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BThe sister of a murder victim would never have thought of writing a letter to a serial killer, but she didn’t know who else to turn to for answers.
Maryann Collette hopes notorious serial killer Richard Cottingham has information about her 18-year-old sister Patricia Newsom, whose body was found bound, gagged and wrapped in a tarp in a sewage ditch in East Haven, Connecticut, in August 1975.
So she wrote him into the New Jersey State Prison, where he is serving multiple life sentences for murder.
“I still have so many questions to answer,” said Collette The Independent“There are enough similarities, so why don’t you ask him? I can’t rule him out yet.”
Cottingham, who was also called the “Torso Killer” because of his brutal dismemberment of his victims by cutting off their limbs and heads, murdered at least 17 women in New York and New Jersey between 1968 and 1980.
Joseph Murgo, East Haven Police Captain, who reopened Patricia’s case in 2020, told the New Haven Register that while there is no physical evidence linking Cottingham to Newsom’s murder, police have received tips suggesting a possible connection to the killer, who “was active in the area at the time of Patricia’s death nearly 50 years ago.”
Collette told The Independent In the letter, she told Cottingham her sister’s name and recalled the circumstances of her death, hoping he would respond and give her new information about the case.
“I made it clear that no one is trying to pin anything on him – we are just interested in information. We tried to rule him out, but no one could. So maybe he can rule himself out.”
Collette, who now lives in Tennessee, was only nine years old when her older sister, whom she called “Trisha” or “Trish,” was sent to boarding school in 1974 while the family lived in New Jersey. It was the last time she ever saw her.
When Patricia’s body was found in August 1975, investigators could not identify her and she remained an unknown for nearly 50 years.
“When she didn’t come back to me or contact me, I knew something was wrong. I knew she was gone,” Collette said. “She made me a promise – that she would always protect me.”
Collette told The Independent Her mother died in 1968 when she was 3 and her sister was 11, leaving Patricia to take on the role. She remembers her as a “little mama” who had a good sense of humor and loved the rain.
“She was my lifeline – she looked after us and protected us,” Collette said, adding that shortly after her sister was sent to boarding school, she was told by her father, who had remarried by then, that Patricia had run away from school.
The school was said to be in Sullivan County, New York, but Collette and police said they could not confirm which school she was sent to.
“That’s when I knew something had happened. Because she would have come back to get me. She would never have stopped looking for me.”
After Patricia disappeared, Collette continued searching for her for years.
Collette was an avid follower of true crime stories and would constantly study the computer-generated faces of missing people that flashed on her screen. With the help of the Internet, Collette had further options to search for her sister.
“I was constantly searching for every missing person and every unknown person as often as I could,” she said.
“And it turned out that I hoped my sister was an unknown person. Because I was afraid that if he had put her body in the strait or in the sea, we would never find her.”
In 2020, when Murgo reopened the case, Collette was busy posting on social media about her missing sister, trying to get answers.
She had no idea that Murgo was trying to identify the remains of a woman found shortly after her sister disappeared. The body, identified as Jane Doe, was buried at State Street Cemetery in Hamden, Connecticut.
But the cemetery was in poor condition. Many graves were unmarked and investigators encountered obstacles because the cemetery records were inaccurate and did not show who was buried where.
In June 2022, East Haven Police attempted to exhume the body, but the wrong person was found on the first attempt.
On a second attempt, they used ground-penetrating radar and were able to locate Jane Doe on July 1, 2022. Her DNA was sent to Identifinders International, a forensic genetic genealogy service, where there was a match.
In an ironic twist of fate, at the urging of a family friend, Collette had recently uploaded her DNA to GEDmatch. GEDmatch allows people to compare DNA reports to find unknown relatives or loved ones who have gone missing.
“Suddenly everything clicked together,” she said. “What were the chances that someone told me I needed to give a DNA sample to GEDmatch. And that’s how they found out her identity so quickly.”
Collette and East Haven police were notified in early April that Patricia had been found after 48 years.
“In my heart, I always knew she was gone,” Collette said. “I always knew.”
Collette said she has now found some closure, but there are still many unanswered questions.
“Just having her and knowing where she is, after all this time, you realize how much you’re carrying when you can put it down,” Collette said. “But I still want to know what happened in the days and weeks before she died – was she happy? And of course, who did this to her?”
East Haven police had a suspect in the case, Glenn Askeborn, also known as Samantha Glenner, who lived in East Haven when Patricia’s body was found. But the investigation never led to an arrest. Askeborn served time in prison for the murder of a Maine woman and then died in October 2022.
Right now, all eyes are on Cottingham as they wait for a response. Collette has not yet responded to her letter, but she remains hopeful.
“You never know what will trigger a memory for someone,” she added.
Murgo told the New Haven Register that he would wait to see whether Cottingham responded before taking further action.
“If he responds, I will schedule a visit to conduct an official interview,” Murgo said. “For now, we are just hoping for an answer.”
Murgo also urged anyone with information about Patricia to contact him at the following address: [email protected].
While Collette waits for a letter, she is using her time and her social media platform FindPatriciaNewsom to help others.
“I know I’m one of the lucky ones. I have my sister back,” said Collette.
“Maybe now I can help someone else find their partner – their sister, mother, brother. Because not knowing what hell is.”
Collette emphasized the importance of GEDmatch and that she believes it should be a requirement when filing a missing person report.
“People who are missing a loved one need to know that there is hope,” she said.
For nearly 50 years, Patricia was a forgotten unknown, buried in a nameless grave. But her sister said that is no longer the case. She is now buried next to her mother.
“If you Google her name, you’ll find her,” said Collette, “and I love that if you Google MY name, you’ll find HER. That way I know her memory will live on.”
