Will tank top yield cold case clue thread?
The unsolved Central Mass. murders of Holly Piirainen and Molly Bish — deaths separated by seven years but occurring within a few miles of each other — have long vexed law enforcement and denied loved ones’ closure.
Wednesday, authorities again convened publicly in search of answers in the death of Holly Piirainen, offering faint hope that an item of clothing could lead to one — or both — of those girls’ killers.
Or at least their identity, since that individual may no longer be alive.
The case dates to Aug. 5, 1993, when Holly, 10, was last seen by her father in the area of Allen Road and South Drive in Sturbridge. Her family was vacationing at a cottage in town and she was headed to a nearby home to play with puppies, never to be seen alive again.
After an 11-week search, her remains were discovered in a wooded area off Five Bridge Road in nearby Brimfield on Oct. 23.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Hampden County District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni showed an image of a white tank top that he said could be connected to the case.
Investigators are seeking any information about the top, from who owned it to where it might have been purchased. The top has the word Boston across the front in a multicolor font, and appears to feature a sketch of buildings behind the word.
The shirt has labels for size and manufacturer. Gulluni said it appeared to fit an adult.
Gulluni indicated the top was recovered in good condition around the vicinity where Holly’s remains were found.
The shirt has been in the possession of investigators since her body was discovered, and Gulluni said it’s been a matter of interest since.
Within the past six months, case items such as the tank top were identified for further forensic testing. Gulluni would not say whether any DNA evidence has been discovered.
While there have been suspects, no one has been formally charged in the case over the past 30 years.
The DA’S office said it has persons of interest in the case, but Gulluni wouldn’t get into specifics.
There’s been longstanding speculation of a link between Holly’s killing and the murder of 16-year-old Molly Bish of Warren in June 2000.
Brimfield, where Holly’s remains were found, lies roughly equidistant between Warren and Sturbridge, where Holly was last seen.
In November 2014, the Telegram & Gazette reported that a man linked by a private investigator to the Molly Bish case had died while serving a 10- to 12-year sentence for raping a teenager in the 1990s.
Gerald Battistoni, 52, once lived in Palmer and worked with police as a confidential informant. He later lived in Ware.
In 2011, private investigator Daniel Malley, a former Vermont state trooper, alerted law enforcement after learning Battistoni had raped the daughter of a woman he had dated in the early 1990s.
Battistoni was convicted of four counts of rape and abuse of a child in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield in 2011.
While investigating that case, Malley learned that Battistoni had ties to the area in Sturbridge where Holly Piirainen was last seen.
Coincidentally, the victim in the rape case had moved to Comins Pond Road in Warren and was living there about the time Molly Bish was abducted from her lifeguard post and murdered.
Battistoni was also familiar with Whiskey Hill, using the road to travel back and forth to Warren from Ware, his former wife said in a 2011 interview.
Molly’s remains were found in a wooded area off that road in 2003.
According to published reports, he also resembled a composite sketch of the man Molly’s mother Magi saw in the Comins Pond parking lot the day before her daughter disappeared.
After news outlets began reporting on Malley’s investigative work in 2011, potentially linking Battistoni to both girls’ deaths, he apparently tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat.
Malley had hoped that Battistoni’s death would open a new chapter in the investigation of the two girls’ murders.
“Hopefully, with his passing it may encourage someone to come forward with information about his prior activities,” Malley said at the time.
But instead, their cases have remained cold, seemingly no closer to a conclusion than when the vicious crimes occurred.
We can only hope that a renewed interest in a long held item of clothing will lead to unraveling the mystery behind these two unsolved murders.