Portsmouth Police Getting Closer to Solving Cold Cases

Portsmouth Police Detective Aaron Goodwin is the lead investigator on the homicide case of Stella Bolton and James Moore, two people who were murdered in their home more than 20 years ago.

Goodwin has been working on this cold case for quite some time, and the more he has learned about the kind, giving nature of these victims from the friends and family members who knew them, the more he wants to solve it.

"I have a picture of J.J. and Stella on my desk," Goodwin said Wednesday during a telephone interview. "Over time it becomes more than just a case where it gets inside of you and you want to solve it."

Goodwin said police are getting closer to solving the case thanks to some new leads and additional information that has been developed.

The elderly couple were found stabbed to death inside their home on 74 Rockhill Ave. Their home was also set on fire, according to police. The fire was discovered at 1:30 a.m. that day.

"We do believe the murders were perpetrated by locals," Goodwin said. "I don't know what they wanted to take, but if they would have just asked, J.J. and Stella would have just given it to them."

Goodwin said investigators marked the 20-year anniversary of the murders by inviting the media to go to their old neighborhood, which is located in Osprey Landing on what is now Blue Heron Lane.

Goodwin said all of the homes that made up the former close-knit, working class neighborhood were mostly torn down to make way for condominiums and other residential development. But he said there are still some people who remember Moore and Bolton well and want to see police bring those responsible to justice.

Friends of the slain couple also set up an anonymous Facebook page where people can post comments and share information that could help police solve the case. The Facebook page has 528 friends.

"We are JJ Moore and Stella Bolton. We were kind, generous, loving people who loved our neighborhood and the people living around us.
We were stabbed to death in our home in Portsmouth, NH in 1991. Our home was then burnt down with our bodies inside. We know people have information about our murders and have not come forward. We will never rest in peace until our case is solved. Please, if you know anything, come forward and be heard," reads the basic information of the Facebook page.

The Bolton and Moore homicides are two of the city's seven unsolved cold cases. Portsmouth Police and the Attorney General's Office continue to investigate all of the cases, which go back 30 years.

Advances in forensic technology and police work could one day solve them.

Wil Delker, head of the Attorney General's Office Cold Case Unit in Concord, said multiple homicides are not necessarily harder to solve than individual murders. He said if those homicides were committed by more than one suspect, sometimes that can aid investigators.

"They are all certainly important cases. We've actually been working closely with Portsmouth Police on them," Delker said.

The Attorney General's Office formed the Cold Case unit in 2009 to help solve the state's 109 homicides. It is staffed with two full time State Police detectives and a part-time detective through the Attorney General's Office. Delker believes advances in forensic DNA technology the legal authority to collect DNA samples from the state's prison population could make a difference.

He explained the state Legislature passed a law in 2010 to allow police to collect DNA from all convicted felons in New Hampshire. These samples are placed into the State Police DNA database and cross matched with DNA samples collected from the victims, Delker said.

Often, the murder suspects are already incarcerated in different prisons either in the state or across the country and many unsolved cold cases nationwide are being solved using this technology, Delker said.

Delker said the emergence and widespread use of social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook also help authorities engage the public's help when it comes to solving these cases. He said the Internet' ability to carry news and photos seeking information about the whereabouts of suspects continues to aid their capture.

He said the James "Whitey" Bulger case is a good example. A woman who lived in the same condominium complex as Bulger in California saw a report online about how authorities were still seeking the Boston gangster and she contacted authorities.

Portsmouth Police are currently offering a $20,000 reward for any information that could lead to the arrest of the murder suspects of the city's seven unsolved homicides. They also encourage members of the public to utilize the Seacoast Crimeline to anonymous report information that can help police.

As a result of the new forensic technology, the power of the Internet and social media and the determination of state and local law enforcement agencies to bring the murderers to justice, Delker is optimistic progress will be made.

"Our hope is that we will be able to solve a lot of these cases," he said.

Here are the other five unsolved homicides in Portsmouth:

• Laura Kempton, 23. Her body was found inside her apartment on 20 Chapel St. on Sept. 28, 1981 at 9:30 a.m. An autopsy conducted by the State Medical Examiner determined Portsmouth Beauty School student died from blunt trauma to the head.

• Tammy Little, 20. Her body was found on Oct. 19, 1982 inside her apartment at 315 Maplewood Ave. Little, who was also a student at the Portsmouth Beauty School, died as result of massive blunt trauma, according to the State Medical Examiner's autopsy.

• Terry Giles, 24, Joseph Poulin, 29, and Linda Plummer, 39. Their bodies were found inside their apartment house on 314 Islington St. on Oct. 11, 1986. Plummer died from her burn-related injuries on March 30, 1987 in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The Portsmouth Fire Department and State Fire Marshall's office determined the fire was arson.

(Portsmouth Police encourage anyone who has any information about these unsolved homicides to contact the Portsmouth Crime Stoppers hotline at (603) 431-1199, or Portsmouth Police Detectives (603) 436-2511. If anyone has any information about the Stella Bolton and James Moore homicides, they can contact Portsmouth Police Det. Aaron Goodwin directly at (603) 610-7627.)

For stories on cold cases in other New Hampshire Patch communities, click on the links below: