Slaying Suspect Eyed In Unsolved Brockton Cases

BROCKTON, MA -- Police investigators are expected to ask for DNA samples from Louis D. Coleman III, the man charged with kidnapping and mutilating a body in connection with the death of 23-year-old Jassy Correia. Coleman resembles a man depicted in a composite sketch made from DNA collected at the scene of two 2014 Plymouth County murders that remain unsolved.

Tying Coleman to the murders appears to be a long shot, but a police source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case said Brockton Police detectives were described as "pretty happy" about the potential break.

Other officials declined to discuss possible links between Coleman and the Brockton cases.

"State Police detectives assigned to our office continue to investigate the unsolved murders of two women and three violent rapes in Brockton from 2013 and 2014," said Plymouth County District Attorney's office spokesperson Beth Stone. "The arrest of a Louis D. Coleman III in Delaware has generated several calls to our State Police unit. As with all unsolved cases, State Police will continue to follow up and investigate."

Related Story: Coleman Charged In Kidnapping, Death Of Jassy Correia

Beginning in October 2013, a man picked up three prostitutes in Brockton and drove them to a remote spot. He then raped and beat them and left them for dead on the side of area roadways. All three women survived after being spotted by passing drivers.

DNA collected in those three cases linked the man to murders of Ashley Mylett, 20, and Linda Schufeldt, 51. The bodies of those women were found in Dec. 2014 in a wooded area near the Veterans of Foreign War Post 1046 in Brockton. Two years ago the Plymouth County District Attorney's office released a composite sketch of the suspect that had been generated from DNA collected in the cases.

"This guy’s a bad guy, and he’s out there taking people off the streets. He needs to be somebody that we take off the street, and put him behind bars," Plymouth County DA Timothy Cruz said when the sketch, which used a new technology to make a composite sketch of what the man may look like, was released at a March 2017 press conference. "That’s where he belongs."

That sketch came after an earlier sketch released in 2015 and based on a description given by one of the rape victims. The woman described him as being in his 20s, six-feet tall and 180 pounds. He may have been driving a dark blue or black sports car.

Schufeldt was living in Quincy when she was reported missing in the summer of 2014. The Navy veteran and mother of five boarded a bus in Wyoming headed back to Massachusetts after visiting family in Casper. When she did not return home as scheduled, her family reported her missing.

Less is known about Mylett, who lived in Brockton. In 2015 a friend described her in a Boston Globe interview as someone who "had her demons" but was trying to make a better life for herself.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).