Harold W. Meade

Harold W. Meade was an American mass murderer and suspected serial killer who bludgeoned three mentally disabled individuals to death on August 12, 1970, in New Haven, Connecticut. He was later arrested in December of the same year, and pleaded guilty to the murders in 1972. In addition to the three murders he was convicted of, Meade is suspected of committing several other killings in Connecticut dating back to 1969. Meade died from an illness in prison.

Early life and criminal history Meade's father owned a gas station in Bethany, Connecticut. When Meade was an adult, he married his first wife, Donna Meade. They had two children together.

On May 27, 1969, 10-year-old Mary Katherine Mount was kidnapped near her New Canaan home in Kiwanis Park in Fairfield County, Connecticut; her body was found in Wilton, near a reservoir, on June 18 by two teenaged fishermen. She had been bludgeoned and mutilated. Meade was never charged with any of these murders because his public defender made a plea deal with the prosecution which stated that if Meade confessed to the three murders he was convicted of, authorities could not charge him with any other murders. In 1996, an inmate told his lawyer that Meade confessed to murdering Toney. Meade also allegedly stated that the police could never connect him to the case unless they found the girl's underwear. A state trooper also claimed that Meade confessed to killing Cave to him while in prison. However, Meade also denied this. Later that same day, the bodies of Hedler and Schlitter were found behind a ventilator shaft in a tunnel of the park. White was found alive in the nearby woods, but died in St. Raphael's Hospital seventeen days later.

Several witnesses around the park at the time of the crime told police that they saw a late-model blue car in the area. Using this information, the police investigated hundreds of cars in the area with this description, one of them belonging to Meade. After uncovering more evidence linking Meade to the crime, he was arrested and charged with the murders on December 11, 1970. Meade pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole on April 27, 1972.

Murder of Linda Rayner On the afternoon of June 26, 1992, 43-year-old Linda Rayner was bludgeoned to death with a rock in a remote area of Hammonasset Beach State Park. Before her body was discovered, a rainstorm and high-tide caused the majority of forensic evidence to wash away, and DNA of the perpetrator was never recovered. Although an award of $50,000 was offered for information leading to the arrest of a suspect, no one was ever charged with Rayner's murder.

On the same day, Meade and his second wife were celebrating their second anniversary by renting a cabin at Hammonasset Beach. Many suspected that Meade was responsible for Rayner's murder because of his similar modus operandi. Although Meade was never charged in the murder, he was removed from the prison's furlough program and placed in a higher security level. Meade denied murdering Rayner and was angry that his furlough privileges had been revoked.

Between 1985 and 1993, Meade was granted 184 one-day furloughs and 68 weekend furloughs from prison. While on furlough, he met and married his second wife. Harold Meade died from an illness in 2007 while incarcerated.