I reside in New Hampshire and for a time I was living in Claremont, NH where some of these killings took place. The Killer was never identified, there was one Surviving victim Jane Boroski. This serial killer was also known as The Valley Killer. This Serial Killer was responsible for seven women's deaths, between 1978-1988.

In 1985 and 1986 two victims were found about 1,000 feet from each other. They were found in a very wooded area in Kelleyville, NH. The victims had multiple stab wounds. These were his victims.
On October 24, 1978, 27-year-old Catherine Millican left work and went to the Chandler Brook Wetland Preserve in New London, New Hampshire, where she was photographing birds. Her body, bearing at least twenty-nine stab wounds, was found only yards away from where she was last seen.[1]
On July 25, 1981, 37-year-old Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Critchley, a student from the University of Vermont, disappeared near Interstate 91 at the Massachusetts-Vermont border, where she had been hitchhiking to Waterbury, Vermont. She was last seen by a friend who dropped her off near Exit 13 of the Massachusetts Turnpike. On August 9, her body was found in a wooded area off Unity Stage Road in Unity, New Hampshire, about eighty miles from where she was last seen. Owing to the condition of the body, the medical examiner was unable to determine a cause of death.[2][3]
On May 30, 1984, Bernice Courtemanche, a 17-year-old nurse's aide and high school student, was last seen by her boyfriend's mother in Claremont, New Hampshire.[4] She was thought to have set out to see her boyfriend in Newport by hitchhiking along New Hampshire Route 12. She did not reach her destination and was subsequently reported missing.[5] On April 19, 1986, a fisherman happened upon Courtemanche's remains near the Sugar River in Newport.[5] Forensic examination uncovered evidence of knife wounds to the chest[5] and an injury to the head.[6] Her throat had been slit.
On July 22, 1984, 26-year-old Ellen Ruth Fried—supervising nurse at Valley Regional Hospital—was last seen making a late-night stop at around 2 a.m. to use a payphone at Leo's Market in Claremont, New Hampshire.[7][8] She spoke on the phone for about an hour with her sister, mentioning that there was a strange car driving back and forth and circling the parking lot. Fried briefly stepped away from the phone to see whether her car would start, and resumed the call for a few more minutes.[2][9] The next day, Fried failed to report to work and her car was found abandoned on Jarvis Road, a few miles away from the location of the payphone. Her skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near the banks of the Sugar River on September 19, 1985. Post-mortem examination revealed evidence of multiple stab wounds and probable sexual assault.
On July 10, 1985, 27-year-old single mother Eva Marie Morse was last seen hitchhiking near the border of Charlestown, New Hampshire, on Route 12.[10] On April 25, 1986, Morse's remains were found by loggers in Unity, New Hampshire, about 500 feet (150 m) from where Critchley's body had been discovered in 1981. Post-mortem examination found evidence of knife wounds to Morse's chest and neck.[6]
On April 15, 1986, 36-year-old Lynda Moore was doing yard work alone outside her home in Saxtons River, Vermont, near Route 121 at 2 p.m. while her husband was at work. That evening, her husband returned home an hour after she was last seen to find his wife's dead body in the living room, bearing twenty-five knife wounds.[11] The crime scene suggested a fierce struggle had taken place. There were no signs of forced entry or ransacking.[12] Numerous witnesses reported having seen a slightly stocky, dark-haired man with a blue knapsack lingering near Moore's home the day of the murder. The man was thought to be between 20-and-25-years-old, clean shaven, with a round face and wearing dark-rimmed glasses. The following year, a composite sketch was released.[13] The true crime podcast Dark Valley, however, indicates that the man in question was identified and excluded by police.[14]

Sketch of the man seen entering Moore's home just before her murder.
On January 10, 1987, 38-year-old nurse Barbara Agnew was last seen heading to her home in Norwich, Vermont. That evening, a snowplow driver encountered her green BMW at a northbound Interstate 91 rest stop in Hartford, Vermont.[15] The door was cracked and there was blood on the steering wheel and back seat. Some of her bloodstained belongings were found in a nearby dumpster. On March 28, 1987, Agnew's body was found near an apple tree on Advent Hill Road in a wooded area in Hartland, Vermont, twelve miles from the rest area. She had been stabbed repeatedly in the neck and chest. She had several defensive wounds, as well as a "disabling" wound.[16]
Late in the evening on August 6, 1988, 22-year-old Jane Boroski, seven months pregnant, was returning from a county fair in Keene, New Hampshire, when she stopped at a closed convenience store in West Swanzey to purchase soda from a vending machine. She had returned to her car when she took notice of a Jeep Wagoneer parked next to her. Through her rear-view mirror, Boroski saw the driver of the Jeep walking around the back of her vehicle. He then approached her open window and asked her if the payphone was working, at which time he immediately grabbed her and pulled her out. Boroski struggled, and the man accused her of beating up his girlfriend and asked if she had Massachusetts plates on her car. Boroski responded that she had New Hampshire plates, but this did not deter her attacker, who proceeded to stab her twenty-seven times before driving away and leaving her to die. Boroski managed to return to her car and drive on New Hampshire Route 32 toward a friend's house for help. As she neared the house, she noticed a vehicle driving in front of her and realized that it was her attacker's Jeep. Boroski finally reached her friend's home at which the occupants immediately came to her aid. Her attacker apparently performed a U-turn and slowly passed by the house as Boroski was tended to before speeding away into the night. Boroski was treated at a local hospital, where it was determined that the attack had resulted in a severed jugular vein, two collapsed lungs, a kidney laceration and severed tendons in her knees and thumb. Fortunately, Boroski's baby survived, although not without complications; Boroski's daughter would later be diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy.[17] Boroski was able to provide authorities with a composite sketch and the first three characters of the attacker's license plate. However, the killings ceased following the Boroski attack and the case went cold, with Boroski being the sole survivor of the killer.

Anyone have any theories? :eek:

For years, I felt the killer was probably Michael Nicolaou but now I don't feel it. Nicolaou was clearly disturbed but I got the impression that he was more of a psycho who felt he had to get revenge on people he thought had "wronged" him. (which is why he killed both wives and his stepdaughter.) The CRV victims were opportunity victims in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I don't think ALL of the victims were of the same killer. But I feel the majority them were.

Elizabeth Critchley and Eva Morse were found just 500 feet apart...coincidentally, both bodies were found by the same brothers on the same spot of land five years apart. What are the chances of two different killers disposing of their victims on the same area of land like that? 1 in a million?

Likewise, Bernice Courtemanche and Ellen Fried both disappearing from Claremont just a few months apart and Eva Morse hitchhiking TO Claremont when she disappeared about a year later is no coincidence. I think they're all related.

Barbara Agnew's murder was scary and tragic but I don't think it was from the CRV killer. There was a deathbed confession from Gary Westover to his family that he along with 3 friends lured and kidnapped Barbara from the rest-stop she had gone to...coincidentally, this rest stop was just a couple miles from her home. Westover's uncle went to the police but nothing ever came of this info. Why, I don't know.

I still don't know how I feel about Lynda Moore. Her murder, other than the many stab wounds, was so different from the rest. The other killings involved situations where the victims were vulnerable, either hitchhiking or out alone late at night. In Lynda's situation, she was sunbathing in her yard on a beautiful spring afternoon and she was either in the process of walking inside her house and was grabbed from behind or felt she had to flee her yard. This was about a half hour before her children would be getting home from school. It wasn't a convenient time at all to pull off a murder. I've found her house on google street view. It's a beautiful home but it is a little secluded with no next-door neighbors close enough to notice anything suspicious. Unsolved Mysteries didn't include her picture along with the rest of the victims for some reason.

Very sad about this!!

I think Bernice Courtemanche, Eva Morse, Ellen Fried, and Elizabeth Critchley were definitely murdered by the same person. I think it's likely that he was also Jane Boroski's attacker.

I don't think Lynda Moore was one of this person's victims.

Cathy Millican and Barbara Agnew are the ones I've never been able to make my mind up about. The abduction locations would fit the profile of someone who just trolls for women in public spaces as in the other cases, but these are the only two whose bodies were found a very short distance away from where they were last seen or known to be.

Side note, this is one segment that still scares me to watch late at night even after all these years. It's just so unrelentingly chilling.

Side note, this is one segment that still scares me to watch late at night even after all these years. It's just so unrelentingly chilling.

Absolutely. Jane's attack is obviously well known and one of the most haunting ever featured on the show. But I was also impressed with the actress playing Ellen Fried. The scene where she is begging for her life in the woods and then there's this haunting echo as the killer throws her to the ground and you hear her screaming...:eek:

Jane Boroski was interviewed last winter and she seems to be doing O.K. all things considered. She has always come across as sweet and down to earth in every interview I've seen of her....

https://www.wmur.com/article/connecticut-river-valley-killer-investigation-225/63832673

Absolutely. Jane's attack is obviously well known and one of the most haunting ever featured on the show. But I was also impressed with the actress playing Ellen Fried. The scene where she is begging for her life in the woods and then there's this haunting echo as the killer throws her to the ground and you hear her screaming...:eek:

Jane Boroski was interviewed last winter and she seems to be doing O.K. all things considered. She has always come across as sweet and down to earth in every interview I've seen of her....

https://www.wmur.com/article/connecticut-river-valley-killer-investigation-225/63832673

My wife was watching a famous YouTuber discussing the Connecticut River Valley Killer recently and when they got to the part about Jane I started narrating it. She said oh this must have been on UM.

Side note, this is one segment that still scares me to watch late at night even after all these years. It's just so unrelentingly chilling.Yes I reckon it would be.. Ya watching it one night and then ya hear noises outside your house!!

I have the book shadow of Death that is about this serial killer. I do believe Bernice, Eva, Catherine, and Mary were all the same serial killer. I do believe it was somebody local to the area. Jane Boroski the surviving victim says Nicolau was not him.

how do you think i felt when I was living in Claremont when JC's house got searched in Kelleyville.

I'm listening to the 'Dark Valley' podcast. This podcast covers the Connecticut River Valley killer. I'm currently on episode 11. Episode 10 looks at the speculation that Maura Murray's disappearance might be related. Not stating it as fact, just looking at a possible connection. Maura's sister Julie is even interviewed.

I've always written off the possible Maura Murray connection mostly because the final known CRV attack on Jane Boroski happened in 1988; a full 16 years before Maura disappeared. Also, the Maura Murray case has become quite an infamous missing person case on its own and you can get completely lost going down the rabbit holes of that saga. But the podcast did point out some interesting things.

Long story short in regard to Maura Murray, a man named Larry Moulton called Maura's family in 2005, providing investigators with a rusty knife that he claimed belonged to his brother Claude and implicated Claude in her disappearance. Claude lived in an A-frame house just down the street from where Maura vanished. No arrests were ever made.

However, Larry Moulton is placed in the direct proximity of three of the CRV victims.

1. Larry lived across the street from Ellen Fried's apartment in Claremont. An apartment she moved in to just two months before her murder.

2. This apartment that Larry lived in was also in the same building as Eva Morse's ex-girlfriend, Debra. Eva was last seen alive hitchhiking to Claremont to see Debra.

3. Larry worked at a factory across the street from Leo's Market on Main Street in Claremont. Bernice Courtemanche literally walked past his workplace when she was last seen alive trying to hitch a ride before she was murdered. Ellen Fried was last seen alive after midnight talking on a payphone outside Leo's Market when she nervously told her sister a man keeps circling the block and he's making me nervous.

All these things are circumstantial and not proof of guilt. But at the same time, that's an awful lot of interesting coincidences.