Deanna Cremin

Case background and investigation

Deanna Cremin was a 17-year-old high school student in Somerville, Massachusetts, when she was killed in late March 1995. She had turned 17 only days earlier; according to Wikipedia she was born on March 26, 1978.

On the evening of March 29, 1995, Deanna spent time at her boyfriend's home watching television, Boston.com reported, after telling her mother by telephone that she loved her. Her boyfriend, then 18, told police that he walked her part of the way home and that they separated near the corner of Heath and Bond streets at about 10 p.m., a few tenths of a mile from her house. She did not arrive home.

At about 8 a.m. on March 30, two children on their way to school took a shortcut behind a senior housing complex on Jaques Street and found her body. According to the podcast Dark Downeast, which reviewed records of the case, the children knew her because she had been their babysitter. She was lying on her back near a fence, partly undressed, less than 500 feet from the intersection where she was reported to have been last seen and about a block from her home. The medical examiner determined that she had been strangled, and officials have said she may have been sexually assaulted.

No one has been charged. GBH News reported in 2013 that three men, including her boyfriend, had been described as persons of interest and that none had been charged. Boston.com reported in 2015 that the mayor of Somerville had spoken of three persons of interest, while police and the district attorney declined to confirm this, citing the open investigation. Being described as a person of interest is not an accusation, and none of the three has been named as a suspect by prosecutors.

The reward for information has grown over time, from $10,000 in 1995 to $20,000 in 2005, according to Wikipedia, and to $70,000 by the 20th anniversary. In 2005 the district attorney at the time, Martha Coakley, said new forensic techniques had been applied to evidence. In 2015 Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said her office had assigned its chief of homicide and a State Police trooper to the case.

Deanna's family and friends hold a memorial Mass and walk every year. Around the 30th anniversary in March 2025, the Somerville City Council took up a resolution calling for renewed investigative effort in her case and another unsolved killing, and District Attorney Ryan was scheduled to address the council on April 10, 2025. Her office described the case as active, the Somerville Times reported. Tips can be given at (617) 544-7167.