00AM for the service. There had been no calling hours. The family asked, in lieu of flowers, for donations to be made to the Newington Children’s Hospital. The service was officiated by Reverend Luther Pierce of Monroe Congregational Church, and burial followed at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Stratford, CT.
Young Renee was buried with a teddy bear clutched in her arms.
Special delivery to the FBI
On Monday, June 27, a Monroe PD officer began the five-and-a-half-hour drive to Washington D.C. at midnight. He drove through the night, two boxes of evidence loaded in his car. The evidence included blood, hair, fibers and other items. They were hand-delivered to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico later that morning.
As Monroe PD awaited the lab results, they continued to search the wooded area behind Renee’s home.
On Wednesday, June 29, some preliminary results came back. Chief Wesche gave a vague update to the press, saying, “the results have provided us with some information and some direction for further investigation.”
On Friday, July 9, an FBI report concluded that there was evidence that Renee had struggled with her assailant—a substance had been discovered under her fingernails that would, “be helpful in prosecuting a suspect.” The FBI also examined some hair samples and provided some details about them in their report—Monroe PD said that they could be used for “microscopic comparison” if a suspect were identified.
Family ends fundraising efforts
Meanwhile, the Stepney Elementary School PTA announced that they were having success with their fundraiser. The PTA had collected $875 in a short time, which would be about $4,600 today. However, almost right away, Renee’s mother, Felicia, reached out to the Stepney Elementary PTA and asked them to end it.
Reward grows seven-fold
The chief prosecutor of Fairfield County wrote to the governor, requesting her to authorize a $3,000 reward in Renee’s case, the largest amount permitted at the time in Connecticut by statute. He felt like the maximum amount was insufficient and out of step with the times. He wrote,
“I should like to advise you that the ceiling amount of $3,000 for such a reward has remained the maximum payment for such information since 1875. I think that it is obvious that the existing ceiling of $3,000 is totally unrealistic, and I would like to suggest that you support an effort to increase that amount in the next session of the legislature.”
Later in the month, the governor authorized the full $3,000 reward. A year later, in October of 1978, the legislature had revised the statute, and Renee’s reward was increased seven-fold, to $20,000.
Helicopters and hotlines
On July 6, a State Police helicopter took aerial photos of the crime scene and surrounding areas. We asked the Monroe PD if we could get copies of the images, and though they still have them, they said that all that was captured were the tops of trees.
A week later, on July 12, hoping to elicit more tips in the case, Monroe PD established a special hotline to receive calls about Renee’s case. Normand, lead detective on the case, said that the line would be manned day and night.
This might begin to explain the mountain of interviews and reports retained in the case file.
Monroe is shook
The Monroe community was afraid. Carol Ogrinc, who was fourteen at the time, later recalled, “the neighborhood didn’t seem the same. We didn’t want to go out and play... and if we did, we stayed very close to home. We became more vigilant. We were suspicious of any cars we didn’t recognize.”
Brian Laychak, who rode the bus with Renee and was one year ahead of her in school, said, “her murder affected everyone in our small community—parents and kids alike. I remember walking around with a baseball bat and a walkie-talkie that summer. I was not allowed to go into the woods. We were all too afraid the murderer was still out there.”
Renee’s neighbor and good friend Bonnie recalled that her mother wouldn’t let her go to the bus stop alone.
One night, a Town Council meeting was held. The meeting was meant to focus on a proposal to the local inland-wetlands commission, but it was upstaged by public concern over Renee’s murder. A subsequent town council meeting was held the following week, and on Wednesday, July 20, more than 125 people jammed into the Council Chambers with representatives from the police department and the Stepney Elementary PTA. Attendees sought advice on how to better safeguard their children.
As the summer months drew to a close, unrest gave way to the routine of school as a new year began. Renee’s brother, Nathan, started kindergarten at Stepney Elementary without his sister by his side.
Unearthing Renee’s body
Dr. Henry Lee, chief criminologist of the state of Connecticut, took a careful look at Renee’s autopsy report in September 1977 and noticed that there was a “semi-lunar mark” just under Renee’s breast. There was some suspicion that it could be a bite-mark. Though the study of bite marks, called forensic odontology, has been largely discredited, it was very much in-vogue at the time.
Because of this hope, cops were able to get a court order to exhume Renee’s body.
“It was later determined that there may have been some kind of injury to Rene's chest. Some of the investigators thought that it might have been a bite mark. So, they exhumed the body in October of 1977, but they were never able to definitively categorize it as a bite mark. From our perspective, as modern-day investigators, forensic odontology has largely been discredited in recent decades in court.
And so the weight of that bit of evidence is doubtful how much it would actually influence the case if—even if—it were a bite mark.”
Famous psychics, the Warrens, in Renee’s town of Monroe
Years passed without much movement in Renee’s case. In 1986, a nine-year update was published in the Connecticut Post.
The chief, Robert Wesche, the same man who was chief at the time of Renee’s murder, said that although the case was dormant, “Five or six times a year we get something, and we chase it down.”
Police revealed that they’d interviewed more than 100 people, used hypnotists, conducted polygraph tests, and even met with psychics.
The late paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren, who lived in Monroe, even became involved with the case for some time. She and her husband Ed Warren worked more than 10,000 paranormal cases during their career, perhaps most famously the hauntings that inspired The Amityville Horror and The Conjuring franchises. Lorraine thought that Renee’s spirit could come back to her surroundings, so one night, Detective Stephen Biley, who also happened to be a neighbor of the Freers, slept over in Renee’s old room. According to Erik Hanson’s book, Dead End Road, when asked if Renee’s spirit visited him, the detective said, “there was a clock [shaped like] a black cat with a white stomach. It was a kid’s clock. It wasn’t working. We had the whole night recorded. When we listened to the recording, the clock was ticking.”
Detective Sgt. Normand Mercier said in July of 1986, “we have had some good suspects, but we couldn’t put it to sleep. It’s very frustrating. There’s nowhere to go. We’ve exhausted every lead.” He cited two main things as the biggest obstacles for investigators: the murder had occurred in the woods causing much evidence to be destroyed, and they had been unable to determine a motive.
1992 – 15-year update; a legal wrinkle?
The Connecticut Post interviewed Monroe PD about the case in June of 1992. Sgt. Normand Mercier, who had been in charge of the investigation for 15 years, said, “the probe into the girl’s death is basically over.” He added, “I’ve talked to the girl’s parents, and they just want to put the whole thing behind them and get on with their lives.”
Both of Renee’s parents were no longer living in the area.
Sgt. Mercier said that though they had a “very good” suspect in the case, the individual couldn’t be touched due to a legal technicality. Though he didn’t spell it out, we believe he was referring to the fact that the suspect was a juvenile. He said even if police were to gather enough evidence to make an arrest, they would be stopped by the statute of limitations. While there was no statute of limitations on the adult crime of murder, according to Sgt. Mercier, there was a statute of limitations on the juvenile crime of murder.
The Connecticut Post ran the question by the chief criminal court judge in the state of Connecticut, John Ronan, who said that he disagreed—a juvenile suspect could still be charged with the crime.
Miscellaneous updates
Renee’s case passed through many hands over the years. In 1997, Detective Kenneth Heim took lead on the case after many years of inactivity; it would be the second period of intense work Monroe PD dedicated to the case.
Chief Robert Wesche retired in 1998 after 40 years of service, the longest tenure among public servants in Monroe at the time.
In June and July of 1999, Monroe PD contacted the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes in Quantico, VA, an FBI unit dedicated to helping local police investigate unsolved crimes. They hoped that new forensic testing, including DNA, might be of some help in the case. However, little seems to have come of this.
On July 6, 2000, Governor John Rowland authorized yet another increase in the reward to find Renee’s killer, from $20,000 to $50,000.
Police advised that they had been working the case intensively over the past three years and had developed some new leads. Investigators had travelled throughout Connecticut and as far away as Vermont, Florida and Virginia to pursue leads.
The new chief of Monroe PD, John Salvatore, said, “we have been pursuing leads on a weekly basis for the past three years. We have extremely viable leads that we will follow in a methodical, step-by-step manner.” Detective Kenneth Heim, who had been an officer when Renee was killed, said he had sent all evidence to the FBI for guidance and that the FBI had advised that even though there were things that should’ve been done back in 1977, there were still things they could do.
Renee’s mother passes, 2020
43 years after the death of her daughter, Felicia Freer died peacefully at her home in Bethlehem, CT on July 28, 2020. She was 72 years old. Funeral services and burial were private with no calling hours, and arrangements were entrusted to Hickcox Funeral Home in Watertown, CT.
Her obituary references Nate Freer, her son, but makes no mention of Renee.
In the 61 articles that we have collected prior to Felicia’s death, not one of them includes an interview with her about Renee.
According to Monroe PD, neither Renee’s father, John Freer, nor her brother, Nate Freer, have called the PD looking for updates. We reached out to Nate, but he did not get back us.
Erik Hanson, author and sleuth
We would not have known about this case had it not been for the tenacious effort of horror and crime author, Erik Hanson.
He, like Renee, grew up in Monroe, Connecticut. He’s about ten years younger than Renee, and was born one year after her death. He was struck by the fact that he had never heard of Renee’s murder until March of 2024.
As he delved into Renee’s case, more and more connections came to light. His former stepfather, Kenneith Heim, was the second detective to have worked the case, having taken the lead in 1997 during the second period of significant activity on it by Monroe PD.
As Erik launched his own investigation into Renee’s death, which he recounts in his true crime book Dead End Road: The Cowardly Murder of Renee Freer, he contacted former investigators—including his stepfather—as well as neighbors, classmates and friends of Renee. Some had touching stories to share. Others—like Ken—remained tight-lipped, protecting the integrity of the investigation.
Some of his leads came by way of the Facebook group he created in April 2024, simply titled, “Who Killed Renee Freer?” The group currently has nearly 900 members, and is a space where people share theories, long-lost media, and calls to action. They recently raised enough money to rent a billboard to spread awareness about the case.
Erik has been on a publicity tour, pushing news outlets, podcasts, and other media to shine the spotlight on Renee.
We recognize the work he has done on the case and are grateful that he brought it to our attention.
Impact of Erik’s book
We credit Erik as the primary reason why Monroe PD has now agreed to speak publicly and transparently about the case with us. Even the Monroe PD acknowledges the impact of his work.
“Last year, an author named Eric Hansen wrote a book detailing this case. And he spent a lot of effort trying to get it out there in the public... on a Facebook page... in the media.
And it has brought a lot of people forward who we did not expect would come talk to us—but they did. They felt comfortable speaking with us. And so I think that the attention that the case is getting is great. We welcome it. Even though we can't speak publicly about all the details of the case, we do encourage people to come forward and speak to us.”
The modern investigation—new details released!
Kevin McKellick and Det. Jeff Marcel have entered the third time period of intense activity on Renee’s case. They started off by reviewing the massive case file.
“There's a lot of rumors that circulate around this case, and it's kind of difficult to follow what's real and what's not.
When I became involved in the case, I went back and started from the very, very beginning. It took me months and months and months to go through, and I didn't go through the entire thing
I brought in Detective Jeff Marcel to the case to be the lead detective on it, and he independently reviewed the entire case from the very beginning. It occurred to me [that] I knew details about the case, and I was curious whether or not it was jading my perception of what was going on. When I brought Jeff in on the case, I knew he knew nothing about it.
I wanted him to start investigating from the very, very beginning. And it took nearly a year to get through the entire case file—it's enormous. When that happened—that would have been near the end of 2019, maybe early 2020—we both finished the entire case file.
When he was done, we met up and discussed what we thought was real and what was not and then we discussed how to proceed forward with the case.”
They realize that this may be the last bite at the apple for Monroe PD to solve this case while the killer—and important witnesses—are still alive.
“This could be the last chance to get this case solved. The kids involved in this case, they're all in their 50s and 60s now. Meanwhile, the adults in the case are in their 70s and 80s. So, there's a lot of people who aren't around anymore, because so much time has passed.”
And they bear a heavy burden—the same burden that has been shared by many of their predecessors.
“Many people have investigated this case since 1977. Some of them investigated it throughout the course of their entire careers and never got to a resolution. And I know it weighs on a lot of them. A lot of the guys are still alive, and I've spoken to them personally, and it eats at them that this is the one that they couldn't solve during the course of their career.”
They have shared with us some information that has never been previously released.
First, they clarified their position on who they believe killed Renee.
“We believe the perpetrator was a lone juvenile male that was known to Renee.”
Erik says in his book that there are two male teenagers who share the same first name who keep coming up in his investigation. We know who they are, but to protect their privacy, we are not releasing their names.
Second, they confirmed that Renee’s body had been exhumed in the October following her death.
Third, they confirmed that they have retained physical evidence, and that forensic testing is currently in progress.
“When Jeff and I began examining the case, we [looked at] it from an evidence standpoint. We had read all of the interviews. And we knew what everybody had said interview after interview after interview. So, we took a different approach and worked with our state's attorney's office and with the crime lab in Connecticut to figure out what evidence we had.
We're well aware of all the technology that is out there concerning DNA, and we have been and continue to be working with the lab and to see if there's anything that we can do to try to bring this thing to resolution.
All the stuff that I just discussed with you—we've done a bunch of it and we're going to be doing more going forward. We still have stuff in the works right now. It's just a very slow process and I know the labs are overwhelmed.”
Fourth, they narrowed the timeframe that they believe that Renee was killed to a window of only 30 minutes—between 6:30PM and 7:00PM.
And last, they revealed that they believe, in the fresh light of 2024, that this case is tantalizingly close to resolution.
“The person who did this has been living with this for over 47 years. We don't believe that he's ever going to confess to the crime. He hasn't done it yet. He's stuck to his lie for the last 47 years.
That being said, we do believe that this case is 100 percent solvable. There are a few people out there with information that we believe could bring us to a successful resolution.
If they do come forward, there are certain individuals that we think know more than they've told us.”
Hope remains
We are in an era of resolution to old crimes.
I’m reminded of the case of Theresa Marcoux and Mark Harnish, who were both killed in 1978. They were at a highway rest area in West Springfield, Massachusetts in their beat-up pickup truck, sleeping. The killer shot both of them multiple times, breaking the glass of their truck window. Their bodies were pulled out through the driver-side window and dragged down an embankment where they were left to die. The case was unsolved for decades until just last year.
Often times, when we hear about breaks in old cases like this, it is because of DNA—in particular, forensic genealogy.
But this case wasn’t solved with DNA, it was solved with a tip.
There was a good set of fingerprints found in smeared blood on the passenger side of the truck’s cab. Cops ran them through every database that they could get their hands on to no avail.
A tip came in last year, to look into a man named Timothy Joley. They looked into his gun ownership history and discovered that he had purchased a gun of the right caliber just a month before the double homicide. They were able to find a record of his prints from his application in 2000 for a taxicab license. They were a match.
On October 29th of last year, 71-year-old Timothy was charged with their murders. He is currently awaiting trial.
Had investigators simply disregarded the tip last year as just another fruitless dead-end venture, he may have never been found.
Renee’s case is overwhelmingly large because the Monroe PD has looked into all those tips. But they’re still waiting on the one that will crack this case open.
“We need anybody with information to come forward. No bit of information is too small. Like the detectives before us, we take the time to investigate anything that anyone has to say. Come forward, talk to us.
We believe that there are a certain few people who are out there who have the information that we need in order to bring this case to a successful resolution.
And if this kind of exposure gets them to come forward and talk to us, we can bring this thing to conclusion.”
If you have any information on the murder of Renee Freer, please contact the Monroe Police Dept Detective Division at 203-452-2831 ext. 1332. There is a $50k reward for information that leads to a resolution.
Read Dead End Road: The Cowardly Murder of Renee Freer by Erik Hanson.
This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, “The unsolved murder of Renee Freer.” To hear Renee Freer’s full story, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.
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Renee Freer, 2nd row, third from right (facebook.com)
Renee Freer, middle (Edited by Murder, She Told)
Renee Freer (Monroe PD)
Renee Freer (edited by Murder, She Told - original from Monroe PD)
33 Williams Rd, Monroe, CT (Zillow.com)
Letter from Renee Freer to Abby Mae Rowell (facebook.com)
Crime scene search (Bridgeport Telegram)
Bloodhound “Missy” searching (Bridgeport Telegram)
Erik Hanson, author (ctpost.com)
Flyer, Renee Freer’s unsolved murder (facebook.com)
Book cover, “Dead End Road,” (Erik Hansen)
Gravestone, Renee Freer (ctpost.com)
Gravestone, Renee Freer (facebook.com)
Sources For This Episode
Newspaper articles
Various articles from Bridgeport Post, Bridgeport Telegram, Connecticut Post, Hartford Courant, Monroe Courier, New Haven Register, News Times, Norwalk Hour, Record-Journal, and The Day, here.
Written by various authors including Bill Bittar, Daniel Tepfer, Gerald Demeusy, J. Herbert Smith, Jean Loveland, Laurie Loveland, Michael P. Mayko, John Parker, John W. Morgan, Kayla Mutchler, Michael P. Mayko, Nancy Doniger, Paul Frisman, Stephen Galpin Jr., and Susan A. Zavadsky.
Photos
Photos as credited above
Online written sources
'Renee Freer' (Find a Grave), 1/9/2021, by Helping Hands
'Felicia Wasik Freer' (Find a Grave), 1/9/2021, by Helping Hands
'Who Killed Renee Freer?' (Facebook), 4/11/2024, by Erik C. Hanson
'Author pursues book to shine spotlight on Monroe’s only unsolved murder' (The Monroe Sun), 4/14/2024, by Bill Bittar
'Monroe police urge Renee Freer’s killer to come forward' (The Monroe Sun), 4/18/2024, by Bill Bittar
'Monroe police plead with Renee Freer’s killer to reveal their identity' (Fox61 News), 4/18/2024, by Dalton Zbierski
'Monroe police say they have person of interest in nearly 50-year-old cold case' (News12 Connecticut), 4/18/2024, by Mark Sudol
'47 years later, Monroe police hope to find who killed 8-year-old girl' (News8 WTNH), 4/18/2024, by Braley Dodson
'Monroe police ask killer to come forward after developments in cold case' (NBCCT WVIT-TV), 4/18/2024
'Monroe's unsolved child murder: An author looks to shed new light on Renee Freer's cold case' (Connecticut Post), 4/19/2024, by Kayla Mutchler
'CT police share update 47 years after murder of Renee Freer' (New York Daily News), 4/19/2024, by Jessica Schladebeck
'CT- Renee Freer, 8' (WebSleuths), 4/19/2024, by dotr
'Who Killed Renee Freer?' (Change.org), http://change.org 4/20/2024, by Erik Hanson
Online video sources
'Monroe Police Official Statement 2024 Murder of Renee Freer 1977' (Facebook), 4/18/2024
'Monroe police plead with Renee Freer’s killer to reveal their identity' (Fox61 News), 4/18/2024
'Monroe police say they have person of interest in nearly 50-year-old cold case' (News12 Connecticut), 4/18/2024
'Monroe police seek justice for Renee Freer' (YouTube), 4/18/2024
Books
“Dead End Road” by E. C. Hanson
Interviews
Many thanks to Kevin McKellick and Jeff Marcel with the Monroe Police Dept.
Credits
Research, vocal performance, and audio editing by Kristen Seavey
Research, photo editing, and writing by Byron Willis
Writing by Kimberly Thompson.
Additional research by Liz Bean and Amanda Connolly.
Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey.