On a crisp autumn Saturday night in 1968, the ballroom at Mountain Park in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was alive with the sound of live rock and roll music. Hundreds of teenagers filled the dance floor at the popular amusement park, including 15-year-old Christine Hurlburt. A vibrant young woman with dreams of becoming a music teacher, Christine was enjoying the evening with friends. But a night that began with dancing and laughter would end in a mystery that has haunted her family and the community for decades.
The date was October 5, 1968. At some point during the night, Christine left the dance with friends but later returned. She was seen leaving the ballroom again, this time by herself. Though she was reportedly offered several rides, for reasons that remain unknown, she turned them down and began to walk. The last confirmed sighting of Christine was around 11:35 p.m., as she walked alone on foot near a bridge crossing over Interstate 91, not far from the park entrance.
Her intended three-mile walk home to Franklin Street was a journey she would never complete. When she didn't return by her curfew, her mother, Dorothy, immediately reported her missing.
Initially, the family’s concerns were met with dismissal. Christine’s mother was told by the mayor's office that her daughter had likely just run away and would turn up soon. Despite this, the police chief insisted a significant search effort, more than was typical for a missing teen case at the time, was underway behind the scenes. However, organizing a coordinated search of the wooded area around Mountain Park proved difficult and was repeatedly postponed. Unwilling to wait, Christine’s father, Thomas, and her 17-year-old brother, Michael, began searching on their own, combing the roads and woods near where she was last seen.
On Saturday, October 12, a week after she vanished and just a day before a planned official search was to begin, Thomas Hurlburt made a devastating discovery. In a wooded area thick with brush, about 30 feet off the Mountain Park access road, he found his daughter’s body. She was located only several hundred yards from where she had been seen walking a week prior. The scene was a violent one. Christine was found nude, with her own sweater twisted tightly around her neck. A blouse had been laid over the lower part of her body. Her shoes, stockings, and underwear were found nearby.
A medical examiner determined that Christine had suffered multiple blows to her head and neck and that her cause of death was asphyxiation due to manual strangulation. Investigators believed she may have also been sexually assaulted. It was unclear if she was killed where she was found or if her body had been moved there. A trampled path through the tall grass led from the road to her location, but police noted that a group of college students had been in the same area enjoying the foliage just four days earlier and had likely not seen anything, suggesting her body may not have been there the entire week.
The investigation into the female teenager's murder was launched by the Massachusetts State Police and the Holyoke Police, a case that remains open with the Hampden District Attorney's Office. One of the most promising early leads involved two men, one in his mid-fifties and another in his mid-twenties, who were new to the weekly dances at Mountain Park. They had purchased tickets to the dance on the night Christine disappeared and were never seen there before or since. Despite this and other leads, her killer has never been identified.
As of May 2026, Christine Hurlburt's homicide is listed on the Hampden District Attorney's Unresolved Homicides registry. For over half a century, her family has waited for answers and for justice. The case remains a painful memory in Holyoke, a reminder of a young life full of promise that was violently cut short.
Massachusetts State Police continue to seek information that could finally solve this decades-old crime. Anyone with information regarding the murder of Christine Hurlburt is urged to contact the State Police Detective Unit at 413-505-5941 or the State Police Unresolved Cases Unit at 1-855-MA-SOLVE (1-855-627-6583). Tips can also be sent by texting the word SOLVE to 274637.
