MONROE, Connecticut — The Monroe Police Department is urging whoever killed eight-year-old Renee Freer on June 22, 1977, to come forward.
The police department uploaded a short video to Facebook on Thursday encouraging anyone with any information about the murder to speak.
“On June 22, 1977, eight-year-old Renee Freer was found murdered in the woods behind her house. Monroe police have investigated this case for the past 47 years. We’ve never considered it a cold case; it’s always been active for us,” Lt. Kevin McKellick said in the video.
McKellick said that local author Eric C. Hanson, 45, is writing a book on the murder and has shined new light on the case, which the department welcomes.
Police Chief Keith White believes a juvenile committed the crime. He strongly requested that individuals with knowledge about the case share what they know, as police can access more investigative tools than ever before.
“Advancements in technology and the development of social media have opened new avenues for investigative purposes in this case,” White said. “With that in mind, the Monroe Police Department would like to state this incident has had a negative effect on many lives, including the suspect and his family, who have lived with this for 47 years.”
Freer's murder was violent. She was found in a wooded area about 300 yards from her home, according to an article in the Monroe Sun on Thursday.
The Monroe Sun article states that Freer’s death is the town’s only unsolved murder and that she was the daughter of a single mother, Felicia, who lived with her two children in her parents’ house on Williams Drive.
Felicia planned to bake cookies for a party the following day at Stepney Elementary School and left her children at home with their grandparents as she went to the store to buy ingredients, the article states, quoting retired Det. Norman Mercier.
Freer went outside to play with her neighborhood friends around 6 p.m., and that was the last time her family saw her alive, according to the article, which adds that a search began around 8 p.m. and police were called in at 9:15 p.m.
The article notes that two special police officers found Freer’s body at 10:12 p.m. and that they found a rock nearby that they believe was the murder weapon.
There were three murders in Connecticut that day, the article states, so the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was short-staffed. Freer underwent a hospital autopsy, which found that no sexual assault had occurred, according to the article.
The article also notes that more evidence would have been preserved if she had a forensic autopsy, which would have been helpful to law enforcement down the line; today, all murder victims receive forensic autopsies, it notes.
In the video posted on Thursday, White again pleaded for whoever is responsible, or who knows who is responsible, to reveal themselves for the sake of all involved.
“We are appealing to the suspect or his family to come forward with even the smallest pieces of information,” White said. “We are confident that they know more than what has been disclosed in the past. This will bring the case to a conclusion for the sake of Renee, her remaining family and the community as a whole.”
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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