The horn blows. Then a puff of smoke. It’s 6 a.m. and already 84 degrees on Fordham Street. Officers, black faceless silhouettes in the early morning sun, line the pier, a dead end area off-limits to the public. They wait, pacing at the water’s edge. Then a rumble from behind. A white truck barrels through … Continue reading Do You Know John Doe? Giving Unidentified Murder Victims Back Their Names →

She’s the first picture you see when you walk in, a little girl not more than 4 years old with her classmates in Poland, the only girl in an all-boys school. “There I am, the little girl with a bunch of boys,” says Lillian Gewirtzman, now 75, smiling. “These schools were only for boys. It … Continue reading Holocaust Museum Remembers: It Didn’t Begin With the Killing →

Candlelight vigils and packed prayer services sprung up at neighborhood churches Friday evening to honor the 20 schoolchildren and six adults gunned down earlier that morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Conn. State Police Lt. Paul Lance said at an 8 p.m. news briefing that he was “cautiously optimistic” about positively identifying by Saturday the victims and … Continue reading Vigils, Shock in Connecticut After School Shooting →

There is a crude 2-foot-deep hole is carved into the earth at the end of a jagged downhill path of tangled brush just off the Long Island Expressway service road in Medford. The hum of rush-hour traffic can just about be heard through the thick of trees. It’s been five months since a young woman’s … Continue reading Lost Girls: When Women Disappear, Some Matter, Prostitutes Don’t →