THE CRIME
The cul-de-sac on Latteiman Road and Mary Rose's burned belongings
The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time
In the early morning hours of April 26, 1973, 56 year-old Mary Rose Turner, a victim to frequent insomnia, left her apartment at 111S Court Street, in Utica, NY, and walked in the direction of Bohling's Shell Station, one mile away. She spoke briefly with her landlord, Frank Jenny, before leaving; he later said she had spoken to him with a short temper and seemed distracted (Blanchfield, 2009). Along the walk, she was catcalled to and was seen kicking over garbage cans. The last people to report seeing her alive said she was by the gas pumps and looked disheveled.
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Later that morning, Potato Hill Road resident James Weaver saw a green car pulling something behind by a rope. It was white, and it appeared smaller than a cow and larger than a pig. Three other people saw the green car that morning, too: Dorothy Stanco saw the car backed into a secluded area on Latteiman Road, empty, and Joyce Broadbent nearly collided with the car on Route 274 a short time later, due to how fast it operator was driving it. Broadbent testified that when she looked in the rear view mirror, she saw a rope was tied to the back bumper (Blanchfield, 2009). The description she gave of the driver matched Bernard Hatch. The third person to see a green
car on that Latteiman Road that morning was ENCON road crew worker Steve Earl. He was with two other crew members when he saw a green car pass them, moving west. Earl and his co-workers met Weaver a short lime later, driving around in his truck and looking for more road tracks.
Around noon that day, Weaver found a trail of marks on Potato Road while returning home from a grocery store. He approached then on Potato Hill Road from the north and encountered what appeared to be a U-turn made in some substance. He followed the trail to the T-intersection of Latteiman and Potato Hill Roads, where he turned left. The trail took him to three ENCON workers. When they
followed the trail, they found the burned clothing and items shown in the image at the top left of this page. They also found what appeared to be human or animal internal organs on the road.
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The elderly farmer called the police three times before an officer came to investigate the report. Officer Jon Chaffee took samples of the road material and told Weaver that he read too many detective books (Blanchfield, 2009). He changed his tune when the remains tested positive as human. From there, the investigation became a top priority. A team of trained dogs lead the search party to a body buried in a shallow grave in the cul-de-sac where Hatch had been seen previously, along with burned clothing, and four items that were later identified as belonging to Mary Rose Turner: eyeglasses, a rosary she always carried, a hotel key she had accidentally forgotten to hand in
Mary Rose Turner's final resting place
three days prior, and a ring (Warren, 2013). Rope was collected from the grave site, as was burned clothing, human blood, and earrings (Blanchfield, 2009). An autopsy was performed, and Mary Rose was deemed to have been strangled to death. Her killer had cut off her hands and feet. The dragging destroyed her face, leaving only an ear and some hair intact above her neck. She was missing most of her internal organs. One of her hands was found days later.
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A search warrant was approved for Hatch's place of residence, his vehicles, and surrounding buildings by Justice Arthur Darrigrand. Hatch was living with his sister, her husband, and his mother in a trailer, and he was not home when officers carried the search warrant out. Newspaper clippings of Mary Rose's death were collected from one of Hatch's dressers, along with hair from his shoes and in the trunk, and fibers on rope and in the trunk. Some of Linda and Lisa Ann Cady's clothing were recovered from Hatch's possession.
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On October 17, 1973, Bernard Hatch was arrested for the murder of Mary Rose Turner and held without bail. It was his last day as a free man.
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Incriminating Coincidences
Bernard Hatch was working at the Shell Station the night Mary Rose disappeared. The station was burglarized on May first, the day after Mary Rose's body was discovered. The time sheets for April 27th were stolen.
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Hatch took his car to a garage and had the tires replaced shortly after the 27th. The tires were located in the investigation.
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Hatch's ex-wife Andrea visited him in jail while he awaited trial on April 27, 1974, one year and a day after Mary Rose Turner was murdered. Witnesses said she arrived in a good mood, but that after talking to Hatch, she left very upset. She committed suicide that evening (Blanchfield, 2009). One can only wonder what he told her that upset her so.
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