We Keep the Dead Close

by Becky Cooper

  6 an establishment on Arrow Street: Matheson Higgins Die-Cutting Company, 12 Arrow Street. In 2018, Don Mitchell said he wasn’t familiar with the shop, and wasn’t aware that Jane had ever gone there.

  7 at the Harvard Square T stop: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 175.

  8 he was 170 pounds, six foot one: During the press conference, DA Ryan cited his height and weight from a 1972 arrest report: five foot eleven, 185 pounds. I substituted these measurements for ones closer from a January 12, 1970 arrest report.

  9 witness was seven years old: Report by Det. Centrella (Priscilla Joyce interview), Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD file).

  10 Don Mitchell had entered: Report of Statement by Donald Mitchell, Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD file).

  11 writes to the Abraham family: Email from Adrienne Lynch to Ted and Alice Abraham, Nov. 20, 2018, 5:47 p.m.

  12 [Photo]: Photograph by Becky Cooper.

  13 helped drive the investigation to this conclusion: Mike Widmer’s initial public records request to the MDAO was Nov. 5, 2015; mine was July 18, 2016. In her checking response (2020), ADA Lynch wrote that she became involved in reviewing the Britton file in 2016. That said, of course, ADA Lynch’s tireless dedication, as well as Sgt. Sennott’s detective work and the MSP Crime Lab’s analyses, deserve a huge amount of credit.

  14 [Photo]: Photograph by Becky Cooper.

  The Files

  1 The autopsy: Autopsy Report, Drs. George Katsas and Arthur McGovern (MSP file).

  2 letter that Gramly wrote: Letter from RMG to CPD Keeper of the Records, Aug. 31, 1995 (CPD file).

  3 Photos of the crime scene: “Color Slides of Crime Scene” (CPD file).

  4 The original Cambridge cops’ notes: E.g., Report to Lt. Davenport by Officer James Lyons, Jan. 7, 1969; and Report to Lt. Davenport by Officer Dennis McCarthy, Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD files).

  5 Lieutenant Joyce’s investigation: E.g., Report to Daniel I. Murphy, Captain of Detectives by Det. Lt. Joyce of MSP, June 2, 1969.

  6 the chemist’s report: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).

  7 the trail of renewed interest in the case: E.g., Adrienne Lynch, “Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file).

  8 The pictures from the funeral: Cambridge Police photos from funeral (CPD file).

  9 RCMP report on Anne Abraham’s disappearance: E.g., Transcript of Interview between Cst. W.W. MacDonald & RMG, Nain, Labrador, Aug. 11, 1976.

  10 sent to her high school friend Irene duPont: Letter from Jane to Irene (duPont) Light, Jan. 4, 1969; forwarded to the Cambridge Police on Jan. 16, 1969 (CPD file); interview with Irene Light in 2016.

  11 Don, Boyd, Jim Humphries, Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky, and…Peter Ganick: Respectively, Report to Det. Lt. Sullivan by Sgt. Sennott re: Donald Mitchell, July 18, 2017; Report cover sheet to Det. Lt. Sullivan by Sgt. Sennott re: Boyd Britton, July 18, 2017; Report by Sgt. Sennott re: Jim Humphries, Oct. 12, 2017; Report by Sgt. Sennott re: CCLK, Jan. 8, 2018; Report by Sgt. Sennott re: Peter Ganick, Oct. 3, 2017 (MSP file).

  12 excluded as possible sources: Boyd, Don Mitchell, and RMG excluded in Report 4, MSP Crime Lab, Oct. 3, 2017; Peter Ganick, Jim Humphries, and CCLK excluded in Report 5, MSP Crime Lab, Feb. 12, 2018 (MDAO file).

  13 Lee Parsons could not be excluded: Here, to end of paragraph, from ADA Lynch response to checking memo (2020). Since all males in a paternal line are expected to have the same Y chromosome DNA, if Parsons had a full male relative, authorities could have tested that relative’s Y-DNA and compared it to the profile developed from the crime scene sample. If the relative’s Y chromosome did not match, then Parsons could have been excluded as a contributor. Lee had no sons, however, and his brother was deceased. Another option considered was testing his ex-wife and daughter’s autosomal DNA and comparing it to the three-loci profile from 1998, but this would have required comparing DNA tested using different kits/instrumentation, which Bode Labs was unable to do. A specialist familiar with both kits would be needed to perform this kind of “legacy analysis.”

  14 autopsy slides in 1998: Dr. Katsas: Letter from George Katsas to John McEvoy (Office of the District Attorney), Feb. 20, 1988 (MDAO file).

  15 CODIS link with Michael Sumpter in July 2018: Letter to Sgt. Sennott from Dorothea Sidney Collins (MSP Crime Lab), July 16, 2018.

  16 brother was eliminated as a possible source of the DNA: The CODIS link to Michael Sumpter in July was the result of a manual comparison between the Y profile from the crime scene and the Y profile of the available CODIS reference sample for Michael Sumpter (2020 checking memo response from Darina Griffin, MSP’s legal counsel). But by Massachusetts law (MGL c. 22E), the CODIS sample could only be used for investigatory purposes. For further adjudication, investigators needed to get a non-CODIS sample. Because Michael was already dead and cremated, the only way to get a comparable Y chromosome sample was to test that of a full male relative. Using “a variety of databases including Ancestry.com” (2020 Adrienne Lynch checking response), Sgt. Sennott was able to track down Michael’s brother Nathaniel and obtain a DNA sample with his consent. As expected with full brothers, Nathaniel and Michael’s Y profiles matched. To disambiguate the brothers, authorities looked at Nathaniel’s autosomal DNA and compared it to the 1998 profile with the help of Charlotte Word, who performed the legacy analysis (Report of Dr. Charlotte Word, Sept. 3, 2018 [MSP file]). Unlike Michael’s, Nathaniel’s did not match the 1998 profile, therefore, Nathaniel could be eliminated as a contributor to the crime scene DNA. (Note: the police files do not include the original electropherograms, so I have been unable to verify this for myself or to get a second opinion from a forensic expert. My public records request was denied on Mar. 25, 2020. I am still pushing.)

  17 DNA testing reports starting in 2017: DNA Testing Report 1, July 18, 2017; DNA Testing Report 2, July 31, 2017; DNA Testing Report 3, Oct. 3, 2017; DNA Testing Report 4, Feb. 12, 2018; DNA Testing Report 5, July 23, 2018. All MSP Crime Lab (MDAO file).

  18 Mass State Police analyst named Cailin Drugan: Drugan did not receive permission from her supervisors to speak with me. Instead, David Procopio, the MSP press secretary, responded, “We are going to decline to make anyone from our lab available to discuss the Cambridge homicide. The ultimate decision here was in keeping with our position (and that of the scientific community generally) is to let the work speak for itself” (email, Jan. 10, 2020, 3:42 p.m.). The MSP crime lab did, however, participate in the checking phase of the project, responding through Darina Griffin, the MSP’s legal counsel.

  19 desire to continue being assigned to Jane’s case: Per the MSP legal counsel’s response, Drugan “did not have a stake in being assigned the case, or in the resulting work.” The legal counsel wanted me to understand that it is common for the same analyst to perform multiple rounds of testing. This pushback notwithstanding, I have kept in this detail because I am quoting two emails in the MDAO file: Email from Sharon Convery to Brian Cunningham, July 19, 2017, 6:51 a.m.: “FYI––Cailin said she would be available to take this” and email from Brian Cunningham to Lynn Schneeweis, July 20, 2017, 10:29 a.m.: “I know Cailin was hoping to perform the testing on this case.” ADA Lynch also wrote in her checking response: “Cailin (Drugan) wanted to do round 2 testing in this batch.”

  20 skin cells on the test tube: Nov. 2019 interview with ADA Lynch. The MSP’s legal counsel underlined that Drugan’s identification of additional testing is “a standard determination that analysts address as part of any case” (2020 checking memo response).

  21 the DNA profile in October 2017: DNA Testing Report 3, Oct. 3, 2017 (MDAO file). It should be noted that the result obtained in this lab report was consistent with both a major and a minor contributor. Michael Sumpter’s DNA matched the major contributor. Boyd, Don, Jim, Peter Ganick, RMG, and CCLK were all ruled out as contributors—i.e., they were neither the major nor minor contributor. To date, the minor contributor has not been identified. In a November 2019 interview, ADA Lynch stated that it was likely co
ntamination from the medical examiner, since standards were different back then (forensic DNA testing wouldn’t become standard for two decades). It is also possible that the minor contributor was an artifact of analysis, or DNA from someone else Jane had been in contact with before she died. Y profiles cannot be searched in CODIS. Even after talking to many DNA experts, I don’t have enough information to explain the significance (or the lack thereof) of the minor contributor. Sgt. William Doogan confirmed that there was no second male contributor in either Rutchick’s or McClain’s cases.

  22 helped bring ADA Lynch’s attention: 2020 Lynch checking response; Chronology of DNA collection, Oct. 22, 2018 (MDAO file).

  23 keyboard search: This, as well as “verbally informed” from Chronology of DNA Investigation, Oct. 29, 2018 (MDAO file). I asked the MSP Crime Lab if there were other “soft hits” in 2004, since the keyboard search was of the three-loci 1998 profile. The legal counsel responded, “The documentation associated with the case speaks for itself. We cannot comment further other than what is documented in the file.”

  24 requests for police records: E.g., Fax re: Michael Sumpter history with Brookline PD, Feb. 27, 2004 (MSP file).

  25 tried, unsuccessfully, to locate Michael’s brother: 2005 Crim. History report re: Nathaniel Sumpter for Tpr Sennott (MSP file). Confirmed in November 2019 interview with ADA Lynch.

  26 In a summary of the case, Lynch admits: “Adrienne Lynch, Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file). As ADA Lynch elaborated in her 2020 checking response, “Y-STR testing was validated for forensic work by 2003, therefore, it ‘arguably’ could have been done. That being said the kits used in DNA testing in 200[4] versus 2018 tested less loci and the instrumentation was not as refined as instrumentation used in 2018 when the profile from the vaginal swab extract was obtained. We sometimes forego immediate testing anticipating advances in the science in the future. Doing so here was a benefit.”

  27 his police records: Sumpter DOC 1 through 4.

  28 Sumpter was born in Boston: Michael Sumpter death certificate (MSP file).

  29 the middle child of three: MDAO profile on Michael Sumpter, Oct 2, 2018 (MSP file).

  30 divorced when he was six: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 116.

  31 in and out of mental institutions: Nathaniel Sumpter DOC, p. 5.

  32 their maternal grandparents: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 116.

  33 Old Harbor Housing Project: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 155.

  34 where Whitey Bulger: “Whitey Bulger’s Death Marks the End of an Era in South Boston,” Business Insider, Nov. 1, 2018.

  35 age of fifteen in 1963 for larceny: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 114.

  36 two months after his eighteenth birthday: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 157.

  37 “He appears [to be] quite impulse-ridden”: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 162.

  38 worked in Harvard Square: Here through “stolen credit card,” from Nathaniel Sumpter DOC, p. 30.

  39 “things will be different this time”: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 114.

  40 live with his brother in Boston: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 240.

  41 Massachusetts law went further than most: “Most States Allow Furloughs from Prison,” Washington Post, June 24, 1988. See also “Willie Horton Revisited,” The Marshall Project, May 13, 2015.

  42 “beyond reproach”: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 106.

  43 “always a gentleman”: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 30.

  44 “should lock him up”: Details and dialogue from Sumpter DOC 4, p. 97.

  45 released as scheduled: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 96. Disciplinary report issued Dec. 2, 1971. Sumpter released Dec. 17, 1971.

  46 Sumpter attacked the woman: Jan. 24, 1972, per Sumpter DOC 4, p. 175.

  47 granted a twelve-hour furlough: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 55.

  48 robbery and attempted assault: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 7.

  49 On August 2, instead of showing up to work: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 55.

  50 In 1985, he walked away from his first day: Sumpter DOC 2, p. 249.

  51 Hal Ross, Jane’s tutor sophomore year: CPD-IK, p. 26.

  52 “circle line…which is run”: CPD-SW, p. 3.

  53 “Mixture of black and red iron salts”: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).

  54 ochre is an oxide, not a salt: Helwig chapter in Berrie’s Artists’ Pigments, pp. 39–109; interview with Narayan Khandekar in 2020.

  55 According to Lee, they never even kissed: CPD-LK 2, p. 13.

  56 it was a child’s construction set: CPD-LK 2, pp. 19–20.

  57 women’s underwear found in Jane’s bathroom: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969, pp. 3–4 (MSP file).

  58 the underwear was lost: Email from Cailin Drugan to Sharon Convery and Lynn Scheeweis, “Other than the slides, no other items of evidence (ie. pillow, nightgown), exist,” July 18, 2017, 2:28 p.m. (MDAO file).

  59 three weeks before she died: Dec. 17, 1968 per Adrienne Lynch, “Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file).

  60 fingerprint that Don had taken a picture of: See earlier note in section 4 re: photo of fingerprint and Don’s tripod.

  61 transcript from Sergeant Sennott’s conversation: Don Mitchell interview transcript with Sergeant Sennott, July 17, 2017, p. 181 (MSP file).

  62 threaded throughout the files: CPD-SLI pp. 53–54; CPD-IK, p. 37; CPD-LP 1, p. 14; letter from Jane to Jim Humphries, June 4, 1968 (CPD file); Jane’s journal entries from June 6, June 7, June 14/15, and June 28, 1968.

  63 “It’s very difficult to get caught”: Letter from Jane to Jim Humphries, June 4, 1968 (CPD file).

  64 Jane’s parents mentioning an illness: Jane’s parents report that she was not under treatment by a physician (Report to Lt. Davenport by Officer James Lyons, Jan. 7, 1969).

  65 When I ask Boyd and Elisabeth Handler: Interviews with Boyd and Elisabeth Handler in 2019.

  66 Don says it “rings some distant bell”: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2019.

  67 Ingrid Kirsch, who relayed to police: CPD-IK, p. 37.

  68 Robert Skenderian, a compounding pharmacist: Interview with Robert Skenderian in 2020.

  69 has been in the area for three generations: “About Us,” Skenderian Apothecary website.

  January 14, 1969: Lee Parsons interrogation

  1 Excerpt of CPD-LP 1.

  Unsatisfied

  1 Iva Houston questions the timing: Interview with Iva Houston in 2018.

  2 “I heard that the ‘killer’”: Email from RMG, Jan. 2, 2019, 9:19 a.m.

  3 “I just think there’s something strange here”: Interview with RMG in 2019.

  4 “You don’t just have piles of powder”: Interview with Narayan Khandekar in 2020.

  5 a fiftieth the width of a human hair: Dave Kleiman, The Official CHFI Study Guide (Exam 312-49) for Computer Hacking Forensics Investigators (Burlington, MA: Syngress Publishing, 2007), p. 67.

  6 “Circle line which is run just across her back”: CPD-SW, p. 3.

  7 John Fulkerson joins the chorus of doubt: Interview with Fulkerson in 2018.

  8 small note on the October 2017: DNA Testing Report 3, Oct. 3, 2017 (MDAO file).

  9 all excluded as possibilities: RMG, Boyd, and Don Mitchell excluded in DNA Testing Report 3, Oct. 3, 2017; CCLK, Peter Ganick, and Jim excluded in DNA Testing Report 4, Feb. 13, 2018 (MDAO files).

  10 According to the Middlesex district attorney’s office: Nov. 2019 interview with DA Marian Ryan, ADA Adrienne Lynch, and Sgt. Sennott.

  11 Sgt. Doogan confirms: Interview with Sgt. William Doogan in 2019.

  12 Massachusetts State Police deny my request: Letter from Darina Griffin of the MSP Crime Laboratory, March 25, 2020.

  13 told that I would not be allowed to speak with: Email from David Procopio (MSP director of media communication), January 10, 2020, 3:42 p.m.

  14 anyone else in the MSP crime lab: It should be noted that the MSP crime laboratory did participate in the checking process for the book, responding through its legal counsel, Darina Griffin.


  15 Boyd had told me on the call: Interview with Boyd in 2018.

  Giacoppo

  1 On May 27, 1969, Lieutenant Frank Joyce: All details in this chapter, including dialogue, are drawn from Report to Daniel I. Murphy, Captain of Detectives by Det. Lt. Joyce of MSP, June 2, 1969 (MSP file), unless otherwise noted.

  2 anonymous tip implicating someone named Dr. Paul Rhudick: Here through end of following paragraph from Report of Det. Lt. Charles Byrne of MSP re: James Powers, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).

  3 Dover police received a call: Paragraph from Report of Dover Officer George Michel re: Cecelia Powers call, May 5, 1969 (MSP file).

  4 Four days later, Cecelia called: Report of Dover Officer (unnamed) re: Search for James Powers, May 11, 1969 (MSP file).

  5 Cambridge police got permission to fingerprint: Report of Det. Lt. Charles Byrne of MSP re: James Powers, May 23, 1969, p. 3 (MSP file). Permission received from Medical Examiner Dr. Joseph King.

  6 May 15, Massachusetts State Police confirmed: Report of Det. Lt. Charles Byrne of MSP re: James Powers, May 23, 1969, p. 3 (MSP file).

  7 matched the left thumbprint of the late veterinarian: Report of Lt. David Desmond re: thumb print on ashtray, May 29, 1969 (MSP file).

  8 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.

  9 However, the day that Lieutenant Joyce: Paragraph, including “strongly suspected” and “planted” from Report to Daniel I. Murphy, Captain of Detectives by Det. Lt. Joyce of MSP, June 2, 1969 (MSP file).

  10 interviewed Cecelia Powers at her home: Report of Det. Lt. Joyce re: Antigua travel, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).

  11 Officers had obtained a search warrant: Report of Dover Sgt. Carl Sheridan re: Search Powers, May 16, 1969.

  12 check…to Travel Services Bureau: Report of Det. Lt. Joyce re: Antigua travel, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).

  13 evening connecting flight to Boston: Report of Det. Lt. Joyce re: Antigua travel, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).

  14 run by Frank Powers’s sister: Report re: silver plated ashtray by Det. Lt. Joyce, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).