A man's stabbing is covered up by arson On a cold December afternoon in 1995, the quiet neighborhood of Walnut Hill Avenue in Manchester, New Hampshire, was disturbed by the sight of smoke and flames. Firefighters were dispatched to the home of 76-year-old Walter Page, a Caucasian male, on December 14th, battling a blaze that would reveal a sinister crime. Once the fire was under control, the body of the World War II veteran and semi-retired stockbroker was discovered in the cellar office of his home.
An initial examination would reveal that Walter Page had not perished in the fire, but had been the victim of a brutal attack, having suffered multiple stab wounds.
In the days leading up to his death, a sense of foreboding had descended upon Mr. Page, a long-serving treasurer for his local Masonic lodge. He had uncovered financial irregularities, discovering that a significant amount of money had been embezzled from the lodge's accounts. This discovery was followed by a chilling, anonymous phone call just a day before his murder, a voice, described as a man trying to sound like a woman or vice-versa, threatening him. This was not an isolated incident; other members of the Masonic lodge had also received threatening calls. The ominous warnings escalated when a fellow lodge member found a Molotov cocktail at his front door, a clear and violent message.
The investigation into Walter Page's murder soon focused on Bonnie Bickford, the wife of the Masonic lodge's treasurer, Karl Bickford. It was discovered that Bonnie had embezzled $109,000 from the lodge's funds, the very discovery that Walter Page had made shortly before his death. While she was considered a prime suspect in the murder, and was eventually charged and served time for the embezzlement and the attempted arson at the other lodge member's home, she was never arrested for the murder of Walter Page. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence and the clear motive, a conclusive link to the murder could not be definitively proven, in part due to the fire at Page's home which destroyed crucial evidence.
To this day, the murder of Walter Page remains an unsolved homicide, a cold case that has left a family without answers and a community with a lingering sense of injustice. The investigation, which spanned several months, has yet to lead to an arrest in connection with his death. The New Hampshire Department of Justice continues to list the case as an open and unsolved homicide, a tragic final chapter in the life of a respected community member.
