A hitchhiker is found stabbed to death On a spring day, April 25, 1986, the quiet woods of Unity, New Hampshire, gave up a grim secret. Loggers working in the area discovered the remains of 27-year-old Caucasian female Eva Morse. An autopsy would later reveal that she had been stabbed to death, the victim of a brutal act of violence that ended her young life. Her death is being investigated as a homicide, but the case remains unsolved, leaving a lingering chill in the Connecticut River Valley.
Eva was last seen on the morning
of July 10, 1985, nearly ten months before her body was found. A single mother to a 10-year-old daughter, she was hitchhiking home from her job at a factory, a common practice for her along Route 12 in North Charlestown. On that summer day, however, her journey home took a tragic and fatal detour. Her disappearance cast a long shadow of worry for her family, a shadow that would darken into grief with the discovery of her body the following spring.
The location where Eva's remains were found was unsettlingly familiar to investigators. It was only about 500 feet from where the body of another woman, Mary Elizabeth Critchley, had been discovered five years earlier. This proximity has led to speculation that Eva's death may be connected to a string of unsolved murders in the area attributed to a figure known as the Connecticut River Valley Killer. Despite this potential link and years of investigation by the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit, no suspects have ever been publicly named, and no arrests have been made in connection with Eva Morse's death. The question of who was responsible for the death of the young mother from Unity remains unanswered, a haunting mystery woven into the fabric of the region's history.
