The Double Initial Murders

Even after 35 years, police and sheriff deputies in Rochester, NY still try to solve three murders that terrified and riveted all who lived in the area in the early 1970s. Police maintain a database with information about many suspects they identified through the years and use DNA evidence taken from suspects, a technology unavailable at the time of the killings.

People living in the city then still remember the dreadful and lurid details of the Double Initial Murders, sometimes called the Alphabet Murders, which took the lives of three innocent little girls. They can rattle off the details as if it happened yesterday.

Each child victim's first and last name started with the same initial and each body found in an area starting with the initial of the child. All people with daughters with double initial names held them a little closer and guarded them more diligently.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle recently ran a series in the paper and online hoping to jog the memory, or conscience, of someone who knew what happened. Rerunning the story sparked a number of new leads.

Rumors

Many people believed that the killer's name contained double initials and that he lived in an area starting with that initial. Clearly, he had a penchant for alliteration and in retrospect, seems to have suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Rumors flew that the killer picked the girls for their initials. "Come with me," he may have said. He picked girls with initials that symbolized come with me in that order. Carmen Colon came first, then Wanda Walkowicz, and finally Michelle Maenza.

It seems that, at the time, everyone knew the identity of the killer. "I know who did it," rang through the city. The speaker invariably named a cousin, uncle, brother, or that weird guy down the street.

The Democrat and Chronicle reported that police followed dozens of little double initial girls hoping to catch the killer trying to lure one into his car.

Carmen Colon

Carmen Colon went missing on Nov. 16, 1971, from the Bulls Head area of the city when she failed to return from a nearby store. A couple of days later, two boys saw Carmen's raped and strangled body in a ditch in Riga on the Chili border. .

At the time of the disappearance, many travelers saw a half-naked child running down Interstate 490 West while being followed by a car backing up. No one stopped to help the little girl, leaving many to wonder if they could have saved her and averted the other killings. If only one person stopped and asked the girl if the man in the car was a relative or if someone called the police with a license number, perhaps the string of killings would never have happened.

Some authorities suspected Carmen's uncle, Miguel Colon. His family said that Colon never admitted harming the child. In 1991, Colon shot himself to death when the police confronted him after he shot and wounded two relatives. No evidence ever came forth to prove his guilt and his family attributed the incident to the stress induced by the accusations and stand by his innocence.

Wanda Walkowicz

On a dark and rainy Monday, April 2, 1973, a 65-pound redhead named Wanda Walkowicz, age 11, disappeared from her Avenue D home in the city. She never returned after buying groceries for dinner at a nearby store. Police found her violated body at a rest area in Webster the following day.

Michelle Maenza

Six months later, someone took Michelle Maenza, age 11, from her Webster Crescent neighborhood. Her uncle saw her at Goodman Plaza shortly before she went missing and offered her a ride home but she refused. Someone discovered her body two days later in the town of Macedon in Wayne County.

A woman claimed that she saw Michelle in a car at a fast food place in Penfield. She said that a man came out with a bag of food. An autopsy showed that Michelle ate a hamburger before her death. Another witness saw a man with the same description changing a flat tire and offered to help but she rebuffed him. A girl who looked like Michelle sat in the vehicle.

From witness accounts, the police produced a composite of the man, which prompted many people to call with well meaning but useless information.

Similarities

Forensic psychiatrist David Barry told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle "similarities of the crimes convinced him then that the slayings had "to be the work of a serial killer."

Each girl came from a broken home, had learning disabilities, and was Roman Catholic. Each went missing in late afternoon after shopping at a store. Someone in a car kidnapped each child, sexually assaulted and strangled her. Police theorized that the killer masqueraded as an authority figure, perhaps even a priest, lending an aura of safety to the child. No witnesses to the killings ever came forth.

Conclusions

Police maintain a database with information about many suspects they identified through the years and use DNA evidence taken from suspects, a technology unavailable at the time of the killings.

Since the killings abruptly stopped, police should check other areas of the country to see if the crimes continued in another location as in the 1970s communications were not instant as they are today.

Some people wonder why it matters now who murdered children over 35 years ago. The families of these girls need to know, even if the perpetrator is deceased. If Miguel Colon was innocent, the family needs to know. The girls deserve justice. The public still demands answers. Most of all, by examining the history of the murderer, someone may come up with a way to prevent such terrors from occurring in the future.

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