Judy Chartier

Case background and investigation

Judith Chartier, known as Judy, was 17 and lived in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. On the night of June 4, 1982, she went to an outdoor party in the neighboring town of Billerica. She left at about 2 a.m. on June 5, driving a 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger, and was not heard from again. Neither she nor the car could be found, and her disappearance remained one of the region's long-running missing person cases.

Nearly 40 years later, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office reviewed the file again. District Attorney Marian Ryan said the decision to search the Concord River in Billerica came from that fresh review and not from a new tip, CBS Boston reported. Two civilian specialists in underwater sonar, Bruce Stebbins and Hans Hug, assisted investigators, and the district attorney's office described their work as critical, according to Boston.com.

On Tuesday, November 2, 2021, divers recovered pieces of a car from the river. The vehicle identification number matched the Dodge Dart that Chartier had been driving. The next day divers found human remains in about 10 feet of water, roughly 15 to 20 yards from shore. They also recovered clothing, a small purse or card case and a laminated work identification card. The location was close to where the party had been held.

On November 5, 2021, Ryan, Chelmsford Police Chief James Spinney and Billerica police announced that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had identified the remains as Chartier's through dental records. Chartier's parents had died before the discovery; her siblings were informed of the findings.

Officials said at the time that the cause and manner of death had not been determined. The medical examiner's office and a forensic anthropologist, Dr. James Pokines, were to reconstruct the remains, a process Ryan said would take weeks or months. WBUR reported that Ryan said it was too early to say whether foul play was involved. Investigators also said they wanted to speak again with people who had been at the party.

The sources reviewed for this entry do not report a final ruling on how Chartier died, and no one has been charged in connection with her death. The case is therefore best described as a resolved disappearance with the circumstances of death still not publicly explained.