Case Profiles #97
Chelsea Jane Doe
On November 13th, 2000, Chelsea, Massachusetts police arrived at the Chelsea Soldier’s Home after responding to reports of remains left behind the building in a parking lot under a blanket. The remains belonged to a young woman, but she was missing her hands, feet and her head. She was naked and her chest was cut open to reveal that her heart was also missing. Police eventually found a man named Eugene McCollom who admitted to bringing the young woman back to his small room he was staying in at the YMCA in Lynn, Massachusetts. The room was 13 by 10 feet and he rented it for $85 a week. He reported that the girl was a sex worker in Boston’s Theater District, and once back in his room, they had an argument over money. After claiming self defense and saying the girl had tried getting a knife to use against him, he admitted that he fatally strangled her. He then admitted to cutting off her hands, feet and head and disposing of her body in pieces.
Her hands, feet and head were found four years later in plastic containers buried in the sand at Nahant Beach. Eugene was convicted for the girl’s murder as well as the murder of another man from Boston that he had also beheaded. Despite the discovery of the rest of the girl’s remains, the state of them made it difficult to make a positive identification. Given the fact that the girl was a sex worker and seemed to be in her late teens to early to mid twenties, investigators suspected that she was formerly in foster care and had run away or was a victim of sex trafficking. Eugene had told police that he thought the girl’s name was Lisa and that she was from Philadelphia, but this was all that was known about her and it was impossible to determine whether this was accurate information. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children made a reconstruction of the girl’s face to hopefully lead to an identification. After 26 years, in early June of 2026, the girl was finally identified. The FBI used investigative generic genealogy and through this located the brother of the girl who they identified as 16-year-old Tiffany Bradley of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Tiffany was reported missing by her family in Pennsylvania on November 8th and police believe she was a victim of human trafficking. She arrived in Boston shortly after her family reported her missing and this was around the time she was picked up by Eugene and then murdered on November 13th, just days before her seventeenth birthday. Her aunt, Janet Bradley-Knight, described Tiffany as an athletic “girly girl” who loved dancing and drawing as well as bossing her three older brothers around. Another relative, Shakirah Wiggins, said that Tiffany was a “tiny but mighty” child who had a “radiant smile.” Tiffany played basketball and had joined ROTC in high school. Shakirah said that the family looked for her for years and thought that she must have been taken out of the country. She described finally having answers in Tiffany’s disappearance as “bittersweet.”
Ricardo Rivera
On October 21st, 2015, police were alerted to shots fired in the area of 7 Cherry Street in Hartford, Connecticut. When police arrived, just after 10:15 p.m., they discovered a man lying near the entrance of a home. It was 19-year-old Ricardo Rivera, and he had been shot in the head. Miraculously, Ricardo was still alive when police arrived on the scene, and he was rushed to a nearby hospital where every life-saving measure was performed. Ricardo was placed on life support and unfortunately died from his injuries the following day. There was another man who was shot three times and survived after having been taken to the hospital by way of a private vehicle.
Whoever called 911 to report the shooting that killed Ricardo claimed that they saw a silver Acura speed away from the scene with three males inside. Despite this description, and with little physical evidence taken from the scene, there have been no developments in Ricardo’s case. Local police lieutenant Paul Cicero believes that just one witness with some decent information about that night could put the investigation over the crest and help solve Ricardo’s murder. There is currently a $50,000 reward available for any information that could lead to the arrest of a suspect in this case. Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Hartford police Major Crimes Division Lt. Paul Cicero at 860-757-4179 or the anonymous tips line at 860-722-8477.
Image sources:
cbsnews.com - “Victim cut in half in ‘horrifying’ Massachusetts murder 26 years ago finally identified”
ctinsider.com - “Hartford police: $25,000 reward for info about 2015 killing”