1988 Cardoza, Marilyn Roberts June 1988, New Bedford

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Marilyn Roberts Cardoza
34-years-old

Marilyn Roberts Cardoza
was 34-years-old when she went missing in June of 1988 in New Bedford. Her body has never been found.
http://www.bristolda.com/DA/Unsolved_Homicides_page2.htm

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http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/state/x1...case-found-dead
Former suspect in New Bedford-area highway killings case found dead
Kenneth Ponte was indicted in New Bedford area murders, but charges later dropped
By Maureen Boyle
GateHouse News Service
Posted Jan 28, 2010 @ 12:17 PM
For years, Chandra Gregory wondered if the lawyer living in New Bedford was the person who killed her mother and at least eight other women in the late 1980s.

Now, more than 20 years later, that man, Kenneth Ponte, has been found dead. And Gregory believes he wasn’t involved.

“When I was younger, I was convinced he was the person. But now, after all these years, I don’t think so,” said Gregory, who was 16 when the skeletal remains of her mother, Debra Greenlaw DeMello of Brockton, were found along Interstate 195 in Dartmouth.

Ponte, 61, the only person ever charged in connection with the highway killings case in the New Bedford area, was found dead Tuesday in his New Bedford home after a friend was unable to reach him and called police.

Lisa Rowell, a spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s office, said foul play was not suspected. An autopsy and toxicology tests will be performed to determine the cause of death, she said.

One of Ponte’s friends had gone to the house a few days ago to check on Ponte, but no one answered the door. Police were called Tuesday about 2:30 p.m. after the friend returned and still no one answered the door.

Ponte had been one of the key suspects in the slayings of nine drug-addicted women who disappeared in 1988 and whose bodies were later found along or near local highways in Freetown, Dartmouth, Westport and Marion.

Two other women who went missing have not been found.

A special grand jury in 1989 indicted Ponte in one of the nine killings, but the charge was dropped 11 months later for insufficient evidence.

Although Ponte, who knew some of the dead women, denied any involvement in the deaths, the case continued to haunt him for years.

“It just hung over him like a pall and it never went way,” said Kevin Reddington, who was Ponte’s attorney in the case.

State police in recent years had excavated a section of his former home, looking for signs of two other drug-addicted women who went missing in 1988, but no remains were found.

Ponte, who had battled drug and other problems, was eventually disbarred as an attorney after problems arose involving a settlement one of his clients received.

Ponte remained in New Bedford over the years, occasionally making headlines for minor arrests such as shoplifting.

“He was a tortured soul,” Reddington said.

Gregory said she was convinced in recent years that Ponte had no involvement in the death of her mother.

“I don’t think he even knew who did it,” she said. “I don’t know if they will ever solve it.”

The Enterprise

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