EAST HAVEN, Conn — A Connecticut cold case is heating up.
A family believes they are closer than ever to finding out who killed a former Jane Doe. FOX61 has been covering the story since the woman’s remains were dug up in a defunct Connecticut cemetery in 2022.
Patricia Meleady Newsom is her name. Advancements in DNA technology led to this Jane Doe getting back her real name and led to a family in Tennessee getting back their loved one’s remains. We still don’t know who killed Patricia, but her sister says she has a strong gut feeling.
“Forty-seven years is a long long time,” said Patricia’s sister, Maryann Newsom Collette.
It took 47 years for Patricia’s Newsom’s remains to be identified. Now, approaching the 50th anniversary of her killing, could we be closer than ever to cracking the case?
RELATED: East Haven Police exhume body of Patricia Newsom, victim of Jane Doe homicide, for cremation
“I can’t find anything to exclude this particular person,” said Collette.
That person is Richard Cottingham - a notorious American serial killer dubbed ‘"The torso killer". He was convicted of 16 murders across New England in the 1970’s.
“Richard Cottingham killed who he wanted, when he wanted,” said a prosecutor.
Beyond his convictions, Cottingham has also confessed to nearly 100 killings.
Patricia Newsom was killed in 1975. Her body was found bound, gagged and floating in a shallow drainage ditch along Frontage Road in East Haven.
“She was found fairly easily,” remarked Collette. “A trucker found her looking out the cab of his truck. Richard Cottingham has said that he would leave his victims where they would be found.”
Patricia’s sister, Maryann, lives in Tennessee and runs a Facebook group devoted to collecting clues. She’s so convinced Cottingham is her sister’s killer she wrote him a plainly stated matter of fact letter saying, “I think you may have killed her. The last time I saw her I was nine. I never stopped looking.”
“This man is smart. Okay? I want him to let me know. I want him to reply,” explained Collette.
Cottingham, now 77, is in poor health and living out his remaining days in a cell in New Jersey.
“I don’t know if you can see what my shirt says, but it says everything. It says 'Hope.' You just hope. Someday, I will have a picture of my sister standing next to somebody smiling, and that’s what I want at the end of this,” remarked Collette.
Patricia Newsom was a Catholic school girl. That’s the type of victim Cottingham often targeted.
Maryann wants to remind everyone that you may be able to help a family find closure to a cold case by uploading your DNA sample from sites like Ancestry or 23 and Me to an online database called GED match.
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Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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