Patricia Meleady "Trisha" Newsom (June 20, 1957 - c. August 11-12, 1975) was a young woman murdered in Connecticut in 1975. While unidentified, she was known as East Haven Jane Doe.
She was identified in 2023 with the help of Identifinders International.
Background[]
Trisha went to an unknown boarding school in Monticello, New York, but ran away with a friend around 1974 and headed to Maine. She might have been hitch-hiking, and it's unclear if she ever got to her destination.
Case[]
Newsom's unclothed body was found wrapped in a tarp in a drainage ditch behind a department store. She was tightly bound and gagged with antennae wire at the neck, waist and knees. Paint drops on the tarp have led investigators to believe that her killer may have had a connection with the painting trade.
Although she was dumped at the scene, investigators suspect the murder happened close by. An unspecified object at the scene and efforts taken to hide her body also led them to believe the killer was local. A man who committed a similar homicide in Maine is the suspect in her death and was in East Haven at the time, but police could not find enough evidence to charge him.
In June 2022, police were sent information about the woman's burial site, which is on the south side of the State Street cemetery in Hamden. The cemetery is very old and abandoned, with some graves dating to the 18th century. Poor record-keeping has impeded the investigation, and investigators have relied on a hand-drawn sketch of the cemetery. Upon excavating the gravesite, however, the remains were determined to be male. Police then used ground-penetrating radar to locate her metal casket, which they managed to locate by July 2.
Characteristics[]
- Hazel eyes.
- Brown hair.
- She may have had a mole under her chin.
- She may have had a rhinoplasty on her nose.
- She likely had braces at one time.
Gallery[]
