Mysteries unsolved, but not forgotten
Ruth Rehill was a 55-year-old mother of three, a cook and housekeeper at the rectory of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate, when she was killed.
She had been dead between eight and 16 hours when police found her on Feb. 15 1983 in a bedroom at her Atwell Circle home. She had been stabbed more than 20 times and her throat was slit. Her white velour sweater and black slacks were covered in blood, according to newspaper reports at the time.
Police said they believed the killer waited at least three hours for Kevin to come home, then stabbed him with equally furious force.
“It was a messy one,” Teague recalled. “It was definitely not your average hit in a house; there was an intended purpose.”
Teague said when he worked the case, the department didn’t have the tools to handle investigations the way it does now. There was no DNA testing, no manual on how to trace fingerprints.
Teague was working in forensics at the time, and he remembers sitting down in his off hours, thumbing through index cards trying to match fingerprints on file with those found at the scene.
There was blood smeared throughout the Atwell Circle home, but no hair or thread fibers, no fingernail scrapings left behind. Or if there were, investigators didn’t find them.
There was no sign of forced entry, leading police to believe Ruth Rehill knew her attacker.
Witnesses told police they had seen a green pickup truck leaving Plett’s Pub around midnight before the murders. Police found Kevin Rehill’s 1983 silver Datsun Stanza in the parking lot there a day later.
A witness who had seen the truck was able to recall two digits of the license plate while under hypnosis. That partial plate number allowed investigators to narrow their search to 200 green trucks registered with the same digits in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Ultimately, it was a dead end. They wouldn’t have been able to use the witness in court anyway, Teague said. The use of hypnosis made the testimony tainted evidence.
“It was a screwed-up case to begin with, but there was also a lot of really good police work as well,” Teague said.
In 2003, Detective Lt. Bob Wright told The Patriot Ledger that there were two prime suspects in the murder, one of whom police felt particularly strongly about. No arrest was made.
“I don’t think anyone was ever totally eliminated as a suspect,” Teague said. “All their names are still in the box.”
Wright, Marshfield police and Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz declined to be interviewed about the Rehills.
In a prepared statement, Cruz said investigators continue to work on the case in hope of finding justice for the family.
Basil Rehill said he has made peace with the past. “I’ve healed from it. (Solving the case) is not going to provide any closure.”
Michael’s notes: There is a notable lack of information regarding this case in the media, as I was unable to locate any photographs or news articles about it online.
Credit for post : most of the post was from a news post from Kristi Funderburk | Wicked Local
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