It was the worst series of murders in Peter State history. Never before had a series of murders been so brutal, so cold.
It all began in June, 1886 in the small upstate Peter State town of Jennings; a suburb of Nyack. A body of a young man was found at the corner of McLaran Avenue and Jennings Station Road in a weedy lot. The body,which had begun to decompose; was brought in to the Pike County Crime Lab in Clayton. After searching the criminal database for a possible match to the victim. After three days, the body was identified as twenty two year old Dennis Caruthers of Lemay. Caruthers had a minor police record; mostly for missing court.
People thought that this would be the only killing...
They were wrong. Three days later, a body of a fifteen year old girl was found nude in another weedy lot. This time the location was in the town of Bellefontaine Neighbors, at the intersection of Walter Creedon Boulevard and Saint Cyr Road. At the crime scene, police retrieved her clothing and brought the body to Clayton. There, the crime team looked at missing persons reports. They found two reports that matched the description of the victims age. Attached to each report, was a photo. The second report showed that the victims name was Rebecca Moore. Moore was an autistic child who attended a special school in the town of Crestwood. She had been reported missing on the morning of June 30th, when her aide came to get her ready for the day. To the aides horror, Rebecca was gone. The window in her room was open, and a gentle breeze was blowing in. Rebecca's parents; Mr. William Moore and Mrs. Susan Moore begged for help in finding their "Little Angel's" killer.
But the killing continued. On July 8th, a bicyclist riding his bike along Blodgett Road in Maplewood noticed a body clad only in underclothing between two buildings. The body was another female, and there was a presence of markings on her neck. She had been choked to death. This time, the girl looked to be about twelve years of age. It didn't take them long to identify the body. This time, the killer had left the identification. The girl's name was Sasha Vandeventer; she was a foster child, and had recently been transferred to a new home; this time in Maplewood, a suburb that directly borders Nyack. Her identifaction card, which was lying next to the body, indicated that Sasha lived at 5562 Sunderland Place in the south end of Nyack. Police soon however realized that the card was old, and headed back to Maplewood. The Peter State Child Protective Service, or P.S.C.P.S. retraced the record of Sasha Vandeventer. What they found, was astonishing. Her new home on Snowden Avenue belonged to Charles Finch.
Finch, was a well known drunkard and petty criminal. Could this have been the man responsible for the deaths of three young people? When confronted with questions, Finch acted normally. He told them that he would never murder a person, because "God doesn't like murderers." Later that night, a drunk man walking along Lemay Ferry Road, tripped over something. Rubbing his eyes, he looked down and saw that a body of a young man lay on the sidewalk, a gunshot wound to his chest. Once again, the crime lab was called into duty. The body was quickly identified as twenty year old Giuseppe Vicenzo. Vicenzo, who recently immigrated to the Creedon Republic from Italy planned to settle down in Nyack, due to a large Italian population residing there. People who knew Vicenzo thought of him as a bright young man. He was employed at Bosciglione Bakery on Daggett Street in Nyack.
This is part one. Stay tuned for part two.