Murder of Holly Piirainen
Holly Kristen Piirainen (January 19, 1983 – August 5, 1993) was a 10-year-old American murder victim from Grafton, Massachusetts. She and her brother had been visiting their grandparents in Sturbridge, Massachusetts when Holly was murdered.[1]
Holly Piirainen | |
|---|---|
 Holly Piirainen | |
| Born | Holly Kristen Piirainen January 19, 1983 Grafton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | August 5, 1993 (aged 10) Sturbridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Homicide |
Piirainen and her brother had gone to a neighbor's house to see puppies. Her brother had returned to the cottage where the grandparents lived, but Piirainen did not. One of Piirainen's shoes was found by the side of a road.[1]
Searching for Piirainen took two months. On October 23, 1993, Piirainen's remains were found by hunters in Brimfield, Massachusetts. The killer still has not been found.[1]
Since Piirainen's death, the Holly Piirainen Scholarship Fund was established in her memory by her family.[2]
Later investigative leads
Fellow Massachusetts resident Molly Bish disappeared on June 27, 2000, while working as a lifeguard on Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts. Her body was also found in a wooded area in Hampden County on June 9, 2003, five miles from her family home. Police considered the possibility that the two cases could be related. Pouliot is considered a person of interest in both cases. It was discovered that Bish had written a letter to Holly Piirainen's family following Holly's disappearance.[3] This is an excerpt from Molly Bish's letter:
I am very sorry. I wish I could make it up to you. Holly is a very pretty girl. She is almost as tall as me. I wish I knew Holly. I hope they found her.[3]
— Molly Bish at age 10
On January 3, 2012, Hampden County Attorney Mark Mastroianni announced that forensic evidence found near Piirainen's body had been linked to David Pouliot, a suspect who died in 2003.[4] Investigators have not disclosed the nature of the forensic evidence, nor the type of testing that linked Pouliot to the evidence. Investigators said that, although Pouliot is a person of interest in the crime, as of January 2012 he has not yet formally been named a suspect. Pouliot frequently hunted and fished around the area where Piirainen's body was found.[3]
In October 2020 Boston news station WCVB-TV reported that according to their sources, the body of a 22-year-old man was exhumed at a cemetery in Hampden County, in Massachusetts, which might be connected to the investigation into the disappearance and murder of Piirainen. Sources told the news station that the man exhumed was not Pouliot.[5]
According to Springfield, Massachusetts based TV station, Western Mass News, Holly's cousin, Leah Jolin, said investigators were searching for a letter placed in the subject's coffin that could advance the case. But Jolin said the retrieved item had suffered a lot of water damage after over two decades in the ground. "So basically we have been told they're not really sure they're going to find anything useful,” Jolin said. [6]
References
- "Holly Piirainen: New details emerge in 19-year-old murder case". Fox 25 Boston. Nov 19, 2012.
- https://www.thegraftonnews.com/news/20190602/2019-grafton-high-school-scholarship-recipients
- Smith, Dave (January 3, 2012). "Holly Piirainen Case: David Pouliot Linked to Death of Missing Girl in 1993". International Business Times.
- "Cold Case Murder of Holly Piirainen, 7, Linked to Dead Man". ABC News. Retrieved 2012-01-03.
- http://www.wcvb.com/article/body-exhumed-in-connection-with-27-year-old-unsolved-murder-of-holly-piirainen/34242332/
- https://www.westernmassnews.com/news/the-death-of-holly-piirainen-still-remains-unsolved-investigation-continues/article_e7a01744-2e01-11eb-aa9c-4f8f919b7293.html block_id=994434&fbclid=IwAR3QBWC4TkrKzdqZ457_7nnljGxEg8kwxCaz9i9AZz-Djk-v05ekxeDfjlw