The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
To her friends ‘she was a shining star’
35 years after teen’s homicide, loved ones still searching for killer, hoping for justice
MIDDLETOWN — Family and friends hope the 35th anniversary of the death of an 18-year-old high school track star nicknamed “Honey” will renew interest in her homicide.
Lisa Berry, the first member of her family bound for college, had graduated from Middletown High School in 1985, when she went missing after leaving home for a jog at about 5:30 p.m. July 31 Three days later, she was found drowned in a hole in less than 3 feet of water in the woods near the Cromwell line.
The state medical examiner ruled her death a homicide.
Middletown police say Berry began her run on Braeburn Lane, turned on to Highlands Crescent and then Westlake Drive. Along her path, Berry was seen by, and talked to, multiple people.
She was a talented athlete who was on the varsity track and field team, and had just accepted a scholarship to Amherst College.
Lisa Berry’s brother Bob Berry identified the body. Her loss has been especially difficult for him, even after all these years. More so as she was buried on his birthday. “I get really quiet around this time of year,” he said.
His sister was the type of person who would give anyone the shirt off her back, her brother said. “She was the most beautiful person you’d ever want to meet. Anybody that met her walked away with a smile,” he said.
A terrible loss
Lisa Berry was found in what is called a “percolator hole” in the construction business, a 6- to 7foot diameter opening in the ground that workers use to test the conditions of the earth before starting a project. It was supposed to be filled right afterward, but wasn’t, said Bob Berry.
When she went missing, he immediately formed a large search party.
“Ma Berry (which the community called Lisa Berry’s mother) and the
whole family were crazy for those three days,” said Lisa Berry’s good friend Nadine Bailey. “Nobody heard anything.”
“My mother was a very strong woman, and when that thing happened with Lisa, my mother turned into a jellyfish,” Bob Berry said.
He doubts Lisa Berry would ever perish in such a way. “My sister knew how to swim before she could walk. All of us grew up down the beach. For her to drown in a hole that was less than 3 feet ...”
Their father Bill, sister Pat and mother Patricia “Ma” Berry died before knowing their loved one’s killer. “It’s just me and my brothers now,” Berry said.
Before his mother died, he assured her he would never stop searching for Lisa’s killer. “I will not let this rest.”
“We called her Lisa “Honey” Berry,” Bailey said. “She was the epitome of that name. She was the sweetest, kindest person. She didn’t judge anybody. She was an old soul. She had more knowledge back then than it takes a lifetime” to achieve.
Bob Berry is still haunted by her death, as if it happened yesterday. “There’s not a day that where I don’t think about my sister.”
Bailey has also been active in keeping Lisa’s memory alive in hopes someone will come forward with a tip.
“Towards the end of her life, we were fast friends and together all the time. She was the one person in that family who was a shining star — a bright light,” Bailey said. “She was amazing at anything she put her talents to.”
Their group of friends rented a cottage in Old Lyme every summer. In fact, good family friend Ron Perry, who went to school with Lisa Berry, became a New Haven police detective because of her homicide. He now works to help save people from human trafficking.
The Berry mom and daughter were very close: “like two peas in a pod,” Bailey said.
“I know her mother is happy now. I saw her before she died, and she said, ‘I’ll be OK. I’ll be up there with her,’” Bailey said. “I know Ma Berry is happy now. She’s with her daughter and now they have rest and peace.”
“The family has definitely been through their
share of struggles,” Bailey said. “It was awful. I’m past the point of crying about it, because I want justice. Her family is still stuck in that period.”
Still looking
Middletown police Detective Elias Martz took over the cold case a year ago. In 2011, and then again in 2015, police sent evidence from the case to the state laboratory for analysis, hoping advances in DNA technology over the prior 30 years would turn up clues.
However, all tests came back inconclusive, Martz said.
The investigative services unit has followed up on many leads over the decades, but none turned up new information, he said. When a woman contacted authorities about something she recalled from that period, police hoped it would turn out to be pertinent information.
However, that incident had taken place around 1983, two years before Lisa Berry’s killing, Martz said.
Authorities have interviewed countless people over the decades. A new set of eyes on a cold case may turn up results, but, so far, the detective has yet to come across concrete clues, he said.
“A lot of time, people
see things on TV where they do solve a cold case 30 years later. In 1985, DNA technology wasn’t really a thing,” he said.
Methods of preserving genetic codes have changed greatly since the mid-1980s. Many factors can lead to deteriorated conditions, making items difficult to test, Martz said. “You have a chain of custody of a piece of evidence that’s 30 years old.
“It has to be packaged and properly maintained throughout that time. If it gets wet, if it gets too moist, if it’s too hot, various environmental factors can degrade. A T-shirt that’s 30 years old, you can pick it up and it just falls apart in your fingers,” Martz said.
These kinds of cases often weigh heavy on police as well.
“She’s definitely not someone who’s forgotten,” he said.
Since 2010, the state Division of Criminal Justice has released three sets of cold case playing cards, with Lisa Berry featured in the second edition.
Berry still holds out hope his sister’s killer will be found. “Hopefully, we won’t have to do it at 40 years,” he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call 860638-4140.