Now that authorities had unfortunately located Molly, the question still remained: Who is responsible for this heinous act? The FBI created a profile of the man responsible for Molly’s abduction and murder. They believed the perpetrator was a white man, between the ages of 18-50, known to the area, is either a fisherman or hunter and has a history of violence with women.
Many men have been looked into by authorities in connection with Molly’s abduction and murder; the initial suspect, Oscar Baillargeon, is a level 2 sex offender from Chicopee, MA.
However, only three men have been extensively investigated as suspects. Their names are: Frank Sumner, Gerald Battistoni and Rodney Stanger. All three of these men had connections to the Warren area, resembled the composite sketch of the mustached man in the white car AND all three had a history of violent sexual behavior. As of today, two of these three men are deceased.
Frank Sumner is the only suspect labeled as a person of interest in the case.
In 2021, the DA said they had new info linking Sumner to Molly’s case. Sumner was a sex offender from Spencer, MA, which is only about 25 miles from Warren. He owned several auto repair shops, and had a habit of taking his customers’ cars out for drives, so he certainly had access to a white car. He was a smoker, who held his cigarettes the same ‘afeminite’ way as the mustached man in the composite sketch. Sumner was convicted of the aggravated rape and kidnapping of a 21 year old woman in 1981. She brought her car to his auto shop for repair, and once done, he lured her to a nearby apartment he had for rent. She claims she agreed to see the apartment for a friend, and Sumner had offered to pay her to clean it before it was rented. Once there, he locked her in a room and threatened her by saying ‘give it to me or I’ll kill you.’ Sumner was released on parole in 1998. He died of natural causes in 2016, and was cremated.
Gerald Battastoni was a target of private investigator Dan Malley’s in 2011.
Dan was hired to work on a child custody case involving Battastoni. In the course of his investigation, Dan found out that Battastoni had violated a young girl, the daughter of his girlfriend at the time, at least 100 times over a period of about a year in the early 1990s, when she was just 13 years old. The victim lived with her mother near Comins Pond in Warren. Battastoni was charged and convicted of four counts of rape and abuse of a child, and sentenced to 10-12 years in prison in August of 2011.
There were many odd things that seemed to connect Battastoni to Molly’s case, as well as the disappearance and murder of another girl, Holly Piirainen. For example, an ex girlfriend told authorities that Battastoni, a drug addict, used Whiskey Hill as a cut through when meeting his dealer, which would mean he was familiar with the area, and comfortable walking through without being noticed.
Another example is that on the day of Molly’s disappearance, Battastoni had fixed his 2nd wife’s car (a white Chevy). After fixing the car, Battastoni took it for a spin, which his former wife stated was odd and out of character. Further, Battastoni smoked the same way as the man in the car AND had shaved his thick mustache not long after Molly went missing. The Palmer Police say Battastoni was an informant for a regional law enforcement drug task force, and would sometimes impersonate a police officer. It is said that Molly was shy around authority, and presumably would have demurred to a cop. Nothing directly links Battastoni to Molly’s case; however, the day after these findings came to light in a newspaper article, Battastoni attempted suicide in prison. Battastoni died of illness in prison in 2016.
The last of the three suspects, Rodney Stanger, is the only one still alive.
He is currently serving 25 years for the 2008 murder of his girlfriend, Crystal Morrison. At the time of Molly’s disappearance, Stanger was living in Warren and Southbridge, MA. He abruptly moved to Florida not long after the composite sketch of the suspect in Molly’s disappearance was released to the public. Stanger apparently told a longtime friend he was moving to Florida to run from police. He’d paid off his home and had just renewed his firearms license at the time he moved to Florida. Further, Stanger had no criminal history, no open warrants or court cases; so why did he run from police?
Stanger brutally murdered Crystal Morrison in Summerfield, FL in 2008.
She had been stabbed more than 30 times and nearly decapitated in their trailer. Just days before her murder, Crystal called her sister, Bonnie Kiernan, who still lived in Massachusetts, asking for a phone number for the FBI, and implied that Stanger had something to do with the Molly Bish case. After Crystal’s murder, her sister visited the trailer to collect some of Crystal’s belongings. In the home, which was in the same state it had been since her sister’s death, Bonnie found Stanger’s wallet, which contained an old photo of Stanger (which looked remarkably like the composite sketch). Bonnie also found kids things in the trailer; specifically hair ties which were obviously made for little girls. Stanger and Morrison had no children.
Stanger had access to a white car; his brother Randy owned a white car similar to the one described during the summer of 2000. Stanger was also an avid outdoorsman. Not only did he fish in Comins Pond, he was also a hunter. And he hunted in the woods of Palmer. It’s safe to say he knew and was comfortable with the area.
There is no physical link between Stanger and Molly’s case as of yet, but the investigation is still ongoing.
The Bish Family is still waiting for justice for Molly. John and Magi Bish started the Molly Bish Foundation not long after Molly’s abduction. They partnered with Anna Maria College to provide training, events and ID kits (called ‘Life Guard’ kits) to support families and address the issue of missing person response and training for law enforcement. The Bish Family worked tirelessly to bring the Amber Alert system to Massachusetts, and continue to strive for legislative change on both missing person response and familial DNA analysis. They have already achieved so many positive changes, and continue to strive for more. John Bish says simply, “Magi and I can’t change what happened to Molly, but we can try to stop it from happening again.”
It has now been 23 years. 23 heartbreaking, devastating, disappointing years. And Molly’s killer has not yet been brought to justice. This needs to change. As I have said in the past about other cases we’ve looked into: someone knows something. Whether her killer is one of the suspects that has since died or gone to prison for another heinous crime, or whether he’s someone who has never been looked into, he has not been brought to justice. But he will.
Remember, all, this will be going up as a video on the Yellow Cottage Tales YouTube soon, and we will be following it with a live episode with special guest Heather Bish. Stay tuned!
Comments