Alphabet Murders

In the early 1970’s a series of murder took place in the Rochester, New York area of America. Three young girls from the age of around 10 to 11 were found murdered after being sexually assaulted. Beside their age these girls had one other thing in common, both their first name and their last name started with the same letter and also their bodies were found in or close to places with names that started with the same letter as their name. This is the reason why these murders were dubbed the alphabet murders (also known as the double initial murders).
The victims are Carmen Colon, 11, disappeared November 16, 1971. She was found two days later 12 miles from where she was last seen. Although she was found in the town of Riga, the village of Churchville is the town's center of population, and the town of Chili is nearby, both of which starts with the letter ‘c’. The Second victim Wanda Walkowicz, 11, disappeared April 2, 1973. She was found the next day at a rest area off State Route 104 in Webster, seven miles from Rochester. The third and final victim Michelle Maenza, 10, disappeared November 26, 1973. She was found two days later in Macedon, 15 miles from Rochester.
Each of the girls had many things in common beside their age, none of them lived with both their parents, each had learning disability, and each was Roman Catholic.
When the first body was found, several drivers came forward claiming they saw the victim running semi nude at interstate 490, close to where the body was found. None of the drivers stopped as they were going over 70 miles per hour and was not sure of what they saw.
The police had two suspects for this first murder, one was Carmen’s own uncle Miguel Colon, the other was James Barber a local man who was wanted on an outstanding warrant for assaulting and sodomizing a 15-year-old girl in Ohio. Both men left the country shortly after the incident making the suspicion stronger, but none of them were around when the next two murders took place. Both men are now dead, in fact Colon committed suicide after a domestic dispute in which he shot and wounded his wife and brother-in-law.
The second victim, Wanda Walkowicz was taken while she was returning from the grocery store, where her mother had sent her to run an errand. After she was found, the police quickly drew parallels with the previous murder of Carmen Colon, despite the time gap between both events they were both killed in the same method. The police received reports that stated that a man was seen in the area driving a brown car that pulled a red-haired girl into the car the day of Wanda's abduction.
Michelle Maenza was last seen by her uncle at the Goodman plaza, who offered her a ride home, which she declined. That was the last time any of her family had seen her. Unlike the previous murders the police made some progress. Two eye witnesses came foreword, one claims to have seen the girl in a car at a fast food restaurant. A man was walking toward the car with a bag of food. Michelle's autopsy revealed she'd eaten a hamburger prior to her death. The other witness claims to have seen the victim on a car with a flat tire. The man with the flat tire made it apparent he wanted no help, so the witness left. Both witnesses gave similar description of the suspect, and a police sketch was displayed to the public. Despite receiving many calls concerning the sketch, they were of very little help.
For the longest time the most likely suspect was Dennis Termini, a local fireman who committed suicide after the police interrupted him in his garage while trying to rape a teenager. The police found traces of another rape in the garage, and though the victims were both older than the victims of the alphabet murders, he was considered the prime suspect. The fact that no other murder took place after wards seemed to verify the suspicion.
Dennis Termini remained the prime suspect until he was cleared at 2007 by DNA testing, after the police exhumed his body. The identity of the real killer is still unknown.