After 15 years, Piirainen murder still unsolved

(Piirainen family photo)

Holly at her First Communion.

By Globe Staff

Fifteen years ago today, a 10-year-old Grafton girl on vacation in Sturbridge went with her younger brother to a neighbor's house. They wanted to play with a litter of puppies.

When her brother returned without her after 20 minutes, an investigation was launched. All that was found that summer afternoon was one of Holly Piirainen's red sneakers, down the road from the family's vacation home.

That October, her skeletal remains were found by hunters in Brimfield, 5 miles from where she was last seen. The case is still open and is being investigated as a homicide, State Police have said.

"We want to keep the story open, and it is an unsolved crime, and someone is out there looking for kids," Karen Jolin of Oakham, Piirainen's aunt, told the Globe this weekend in a telephone interview. "She would have been 25; you just wonder what she would have been like after all these years."

Piirainen was a bright child who excelled in science, her mother, Tina Harrington of Grafton, told the Globe. She loved animals and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist, something Harrington thought was unique for a 10-year-old. Harrington said Piirainen was the typical older sister to her young brothers and would always look after them.

"She might have had a child by now. She could still be in school," said Harrington. "Years ago, I would dream she was still alive and when I would wake, and this was all a nightmare, it's hard to believe."

Anyone with any information can contact the State Police barracks in Sturbridge at 508-347-3352 or the Sturbridge Police Department at 508-347-2525.

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