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Serial killer survivor who was stabbed 27 times warns locals to be ‘vigilant’ after seven sets of remains found

Amid internet speculation about a serial killer in New England, one New Hampshire woman who survived a suspected serial killer herself in the 1980s is encouraging locals to remain “vigilant.”

Social media sleuths and some local reports have noted the discovery of seven sets of human remains found across Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island between March and April. While the victims’ causes of death remain unknown and there did not appear to be any kind of connection between the cases as of Thursday, the recent findings have locals on edge.

“I’m talking about this because, for one, do I think all these cases are connected? Maybe not, but it’s unusual to have so many remains and so many bodies coming up in such a short amount of time,” Jane Boroski, the only suspected survivor of the Connecticut River Valley serial killer, told Fox News Digital. “My big thing is: I don’t want people to dismiss this or forget about it because the more it’s talked about… then the authorities have more of a reason to investigate.”

Jane Boroski, the only suspected survivor of the Connecticut River Valley serial killer, says people should be “vigilant” amid internet speculation about a serial killer in New England. FOX

Boroski, who hosts a podcast called “Invisible Tears,” recently shared a video to her Facebook page discussing a private group called “New England SK,” in which thousands of social media users discuss morbid findings across New England. 

Over the last two months, human remains have been located in New Haven, Norwalk, Groton and Killingly, Connecticut; Foster, Rhode Island; and Framingham and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Some social media users say these discoveries of human remains — particularly, female remains — across the three neighboring states may indicate a serial killer

But Connecticut State Police told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that “there is no information at this time suggesting any connection to similar remains discoveries, and there is also no known threat to the public at this time,” regarding the deaths in Connecticut. 

Human remains have recently been found in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. lescarexpat – stock.adobe.com

But Boroski is encouraging New Englanders to “be more vigilant” anyway. 

“Especially women, if they’re jogging down trails or they’re walking down trails. Use the buddy system, be more vigilant… and be more aware of your surroundings,” she said. 

Boroski was 22 years old and seven months pregnant when she was driving home from a fair in New Hampshire on a hot day in August. She pulled over in the parking lot of a closed store to buy soda from a vending machine. As she got back into her vehicle and opened the soda, a man now believed to be the Connecticut River Valley serial killer approached her.

Boroski said a man now believed to be the Connecticut River Valley serial killer approached her in a parking lot of a closed store in the 1980s. rodphotography – stock.adobe.com

The man tried to pull Boroski from her car, but she fought back, at which point he held a knife to her throat and threatened her out of the car. The two confronted each other, but it wasn’t until Boroski ran toward a vehicle driving down a nearby road for help that the man attacked her, stabbing her 27 times.

“He sliced my jugular. … I had two collapsed lungs. He lacerated my liver, sliced a tendon in my thumb and a tendon on my knee,” Boroski recalled.

The case of the Connecticut River Valley Killer remains unsolved to this day, and the killer’s identity is unknown. It is believed that he targeted and killed multiple women across the New Hampshire and Vermont areas in the 1980s.

Peter Valentin, chair of the Forensic Science Department at the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences, told Fox News Digital that the remains found across three New England states over two months strikes him as “curious.”

“The first thing that strikes me as curious is the fact that seven sets of remains have been found over the span of two months,” Valentin said. “And so whether that is the product of a directed search in particular areas because there’s a belief that more remains will be found, we can’t know, because that information is not public at this point, or whether or not there’s information to suggest that there’s a reason to search, or that information isn’t publicly available.”

He noted, however, that while some of the remains were intact bodies that have been identified, others were degraded to the point that it will take time for authorities to identify who the victims were. In other words, while the remains were located over the span of two months, that does not indicate the victims died around the same time.

The Connecticut River Valley Killer remains unsolved. Richard McGuirk – stock.adobe.com

“Even though these remains were found within the last two months, at least some of them have been in these conditions or in a state of decomposition for a period of time,” he said. “Now forensically speaking, the only way that you could say with any degree of confidence that these cases were related would be to find some kind of physical evidence. That would allow you to connect a person or an object to more than one [case], and I think most people recognize that the most definitive item of evidence would be DNA.”

Valentin added that it will be important for authorities to compare analyses of the remains and identify victims.

At least three of the victims in these seven cases — two in Connecticut and one in Rhode Island — have been identified as women. Police also believe the victim found in Killingly, Connecticut, was a woman in her 40s to 60s.

35-year-old Paige Fannon’s remains were discovered by Norwalk police on March 6. Facebook
56-year-old Michele Romano, who had been missing since August 2024, was identified as remains found in a wooded area by Rhode Island State Police. Facebook
New Haven police identified the remains of Denise Leary, a once missing 59-year-old mother of two, that were discovered on March 21. Facebook

The New England Serial Killer Facebook group, which has 57,000 members, garnered more than 10,000 new members last week and over the weekend, as MassLive.com first reported.

Searches for “New England serial killer” on Google spiked around April 7, according to data from the search engine.