Parents have a lot to think about when naming their new baby. What does a name mean? Do you want to honor a relative by using theirs? What are potential nicknames? Some parents like to get cutesy and creative, and use alliteration in their childs’ names. This can be seen in some celebrities, like Amy Adams, Steven Spielberg, and Marilyn Monroe. For three little girls in Rochester New York, that name alliteration was a death sentence. They will forever be remembered as victims of the Alphabet Murders.
C: Carmen Colón in Churchville
Rochester New York is located in upper New York, close to the Canadian border, and surrounded by multiple suburbs. 10-year-old Carmen Colón was a happy little girl who lived in downtown Rochester. She had dark hair and dark eyes, and had started life in Puerto Rico where she was born when her mother was only 17; her father left shortly after her birth.
Carmen started out living with her mother, her uncle Miguel (her father’s brother), and her 6 siblings. She was well known in her area, having extended family living nearby. Her grandparents, for example, lived just 10 minutes away. She spent a lot of time floating between her mother’s home and her grandparents home, and in the fall of 1971, Carmen was living with her grandparents full-time.
On November 16, 1971, Carmen went to Jack’s pharmacy to pick up a prescription for her grandfather. At the pharmacy, she was told it was not quite ready, and it would take another 30 minutes. She couldn’t wait, telling the owner, Jack Corbin, “I got to go. I got to go.” Witnesses saw her leave the store and get into a car that was parked nearby.
Approximately 50 minutes later, witnesses on highway 490 saw a young girl matching Carmen’s description running from a reversing vehicle. The girl, naked from the waist down, was frantically waving her arms and shouting before the driver of the car was able to reach her and led her back to the car. After she was returned to the car, a dark-colored Ford Pinto hatchback, no one saw her again.
Unfortunately, no one stopped to help. No one contacted the authorities.
That evening, when she didn’t return home by 5pm, her mother was worried. She sent out some of Carmen’s uncles to look for her. Finding no trace of her anywhere, her mother called the police and filed a missing person’s report.
Police searched the area thoroughly, even went door to door, and found no sign of her.
Two days later, near the village of Churchville, two teenage boys spotted something resembling a doll in some bushes on the side of the road. As they got closer, they realized it was no doll, instead it was the partially nude body of a little girl. Carmen had been discarded on the side of the road, approximately 12 miles from where she had last been seen alive.
Carmen was naked from the waist down, wearing only her shoes, socks, and a sweater. Her coat was discovered approximately 300 feet away in a culvert, and her pants were found 12 days later, on November 30, near the service road where witnesses had seen a girl waving her arms frantically on the highway.
The autopsy revealed that 10-year-old Carmen had been severely beaten. She suffered a fracture to her skull and one of her vertebrae before she had been manually strangled to death. Her body was littered with fingernail scratches, and worse – she had been raped. Her uncles, when identifying her body, noted that you could still see dried tears on her face.
The community was outraged. There had been so many witnesses on the highway who did nothing. In their defense, the 1970’s was a completely different time. Most witnesses maintained that they did nothing because they expected it was a child running from a parent, and only came forward after realizing they were wrong.
Two New York newspapers, the TImes Union, and the Democrat and Chronicle, offered a combined reward of $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her murderer. Numerous local businesses and residents added private donations to the reward fund which grew to exceed $6,000.
Police identified several suspects in the following months, but all were cleared of any involvement. By December 21, the investigation slowed, and only three investigators remained on the case full-time. They didn’t stop searching though. Billboards were erected along major Rochester expressways, bearing the image of Carmen with the headline: Do You Know Who Killed Carmen Colón?
W: Wanda Walkowicz in Webster
Just as people were beginning to feel safe again, another child disappeared.
11-year-old Wanda Walkowicz was a hardworking, independent young lady. With fiery red hair, and bright blue eyes, she was well liked and was considered very mature for her age.
When she was very young, her father died of a heart attack, leaving her mother to take care of her alone. Buckling under the stress that came with being a single parent, and living off her husband’s meager social security check, her mother turned to drinking. She frequented the local bars and pubs and even took Wanda and her little sister with her from time to time.
Things changed when her mother met a man who later moved in with them. Wanda still took responsibility for handling a lot of things, but there was another adult in the house.
On the afternoon of April 2, 1973, Wanda’s mother asked her to run to the market to pick up a few things. On her way to the store, Wanda ran into a couple of friends who she walked part of the way with before they turned to go another way. At the store, the clerk knew she was walking and had a lot to carry, so he tried to make it easier for her. He bagged all of her items in 1 bag, thinking it would be easier for her to carry.
It was about 5:15pm when she left the store, and a woman who used to babysit her would later report witnessing her leave the market, struggling a little with the weight of the bag. However, Wanda never made it home.
Her mother, realizing Wanda should have been home already, sent her little sister out to find her. She and a friend walked to the market where they asked if Wanda had been there. The clerk told them she had and they went back home to tell her mother. At about 8pm, her mother called the police and filed a missing persons report.
Police immediately began their search, sending nearly fifty detectives to search the several square miles surrounding her home, the market, and other areas around the Genesee River where she was known to play. Multiple witnesses recalled seeing her struggle with the large grocery sack, and three classmates specifically saw her bracing the bag against a fence so she could get a better grip on the bag as a brown vehicle drove past her.
Their investigation also revealed an interesting bit of information. Just two days prior, at about 10pm Wanda and her friend had been walking along the railroad tracks. They were chased by a man until he gave up and dove into some bushes. The man was a known sex offender.
When asked if she was aware of the incident, Wanda’s mother said she was.
Police did not find Wanda that night. It wasn’t until 10:15am the next morning when a police officer was doing a standard patrol along an access road to State Route 104 in Webster, approximately 15 miles from Rochester. He spotted something white, and when he investigated, found Wanda’s fully clothed body, discarded at the base of a hillside. She was laying face down in the snow, and based on the position of her body, looked like she had been thrown from a moving vehicle, her body landing and rolling down the embankment.
Wanda’s autopsy showed that she had been beaten and strangled from behind with a ligature – most likely a belt. She had been raped, and had several defensive wounds indicating she had fought back. Traces of semen and pubic hair were found on her body along with several strands of white cat fur. She did not have a cat.
Her stomach contents showed that within 2 hours of her death, she had eaten custard. Something she had not had at home or bought at the market, nor had the means to buy on her way home from the market.
Investigators established an anonymous telephone hotline for tips relating to her murder. A reward of $10,000 was also offered.
A tip came in informing investigators that he had observed Wanda standing alongside the passenger door of a large brown vehicle where she was talking with the driver. He couldn’t see who was in the vehicle, but noted that it was just 2/10 of a mile from Wanda’s home.
Another tip came in from a witness who claimed to have seen a man forcing a red-haired girl into a light-colored Dodge Dart on Conkey Avenue between 5:30pm and 6pm.
Although to many, the cases were too similar to not connect, police dismissed any suggestion of a link between Wanda and Carmen’s murders. Regardless, parents were concerned and stopped letting their children walk to school or play outside. With the coincidences of the girls’ names, Carmen Colón and Wanda Walkowicz, they were known as the Alphabet Murders.
M: Michelle Maenza in Macedon
Michelle Maenza was a sweet and innocent 10, almost 11-year old girl. She was a bit on the heavy side, which led to her being bullied regularly. As a result, she was shy and introverted. She had friends, but they were all younger, as they were not so quick to judge her.
Michelle was the middle of 5 children. She had two older brothers and two younger sisters. Her parents were divorced, and her brothers lived with her father, while she and her sisters remained with their mother.
Her mother was very protective of her girls. She was known to take them everywhere with her, and when it came to school, she would put the baby in a stroller and walk them to school, and then pick them up the same way after.
On the afternoon of November 26, 1973, Michelle’s mother was informed that Michelle would be staying after school. What she wasn’t told was that her daughter had been the victim of bullying that day, and as a result both she, and the other girl, were given detention.
Weighing her options, her mother decided that Michelle knew the way home and she was old enough to make the walk alone, this one time. After all, the next day was her birthday and she would be 11. She told the teacher to just have her walk home on her own.
At 3:15, when Michelle was allowed to go, she didn’t head straight for home. Instead she wanted to do something nice for her mom. Her mother had left her purse at a store in a shopping plaza close to her school. Her mother had been stressed about it, and she wanted to retrieve it for her. Her classmates reported seeing her at 3:20, walking toward the shopping plaza.
At about 5:30pm, a motorist witnessed a man parked along Route 350 in Walworth, holding a little girl by the wrist. He was sure the girl was Michelle. He stopped to offer assistance, but the man “grabbed the girl and pushed her behind his back.” He made it impossible to see his license plate and stared menacingly at the motorist until he drove away.
By that time, Michelle’s mother had already contacted the police. She knew Michelle had no reason to run away, and she knew her daughter would never get into the car of a stranger. In her heart, she knew her daughter was gone. She had a breakdown and ended up in the hospital.
As for the police, they once again began to search. They searched around the girls’ home, school, anywhere in the area they could think of. But Michelle wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Witnesses reported seeing a girl matching Michelle’s description with a Caucasian man in Penfield at approximately 4:30pm the day she disappeared. He had dark hair, was between the ages of 25 and 35, approximately 6ft tall, and weighed about 165 lb. The two were at a fast food restaurant.
Two days later, at 10:30am on November 28, Michelle’s fully clothed body was found lying face down in a ditch, alongside a rural road in Macedon – approximately 15 miles from Rochester. Her autopsy revealed that she had been beaten, including severe blunt force trauma to her body. She had been raped and strangled from behind with a ligature – this time they believed it was a thin rope.
They found several strands of white cat fur on her clothing and foliage within one of her clenched hands. Investigators retrieved a partial palm print from her neck as well as traces of semen from her body and underwear. Forensic analysis confirmed that she had been raped by a single individual.
Michelle’s stomach contents revealed that she had had a hamburger and onions approximately 1 hour before her murder.
Looking at the three cases, police weren’t convinced that all three were committed by the same individual. In the case of Carmen, she hadn’t been redressed, she hadn’t had food in her stomach, and she had been strangled manually from the front. Wanda and Michelle were redressed, both had had something to eat, and both had been strangled from behind with a tool.
Since witnesses were able to give a better description of the man seen with Michelle, police were able to create a composite drawing of their suspect. Anonymity as well as a reward was offered to anyone with information that would lead to an arrest, yet despite the numerous calls and tips they received, nothing led them to a credible suspect.
The few suspects they did have seemed credible, but they didn’t have enough to make an arrest.
Miguel Colón
Miguel Colón, Carmen’s uncle, was considered to be a strong suspect. In the weeks prior to her murder, he was known to have purchased a car that closely resembled the vehicle witnesses saw reversing on interstate 490 in pursuit of the girl. A search of his vehicle revealed that both the interior and exterior had been scrubbed clean with a strong cleaning solution.
The dealership the car was purchased from confirmed that it had not been cleaned with a detergent prior to its sale.
Also inside the car was a doll belonging to Carmen. This was easily explained away by relatives, who confirmed that she had frequently ridden in his car and could have easily left her toy there.
Interestingly, just two days after Carmen’s death, Miguel told a friend he would be leaving the country as he had “done something wrong in Rochester.” Two days later, he was in Puerto Rico. Ultimately, he surrendered to authorities on March 26, and agreed to be extradited back to Rochester for questioning.
He had no credible alibi, but in the end it didn’t matter. All police had was circumstantial evidence.
In 1991, Miguel Colón committed suicide following an incident of domestic violence in which he shot and wounded both his wife and his brother. He was 44.
Dennis Termini
Dennis Termini was a 25-year-old Rochester firefighter and serial rapist, known as the “Garage Rapist.” He is known to have committed at least fourteen rapes of teenage girls and young women between 1971 and 1973, during the same time as the Alphabet Murders.
Dennis also owned a beige vehicle similar in description to the vehicle seen by several eyewitnesses to the abductions. Additionally, he lived close to the area where Michelle had been last seen alive.
On January 1, 1974, five weeks after the death of the final victim of the Alphabet Murders, Termini attempted to abduct a teenage girl at gunpoint. The girl refused to stop screaming and he fled. He did succeed in abducting another girl shortly thereafter, but was pursued by police. The incident ended when Termini killed himself by shooting himself in the head.
The subsequent forensic examination of his vehicle revealed traces of white cat fur on the upholstery.
With the advancements in DNA technology, in January 2007, Termini’s body was exhumed to obtain a DNA sample for comparison with the semen samples recovered from Wanda’s body. The results of this test confirmed Termini was not responsible for her murder. However, semen samples retrieved from the bodies of Carmen and Michelle had been lost, so they could not be tested.
Kenneth Bianchi
Kenneth Bianchi and his cousin, Angelo Buono, Jr. Committed the Hillside Strangler murders of 10 girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 28 between 1977 and 1978. He was known to have worked as an ice cream vendor in Rochester and to have been in locations close to the first two murder scenes. In 1976, he left New York and moved to Los Angeles, California.
To date, he has vehemently denied any culpability in the Alphabet murders, including helping investigators to clear him of suspicion.
Joseph Naso
In April 2011, 77-year-old Joseph Naso was arrested in Reno, Nevada for the murders of four women in California between 1977 and 1994, all of whom are believed to have been prostitutes. In the case of these women, all of their surnames began with the same letter of their first name, just as the victims in the Alphabet Murders. Interestingly, Joseph, a New York native, lived in Rochester during the early 1970’s.
While he appears to be the perfect suspect, his DNA cleared him – at least in the case of Wanda Walkowicz. He has since been sentenced to death for the alphabet murders committed in California.
The Alphabet Murders
We still do not know who committed the Alphabet Murders, or if he even intentionally used the alphabet in his victim selection. With advancements in DNA technology, perhaps we will one day know who this monster is.
While you’re here, why not read the story of 3 girl scouts away at camp in Oklahoma. They too met a horrible fate.
