Brockton may finally hear some long-awaited answers on Thursday morning, as Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz is set to reveal new details in two notorious cold cases: the 1991 killing of 28-year-old Cherie Bishop and the rape of Donna Bell.
Cruz is scheduled to speak at 11:30 a.m. in Brockton, where prosecutors say they will lay out fresh information in the decades-old investigations that have haunted the city and the victims' families. The update is being billed as part of an ongoing push to put modern forensic tools to work on old evidence that never quite told the full story.
According to NBC Boston, Cruz will be joined by members of the Massachusetts State Police and Brockton Police at the press conference. Prosecutors have said only that they will announce new developments in the previously unsolved homicide of Bishop and the rape of Bell, and had not released any further details ahead of the event.
Victim And Case Background
Cherie-Lynn Bishop was 28 when her nude body was found near Mulberry Street in Brockton on June 25, 1991, a death that was later ruled a homicide, reporting by Boston 25 shows. Family members told reporters they had last seen Bishop the night before she was discovered. Witnesses recalled hearing an argument and seeing her get into a dark four-door sedan. The case stayed open for decades as detectives repeatedly circled back to the evidence and old leads, hoping that new technology or fresh information might finally move the file out of the cold-case stack.
Cold-Case Work And Public Tips
The Plymouth County DA's Unsolved Cases page explains that Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the DA's office, along with an Unsolved Homicide Section, routinely reexamine long-standing files, pursue new forensic testing and look for public tips. The office has previously turned to DNA phenotyping and outside laboratories in Brockton investigations, part of a broader strategy to squeeze more answers from aging evidence.
Anyone with information about these or other unsolved Plymouth County homicides is urged to contact investigators at 508-894-2584 or email [email protected], according to the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office.
