On a spring evening in New Canaan, Connecticut, 10-year-old Mary Katherine Mount, a Caucasian female, vanished while playing near her home in Kiwanis Park on May 27, 1969. Her disappearance triggered an extensive search that gripped the quiet town with fear and uncertainty. For weeks, there was no sign of the young girl, leaving her family and the community in anguish. The initial hope of finding her safe tragically faded three weeks later.
On June 18, 1969, two teenagers fishing near the South Norwalk Reservoir in the neighboring town of Wilton made a grim discovery. In a pine grove off Old Huckleberry Road, they found Mary Katherine's body. The cause of her death was determined to be a brutal beating with a rock.
The investigation into her murder involved the New Canaan and Wilton police departments, as well as state police. Despite their efforts, no one was ever arrested or charged in connection with her death, and the case officially remains unsolved. Over the years, several individuals were considered persons of interest, casting long shadows of suspicion but leading to no definitive answers. One such individual was Harold Meade, a truck driver who was convicted in 1972 of bludgeoning three other individuals to death. The similarities in the manner of death in his convicted cases and Mary Katherine's murder made him a strong suspect. When questioned about her death, Meade reportedly claimed he could not remember if he had killed her. However, he was never formally charged with her murder.
Another name that emerged in connection with the case was John Rice Jr., a teenager from New Canaan who, a year and a half after Mary Katherine's death, murdered his own mother, sister, brother, and grandmother. Rice had lived just a few houses down from the Mount family, and his own violent crimes led some to believe he may have been responsible for Mary Katherine's death as well. Like Meade, he was never charged in her case, and he was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of his family. The lack of a conclusive arrest has left the tragic death of Mary Katherine Mount a painful and unresolved chapter in the history of the small Connecticut town.
