New Bedford Highway Killer Victims

Between March 1988 and September 1988, eleven women disappeared from the streets of New Bedford, Massachusetts, a port city then struggling with a heroin epidemic. The women, in their late teens to mid-thirties, were known to one another's circles and shared similar circumstances: most struggled with drug addiction and several were involved in sex work in the city's Weld Square area. Beginning in July 1988 and continuing through April 1989, the bodies of nine of them were discovered dumped along highways ringing the city — Route 140 in Freetown, Interstate 195 in Dartmouth and Marion, Route 88 in Westport, and a gravel pit off Reed Road. Two of the missing women, Christina Monteiro, 19, and Marilyn Cardoza-Roberts, 34, have never been found and are widely believed by investigators to be additional victims of the same killer.

The first body, found along Route 140 on July 3, 1988, went unidentified for months before being confirmed as Debra Medeiros; other remains were skeletal by the time they were located and took additional months to identify. The recovered victims were Debra Medeiros, Nancy Paiva, Debra Greenlaw DeMello, Dawn Mendes, Deborah McConnell, Rochelle Clifford Dopierala, Robbin Rhodes, Mary Rose Santos, and Sandra Botelho, whose body — found April 24, 1989, along I-195 in Marion — was the last recovered. Several victims were located by police dogs during systematic highway searches in late 1988 and early 1989 after investigators concluded a serial killer was operating in the area.

The investigation, led by the Bristol County District Attorney's office, focused on several suspects. Anthony DeGrazia, a construction worker charged with a series of attacks on New Bedford sex workers, was investigated but never charged in the killings; he was found dead in July 1990, with his death ruled a suicide. In August 1990, a grand jury convened by District Attorney Ronald Pina indicted New Bedford attorney Kenneth Ponte for the murder of Rochelle Clifford Dopierala, who had been a client and acquaintance. Pina's successor, Paul Walsh, dropped the charge on July 29, 1991, citing insufficient evidence, and Ponte — who always maintained his innocence — died in 2010 without ever being tried. He was never convicted of any of the killings, and no charge in any of the murders has ever been proven against anyone.

More than three decades later, the case remains one of New England's most notorious unsolved serial murder investigations. The Bristol County District Attorney's cold case unit has said DNA testing has been completed on case evidence and describes the investigation as active and ongoing, and a spokesman said in 2023 that the office 'will not give up on this case.' Journalist Maureen Boyle, who covered the murders and later wrote the book 'Shallow Graves' about the case, has expressed confidence it will eventually be solved. Families of the victims continue to press for answers; anyone with information is asked to contact the Bristol County District Attorney's office or New Bedford police.