Worcester County DA provides update on unsolved Molly Bish case

WARREN, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - It has been 20 years since the remains of 16-year-old Molly Bish of Warren were found in the woods on Whiskey Hill in Palmer. On Tuesday, the Worcester County District Attorney provided an update on the cold case.

Bish was working as a lifeguard in Warren at Comins Pond in town before she went missing on June 27, 2000. Western Mass News is getting answers on where things now stand with this case.

“This case isn’t going anywhere,” said Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. “We have real professionals working on this case and they are going to keep doing their job, and they’re going to get every asset they can to get where we need to go, do whatever testing we need to do.”

Investigators provided an update on Tuesday on the 23-year-old cold case of Molly Bish.

“We get a lot of tips,” DA Early said. “It’s an active tip line, it’s anonymous. We get tips all of the time.”

16-year-old Bish from Warren was abducted in Worcester County and her body was found in Hampden County, 5 miles from her family home in June 2003 and 3 years after her disappearance. A cause of death has not been determined and investigators believe Bish was murdered and her remains were buried.

Several suspects have been named over the years. The Worcester County District Attorney shared with Western Mass News that Frank Sumner, who died in 2016, is still a primary suspect in this case.

“The information that we got was very convincing, was very persuasive, and I’d never named a person of interest, but Frank Sumner, my gut told me this was appropriate,” DA Early told us. “This was clear and it was very persuasive evidence to date in a person of interest in the case, and I actually call him a suspect and we don’t take that lightly.”

DA Early said that he believes that this case will come to a close at some point soon.

“We’re going to be doing some more testing soon. There’s a lot of moving pieces in this case still. We’re looking at a lot of different things, there’s a lot of evidence gathered,” he said. “I believe it will be closed at some point.”

Bish’s sister has expressed that she is disappointed with the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office and she has asked for the case to be handed over to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office.

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