On a summer day in June of 1984, seventeen-year-old Wendy Baribeault, a Caucasian female, left her home in Griswold, Connecticut, for a walk to a local convenience store on Route 12. This seemingly ordinary walk would tragically be her last. As she made her way along the state highway on June 13th, she was followed and then abducted. Her battered and partially clothed body was discovered two days later, partially concealed in a stone wall less than a quarter of a mile from her family's home.
An investigation revealed she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
The investigation into Wendy's disappearance and murder quickly gained momentum due to witness accounts. Several people reported seeing a thin white man with glasses, dressed in a suit, driving a blue Toyota and following the young woman. This crucial lead prompted investigators to search DMV records for similar vehicles in the surrounding areas. The first name on that list was Michael Bruce Ross, an insurance salesman who lived a mere three miles from where Wendy's body was found.
When questioned by police, Michael Ross confessed not only to the murder of Wendy Baribeault but to a string of other killings that had terrorized Connecticut and New York. Ross, a Cornell University graduate, admitted to the murders of seven other young women between 1981 and 1984. His detailed confessions provided information that only the perpetrator could have known, solidifying the case against him. He revealed that he had forced Wendy into a wooded area off Route 12, where he assaulted and killed her. Ross was subsequently tried, convicted, and in 1987, sentenced to death for the murders. His case marked a significant and dark chapter in Connecticut's history, culminating in his execution in 2005, the first in the state in 45 years.
