Boston Police officials met with bar owners and club managers to discuss boosting security measures for nightlife in town after two young women were recently abducted, one of whom was murdered, after leaving Boston bars in two separate instances.
“There are predators out there,” Boston Police Commission William Gross said after the meeting. “There are hunters out there. We want to show people that we are working together collaboratively.”
Gross joined about 200 law enforcement officers, bar owners and club managers at the Ironworkers Local 7 Union in South Boston in what he said was the first of many planned patron security meetings. He also proposed a joint committee of city officials and liquor license holders in order to create a dialog centered around preserving patron safety.
According to Gross, the groups proposed adding more security cameras around bars, as surveillance footage played crucial roles in catching two men charged with kidnapping and other troubling charges in two different instances in the first two months of 2019.
Victor Pena, 38, of Charlestown is facing sealed charges pertaining to kidnapping and raping a Jamaica Plain resident who police found being held against her will in Pena’s Charlestown apartment.
Louis D. Coleman III, 32, of Providence, RI, faces federal kidnapping charges in Massachusetts, as well as kidnapping, refusal to report a death with intent to conceal a crime, and mutilation of a dead human body charges from the Rhode Island. Officials apprehended him in Delaware and reportedly found the dead body of Jassy Corriea, a 23-year-old Lynn mother last seen leaving her birthday celebration at a Boston nightclub in February.
Slades Bar and Grill owner Shawn Hunter told NPR that while he was unsure what security improvements specifically entail, he was glad that law enforcement organized the meetings going forwards.
“This is the first step, so the follow up is important to see where this goes and what this meeting means,” Hunter said in an interview with WBUR.
According to data compiled by MassLive, Massachusetts has 15 cold cases as far back as 1951, in which 10 women are the victims. Of the 10 cases, four involve abductions.
Perhaps the most shocking and horrific unsolved homicide in recent Boston history is the murder and disposal of a 19-year-old Swedish au pair in 1996.
Last seen dancing at Zanzabar nightclub, Karina Holmer’s mutilated body was found in a Back Bay dumpster. Officials have no idea who killed her, or where the lower portion of her body was taken.
