The murder of Molly Bish
Warren, Worcester County, Massachusetts · June 27, 2000
A sixteen-year-old lifeguard vanished from her beach chair in broad daylight minutes before swim lessons, her sandals still on the sand, and twenty-one years later the district attorney named a dead convicted rapist who resembled the mustached man her mother had seen in the parking lot the day before.
Overview
On the morning of June 27, 2000, sixteen-year-old Molly Bish was dropped off by her mother for her shift as a lifeguard at Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts. Minutes before swimming lessons were due to begin she was gone. Everything she had brought to the beach, including her sandals, was still there. First responders treated it as a drowning and divers searched the pond; state police detectives were not called until that evening, and the district attorney has said the scene was contaminated by well-meaning searchers. The day before, Molly's mother had noticed a mustached man sitting in a white car in the beach parking lot, and a sketch drawn from her description went up on posters across New England. A massive search followed. In 2003 a hunter's report of a bathing suit in the woods of Whiskey Hill in Palmer, five miles away, led searchers to Molly's remains: twenty-six bones, including her skull, scattered by animals. Investigators treat the case as a murder. On June 3, 2021, Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. named Francis "Frank" P. Sumner Sr., a convicted rapist and kidnapper who ran auto repair shops in the area and died in 2016, as a person of interest after a tipster came forward. Early has since called Sumner a suspect, and in 2025 said evidence still points to him. No one has ever been charged.
Where it stands
The case is open with the Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney, and for the first time in two decades it has a named suspect. On June 3, 2021, District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. announced that Francis "Frank" P. Sumner Sr. of Spencer was being investigated after someone had come forward several months earlier with information implicating him. Sumner, born in 1945, had operated auto repair shops in Spencer, Leicester and Worcester, had a criminal record investigators described as twenty pages long, including convictions for rape and kidnapping, and had died in 2016. Asked whether Sumner resembled the sketch of the man Molly's mother saw in the Comins Pond lot the day before the abduction, Early said he believed so: the same hairstyle, a left-handed smoker. Investigators asked the public for anything about Sumner's employment practices, associates, vehicles, travel and habits. The obvious next step, a DNA comparison, ran into the problem that Sumner's profile was not in any database. Detectives travelled to an Ohio prison to collect a sample from a relative, and in July 2022 Molly's sister said the family had been told the test did not match. The district attorney's office confirmed Sumner remained a person of interest but declined to discuss the DNA. In June 2023 Early went further, saying he had called Sumner the suspect, that the information his office received "did lead us to find something," and that evidence from the scene was being resubmitted for testing as the science improved; he also said he supports legislation to let investigators use familial DNA. Molly's sister has publicly questioned why the office feels so strongly about Sumner, asked for the case to be transferred to another county, and drafted a familial-DNA bill. In June 2025, at the twenty-fifth anniversary, Early told Boston 25 that Sumner was still the only named suspect, that evidence and information still point to him, and that no one else has been ruled out. Sumner cannot be charged, and without a match the office has never said publicly what links him to Molly. The tip line remains open at 508-453-7575.
Persons of interest
The theories below are reported strictly as attributed to the cited sources. Naming a person here is not an accusation. Individuals are named only where they are deceased, were formally charged, were officially named by authorities, or have been publicly cleared.
- Francis "Frank" P. Sumner Sr.
Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. named Sumner a person of interest on June 3, 2021, after a tipster came forward, and in 2023 said he had called him the suspect. Sumner, born in 1945, ran auto repair shops in Spencer, Leicester and Worcester, had convictions for rape and kidnapping, and, Early said, resembled the sketch of the mustached man seen at the pond the day before. He died in 2016 and was never charged; a DNA test involving a relative did not match, and the office has not said publicly what links him to Molly.[1]
- A Southbridge man later imprisoned in Florida for killing his girlfriendNot publicly named
Boston 25 reported that Massachusetts State Police searched this man's Florida trailer as a possible suspect; he is said to have denied killing Molly, was never charged, and in 2025 District Attorney Early said no one has been ruled out.[7]
Sources
- DA: New person of interest named in Molly Bish murder case (June 4, 2021)
““I believe so,” said Worcester DA Joseph Early when asked if Sumner resembled the suspect sketched. “If you look, it’s the same hair style, left-handed smoker. There are a lot of things that are similar.””
- 'Person Of Interest' Named In 2000 Murder Of Molly Bish (June 4, 2021)
“Massachusetts State Police Troopers and Environmental Police officers search in tight formation in this June 9, 2003 file photo, for evidence in the disappearance of Molly Bish.”
- 'Our hearts are heavy': Family of Molly Bish releases statement after investigators name person of interest (June 4, 2021)
““Our hearts are heavy with our loss and the reality of what may have happened to our daughter, but we are hopeful that there will be resolution and that no one else will ever be harmed.””
- DNA in Molly Bish Case Isn't a Match, Sister Says: 'It's Disappointing' (July 18, 2022)
“The Worcester County District Attorney's Office confirmed Sumner remains a person of interest but declined to discuss the DNA evidence, noting this is a very active investigation.”
- NE Unsolved: Worcester investigators update Molly Bish disappearance as 23rd anniversary approaches (June 6, 2023)
““It wasn’t till later in the day that the state police detective unit was notified that this may be a crime,” Early said. “And I think they get out there about 6:00 that night, she went disappearing about ten in the morning.””
- Molly Bish's family still looking for answers on 23rd anniversary of her disappearance (June 27, 2023)
“Bish has asked for the case to be handled by the Hampden County DA’s Office. She also wrote legislation now being looked at by state lawmakers that would allow police to submit unknown DNA samples to ancestry websites to look for family members of potential suspects.”
- New England's Unsolved: Molly Bish 25 years later (June 12, 2025)
“In 2003, three years after Molly disappeared, her remains were located in the deep woods of Palmer, Massachusetts, five miles from Comins Pond. They didn’t find Molly’s entire body, just 26 bones, including her skull, spread by animals over a wide area. They also found pieces of Molly’s bathing suit.”
- Renewed push for information about the murder of Molly Bish 25 years later (June 27, 2025)
“Though he has never been formally charged in connection to Bish’s disappearance, The DA told Boston 25 News Reporter Bob Ward evidence and information still point investigators to Sumner.”
- Investigation into Molly Bish case continues 25 years later (June 27, 2025)
“Based on tips the Bish family received, it was thought that the car could have been buried at a campground in West Brookfield, but a search in June 2017 using ground-penetrating radar turned up nothing.”
- Remembering the abduction and murder of Molly Bish: 25 years later the case remains unsolved (June 27, 2025)
“Bish was 16 years old when she was dropped off by her mother to work her shift as a lifeguard at Comins Pond in the town of Warren on the morning of June 27, 2000.”
- Killing of Molly Bish
“Although the cause of death could not be established because of the body's decomposition, investigators believe that Bish was murdered.”