Expert calls for ‘review and investigation’ of fears around New England serial killer as remains are discovered in 3 states

A total of seven human remains discovered in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts from March to April are under scrutiny and require further investigation, according to Matthew Mangino, a criminal defense lawyer from Pennsylvania and former Lawrence County District Attorney.

These human remains were found in various locations over the past two months, including New Haven, Norwalk, Groton, and Killingly in Connecticut; Foster in Rhode Island; and Framingham and Plymouth in Massachusetts.

As of now, it remains unclear whether the deaths of these seven individuals are connected in any manner. The Connecticut State Police informed Fox News Digital on Tuesday that there is currently no evidence suggesting a link between these discoveries of human remains and no identified threat to public safety related to these deaths in Connecticut.

Internet sleuths who are part of a private Facebook page with tens of thousands of members, however, have prompted speculation about a lone-wolf perpetrator. 

“Whether it’s coincidental or not, I think it merits review and investigation, at least,” Mangino told Fox News Digital. “Collaboration between the different jurisdictions to determine whether or not there is some threat out there to individuals — that may be going on as we speak. We don’t know that, but I think it does merit that kind of scrutiny.”

Higgins similarly said that social media “is considered in law enforcement as a two-edged sword.”

“In some respect … it could point law enforcement to other similarities or in a direction they wouldn’t normally have gone. Somebody, just one person as part of this group, might raise an issue that will be that one thread that connects us,” Higgins said. “The other side, of course, is it’s fueling all this attention on this, and it may negatively impact the law enforcement officers … because now you’ve almost tainted a witness pool. People have this slant already that this is a serial killer, and these people were all killed by homicide. So it can interfere.”

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.