On May 12, 2021, the body of 19-year-old Franklin Mane of Worcester, Massachusetts, was discovered in an overgrown area at the edge of a parking lot on Industrial Road in Leominster. Responding to a report of a body, Leominster Police Officers made the grim discovery. An investigation was immediately launched by the Leominster and Worcester Police, along with Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney's Office.
The Office of the State Medical Examiner later determined that the young man's death was a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds.
For two years, the investigation into the death of the male teenager continued, leading authorities to their first suspect. In May of 2023, Wilbert I. Nieves, a 25-year-old from Fitchburg, was charged with murder in connection with Mane's death. At the time the murder charge was brought against him, Nieves was already incarcerated at a Massachusetts jail on unrelated firearms charges. He was scheduled for arraignment on the murder charge in Leominster District Court on June 1, 2023.
The investigation did not conclude with the arrest of Nieves. In April 2025, a second man was charged in the 2021 killing. Jose Pacheco, 23, of Worcester, was also charged with murder. Authorities accused Pacheco of being one of the individuals who shot Mane. Similar to the first suspect, Pacheco was already in state custody on an unrelated charge when the murder charge was filed. His arraignment was expected to take place in Leominster District Court on April 11, 2025. The case against both men is ongoing.
