2014/12/31

Mass Live December 24, 2014: New Hampshire Cold Case Unit solves decades-old murder of Amherst woman

In July 1987, Amherst resident Judith Whitney went to New Hampshire with a man named Edward Mayrand, whom she met at an Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting the month before.

She was never seen again.

Four months later, a hunter discovered her body buried in a shallow grave in Winchester, N.H.

While police suspected Mayrand, they never had enough evidence to charge him, even though he was in possession of her car and a handgun.

But on Tuesday the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit established in 2009 found that Mayrand was indeed the killer. However, he died in 2011 of metastatic cancer, so he will never be charged.

Mayrand once lived in Northampton at Hairston House, a halfway house for recovering alcoholics. He was on parole for rape when he met Whitney.

According the report for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, Mayrand had a lengthy and violent criminal history beginning with a rape and assault conviction in 1975. more