During the last moments of her life, Amy E. Lord was led on a terrifying journey, from the South Boston street where the 24-year-old was kidnapped to a series of ATMs where she was forced to withdraw money, to Stony Brook Reservation where her brutally stabbed body was discovered by a passing cyclist early Tuesday morning.
Related: Authorities investigate a body found at Stony Brook Reservation
The crime was shocking, not just because the victim, a former cheerleader from a small town in Western Massachusetts, was seemingly chosen at random as she was headed to the gym, but also for the horrifying details of that rainy morning, when, under the control of her captor or captors, she was forced in and out of her own Jeep, as commuters drove past her, apparently unaware of the horror she was experiencing.
No one has been charged with killing Lord, who grew up the oldest of three daughters in Wilbraham, a town of about 15,000 nearly two hours west of Boston.
Authorities said they were investigating whether her killing was connected to two other assaults in South Boston....
On Wednesday, Boston police and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley urged the public, especially people in South Boston, to be wary of anyone who looks threatening.
“Be careful,” said Superintendent in Chief Daniel Linskey of the Boston police. “Don’t walk alone. Be aware of your surroundings. . . . Do not get into a car with an individual. Do not let someone talk to you or cajole you into going somewhere. If you’re nervous or upset, make noise. Let your neighbors know there is a problem. Get help. And keep your eyes out for your neighbors as this case progresses.”
According to the official timeline described by authorities, Lord’s ordeal began at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
She had just left the apartment she shared with several other women on Dorchester Street and was just a few feet from her front door when she was kidnapped.
For 47 minutes, police believe, she was in her Jeep with at least one captor, who forced her to withdraw money from banks in South Boston and Dorchester, all within about 2 miles of each other.
At 8:37 a.m., Boston police and fire officials responded to a call for a burning car at 26 Logan Way in South Boston. It was a black Jeep that police later learned was registered to Lord.
At 11 a.m., someone reported to police in South Boston that Lord was missing after she missed an appointment. At 4:21 p.m., a man riding his bicycle through Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park found Lord’s body in the woods.
Her death has devastated her family and friends, who recalled Lord as a vibrant, intelligent graduate of Bentley University who excelled at nearly everything she tried. At the time of her death, she was working as a media analyst for a digital marketing firm in the South End....
Cherise Leclerc, who was on the cheerleading squad at Minnechaug High School with Lord, recalled that Lord was like many young people in their hometown, who talked about leaving the sleepy suburb and living in Boston.
“Boston is one of those cities where you never feel in danger,” Leclerc said.
Not anymore (used to depend on what section you were talking about).
She found out her friend had died late Tuesday night, when she got home from work and checked her Facebook account. Several of her friends had posted messages like “Rest in Peace, Amy.”
“I noticed her best friends, her closest friends were writing how cruel people can be,” Leclerc said. “Right off the bat, I knew it wasn’t just a car accident. I knew it was something much worse.”
Police released the addresses of the five bank machines that Lord was taken to and an image of Lord getting out of the Jeep, dressed in a gray tank top, black leggings, and bright orange or pink sneakers. Lord was driven to East Boston Savings Bank on Southampton Street; Metro Credit Union on Massachusetts Avenue; Bank of America and Sovereign Bank on Columbia Road; and Citizens Bank on Adams Street.
Authorities urged the public to look closely at the image of Lord and report to police if they recalled seeing her between 6 a.m. and 6:47 a.m. at any of the locations they listed.
“No matter how small or tangential it may seem to you,” Conley said, “the public’s eyes and ears might provide us very critical evidence we need to find justice for Amy Lord, for her family, for her friends.”
One hour before Lord was abducted, another woman was assaulted in Andrew Square on Old Colony Avenue. A man she described as stocky and with a mole, punched her in the face, then pushed her to the ground. The man then left.
Just after midnight Wednesday, a woman said she was stabbed as she walked along Gates Street, near Telegraph Street in South Boston. She told police that a man in his 20s began following her, then repeatedly stabbed her. She broke free and escaped as the man fled toward Dorchester Street....
Conley said investigators are looking for possible connections between Lord’s killing and the two assaults.
“At this point, we’re not in a position to link her homicide with any other offense,” he said....
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"Mix of shock, fear rattles South Boston" by Alyssa A. Botelho | Globe Correspondent, July 25, 2013
In recent years, young professionals from across the region have flocked to South Boston, drawn by its vibrant social scene, improved waterfront, proximity to downtown jobs, and burgeoning housing market.
Twenty-four-year-old Amy Lord, a digital media analyst and aspiring wedding planner, was one of them.
On Wednesday, the community, buzzing with what many described as the neighborhood’s new youthful energy, was reeling as word spread of Lord’s abduction and slaying and attacks on two other women early this week.
Related:
Women fight off attackers in Mission Hill
Witnesses, video allegedly link NU student to sexual assault
Related:
Women fight off attackers in Mission Hill
Witnesses, video allegedly link NU student to sexual assault
“I’ve felt nauseous since I heard about [the stabbings],” said Maureen Dahill, cofounder of the popular Caught in Southie blog. “As the mother of a 17-year-old daughter who comes and goes from this town, the news makes me sick.”
The influx of young people in the past five years, Dahill said, includes many who cannot afford the steep cost of living in Charlestown and Beacon Hill, but are drawn to the excitement of city life. Among them, she said, are “a ton of young, beautiful, professional women in their twenties.
“You see them everywhere,” she said. “There is a whole new positive energy around town.”
People young and old expressed shock that the attacks on the women occurred so suddenly, and in such quick succession....
Many expressed shock that such crimes could occur in a place that, for many, seems far removed from the violence-tinged era of gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, on trial a short distance away....
Related:
"A convicted felon whose name has repeatedly been mentioned as an accomplice to murder in the trial of James “Whitey” Bulger will be featured in a reality TV show on the Discovery Channel, outraging the family of at least one of Bulger’s alleged victims."
Also see:
Also see:
Slaying victim Amy Lord remembered as nurturing leader
Quincy man held in kidnap attempt
UPDATES:
"Amy E. Lord was savagely beaten inside her South Boston apartment building early Tuesday before she was ordered into her Jeep by her attacker, who then forced her to drive to five Boston banks to withdraw money during a 47-minute span — before fatally stabbing her and leaving her body at the Stony Brook Reservation, a law enforcement official said today. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also described Edwin J. Alemany, 28, as a “person of interest’’ in the murder of Lord, a 24-year-old Wilbraham native and Bentley University graduate whose death has shocked her family, friends, and neighbors in both her hometown and South Boston. The official said that while investigators initially believed that Lord may have been victimized by two men, Boston police homicide detectives have concluded that Lord was kidnapped, attacked, robbed, and murdered by just one man. Alemany has not been charged with killing Lord. But he is to be arraigned in South Boston Municipal Court today in two other attacks on women in the same area during the same time-frame. He faces charges of punching a woman on Old Colony Avenue near Andrew Square around 5 a.m. on Tuesday and stabbing a woman as she walked on Gates Street near Telegraph Street shortly after midnight Wednesday."
"South Boston stabbing suspect not arraigned yet" by Colin A. Young, Maria Cramer and John R. Ellement | Globe Correspondent, July 25, 2013
A man who is being eyed by police for his possible involvement in the Amy Lord murder is mentally unfit to be arraigned today for allegedly punching a second woman and stabbing a third in South Boston earlier this week during the same time-frame as the attack on Lord, a judge ruled this afternoon.
“This gentleman is not in any state of mind to be arraigned,” South Boston Municipal Court Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons ruled.
Edwin Alemany, 28, of Boston was examined by a mental health expert, who concluded Alemany was overcome by his emotions and suicidal, and could not help his lawyer with his defense.
Dr. Stephen G. Porter, a psychiatrist, said Alemany was bleeding after pulling out stitches in his hand and lying under a bench when the doctor met him. After a long silence, Alemany said he felt like dying, Porter said.
“He hasn’t been able to speak with me barely at all today,” Alemany’s defense attorney, James Greenberg, also told the judge. Assistant District Attorney Nicole Rimar argued unsuccessfully that Alemany could “assist in this very limited proceeding.”
Lyons ordered Alemany sent to a 20-day evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital. She slated another hearing for Aug. 14.
Alemany is charged with punching a woman on Old Colony Avenue near Andrew Square around 5 a.m. on Tuesday and stabbing a woman as she walked on Gates Street near Telegraph Street shortly after midnight Wednesday.
But a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said Alemany is also a “person of interest’’ in the murder of Lord, a 24-year-old South Boston woman who authorities have said was kidnapped Tuesday morning in the same area and forced to drive to five Boston banks to withdraw cash before she was murdered and her body was dumped in the Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park....
--more--"
Related:
"Push for increased safety at ATMs after Amy Lord slaying" by Joshua Miller | Globe Staff, July 25, 2013
In the wake of the murder of Amy Lord, the 24-year-old woman who police believe was driven to a series of ATMs to withdraw money before she was killed, activists called for mandating increased safety mechanisms at bank ATMs.
“You would think if one of the five ATMs had at least a 911 phone or a panic button, it would have given her a fighting chance,” said David J. Breen, an associate professor at Boston University School of Law and a longtime advocate for increased ATM safety.
Some version of an ATM safety bill has been stalled in the Legislature since the late 1990s.
State Senator Brian A. Joyce, a Milton Democrat, said today that the bill’s passage is long overdue. Joyce has sponsored this year’s legislation which would mandate emergency phones at ATM bank facilities, allowing users to pick up an extension that connects directly to 911. The bill would also require installation of surveillance cameras and adequate lighting.
“Who’s to say whether or not an emergency phone or a 911 panic button available at the ATM may have saved this young woman’s life,” Joyce said. “Let’s just hope the legislation passes. It’s clear that it has the potential to save other lives.”
Joyce has introduced his bank ATM security legislation in previous years, only to see it fail.
“It’s met some resistance, perhaps, because of the potential for some increased costs to be borne by the banks,” he said.
You $ee who really runs this $ociety now, right?
But Bruce E. Spitzer, the director of communications at the Massachusetts Bankers Association, said the main reason banks oppose the legislation is “it’s not going to be effective and doesn’t make sense.”
He said that the legislation only applies to banks’ ATMs, not cash machines at places like convenience stores and gas stations.
That discrepancy, he said, is “part and parcel of why we have opposed this legislation for a while now.”
And he said a panic button or 911 telephone could put a victim “in more danger if an assailant saw the victim hitting that panic button or picking up the phone.”
Asked about the Lord homicide, he said, “our thinking is: this legislation is not even germane to what happened to this poor victim.”
Unfortunately, I agree with the banker. Then my thoughts turn to what if she had a gun. Maybe it's Alemany or whatever scum did this dead and not the young woman.
But Breen, the activist, said in the wake of the young woman’s death, action on ATM safety is essential.
“I think the banking industry has blood on its hands,” said Breen, who was himself the victim of an ATM robbery and shooting in 1991.
In so many ways, man, in so many ways. They finance the debt-enslaving wars around this planet.
“There has to be some sort of mechanism for people to be able to get help,” he said.
Former state Senator Andrea M. Nuciforo worked on ATM safety legislation as far back as the 1990s, but he said, they could never push the bills into law.
“The industry, generally, was resistant to a lot of this because they were concerned about the expense associated with compliance,” he said.
But he held out hope that there would be progress.
“Unfortunately sometimes a tragic event like this is what you need to advance some of these issues,” he said.
I have no reason to doubt this insanity happened; however, after all we have seen that has turned out to be distortions, hoaxes, or worse in the ma$$ media, that last sentiment is so ominous. Is this just another psyop?
--more--"
Slaying victim Amy Lord remembered as nurturing leader
Quincy man held in kidnap attempt
UPDATES:
"Amy E. Lord was savagely beaten inside her South Boston apartment building early Tuesday before she was ordered into her Jeep by her attacker, who then forced her to drive to five Boston banks to withdraw money during a 47-minute span — before fatally stabbing her and leaving her body at the Stony Brook Reservation, a law enforcement official said today. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also described Edwin J. Alemany, 28, as a “person of interest’’ in the murder of Lord, a 24-year-old Wilbraham native and Bentley University graduate whose death has shocked her family, friends, and neighbors in both her hometown and South Boston. The official said that while investigators initially believed that Lord may have been victimized by two men, Boston police homicide detectives have concluded that Lord was kidnapped, attacked, robbed, and murdered by just one man. Alemany has not been charged with killing Lord. But he is to be arraigned in South Boston Municipal Court today in two other attacks on women in the same area during the same time-frame. He faces charges of punching a woman on Old Colony Avenue near Andrew Square around 5 a.m. on Tuesday and stabbing a woman as she walked on Gates Street near Telegraph Street shortly after midnight Wednesday."
"South Boston stabbing suspect not arraigned yet" by Colin A. Young, Maria Cramer and John R. Ellement | Globe Correspondent, July 25, 2013
A man who is being eyed by police for his possible involvement in the Amy Lord murder is mentally unfit to be arraigned today for allegedly punching a second woman and stabbing a third in South Boston earlier this week during the same time-frame as the attack on Lord, a judge ruled this afternoon.
“This gentleman is not in any state of mind to be arraigned,” South Boston Municipal Court Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons ruled.
Edwin Alemany, 28, of Boston was examined by a mental health expert, who concluded Alemany was overcome by his emotions and suicidal, and could not help his lawyer with his defense.
Dr. Stephen G. Porter, a psychiatrist, said Alemany was bleeding after pulling out stitches in his hand and lying under a bench when the doctor met him. After a long silence, Alemany said he felt like dying, Porter said.
“He hasn’t been able to speak with me barely at all today,” Alemany’s defense attorney, James Greenberg, also told the judge. Assistant District Attorney Nicole Rimar argued unsuccessfully that Alemany could “assist in this very limited proceeding.”
Lyons ordered Alemany sent to a 20-day evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital. She slated another hearing for Aug. 14.
Alemany is charged with punching a woman on Old Colony Avenue near Andrew Square around 5 a.m. on Tuesday and stabbing a woman as she walked on Gates Street near Telegraph Street shortly after midnight Wednesday.
But a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said Alemany is also a “person of interest’’ in the murder of Lord, a 24-year-old South Boston woman who authorities have said was kidnapped Tuesday morning in the same area and forced to drive to five Boston banks to withdraw cash before she was murdered and her body was dumped in the Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park....
--more--"
Related:
"Push for increased safety at ATMs after Amy Lord slaying" by Joshua Miller | Globe Staff, July 25, 2013
In the wake of the murder of Amy Lord, the 24-year-old woman who police believe was driven to a series of ATMs to withdraw money before she was killed, activists called for mandating increased safety mechanisms at bank ATMs.
“You would think if one of the five ATMs had at least a 911 phone or a panic button, it would have given her a fighting chance,” said David J. Breen, an associate professor at Boston University School of Law and a longtime advocate for increased ATM safety.
Some version of an ATM safety bill has been stalled in the Legislature since the late 1990s.
State Senator Brian A. Joyce, a Milton Democrat, said today that the bill’s passage is long overdue. Joyce has sponsored this year’s legislation which would mandate emergency phones at ATM bank facilities, allowing users to pick up an extension that connects directly to 911. The bill would also require installation of surveillance cameras and adequate lighting.
“Who’s to say whether or not an emergency phone or a 911 panic button available at the ATM may have saved this young woman’s life,” Joyce said. “Let’s just hope the legislation passes. It’s clear that it has the potential to save other lives.”
Joyce has introduced his bank ATM security legislation in previous years, only to see it fail.
“It’s met some resistance, perhaps, because of the potential for some increased costs to be borne by the banks,” he said.
You $ee who really runs this $ociety now, right?
But Bruce E. Spitzer, the director of communications at the Massachusetts Bankers Association, said the main reason banks oppose the legislation is “it’s not going to be effective and doesn’t make sense.”
He said that the legislation only applies to banks’ ATMs, not cash machines at places like convenience stores and gas stations.
That discrepancy, he said, is “part and parcel of why we have opposed this legislation for a while now.”
And he said a panic button or 911 telephone could put a victim “in more danger if an assailant saw the victim hitting that panic button or picking up the phone.”
Asked about the Lord homicide, he said, “our thinking is: this legislation is not even germane to what happened to this poor victim.”
Unfortunately, I agree with the banker. Then my thoughts turn to what if she had a gun. Maybe it's Alemany or whatever scum did this dead and not the young woman.
But Breen, the activist, said in the wake of the young woman’s death, action on ATM safety is essential.
“I think the banking industry has blood on its hands,” said Breen, who was himself the victim of an ATM robbery and shooting in 1991.
In so many ways, man, in so many ways. They finance the debt-enslaving wars around this planet.
“There has to be some sort of mechanism for people to be able to get help,” he said.
Former state Senator Andrea M. Nuciforo worked on ATM safety legislation as far back as the 1990s, but he said, they could never push the bills into law.
“The industry, generally, was resistant to a lot of this because they were concerned about the expense associated with compliance,” he said.
But he held out hope that there would be progress.
“Unfortunately sometimes a tragic event like this is what you need to advance some of these issues,” he said.
I have no reason to doubt this insanity happened; however, after all we have seen that has turned out to be distortions, hoaxes, or worse in the ma$$ media, that last sentiment is so ominous. Is this just another psyop?
--more--"
