Rolling

Pins N Pitchers - Exeter, New Hampshire

A 54-year-old woman was killed in her home three days ago. 

Her neighbor called the police when the victim would not come to the door on the second day she tried to get her for their daily Tai Chi sessions in the park. 

The victim was faithful to the sessions.

When the police arrived, they believed the neighbor's concern was credible, not crackpot. They called the building management and asked them to come over and open the door. They also noted the victim's car was in her reserved parking spot.

I got interested in the case because of the lack of information presented to the public.

It feels like something bigger is happening, and after one call to my friend, Police Chief Ron Strier, and a night of bowling with The Regional First Responder League, I have no doubts.

Strier is the Police Chief of Stratham, New Hampshire, one town from Exeter, and he told me...

"The Exeter case is most likely related to two other recent similar cases."

"A woman was killed in her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just after her husband left for work. This happened two weeks ago."

"Last week, a woman was killed in her condo in Lexington, Massachusetts." She, too, lived alone like the Exeter vic."

"So what makes them related, Ron?" I asked

"We'll talk tonight. It's the first league night, remember."

Strier and I bowl are in the Regional First Responder League, so I hear many things as we roll, drink beer, and eat chicken wings.

Our four-person team is the Parris Island Sand Fleas. I'm the newbie on the team since George Mcasling fell off his roof while clearing gutters. 

He's paralyzed, and I have been told ​my spot on the team is tenuous in case George comes back and rolls while he rolls in his motorized wheelchair. He's a Marine and a tough one.

Here is everything I learned about three murders between rolls.

Ron layed out what he knows. "The 54-year-old Exeter victim was found naked on the floor of her kitchen. There was breakage at the door. The ball latch, you know, the thing that replaced chain locks, was ripped off the door."

"The 53-year-old Cambridge victim was found naked on her kitchen floor."

"The 54-year-old victim in Lexington was killed the same way as the other two, by strangulation. She was found by her husband when he came home from work."

"No prints and no obtainable DNA from the woman's bodies though each was raped."

"Hmm," I said

"They think the penetrations happened after the strangulations."

"Whoever strangled them did it fast and with deliberate violence, keeping the victim quiet."

"So here is the kicker that ties the three cases together with Super Glue." 

"At each crime scene, the killer left something on the kitchen counter."

Ron continued, "On each victim's kitchen counter was an old vintage cassette tape player. In each player was the same tape—a homemade mix tape containing five songs from the eighties."

"Each tape was played to the end, not rewound, and the player was turned off."

"One other thing, Allston." 

"They went through each woman's social media pages and believe the victims all graduated from the same Woman's College in Boston."

"Two in the same year and another one year behind."

It's unknown if they knew each other in college or now. They were not friends on any social media accounts.

I am not a cop, so I'm not exposed to the juicy bits of an active case, but even the bare-bones tidbits being released to the press tell me this case is solvable. 

The stooges in Lexington, Cambridge, and Exeter and the FBI are not moving fast enough to protect the public and solve these murders.

This is how I got involved in the Mixtape Cha Cha.

Ron said he would help as much as possible but cannot be outed as a source.

​Ron, like I do, believes that departmental infighting in Cambridge, Lexington, and Exeter is slowing the case's progress as the three city police departments pick and choose what they want to share with each other. Each city wants to be the one that solves it.

All I know is that killers like this clown have a need to keep killing, and this guy is working fast and leaving Big Ass clues on each scene.

Why is that?

Somewhere On The New England Coast

Later that evening I put Eve's amazing brain on the case with a summary of what I knew.

We were lying in bed with three friends, Tango, and our tablets, and Eve tossed out the first pitch.

"The three women knew each other then, and they knew the killer way back in the day."

I have to agree with Eve.

"Now there is something that died on the vine, thank god."

"What's that I asked?"

"Mixtapes"

"What a bore." "You can't eat them." They were "special gifts." 

"Glad I missed that phase."

Eve continued, "If you ever make me a mix, whatever if it has Poor Side Of Town On It, you know I won't stop laughing."

We both sang "Shoop Shoobie Wah Doobie Doobie"

Tango loves it when we sing.