Top ten unsolved

It's a top-10 list nobody wants to be on -- haunting, unsolved murder cases from across the region.

The victims were young and old, rich and poor, celebrated and obscure. But they had one thing in common: Their killers were never brought to justice.

The statute of limitations on murder cases never runs out, and officials don't give up trying to solve them. New DNA testing helps. Sometimes witnesses eventually decide to talk, or new evidence is found.

Still, the tableau of cold-case victims presents a challenge for law-enforcement officers. As Norfolk District Attorney William Keating put it, "It gets personal."

1983

Ruth Rehill, 55, AND HER SON, Kevin Rehill, 25, MARSHFIELD

The Rehills were found stabbed to death in their Marshfield home. The body of the mother, a housekeeper at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate, was in a downstairs bedroom; her son, an optometrist who worked at Eye World in Framingham, was in the foyer.

Kevin Rehill's silver-gray 1983 Datsun sedan was found less than a mile away, in the parking lot of Plett's Pub restaurant. The keys, left in the car, were bloody.

Investigators found that Kevin Rehill withdrew about $20,000 from his savings account about a week before he was slain. Reports at the time suggested a possible drug connection.

1984

Bertha Fishman, 69, QUINCY

Even before a new rash of neighborhood break-ins began, Bertha Fishman was nervous. Her home near the Furnace Brook Golf Club had been burglarized about a year earlier, and the Quincy grandmother told her neighbors then she was afraid to be living alone. Events would soon prove that she had good reason.

An intruder entered through a bathroom window, and went through several drawers, throwing jewelry around the bathroom.

Fishman's body, partially clothed and beaten around the head, was found in her bedroom.

Keating said recently that within the last year, fingernail, skin, and blood tests rekindled interest in the case. He declined to elaborate.

1984

Virginia Hannon, 59, PEMBROKE

Robbery appeared to be the motive in what appeared to be the torture-murder of Virginia Hannon, a widow found dead in her Pembroke home.

Hannon, who worked for many years as a cook in the school system, had been strangled and stabbed six times in her abdomen. She also had been struck in the face.

Police said she may have been tortured before she was murdered by an attacker bent on discovering where she kept an inheritance believed to be about $380,000. Knotted nylon stockings and scarves found in a wastebasket seemed to support the torture theory.

1988-1989

Debra Medeiros, 30, Robbin Rhodes, 29, AND Debroh McConnell, 25, FOUND IN FREETOWN

A serial murderer appeared to be stalking prostitutes in the New Bedford area, raping some, murdering others, and dumping their bodies along remote roadsides. Three women found in Freetown were among the killer's 11 or more victims.

Anthony R. DeGrazia was named as one of four possible suspects after Margaret Medeiros, a New Bedford prostitute he picked up for sex, told investigators he threatened her with the words: "I'm going to do you like I did the other(s)."

In 1991, DeGrazia was awaiting trial on numerous charges, including rape, in a separate case, when he was found dead in his home, a suicide.

After a three-year investigation, then-Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh Jr. put the cases on a back burner.

Bristol District Attorney Samuel Sutter, who took office in January, is reopening them, said Gregg Miliote, director of communications.

1989

Susan Simoni, 37, FOUND IN WALPOLE

The Norwood mother of three was found dead in her Jeep behind The Mall at Walpole. She was shot twice in the chest.

Her husband, Brian Simoni, initially was a prime suspect but two grand juries heard evidence in the case, and neither he nor anyone else was ever charged.

Investigators had become suspicious of Simoni after learning that he had a gun and box of ammunition missing two bullets, according to an affidavit filed by a state trooper in Dedham District Court six days after the murder. Searches were conducted of the family's home and Brian Simoni's vehicle and airplane.

1990

Unidentified Asian woman, LATE 20s OR 30s, BRAINTREE

After police received a report of a body on a hill, the Asian woman was found clutching a knife in her hand. Braintree Deputy Police Chief Russell Jenkins said recently that she never was identified, and eventually was buried in a potter's grave, on the county tab.

Jenkins declined to reveal the cause of death.

"It's hard to solve when you have no name," Jenkins said. "You don't know where to start. We went through consumer links to get her picture out. We appealed to the community. It was on [the TV show] 'Unsolved Mysteries.' All those efforts failed."

1991

Eric Waite, 17, MANSFIELD

The teenager was found bleeding in the parking lot of the Mansfield Police Department. He had been stabbed in the neck and was pronounced dead on arrival at Norwood Hospital.

Earlier, Waite, described as a heavy-metal fan, reportedly had been at a friend's house watching a Bruins game. An assistant manager at Video Junction, about a half-mile from the police station, said tapes that Waite had rented not long before -- including the film "Marked for Death" -- were found in the store's drop box.

1999

Richard Reyenger, 82, WESTWOOD

Reyenger was found bludgeoned to death at his favorite fishing spot, Buckmaster Pond, near his home in Westwood.

He had gone fishing between about 4 and 6 a.m., and was discovered by another angler.

Westwood Police Chief Bill Chase said recently that Reyenger, a member of the local Masonic lodge, was "hit with a blunt object, like a machete." No suspects were ever found, Chase said.

2004

Dolores Connell, 75, HULL

The matriarch of a large Hull family was found lying on her front lawn, bleeding from a head wound, her house in flames behind her. The widow was pronounced dead at South Shore Hospital in South Weymouth.

The cause of death -- blunt-force trauma to the head and body.

Connell, a claims adjuster until she retired, lived in the house with two of her 12 children.

One of the children, Kieran, 40, was found near the scene, sitting by a fire hydrant, his shirt bloody, neighbors and a town official said.

2005

David Lyon, 46, AND William Chrapan, 44, HINGHAM

The bodies of the two homeless men were found in an old concrete military ammunition bunker just outside Bare Cove Park in Hingham.

The items found in the bunker offered few clues. There were two pairs of boots, a couple of empty cases of beer, a flattened bag of Lay's potato chips, and a beige office chair.

In the middle of the bunker lay a flowered quilt covered in blood.

Both men, formerly of Weymouth, had frequented a local homeless shelter called Father Bill's Place. Autopsies determined that the two had been beaten and stabbed to death.