On a summer day in June of 1989, the body of 22-year-old Genise Wilder was discovered. A female, she was found near a factory area on Kellum Place in Hempstead, New York, on June 27th. An examination revealed that she had been stabbed to death, and her clothing was in disarray. Originally from Roosevelt, Wilder had a history of arrests related to sex work.
The investigation into her death led authorities to consider the possibility of a serial killer operating in Nassau County, as other
women with similar backgrounds had also been murdered in the area around that time. One individual who came under scrutiny was Allen Gormely. Gormely was arrested in November 1990 for the murders of two other women in Queens. The manner in which he disposed of his victims' bodies, placing them in plastic garbage bags, was noted for its similarity to the Wilder case and others.
Despite the parallels and the fact that law enforcement considered a connection, Gormely was never charged in connection with Genise Wilder's murder due to a lack of sufficient evidence. He was convicted of the two Queens murders and later died in prison in 2014. Genise Wilder's case, along with the murders of several other women in Nassau County during that period, remains unsolved, leaving a lingering mystery and a quest for justice that has endured for decades.
