New Bedford Highway Killer

In May 1989, Anthony DeGrazia, a 26 year old construction workers picture was presented to a locally known New Bedford sex worker in the Weld Square area of New Bedford Massachusetts. Loraine Forrester, was a 26 year old detective hired to work for the State Police, was assigned to the murder investigation team through the Bristol County District Attorney's office. One of the sex workers by the name of Margret Medeiros was shown a picture of DeGrazia. Medeiros describes her assailant as having a boxer like build with a flat nose, however, she never identifies DeGrazia as a positive suspect, only stating to the detective that he looked like the man who tried to choke her. Medeiros 22 years old then, was brought before a secret grand jury to testify about her attacker. She states to the grand jury that DeGrazia looked like the man who attacked her and tried to choke her. DeGrazia was later picked up for questioning and brought before the secret grand jury but was never indicted. Later, the District Attorney Ronald Pina asks the court judge for a warrant for DeGrazia's arrest accusing him of allegedly 17 attempted rapes and assaults on several other sex workers in the Weld Street area. After DeGrazia was notified about the warrant for his arrest, he and his Defense Attorney, Edward Harrington Esq. of New Bedford (no relation to the presiding Judge on the case) surrenders to the courts. DeGrazia was then arrested, and formally charged with these allegations of 17 rapes and assaults. The Judge presiding over the case, (Judge, Edward Harrington) sets DeGrazia's bail at $180,000.00 dollars and a one million dollar surety bond. DeGrazia not being able to reach this bail would spend the next 13 months in the county jail on these allegations brought against him by the District Attorney Ronald Pina. DeGrazia would have 18 court appearances during his 13 months of incarceration in the county jail. DeGrazia's Defense Attorney filed 18 motions before the court for the production documents of evidence including a request for a bail reduction because of the lack of evidence being produced against DeGrazia by the District Attorney's office. Each motion was continually denied by the presiding Judge. Finally DeGrazia fired Harrington and hired a Boston Attorney by the name of Robert A. George Esq. Attorney George filed a contempt on the District Attorney's office for non production of evidence and the Judge had no choice but to lower DeGrazia's bail. DeGrazia was finally released from jail on June 27, 1990. Immediately after DeGrazia was released on bail he was rearrested for allegedly uttering threats to the DA Ronald Pina for wrongful prosecution and imprisonment. DeGrazia again posted bond, and was re released. DeGrazia was later found dead one month after his release on July 17, 1990. DeGrazia's body was found at his ex-girlfriend's parents house in Freetown MA. He was found lying face down under a picnic table in their back yard. His death was ruled a homicide by Freetown Police who first arrived on the scene. However, the District Attorney's Office later ruled his death a suicide. The autopsy report does not support this decision made by the district Attorney's office. The autopsy report rules DeGrazia's death a homicide. DeGrazia's death comes immediately after a Special Prosecutor releases Kenneth Ponte as the prime suspect in the serial murder investigation. Authorities are quick to state in a public broadcast that it was a timely thing that DeGrazia took his own life after being made aware that he was now being considered the number one prime suspect in connection to the New Bedford highway serial murders. Later this statement made against DeGrazia by the states Special Prosecutor Paul Buckley was retracted by the D.A's office. The family of DeGrazia believes Anthony DeGrazia was murdered. DeGrazia's mother files a federal lawsuit against the District Attorney's office naming Ronald Pina reference; https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-1st-circuit/1104350.html No evidence was ever found linking Anthony DeGrazia to any of the 17 rapes or assaults he was charged with by the District Attorney Ronald Pina. Also, there has never been any evidences produced by the District Attorney's office connecting Anthony DeGrazia to any of the unsolved highway serial murders of New Bedford Massachusetts.

In August 1990, a grand jury indicted New Bedford attorney Kenneth Ponte, 40, in the murder of Rochelle Clifford Dopierala, who had been beaten to death. Ponte had a checkered past, including drug use and a prior incident involving Dopierala. Bristol County District Attorney Ronald Pina suggested that Ponte had murdered Dopierala because she was allegedly planning to expose his drug activities.

Dopierala's mother stated that her daughter had once given her telephone number to Ponte in the event she needed to be reached. Ponte admitted to having represented Dopierala in April 1988, shortly before she disappeared, when she accused another man of raping her.

Ponte moved to Port Richey, Florida, in September 1988. He was arraigned on a single count of murder on August 17, 1990. Ponte entered a plea of "absolutely not guilty" and posted a $50,000 bond. On July 29, 1991, the district attorney dropped murder charges against Ponte, citing lack of evidence. The following year, remaining drug and assault charges were dropped and the New Bedford case went cold.

Ponte resurfaced in the news in May 2009 in two separate incidents. Police dug up the driveway and patio of Ponte's former New Bedford home with a backhoe, but were unable to find evidence linking Ponte to any crime.[3] On the morning of May 15, Ponte was arrested for shoplifting and was found with four cans of sardines and a block of cheese stolen from a PriceRite store in New Bedford. On January 27, 2010, Ponte was found dead in his New Bedford home. The Bristol County District Attorney's office has discounted foul play as a cause of death.[4]

While in prison for the murder of his mother, Daniel Thomas Tavares Junior sent a threatening letter to one of the prison staff indirectly claiming responsibility for the Highway Killings. He lived in New Bedford, and had knowledge of where another murdered woman, Gayle Botelho, had been buried, within a mile from his home. He was convicted of two recent killings, those of Brian and Bev Muack.[5][6] Additionally, he was convicted in 2015 of the murder of Gayle Botelho, who went missing in 1988, later found to have been under a tree in his backyard.[7]

Between 1992 and 1993, three sex workers were slain and disemboweled with an instrument that was not a knife in Lisbon, Portugal, by an unknown serial killer that was dubbed the Lisbon Ripper, while two further sex workers were shot dead on the opposite shore of the Tagus river in the same time period.[8] In March 1993, two detectives of the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria traveled to New Bedford to gather information on the Highway killings, while two agents of the FBI traveled to Lisbon,[9] following a hypothesis that the string of crimes on both sides of the Atlantic could have been committed by the same individual. New Bedford has a sizable Portuguese community and many of the Highway victims were of Portuguese ancestry.[10] The Lisbon murders were also linked to four similar killings that took place in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and the Czech Republic (all countries bordering Germany) between 1993 and 1997, the theory being that the Lisbon Ripper had then become a long-haul truck driver.[11]

In 2011, a 21-year-old man named Joel applied to participate in the Portuguese edition of the reality show Secret Story, where participants try to guess each other's secrets while concealing their own. The secret he applied with was that his father, José Pedro Guedes, was the Lisbon Ripper. Guedes, 46, was arrested and confessed to the three slayings, but could not be prosecuted because murder has a prescription period of 15 years in Portugal and the last murder's had ended in 2008. Guedes could still be prosecuted for the 2000 murder of a prostitute in Aveiro, Portugal and similar murders in Germany (or neighboring countries) where Guedes resided in the 1990s.[12] It is unknown however, if Guedes ever resided in the United States. Guedes was tried for the Aveiro murder in 2013, found not proven due to lack of evidence.