The Murder of Holly Piiraninen.
August 5, 1993.
While Holly Piiraninen lived in Grafton, Massachusetts, she was staying at her Grandparents' lakefront property on South shore Dr in Sturbridge, Ma in early August 1993.On August 5th, Holly, 10, had spent the morning with her father and two brothers on the lake. Returning to their South Shore Dr home sometime before noon. After changing her clothes, Holly and her brother Zack who was 5 walked down South Shore Dr towards Allen Rd to look at a littler of Collie Puppies. This was something they had done frequently while staying at their grandparents, This was around 11:45 am. Zack returned to the house on South Shore after being scared by a dog that barked at him.
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| The Intersection of Allen Road and South Shore Dr. The "farm" I believe is the property at 3 South Shore Dr. As it is the only property at that intersection. |
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| Street View of the intersection of South Shore and Allen Rd. Looking south. |
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| Street view of South Shore Dr from Allen Rd. Farm is to the right and used to have a wooden fence. |
Around the same time, a pair of Cousins who were staying at 66 Allen Rd began walking down to their mailbox. While almost to the mailbox, they saw a brown pickup with a cap slow from about 40 mph to a crawl and was "looking at their bodies."
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| The mailbox at 66 Allen Rd, and a general view of the direction in which the truck was traveling. The truck would be coming towards you in this picture. |
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| Street view looking up the driveway at 66 Allen Rd. |
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| Street view of Allen Rd looking north. 66 Allen Rd where the girls saw the man in the brown truck is on the right. Near the van in this picture is the intersection of South Shore and Allen Rd. |
The pair of girls at 66 Allen Rd went back up the driveway when they saw him get close. After waiting, they went back down to the mailbox a second time, only to find that the man had turned around, driven back by 66 Allen Rd going south, then turn around again and drove back by 66 Allen Rd going north for the second time. Causing the girls once again to run back up the driveway at 66 Allen Rd.
At this point, one of the girls went into the house and out of a second story window and saw the man had turned around again, possibly at South Shore Dr, and was now speeding past their house at 66 Allen drive again heading south, this time not looking for the girls.
When their father learned that Zack had returned to the house without Holly, he sent both brothers to the farm to bring her home for lunch. A witness that was driving by saw the brothers near the intersection, seeming to be looking around for something. Then they returned to the "camp" as they all called it and told their father that they had not been able to find Holly. Holly's father put them in his vehicle and began driving down south shore, and up and down Allen Rd looking for Holly, before calling police at 1pm.
According to The Boston Globe, 80 firefighters and members of law enforcement spent 9 hours looking for Holly on August 5th. The next day, over 500 volunteers searched for Holly, one of the largest searches to date. Holly's grandmother had even called "America's Most wanted" with John Walsh making a few short segment videos that were aired in New England within 72 hours of Holly going missing.
Holly found.
On October 23, 1993 Holly's body was found off of 5 Ridge Rd in Brimfield, Ma less than ten miles from where she was taken. Her body was found off of the Grand Trunk Trail.
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| Distance from where Holly went missing to where she was found. |
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| Parking lot for the Grand Trunk Trail as it appeared in 1993. |
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| Grand Trunk Trail parking lot as it appears now. |
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| Location where she was found. |
The discovery of the body seemed to bring up few clues into who took Holly and why. Over the next few years, the case went cold. That was until 2012 when law enforcement released a picture of David Pouliot. Saying that they had definitively linked David to items found at the crime scene in Brimfield, Ma. Since Pouliot had died in 2003, police reached out for the public's help if anyone knew where he went hunting and fishing in the area.
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| David Pouliot, |
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| Picture of Tank top released by law enforcement in 2023. |
In February 2023 police released this image of a tank top that was found near Holly's body in Brimfield, Ma. Again asking the public where this shirt might have been made or sold.
Source Material and Further Reading.
https://rss.com/podcasts/hollysbeentaken/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-journal-holly-piirainen-10-body-fo/127512398/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-berkshire-eagle/34839256/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe/81100205/
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