Rape defendant eyed in slayings

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A man facing trial for rape charges is under investigation in the 1996 murder of a Fitchburg woman, and authorities are probing whether he's linked to the murders of several women who had ties to Worcester's Main South neighborhood, a spokesman for Worcester County District Attorney Joseph E. Early Jr. said today.

Alex F. Scesny is currently being held without bail on charges that he raped a woman last year in a West Boylston motel, said Timothy Connolly. Scesny has been linked by DNA forensics to the 1996 murder of a Fitchburg woman, Theresa K. Stone, who had periodically worked as a prostitute, according to a state police affidavit filed in Worcester Superior Court.

A DNA profile of Scesny based on forensic evidence from the 2007 rape matched the DNA profile of Stone's likely killer, the affidavit said.

Asked about a possible link between Scesny and the still-unsolved murders of at least four women who had ties to the Main South neighborhood, Connolly said, “Mr Scesny is a person of interest in the deaths of several women who sometimes worked as prostitutes in the Main South area of Worcester."