Police in Peabody find body of woman, 19, killed by gang

A law enforcement excavation team searching near a Peabody schoolyard yesterday discovered the body of a 19-year-old woman killed a decade ago in a gangland execution, authorities said.

Law enforcement officials said they were confident they had found Aislin Silva's body after searching a hillside near the William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School for nearly six months.

"Today's recovery of what we believe to be the remains of Aislin Silva concludes the investigation into her disappearance and murder," said US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan. "I am gratified that the tireless and passionate search by so many people allowed Aislin to go home to her family."

The US attorney's office in Boston has won convictions against six small-time organized crime figures for killing Silva and for related crimes. Hair and blood from her was found in a Danvers trash bin in 1997, but her body had not been located.

On June 30, a police excavation team, using backhoes, shovels, and dogs, began digging in a soccer field-sized grove near the Welch School. Authorities would not reveal what drew them to the site, saying only that evidence discovered in the last year was the catalyst for the Peabody search. In June, Sullivan said there was a specific area near the school thought to be Silva's burial site.

"We were determined to bring Aislin Silva home to her family," said Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, adding that the recovery could help Silva's family. "What they have had to endure is unspeakable, and I hope that the discovery of Aislin's remains will help them find some sense of peace and closure."

Messages left with her family were not answered.

"We're feeling a tremendous amount of relief, after 10-plus years, that they found her," Silva's father, Joseph Silva, told the Associated Press last night. "Now we have her."

Authorities scheduled forensic tests to confirm Silva's identity. They would not comment on the condition of her remains.

In 1996, the Medford teenager had begun interacting with organized crime figures, authorities have said during the course of several trials.

Those trials revealed that she was present when police raided the Medford apartment of her boyfriend, Stephen DiCenso, where they found a stash of illegal high-powered guns. DiCenso told his cronies, who operated out of a Woburn gym, that he was worried that Silva would testify against him.

In November 1996, the gang's leader, Paul A. "Big Paul" DeCologero, ordered her killed. Gang member Kevin Meuse allegedly carried out the slaying, snapping the petite teenager's neck, prosecutors said.

Silva's slaying would bring down the entire gang.

DeCologero, 48, was sentenced to life in prison on Sept. 28 for ordering Silva killed. Two of his nephews, John P. DeCologero Jr. and Paul J. DeCologero, and another gang member, Joseph Pavone, were convicted on racketeering, witness tampering, drug trafficking, and robbery charges.

In 2005, gang member Derek Capozzi was convicted of being an accessory after Silva's murder and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Meuse hanged himself in prison in 1997.

The investigation and prosecution of the gang involved the US attorney's office; Essex County prosecutors; the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the State Police; and the US Drug Enforcement Agency.