The Alphabet Murders

Between 1971 and 1973, three young girls were raped and murdered in the Rochester, New York area in a series of killings that became known as the "Double Initial Murders" or the "Alphabet Murders." Each victim shared the unusual characteristic of having first and last names beginning with the same letter: Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz, and Michelle Maenza. Their bodies were each found in towns beginning with the same first letter as their names — Churchville, Webster, and Macedon respectively. The crimes were investigated by dozens of officers from local, state, and federal agencies over the following decades. Multiple suspects were developed over the years, including a local man with previous sex offenses, but none could be definitively linked to all three murders. DNA evidence recovered from the victims was eventually developed into a partial male profile, but no database match was ever made. A 2007 DNA test pointed to a partial match with a convicted murderer, Kenneth Bianchi — one of the "Hillside Stranglers" — but results were inconclusive. The case was periodically revived with advances in DNA technology, and investigators periodically processed new suspects without obtaining a conclusive result. The geographic and alphabetical patterning of the crimes suggested an organized offender who selected victims deliberately, possibly living in or near Rochester and familiar with the surrounding towns. No credible confession was ever obtained. As of the present day, the Alphabet Murders remain unsolved. They are one of the most puzzling cold cases in New York State history, and the coincidence of the matching initials has never been fully explained — whether it was deliberate selection by the killer or a macabre statistical coincidence is still unknown. The case has been the subject of several documentaries and a 2007 film.