Bellingham’s Corley family offers reward in cold case

BELLINGHAM – The family of Theresa Corley is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for her murder 39 years ago.

The family announced the reward via social media last week.

“If it will help someone to come forward, it’s all good. It’s what is meant to be,” said Corley’s sister, Gerri Houde of Bellingham.

Anyone with information about the Corley case is asked to contact the Bellingham Police tip line at (508) 6572863; Franklin Police tip line at (508) 440-2780 or by email at tips@franklinpolice.com; or Norfolk County District Attorney’s tip line at (617) 593-8840.

All calls and information will be kept in the strictest confidence.

Late last year, the Corley case took a dramatic turn when the family was told by the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office that State Police investigators were been able to produce a full suspect DNA profile from a tiny sample of semen collected from the jeans Corley was wearing the night she was murdered.

Investigators have had the DNA sample ever since Corley’s murder, but were waiting for DNA technology to improve before testing it. The sample

was sent to a national DNA crime database. If there’s a match, a suspect could be identified and the case could finally be solved.

“We’re hoping to hear from them soon on the status of the profile and next steps,” Houde said. “We want to thanks the DA’s office for their diligence and hard work on this case and for bringing it forward and obtaining the DNA profile.

We are hoping for those small pieces of the puzzle to be put into place and to finally make an arrest. If anyone has any information they can contact the DA or the Bellingham Police, who have also been a great asset to this case.”

In December of 1978, 19-year-old Corley left a party at a bar when police say she was picked up by a group of men and allegedly sexually assaulted. Corley was apparently seen hitch hiking but she never returned home. Her naked

body was found in a ditch along Interstate 495 several days later.

The identity of her killer or killers remains a mystery 39 years later.

Investigators have had the DNA sample from Corley’s jeans since 1978, but it was small and degraded and there was concern over the years that it if it was tested too early it would be destroyed.

Now that DNA and molecular biology has advanced by leaps and bounds, a decision was made to test the sample.

“They wanted to wait because they knew better technology was on the horizon,” Houde said.

The sample was sent to the federal government’s genetic information database, the Combined DNA Index System or “CODIS.” Using CODIS, police can run

v a search to see if the DNA matches that of a convicted offender or arrestee profile in the database.

In May of last year, Corley’s remains were exhumed from St. Mary’s Cemetery in Milford for DNA testing. The exhumation was conducted under the supervision of the Office of Norfolk County District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey, which sent several Massachusetts State Police detectives and a team of forensic experts to collect possible DNA samples in hopes of discovering new evidence that could shed light on Corley’s case.

Those samples, however, did not yield anything.

The unsolved murder of Theresa Corley has haunted investigators in Bellingham and Franklin for more than three decades.