The Murder of Judith Whitney (New Hampshire)

There are cases that frustrate you because the evidence is thin. And then there are cases where the warning signs seem to be everywhere, but the system still can’t quite turn suspicion into action. A woman leaves home for a few quiet days away. Weeks later, police find her car in the woods and the man last seen with her is carrying her gun and giving away her personal belongings. Investigators see the pattern. Her family sees the danger. But seeing it and proving it are not the same thing. As the years pass, the same questions begin following the same man across state lines as he leaves more violence in his wake.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:33Kylie Low?

  There are cases that frustrate you because the evidence is thin. And then there are cases where the warning signs seem to be everywhere, but the system still can't quite turn suspicion into action. A woman leaves home for a few quiet days away. Weeks later, police find her car in the woods, and the man last seen with her is carrying her gun and giving away her personal belongings. Investigators see the pattern, her family sees the danger, but seeing it and proving it are not the same thing. As the years pass, the same questions begin to follow the same man across state lines as he leaves more violence in his wake.

• 1:19Kylie Low?

  I'm Kylie Low, and this is the case of Judith Whitney on Dark Down East.

• 1:34Kylie Low?

  In the first days of July 1987, 43-year-old Judith Whitney was preparing to spend some time away. She loved camping and was comfortable outdoors, so a few quiet days in New Hampshire wouldn't have seemed unusual to the people who knew her. Judith had plenty on her mind. According to Michael James's reporting for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, she and her husband, Warren Whitney, had separated and were in the process of divorcing. She had begun moving out of their shared home in Sunderland, Massachusetts, and into an apartment at Village Park in Amherst. Her brother, Joseph Gravlin, later recalled that Judith told him she needed some peace and quiet without anyone bothering her. She said she would be camping in New Hampshire with a friend named Ed

• 2:19Kylie Low?

  and would be missing an upcoming family gathering while she was away. At first, there was no obvious reason for her family to worry. Judith had left word that she would be away, and a camping trip fit both her interests and what was happening in her life. But a week passed without anyone hearing from her, then another. By the middle of July, the silence felt different. Judith hadn't returned to her apartment, she hadn't called Warren or her siblings. Warren found the lack of contact unusual, but he didn't know of any specific reason she might be in danger. He initially thought she was probably still camping, though even to him, it seemed like an especially long time to be away.

• 3:03Kylie Low?

  On Monday, July 20, Warren and Judith's brother reported her missing to the Amherst Police Department. Police issued an all-points bulletin to law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts and neighboring states. They were looking for Judith, but also the most tangible clue to where she might have gone: her 1980 Ford Mustang. And they didn't have to wait long for the car to surface. By noon that very same day, police in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, had located the Mustang in a wooded area. At first, the location seemed to support what Judith had told her family. She had planned to go camping, and now her car had been found near the woods. The Mustang was locked, and once police gained access,

• 3:47Kylie Low?

  they noticed two items were missing. One was a boombox stereo, and the other was Judith's 22-caliber handgun, which she was known to carry either in the car or on her person. Inside the Mustang, investigators did find a receipt dated July 1 for the purchase of 500 rounds of 22-caliber ammunition. About three miles away, police found Judith's tent. Again, the discovery fit with the camping trip she had described, but Judith wasn't at the car, and she wasn't at the tent. Those weren't the only pieces of her trail scattered across southwestern New Hampshire either. Days before Judith was reported missing,

• 4:29Kylie Low?

  employees at the Green Valley Motel had turned over a collection of abandoned belongings to police: a purse, clothing, and other personal items left behind in one of the rooms. Some of the property appeared to belong to Judith Whitney. At the time, it was simply property no one had returned to claim. Once the all-points bulletin went out with Judith's name and description, those belongings became evidence of where she had been before the trail went cold. Motel employees remembered Judith. More importantly, they remembered the man who had checked in with her.

• 5:06Kylie Low?

  Judith checked into the Green Valley Motel in Keene, New Hampshire on July 1. She paid cash and registered the room for two people. A bartender at the Green Valley Motel lounge remembered Judith with a man in the lounge on the night of July 1. The bartender saw them again around noon the next day, this time at a local bank. Records later showed that Judith withdrew $300 from an ATM that day. When motel staff checked the room on July 2, some of Judith's belongings were still there, including clothing and her purse, but she and the man seemed to be gone. The following morning, July 3, a member of the housekeeping staff saw the man behind the wheel of Judith's Mustang, but Judith wasn't with him.

• 5:52Kylie Low?

  The housekeeper watched the man throw something into the motel dumpster. When he spoke to her, he referred to Judith as his wife. He said she had gone to visit relatives who didn't like him, so he planned to visit some friends instead, and then he drove away in Judith's car. The housekeeper went to inspect the room the pair had rented. Neither bed appeared to have been slept in the previous night. Later that day, someone called the motel and identified himself as Mr. Whitney. The caller said that he and his wife had experienced car trouble the night before and hadn't used the room, but they still wanted to keep renting it because they had left clothing behind. But no one ever returned for the stuff.

• 6:35Kylie Low?

  On July 14, six days before Judith was reported missing, motel employees turned the abandoned property over to police. When the items were checked after Judith was reported missing, police again noted that her handgun and boombox were not among the items turned over by the motel. The account given by the man calling himself Mr. Whitney didn't fit with what the housekeeper had already seen. The man had driven away in the Mustang on July 3, and there had been no obvious car trouble. And the housekeeper didn't know this, but he also wasn't Judith's husband. Warren was back in Massachusetts. This guy was identified as Judith's friend who she told her brother about: Ed,

• 7:20Kylie Low?

  40-year-old Edward H. Mayrind Jr. Investigators learned that Judith and Edward had met through substance use treatment meetings sometime around June of 1987. Some later reporting indicated that Judith had written in her diary that she and Edward were boyfriend and girlfriend. What police still didn't know was where Edward had gone next. By the time the Mustang was found in Fitzwilliam on July 20, Edward was no longer at the motel. As it turns out, Edward shouldn't have been there in the first place.

• 7:56Kylie Low?

  As of late June 1987, Edward Mayrind had been staying at Hairston House, a residential recovery program at 25 Graves Street in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Hampshire County Sheriff's Office referred him there after his release in the spring of 1987. He'd been paroled from a maximum-security prison where he had served time for a rape conviction. Participation in alcohol treatment was a condition of his parole. On June 30, the facility gave Edward a two-day pass, but he never came back. That placed Edward outside the program and in violation of parole before Judith's family even knew she was missing.

• 8:38Kylie Low?

  A warrant was issued for him on July 22. For more than a month, Edward remained unaccounted for. Then, in early August, police received word that he was seen at the Forest Lake Campground in Winchester, New Hampshire. He was traveling with an unidentified woman in a vehicle that investigators traced to an apartment in Peterborough. On August 4, New Hampshire State Police went to the apartment and found Edward hiding in a closet, and he had a firearm in his possession. He was arrested for violating parole and possessing a firearm. As a convicted felon, he wasn't legally permitted to possess a firearm. But there was a second issue at hand: the 22-caliber pistol belonged to Judith Whitney.

• 9:27Kylie Low?

  With Edward Mayrind in custody, investigators could finally ask him directly if he knew what happened to Judith, and he seemed willing to talk. Edward confirmed that he had left Massachusetts with Judith in her Mustang, but claimed that the last time he saw her was around 10:00 PM on July 2nd. According to Edward, they had been drinking in the lounge at the Green Valley Motel when Judith got upset because he was dancing with other women. He said she began drinking heavily, left him at the bar, and wasn't in their room when he returned. Edward insisted he never saw her again. He told investigators that he spent the next day driving around in Judith's car looking for her. Edward acknowledged calling the motel

• 10:10Kylie Low?

  and asking employees to hold the room because they had left clothes there, but his account didn't include the car trouble he had mentioned to motel staff. Edward admitted that he continued driving Judith's Mustang for about a week before abandoning it on a back road in Fitzwilliam. He said he was afraid Judith would report him to his parole officer for stealing the car, so he left it behind and camped in a tent in the area. He said that at other points, he stayed with a woman he had met after Judith disappeared. Edward offered an explanation for why Judith's gun was in his possession. He said he took the 22 caliber pistol because he had considered dying by suicide if he was caught violating parole.

• 10:54Kylie Low?

  During questioning, Edward acknowledged that he never reported Judith missing or told anyone that she had disappeared, explaining that he was afraid he would be arrested for drinking and traveling without permission in violation of the conditions of his parole. Edward also admitted that he knew there was a warrant for his arrest. Edward was returned to Massachusetts, where he remained in custody to resume serving his sentence for the previous rape conviction. Richard Nadolsky reports for The Republican that the firearm possession charge in New Hampshire was dropped for the time being. Meanwhile, investigators located the woman Edward said he'd been staying with after he last saw Judith. Her name was Deirdre. Deirdre and her friend Sylvia told investigators

• 11:39Kylie Low?

  they met Edward in the Green Valley Motel lounge at around 11:00 PM on July 3rd, roughly a day after Edward claimed Judith had walked away from him. Deirdre said they stayed at the bar together until closing, and at one point during the night, Edward gave Deirdre a necklace. He told her he had kept it after divorcing his wife and that whenever he had a good time with someone he met, he liked to give her a token to show his appreciation. She said Edward invited her and Sylvia back to his room, but they turned him down. The following night, Deirdre saw Edward pull up outside her apartment in a brown Mustang. He told her he had come to Keene with a woman, but had, quote, "sent her packing", and he talked about wanting to open a nightclub in town.

• 12:24Kylie Low?

  Deirdre and Sylvia went to dinner with Edward that night, and he paid for the meal. Edward stayed with Deirdre for a few days before leaving on July 7th. He told her he was going to Northampton and would return shortly, but he didn't come back until July 16th. When he returned, he was no longer driving the Mustang. Edward told Deirdre the car had broken down and that a friend had given him a ride back to her apartment. Deirdre said Edward continued staying with her until July 29th. During that time, he visited friends at Forest Lake Campground, where investigators later picked up the trail that led to his arrest at her apartment. Deirdre said she never met Judith, and Edward never mentioned her name.

• 13:09Kylie Low?

  He had, however, brought some of Judith's belongings with him.

• 13:21Kylie Low?

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• 14:04Kylie Low?

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• 14:49Kylie Low?

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• 15:41Kylie Low?

  Deirdre turned over the necklace Edward gave her on the night they met, along with a boombox he had left in her apartment. Police asked Judith's family to identify the necklace, and they didn't recognize it, but the boombox was hers. Now, Deirdre's friend Sylvia told investigators that Edward had also given her something: a watch. She turned it over to police, and Judith's family identified it as Judith's. Sylvia also remembered Edward telling a very different story about the Mustang. She said he claimed the car had been damaged during a shootout with people who owed him money, so he got rid of it. That explanation didn't match what Edward told investigators. He said he had abandoned the Mustang

• 16:26Kylie Low?

  because he was afraid Judith would accuse him of stealing it. Investigators continued visiting Edward while he was incarcerated. During one interview, police showed him the necklace he had given Deirdre and the watch he had given Sylvia. Edward admitted that both items belonged to Judith. They also asked him to take a polygraph, but Edward became agitated and left the interview room. While investigators worked to retrace Edward's movements, the physical search for Judith continued across southwestern New Hampshire. Police searched a swamp in Fitzwilliam near where Judith's Mustang had been found at least three times, but they did not recover any physical evidence. The search area then expanded beyond the swamp.

• 17:11Kylie Low?

  Amherst Police and New Hampshire State Police searched wooded areas in both Fitzwilliam and Keene, including the area where Judith's tent had been found and the woods behind the Green Valley Motel. On the morning of August 10th, officers returned to the woods in Keene for both air and ground searches with trained search dogs. Still, there was no sign of Judith. At the same time, investigators were looking more closely at Edward's past for any clues. Amherst Police planned to compare notes with investigators in Gardner, Massachusetts, where Edward had once lived, to determine whether anything there might point them toward Judith or explain what happened after she left the motel. But as August wore on,

• 17:56Kylie Low?

  the searches produced nothing that brought police any closer to finding her. There were no new sightings, no physical evidence in the woods, and no reliable account of Judith's movements beyond Edward's claim that she had walked away from him after an argument. By late August, investigators were running out of places to look.

• 18:16Kylie Low?

  On Sunday, November 8th, 1987, a group of hunters entered the woods off Route 119 in Winchester, New Hampshire. At around 10:30 that morning, they found bones scattered on the ground. There was clothing and jewelry, too. Police responded to the location at the end of a dirt road surrounded by thick hemlock trees and found human remains in an advanced state of decomposition inside a shallow grave. Dental records later identified the remains as Judith Whitney. The location was about eight miles from where Judith's Mustang had been abandoned months earlier. In the same wooded area, investigators found a sweater with a large section torn away

• 18:58Kylie Low?

  and a rain jacket with its drawstring removed. The drawstring and the missing piece of sweater had each been tied into an open granny knot forming a loop. The knots contained strands of human hair. New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner Roger M. Fossom believed she had likely been dead since the first week of July, but because of the condition of her remains, he could not immediately determine whether her death was the result of homicide, natural causes, or something else. There was at least one cause that investigators could rule out, though. They determined that a gunshot wound was unlikely because the damage would have been apparent during the examination of her remains.

• 19:41Kylie Low?

  At first, investigators considered sending Judith's remains to forensic anthropologists at the Maine State Medical Examiner's Office for further examination, but ultimately, New Hampshire believed it would have been a lost cause given the state of decomposition. Instead, they submitted evidence to the FBI laboratory in Washington, DC, hoping the testing could establish Judith's manner of death. After further review and forensic testing, the medical examiner reached a conclusion, ruling that Judith died from asphyxia caused by ligature strangulation, likely with the pieces of her own clothing found at the scene. With that, her death was ruled a homicide.

• 20:23Kylie Low?

  After the discovery and identification of Judith's remains, a witness came forward. She told police that sometime in July or early August, she had been walking in the area with her stepdaughter when they heard a woman scream from the woods. They returned to their car and drove around, and they saw a man sitting alone inside a brown vehicle with Massachusetts license plates. According to the witness, the man raised a newspaper in front of the lower portion of his face and watched them closely as they passed. The witness couldn't identify the man. Too much of his face was covered. But the brown car loosely matched the description of Judith's Mustang, and previous witnesses

• 21:06Kylie Low?

  had already put Edward in that car after the last time Judith was seen alive. Edward Mayrind was the last known person with Judith. He admitted driving her car, carrying her gun, and giving away her belongings, but he offered shifting explanations for where she went and what happened afterward. And things only got more suspicious when it came to Edward. Police knew Judith had been strangled with pieces of her own clothing, and Judith was not the first woman in Edward's orbit to face a similar attack. By 1987, Edward already had a long history of instability, incarceration, and violence.

• 21:51Kylie Low?

  He had deserted the Army in 1967. Ten years later, in 1977, he was convicted of rape following an incident in Warwick, Massachusetts. During the assault, Edward had attempted to strangle the woman with her own scarf. She survived. He received a seven-and-a-half to 12-year prison sentence for that conviction. He was first paroled in May of 1983. On November 18th, 1983, 25-year-old Kathleen A. Denault was found dead in the woods in Gardner, Massachusetts. The night before, witnesses had seen her leaving the Mahaki Restaurant with Edward Mayrind. Her body was discovered near the restaurant and beside a furniture factory where Edward

• 22:36Kylie Low?

  had once worked before recently getting fired. Kathleen had been strangled with a piece of her own blouse tied into a simple knot and used as a ligature. Edward was questioned about Kathleen's murder. At first, he denied knowing her and denied being with any woman that night, but witnesses placed the two of them together so Edward changed his account. He then admitted having drinks with Kathleen, but claimed he left her at the bar and went home without having any physical contact with her. There wasn't enough evidence to bring charges against him for Kathleen's death, so Edward remained out on parole until about a month later when he was charged with breaking and entering. That charge sent him back to prison.

• 23:19Kylie Low?

  The investigation into Kathleen's murder eventually went dormant. Edward was paroled again in 1987, only weeks before he met Judith, and then Judith disappeared, later found dead from ligature strangulation. The similarities between the sexual assault in 1977, Kathleen's murder, and Judith's case were striking. The survivor reported that Edward attempted to strangle her with her own scarf. Kathleen had in fact been strangled with fabric taken from her blouse. Judith appeared to have been strangled with pieces removed from her sweater and rain jacket. So in all three cases, the ligature came from the victim's own clothing.

• 24:01Kylie Low?

  Judith's disappearance actually prompted investigators in Massachusetts to reopen Kathleen's case. Amherst Police and New Hampshire State Police began comparing what they knew about Edward's movements with the evidence surrounding Kathleen's death. Still, suspicion was not the same as proof. Edward denied killing Judith. He had already denied killing Kathleen. And although investigators could place him with both women shortly before their deaths, they did not yet have enough evidence to charge him in either case. By the fall of 1988, Edward was nearing the end of the sentence that had kept him in custody since shortly after Judith disappeared.

• 24:44Kylie Low?

  On October 4th, 1988, Edward Mayrind was released from Cedar Junction Prison in Walpole, Massachusetts after completing his sentence for the parole violation and the earlier rape conviction. He was not subject to any parole conditions restricting where he could live, where he could travel, or who he could spend time with. Edward could pretty much do whatever he wanted, but still, questions about his rehabilitation lingered. Edward Dolan, the Director of Research for the Massachusetts Parole Board, said to Roxanne Hubin for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, quote, "Some people are great inmates, but dangerous people," end quote.

• 25:25Kylie Low?

  Investigators in Judith's case still believed Edward was the only suspect. The evidence surrounding him was substantial, but much of it was circumstantial. What they could not do was place Edward at the site where Judith's body was found or produce a witness who had seen him kill her. The condition of Judith's remains had limited what forensic evidence could be recovered, and the hair caught in the knotted material found near her body could not yet provide investigators with the kind of identification that modern DNA testing might later offer. So despite everything police believed about Edward, the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office did not believe the evidence was strong enough to support a murder charge.

• 26:10Kylie Low?

  The Massachusetts Parole Board continued overseeing Edward's transition out of incarceration, even though he was no longer legally on parole. Officials said Edward was not under surveillance, and state law protected details about his life after release. But a little more than a year later, New Hampshire finally charged Edward with being a felon in possession of Judith's firearm. When detectives arrested him on that charge in November 1989, they again tried to question him about Judith's murder. Edward refused to speak with them. He later pleaded guilty to the firearm charge and received a sentence of two-and-a-half to five years in prison.

• 26:51Kylie Low?

  During that incarceration, two inmates separately claimed that Edward had talked about two people he had "done in." They said he described killing one woman in the Keene area and another in Massachusetts. The statements appeared to point toward Judith and Kathleen, but they lacked enough specific information to corroborate them or develop new evidence. Once again, investigators were left with accounts that deepened their suspicions but did not give them enough to bring murder charges. Edward was paroled on January 31st, 1992. He violated parole again and returned to prison in August 1993.

• 27:33Kylie Low?

  And on January 22nd, 1994, he was released from prison in New Hampshire and moved to Providence, Rhode Island. By then, Judith had been dead for more than six years. Kathleen's murder was still unsolved, and Edward had never faced a jury in either case. You are going to shout at your phone when I tell you this, but within a year of his release, another woman would disappear after leaving a bar with him.

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• 28:40Kylie Low?

  Every small town has a local legend. The house no one drives past after dark, or the woods that hold secrets. Every October, I like to add something a little more spooky to my playlist. Stories that blur the line between what's imagined and what might be waiting in the dark. Full Body Chills returns with more strange coincidences, unsettling confessions, and stories where danger may be closer than it seems. Listen to Full Body Chills all October long, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 29:18Kylie Low?

  According to Judith Kelleher's reporting for the Associated Press, on December 21, 1994, dismembered human remains were found inside garbage bags in a vacant house on the west side of Providence, Rhode Island. The victim was identified as 46-year-old Patricia Paquette, and her cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation. Where the evidence connecting Edward H. Mayrind Jr. to Judith's death had been largely circumstantial, the case surrounding Patricia's murder was different. Patricia was reported missing on December 10. She was last seen two days before that, on December 8, leaving the JNB Lounge with Edward Mayrind. Bill Dermody reports for The Republican that witnesses said Edward and Patricia

• 30:04Kylie Low?

  had been drinking together in the days before she disappeared. Police searched an apartment where Edward had been living and found clothing that belonged to Patricia, as well as her belt in a trash can behind the building. Investigators also found a knife and plastic bags in Edward's apartment, similar to those in Patricia's murder and dismemberment. The caretaker of Edward's apartment building told police that Edward abandoned the apartment on December 23, two days after Patricia's body was discovered. The caretaker also recalled that Edward had asked to borrow a saw a few days before the remains were found. He said he loaned Edward an 18-inch fine-toothed finishing saw, and Edward returned it two days later.

• 30:49Kylie Low?

  When the caretaker turned the saw over to investigators, testing determined that it was consistent with the marks found on Patricia's body. And not least of all the evidence, Edward's fingerprints were found on the bags containing Patricia's remains. Within about a week of the discovery, authorities issued a warrant for Edward's arrest. He had already left Providence, and investigators believed he could be somewhere in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. The FBI also issued a warrant charging him with unlawful fight to avoid prosecution. His photograph was broadcast on America's Most Wanted in February 1995. At 10:02 PM on Saturday, February 4, within minutes of a reenactment featuring Patricia's case on the show,

• 31:33Kylie Low?

  the New Haven Police Department received a call. Employees at the Emmanuel Baptist Shelter in New Haven, Connecticut, had been watching the program when they recognized the photo as one of the men staying there. Edward had apparently been living at the shelter for about a month. Police arrived and pulled 48-year-old Edward from his bed. According to shelter staff, Edward acted as though he had no idea anyone was looking for him. He was held on a $1 million bond while authorities prepared to return him to Rhode Island. Investigators in New Hampshire and Massachusetts immediately wanted to question Edward about Judith and Kathleen, but he refused to talk. Edward first entered a not guilty plea to first-degree murder,

• 32:15Kylie Low?

  but he later pleaded to second-degree murder in Patricia's case. He was sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison. After his conviction, New Hampshire State Police detectives made another attempt to speak with him about Judith. Once again, Edward said nothing. Edward's conviction for Patricia Paquette's murder ensured that he would remain in prison for many years, but it did not resolve what happened to Judith Whitney or Kathleen DeNault. For years, both investigations remained open without enough evidence to bring charges. Then, in 2010, the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit began working with Massachusetts State Police and the Worcester County District Attorney's Office

• 33:00Kylie Low?

  to take another look at the two cases. Investigators compared the evidence in Judith's murder with what had been collected in Kathleen's case. They also re-interviewed many of the original witnesses, some of whom still had clear memories of Edward, the women, and the days surrounding their deaths. Detectives again tried to speak with Edward in prison. As he had done every other time investigators asked about Judith or Kathleen, he refused. By June 2011, authorities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts were preparing a search warrant to obtain Edward's DNA. Around that same time, they learned that he had metastatic lung cancer, and his condition was deteriorating quickly.

• 33:43Kylie Low?

  They didn't have much time. Investigators collected a DNA sample from Edward Mayrind in June 2011. He died later that same month. The results of the DNA comparison did not come back until 2014. Unfortunately, in Judith's case, time had taken too much from the evidence. Judith's remains and clothing had been exposed to the elements for months before they were found, degrading any potential DNA profiles beyond the point where they could be conclusively compared to Edward's. That included the strands of hair caught in the knots found near Judith's body. Even if those hairs had been suitable for testing and matched Edward, though, investigators would still have needed to consider

• 34:28Kylie Low?

  whether there could have been an innocent explanation because he and Judith had shared a motel room. But Kathleen's case offered something different. Investigators tested the ligature used to strangle Kathleen, as well as her underwear. Edward's DNA profile was consistent with DNA found on both items, including three separate locations on the ligature. Edward had denied ever being with Kathleen outside the bar and denied having physical contact with her. With that, investigators could find no reasonable explanation for his DNA to be on her underwear or on the ligature used to kill her. The DNA evidence gave authorities the proof they never had while Edward was alive.

• 35:11Kylie Low?

  It directly connected him to Kathleen's murder, and it also reinforced the similarities investigators had recognized between her death and Judith's. Both women had been seen with Edward shortly before they disappeared. Both were found in wooded areas. Both had been strangled with pieces of their own clothing. In Judith's case, Edward had also driven her car, carried her gun, given away her belongings, and told conflicting stories about the last time he saw her. In December 2014, the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit announced its conclusion. Edward H. Mayrind Jr. murdered Judith Whitney. According to the unit's closure memorandum,

• 35:52Kylie Low?

  Edward was the only person with both the motive and opportunity to commit the murder. Investigators cited his possession of Judith's property, his shifting accounts of her disappearance, and the striking similarities between Judith's murder and Kathleen's. With that, Judith's and Kathleen's cases were both administratively closed. For the families, the announcement did not undo the years they had spent waiting or the fact that Edward died without ever being charged in either murder, but it gave official confirmation of what they had believed for decades. Kathleen's family released a statement that read in part,

• 36:33Kylie Low?

  "Our one solace is that Edward Mayrind passed away in prison alone, without loved ones around him to comfort him, just as he left Kathy to die alone." Judith's younger sister, Jeannie Gravlin, called the news "the greatest Christmas present the family could have received." She's quoted by Rebecca Everett in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, saying, "It's confirming what we already know. We knew in our hearts that he had taken her life, but it's comforting that it's come to an end." Judith's brother, Joseph Gravlin, was still left with anger over the years Edward had remained free and the lives that might have been spared. He told Diane Liederman for The Republican

• 37:17Kylie Low?

  that he felt the system had failed Judith. Joseph pointed to the circumstances under which Judith met Edward. Because they were connected through "an anonymous substance use treatment program", no one around her could disclose his violent criminal history or tell her that he was on parole. Joseph was also deeply disappointed that prosecutors had never taken Judith's case to a jury. He said, "If 12 intelligent, carbon-based life forms had looked at this, I think most people would be smart enough to convict the guy." For Judith's family, the answer in Judith's case came with another question that could not be resolved as neatly.

• 38:00Kylie Low?

  How many women might have been spared if Edward had been stopped sooner? For me, the question is, could there still be others?

• 38:11Kylie Low?

  New Hampshire officials said in 2014 that there were no other active cold cases in the state believed to be connected to him. Attorney General Benjamin Aggotti noted that Edward had left New Hampshire fairly quickly after his release from prison for possessing Judith's firearm. But that did not necessarily mean Judith, Kathleen, and Patricia were the only people he hurt or killed. After Edward's arrest, investigators in New Hampshire and Massachusetts began reviewing cases involving women who had left bars and were later found dead, looking for similarities to the crimes already associated with him. There was a clear pattern in the cases, they knew.

• 38:52Kylie Low?

  Edward met women in bars or taverns, gained their trust, and then turned violent. That behavior was evident as far back as the 1977 rape conviction. Across all four attacks, including the woman who survived, strangulation was central. In at least three of the cases, the ligature was an article of the victim's own clothing. There was also obvious escalation. Kathleen's body was left in the woods. Judith was killed and concealed in a shallow grave. Patricia was killed, dismembered, placed in garbage bags, and abandoned inside a vacant house. Based on what we know about Edward, he re-offended each time he was released from custody.

• 39:37Kylie Low?

  There is nothing in the available record that identifies another confirmed victim, but everything about his past suggests he had the propensity for more violence. Edward was known to drift between states, treatment programs, prisons, apartments, campgrounds, local bars and shelters. He met women casually, often in places where there may have been few lasting records of who was there or when. Behind the scenes, I've been diving into the hundreds of cases I've covered on Dark Down East and the many more that I've even considered covering, looking for possible similarities. I hope you'll do the same.

• 40:19Kylie Low?

  Think about the unsolved cases you know from across the Northeast, particularly from the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s. Women who were last seen leaving a bar or tavern. Women who disappeared after meeting a man casually. Victims who were strangled, especially with a scarf, blouse, jacket drawstring, or another piece of their own clothing. Bodies found in wooded areas, shallow graves, vacant buildings, or other secluded places. If a case comes to mind, and the circumstances or MO sound familiar to Kathleen, or Judith, or Patricia, consider contacting the law enforcement agency responsible for that investigation. You do not need to prove a connection.

• 41:04Kylie Low?

  You may only be pointing investigators toward a name or a pattern worth reviewing. Sometimes it takes an outside eye, seeing these cases from 30,000 feet, to notice what is harder to identify from inside one jurisdiction. That is especially true with cases from Edward's era, when the investigators who first handled them may have since retired decades ago, and the personnel assigned to those agencies may have turned over many times since. As of 1995, Edward H. Mayrind Jr. was 5'7" and weighed about 185 pounds. He had brown hair and several identifying tattoos. The names Sandy and Ed on his left wrist, a cross on his left bicep, a dagger on his

• 41:48Kylie Low?

  left forearm, and the initials S.A.I. on his right wrist. Over the years, he moved through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. He spent time in prisons, treatment programs, private apartments, campgrounds, and homeless shelters. He frequented local bars and taverns and was known to meet women there. Edward is dead, but if there are other cases connected to him, the people he harmed still deserve to be identified, and their families still deserve an answer. Judith Whitney was born in Louisville, Kentucky on March 10, 1944.

• 42:30Kylie Low?

  She attended Holy Trinity School and Greenfield High School and married Warren H. Whitney on December 30, 1960. She was a mother to three daughters and later a grandmother. Judith was also the oldest of six children, with 22 years between her and her youngest sister. After their mother died in 1971, Judith helped care for the youngest children in the family and became like another mother to them, too. For years, she managed Pioneer Sporting Goods in Northampton, where she sold firearms. Her family remembered her as bright, resilient, outgoing, and engaged with the people around her. She loved camping and being outdoors. The woods offered Judith the peace and quiet she sometimes needed.

• 43:15Kylie Low?

  And in New England, there is no shortage of places to find it. Beneath tall pines, beside a lake, or along a trail far enough from the noise of everyday life. So when you find yourself in one of those places, take a moment to notice the stillness Judith appreciated. Let the trees, water, and open air remind you of her. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram, @darkdowneast.

• 43:59Kylie Low?

  This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Low, and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and AudioChuck. I think Chuck would approve.

• 44:26Speaker 02

  If anyone wanted to commit a murder, up here would be the greatest place in the world to hide the body. But no one will find it.

• 44:41Speaker 03

  He acted friendly. He talked friendly. He sounded friendly.

• 44:44Speaker 04

  They all knew that I did the scary boogie stuff, and they said, maybe she'll find out where this girl is.

• 44:51Speaker 05

  I saw him violent. Backhanded her. Pow!

• 44:58Speaker 06

  Listen to The Devil's Quarry, Season 2, in the Bone Valley feed, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.