Thursday, 4:30 PM
Suspect in abduction resembles sketch from Molly Bish case
(Worcester Telegram & Gazette photographs)
Prosecutors say there is a resemblance between a mug shot of Robert R. Burno Jr. and a sketch made of a suspect in the Molly Bish slaying.
By April Yee, Globe Correspondent
A suspect charged with an attempted abduction in Brimfield resembles a sketch of a man seen near the area where teenager Molly Bish disappeared seven years ago, according to a spokesman for the Worcester district attorney's office.
Robert R. Burno Jr., 54, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with trying to abduct a young woman July 21. Investigators said other than the resemblance to the sketch, there is nothing connecting Burno to Bish, whose remains were found in 2003 in Palmer.
"Our interest in him is only that his mug shot and this artist sketch are very similar, so we're planning on talking to him," said Timothy J. Connolly, a spokesman for the Worcester district attorney's office.
Magdalen Bish said today that a mug shot of Burno resembles the man she saw June 26, 2000, at Comins Pond, the day before her daughter disappeared, but she is hesitant to make a connection.
"We don't know if he has anything to do with it," Bish said by phone. "We've had suspects presented to us before who have similarities. It's a very exhausting roller coaster."
Bish marked what would have been her daughter's 24th birthday last Thursday. "Seven years is a long time to wait. All this does is give us hope in some way that there's one less predator to harm kids," she said. "If one day this person is caught, we have a long road ahead of us."
Investigators urged people not to rush to judgment.
"I know there’s a lot of people trying to make a connection," said Lieutenant Eric Anderson of the State Police. "But at this point, there’s no connection."
