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1997 Hedgehog Pond Murders - Leeann Millius and Kim Farrah
Disclaimer: this case had very little information and resources to go off of and those that were provided to the public make the timeline of events unclear so bare with me as i piece together this puzzle from 1997. .
Today’s case is another local one because you know how much we love them! So sit down and grab a hold of your espresso because this one's intense.
On Saturday, September 13th, 1997 a woman was out walking her dog at Hedgehog Pond Park in Salem NH around 6:45am. As this woman was out for her morning stroll she came across the bodies of two young women…. Why is it always someone walking their dog?! These bodies ended up being that of Leeann Millius and Kimberly Farrah. Leeann was 17 years old and a senior at Salem High School. Her body lay on the shore line at the pond’s edge. The body lay in perfect view of Route 38, a busy main road.
Kim was 18, almost 19 years old, as it was just shy of her birthday. Kim had just moved in with her dad in Salem NH two years ago. She used to live with her mom in Hampton NH only about a 15-20 minute drive north. Due to the overwhelming amount of make-up work she had to do because of the transfer, Kimberly decided to drop out. Kim’s body was’nt located near Leeann’s. Her body actually was found in a different section of the park; the wooden bath house. The bath house was only a little ways away from the shore where Leeann’s body was.
When police arrived on scene they searched endlessly through the park for any little clue, or evidence. When nothing turned up police began to question friends and acquaintances...
“They wouldn’t just pick up guys and go to Hedgehog. That wasn’t their style,” said Derek Gagne, 18, a student at Salem High.
One friend even recalled that on September 12th, a day before the body’s were found, Leeann walked into the pizza place where her friend worked and told her that she was afraid of a guy she called “Opie''. Leeann explained that he liked her but the feelings were not mutual and he wouldn’t leave her alone. Leeann’s mom, Mary Wallace, says he was paging her daughter nonstop in the weeks leading up to the murder.
The two friends were last seen around 1am at Leeann’s house in Salem NH. Autopsies were conducted 2 days after the girls were found. The autopsy reports conclude that Leeann’s neck was slashed, she had stab wounds to her torso, and her head had been smashed in by what was determined to be a picnic pavilion. She was fully clothed when she was found and had some bruises on her arms. There was no evidence of sexual assault. Kim’s report concluded that she was stabbed in the neck and in the chest repeatedly. Examiners determined that the girls died hours apart from one another.
A tip was called in and lead police to the murder weapon; a 5 inch stilleto knife that was found wrapped in a bloody shirt in an industrial park in Andover MA. The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester reported that Oxford MA police received a call on the morning of September 13th, from the owner of North Carpet Mills about an abandoned vehicle on his property. This abandoned vehicle ended up being Kim Farrah’s Blue Chevy. It appeared that someone attempted to set the car on fire, but failed. Found inside the vehicle was a wallet and a hat that belonged to Christopher Doucette. Christopher Doucette was 18 years old at the time of the murder. He was from Manton Michigan and living with grandparents in Lunenburg MA.
Police went to question Doucette only to find he wasn’t home. Doucette and 2 friends, James Grant, 20, of Fitchburg MA and Eric Jelinewski, 19, of Lunenburg MA were MIA. Turns out, the three men fled to Michigan. Can someone say “suspicious”?
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See you Spookies next Monday
Xoxo,
Kails