Teen's sister looks to TikTok to help solve 25-year-old murder mystery

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In 2021, two decades after her sister went missing, Heather Bish did something she never thought she would do.

Heather Bish: 40-year-old me got into the TikTok game. … It's allowed me to like share my story and share Molly's story and really just be honest.

HEATHER BISH | TikTok: It's been 7,680 days since my sister disappeared. And I've been waiting for answers on what happened to her.

She hopes that by going public with her TikTok videos online she will generate tips that will finally solve her sister's case and put an end to a painful 25-year-old mystery.

HEATHER BISH | TikTok: If you know something, please say something. The wait needs to be over.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MOLLY BISH

The last time Heather Bish saw her little sister Molly was the morning of June 27, 2000 – just before Molly left for her job as a lifeguard at Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts. Molly was playing with Heather's 11-month-old daughter Mikaela.

Heather Bish: She was … having fun with Mikaela and I remember my mom saying, come on we gotta go, we gotta go, you're gonna be late.

But shortly after Molly was dropped off, beachgoers arrived and she wasn't there. Police were eventually called to the scene. By the time they told Magi Bish, Molly had been missing for three hours.

Heather Bish: And my mom was frantic on the phone …

Heather Bish: She's said, she's not there, she's not there … her shoes are there. … My heart dropped. I just knew something was wrong because I knew Molly wouldn't go anywhere without her shoes on.

Erin Moriarty: Why?

Heather Bish: Because she didn't like icky feet.

Erin Moriarty: When you first heard that she was missing, did you think maybe she had gone off with friends?

John Bish Jr.: No.

John Jr. is Molly Bish's brother.

John Bish Jr.: Not what we do. … It's not our personality, our character. We were raised better than that.

Sixteen-year-old Molly was Magi and John Bish's third and youngest child. "48 Hours" interviewed John Bish Sr. in 2003.

John Bish Sr.: She was heavily involved in school, with sports, with her friends.

Molly was an honor roll student, varsity athlete and she had just completed her junior year of high school.

Heather Bish: Molly was just very loud and fun.

Heather says despite their six-year age difference, they were extremely close. It was a bond she had had with Molly ever since the day she was born.

Heather Bish: I do remember thinking that "Oh that baby is my baby too." … I'm gonna teach her everything I know. And, um, you know, we're gonna do this life together.

Molly also had a close relationship with her brother.

Heather Bish: She very much wanted to be like my brother.

John Bish Jr.: I took her underneath my wing. … You know, I was a lifeguard before her. She wanted to be a lifeguard. Um, we played soccer together, baseball together.

Heather Bish: Molly was five seven you know, she was athletic and in shape and strong.

So when police suggested that Molly could have drowned, they didn't believe it.

Magi Bish: When Molly went missing, I mean we— it was inconceivable. … And then, what I was told was, the first aid kit was open.

Adding to the mystery … the police radio was there, but Molly had not used it for her required morning check in.

Magi Bish: Why? So what was, what happened?

Later that afternoon, when it became clear to local police that Molly had not just walked off with friends, State Police took over the investigation and launched an extensive search.

Massachusetts State Police Lieutenant Colonel Dan Richard headed to Warren to help out.

Det. Dan Richard: I had a 3-year-old daughter. Her name is Molly. She had blonde hair, she has blue eyes. This case has every day been with me from that day to today.

Also present at the scene was then Worcester District Attorney John Conte.

Detectives zeroed in on everyone who was close to Molly — including family members, friends and Molly's boyfriend, Steven Lukas. They had only been dating for three months and had just gone to the prom together.

Kathy Curran: What raised some suspicion was that Steven Lukas had a fat lip and he had some scratches on him.

Kathy Curran is a former investigative reporter at WBZ.

Kathy Curran: Could a young kid pull off this crime in such a short amount of time …

The Bishes never believed that Lukas was involved.

Within 24 hours, authorities were looking at known sex offenders in the area.

D.A. JOHN CONTE (to reporters in 2000): We've looked at, uh, 35 to 45, uh, sex offenders, uh, in the area.

Heather Bish: That's been the scariest part about all this is realizing how many bad people were within the fabric of our, of our community.

Molly's dad worked tirelessly with police.

Heather Bish: He was always going every weekend trying to work with police and trying to find different ways to, to find Molly.

And despite the fact that DNA testing was still in its early stages back in 2000, Detective Richard says they did collect and document many items found in and around the pond area, including discarded cigarettes and trash.

Det. Dan Richard: When we did the initial search … anything that wasn't there by nature or by God was at least identified as, as potential evidence.

As the days went by the Bishes' despair grew.

Heather Bish: It wasn't like Molly was hit by a car or got sick. She was just suddenly gone and we didn't know where she was …

But it would be Magi Bish who would give detectives their biggest lead.

The morning before Molly disappeared, as Magi went to drop Molly off at work at Comins Pond, she recalled seeing a man, sitting alone in a white car.

Magi Bish: And I see this guy … and he's just smoking a cigarette and he just gives me a — like a little look and I say oh I can't leave her here. … you know it's like the Mama Bear comes out.

Magi says she waited for 20 minutes until he finally left. When she brought it up with Molly that evening, Molly didn't seem concerned.

Magi Bish: She says, "Oh no, Ma, it's just fishermen, don't be — I'm not afraid."

The next day, when Molly disappeared, Magi told the police about what she had seen.

Det. Dan Richard: That became very significant … because now we had a piece of information.

A sketch was composed based on Magi's description and it was released to the public.

D.A. CONTE (to reporters in 2000 holding up a sketch): This is the individual that we're looking for, uh, in that white car.

Magi Bish: I had seen the hair. It was gray. It was very thick. … It's just that smoking (she signals with her hands) you know that doggone smoking. That's what I remembered.

Almost immediately, hundreds of tips started flooding in.

Det. Dan Richard: If you were a — a 50-year-old white male with a mustache and salt and pepper hair, somebody may have, uh, wanted to give us a call.

Many months later, authorities released a second, different sketch.

John and Magi Bish with second suspect sketch

D.A. CONTE (to reporters in 2000): I believe that this sketch is a remarkable sketch and it's very distinctive and I think it's gonna help us a great deal.

But still no Molly.

Kathy Curran: I think that's what makes this case so difficult. You know, you have so many people who resemble that sketch.

Magi Bish (emotional): You know when, when time kept going and passing, you knew it wasn't good. You just know that somebody either has her. And that's horrendous.

And then, almost three years after Molly disappeared, police were notified that a bathing suit had been found in the woods just five miles from Comins Pond.

THREE YEARS LATER — A BREAK IN THE CASE

Erin Moriarty (walking in the forest): Do you remember the very first time you came here?

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: Yes I do. … It was May of 2003. We came here for what we thought would be the recovery of Molly Bish.

Three years after Molly Bish disappeared, Dr. Ann Marie Mires, a forensic anthropologist for the Boston Medical Examiner's Office, was summoned by police to the area known as Whiskey Hill — located about 5 miles from Comins Pond.

Dr. Ann Marie Mires (walking deeper into the forest): This is how we came in at first … So right above us here are these rock ledges. And this is where the bathing suit was found.

A local hunter had stumbled upon pieces of a weather-beaten blue bathing suit, much like the one that Molly Bish was wearing when she disappeared.

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: When I saw the bathing suit, I said this has probably been up here for roughly three years.

Erin Moriarty: And how could you tell?

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: It was covered by deadfall, so leaves and debris from three years of, uh, foliage dropping. But then it had also grown into the surface and roots had come up through it.

Kathy Curran: I arrived with my photographer… And I was let in.

Acting on a tip, Kathy Curran and her news crew got there in time to take pictures of the bathing suit.

Erin Moriarty: What's going through your head?

Kathy Curran: I was sick to my stomach. Just thinking about Magi and John. And knowing what it could mean. (tears up)

As Curran left Whiskey Hill, she called Magi.

Kathy Curran: And she said, you know, could you show us the video? And I said Magi, you know, I, I really don't wanna do that. But you know if that's what you want to do … I — I wanna do whatever I can to help.

Magi Bish (crying): She just had a little van and had the six little TVs or whatever inside and she showed it to us.

John Bish Sr. (2003) (viewing video of the bathing suit and comforting Magi): So distinctive.

John Bish Sr.: (2003) It looks like hers.

Magi Bish: (Covers her eyes and cries.)

Magi Bish: And I knew. I knew that was Mol's bathing suit right then and there (cries).

John Bish Sr. (2003): Let's go in the house.

Magi Bish: And I went up. I locked myself in the room … I cried so hard. There was nothing, I was gut wrenched.

Kathy Curran: It was one of the toughest days of my career. … Because you know for three years, there was still hope. And she knew at that moment that something was drastically wrong and something horrible had happened.

Investigators sent the bathing suit to the Massachusetts State Police Lab and a private lab in Virginia for DNA testing.

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: So now we've gotta search the area and see if we can find evidence … that can help us determine what happened up there.

As they waited for DNA results, under Mires' instruction, a new search was launched.

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: And that's when I basically said we're gonna grid this area …

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: We did grid searching arm to arm, they were within sight of each other, they raked, they combed the forest with rakes.

Erin Moriarty: And had any of that area been searched before?

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: No.

When John Bish Sr. arrived to the scene, Mires assured him of one thing.

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: You know I looked him straight in the face and I — I shook his hand and I said, Mr. Bish if your, if your daughter's remains are — are here, we're gonna bring her home to you.

District Attorney John Conte announced that the DNA results came back as "inconclusive." The search continued and intensified.

Heather Bish: And it was the biggest search that's ever been conducted in Massachusetts history.

And almost two weeks later, they made a horrific discovery.

D.A. CONTE (to reporters in August 2003): This afternoon … we did discover a human bone. It's the upper arm bone. And Dr. Mires does describe it as the bone of a person between 14 and 20 years of age.

Erin Moriarty: What did that feel like to finally find a bone?

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: Unbelievable … but immediately I thought of the family.

DA CONTE (to reporters in August 2003): We've now established the area as a crime scene area.

As days went by, investigators would come to find more human bones.

Magi Bish: It was like every day they came with small rib bones. It was like aw, agonizing and, you know, they were trying to find Mol. And we went out every morning. We thanked the, the searchers. We were so grateful that people would continue to look and help us find Mol.

By the end of the three-week search, investigators found as many as 27 bones and a human skull spread across 35 acres of forest. It was confirmed through DNA testing and dental identification that the bones were Molly's. Mires believes that Molly's killer most likely picked Whiskey Hill because of its hidden location.

Erin Moriarty: Do you believe the killer might have been a hunter?

Erin Moriarty: Being that —

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: It's possible.

Erin Moriarty: — familiar with the area?

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: It's possible.

She also believes that after Molly was killed, a mountain lion may have scattered her remains among the 35 acres of forest.

Dr. Ann Marie Mires: I often felt that the person knew the area and knew that there was, uh, a large animal up there.

MAGI BISH (to reporters in August 2003): We want to tell you that Molly's come home. We are extremely saddened, the depth of our sadness no family should have to endure.

With the discovery of her sister's remains, Heather had a hard time accepting the tragic news.

Heather Bish: I wanted to run away. Honestly, I just wanted to run outside of this nightmare and this life and maybe my — even my own body. But I remember feeling like I wanted to run away, immensely.

The search for Molly Bish was now over, but the search for her killer was never more urgent.

"ONE PIECE OF INFORMATION AWAY"

Two months after Molly Bish's bones were discovered in August 2003, on what would have been her 20th birthday, Molly was laid to rest.

Magi Bish: We were so blessed. We got to have it in a church.

But after three years, the Bishes still had no answers as to who could have murdered Molly. And the man in the white car, who Magi had seen the day before Molly disappeared, had never been identified.

Det. Dan Richard: Frustrating is a reoccurring word in — in this case.

Magi wasn't the only one who reported seeing a suspicious white car in the vicinity, say investigators. On the day that Molly went missing, a white car was spotted at a car wash right down the street from the pond and again in the cemetery behind the pond.

Erin Moriarty: So where is Comins Pond right from here?

Det. Dan Richard: It's that direction straight down. … And you can see there's a path opening there.

Erin Moriarty: Yes. So somebody saw a white car, where? Right down on that –

Det. Dan Richard: Down along that road.

Erin Moriarty: — road down there? (pointing)

Det. Dan Richard: Yes.

Erin Moriarty: So, is the thought that if somebody brought the car down there they could … maybe grab her, pull her back up, get in the car, before …

Det. Dan Richard: That's a theory.

In fact, in the early days of the investigation, search dogs did follow Molly's scent from the pond, leading up to the cemetery.

Kathy Curran: You don't just stumble upon Comins Pond. That's why the person who killed Molly Bish … had to have watched her. And they had to have had a plan.

But there were still so many unanswered questions: like, why was the first aid kit left open? Kathy Curran believes that Molly's abductor may have pretended to be injured.

Kathy Curran: And then someone either forced her or threatened her … to get her up that hill because she, she's athletic. … She's not going to go easily.

Then in May 2004, four years after Molly disappeared, D.A. John Conte called for a grand jury to be convened.

Kathy Curran: Whenever you hear a grand jury in a criminal case, you think oh … they have evidence against someone … So the hope was that the case was moving forward.

Heather, along with her family, were called to testify. They say that many of the D.A.'s questions seemed to be focused on Molly's friends.

Heather Bish: I remember we were all kinda like mad because … we didn't feel like they were really significant.

But detectives had learned that some of Molly's friends had gathered at her boyfriend Steven Lukas' house the morning of Molly's disappearance.

Heather Bish: We have a timeline.

And they were telling police conflicting stories about what happened in the hours before and after Molly went missing.

The grand jury transcripts are sealed so it is not known whom the investigators actually questioned, but they would later clear Steven Lukas as a person of interest. After two long years, in December 2006, the grand jury was dismissed without an indictment.

Heather Bish: It was disappointing … it was incredibly disappointing.

Just weeks after the grand jury was dismissed, John Conte retired, and Joe Early Jr. took over as Worcester District Attorney. He says the grand jury was used as an investigative tool to preserve witnesses' testimony.

D.A. Joe Early: You get 'em right in. You get 'em under oath and there's a criminal penalty if they lie in the grand jury. … and they can't say later, I didn't say that because it's right there. .. And that is something that helps us get cases beyond a reasonable doubt and prove guilt.

But Heather says not having answers as to who murdered her sister was taking its toll.

Heather Bish: I was giving up hope in a lot of areas.

And things only got worse. In 2007, her father John Bish Sr. — who worked so closely with police — had a stroke. Heather would now face the daunting task to take over where her father had left off, and it would not be easy.

Magi Bish: The police have always stayed very careful about what they'd let us know.

Heather Bish: The police kept saying it, we're just one piece of information away. Well where is that piece?

In 2008, a man who resembled the sketch named Rodney Stanger, was arrested for murdering his girlfriend in Florida. The victim's sister reached out to Heather and claimed that Stanger may have been involved in Molly's murder as well.

Heather Bish: He has this violent history. He lived, um, very close to where Molly trained to be a lifeguard.

Erin Moriarty: Was he a smoker?

Heather Bish: He was also a smoker. He was known to fish at Comins Pond and hunt in the area where Molly was found.

Police were notified about this tip. But Heather says she was told that Stanger had been on one of the investigator's lists of persons of interest from the very beginning.

Lt. Shawn Murphy: I've actually visited him in prison.

Lt. Shawn Murphy: He didn't have much to say to me but I attempted. And so have, so have other investigators as well.

Stanger was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2012, State Police went down to Florida again to search Stanger's trailer.

Det. Shawn Murphy: We did execute a search warrant at his residence with our law enforcement partners. And we did take items.

Detective Murphy says the items were tested for DNA to see if they could be connected to Molly.

Det. Shawn Murphy: We've tested and continue to test and move forward.

But there was not enough evidence to make him an official suspect. And then, in 2011 a private investigator came to Heather with a new tip about a man named Gerald Battistoni.

Heather Bish: He had actually raped a woman in the woods where Molly was found. His ex-wife had a white car that she reported he was driving in Warren the day Molly disappeared.

Heather says she took this tip to the State Police who have confirmed that Battistoni, who died in prison in 2014, was on their radar along with many others.

Det. Dan Richard: There are times … you could say this person's really good for this. This person's really good for that. That's not how you solve a crime. You know, you have to have the evidence to support it.

Finally in 2021 — 21 years after Molly disappeared — it looked like investigators had enough evidence. The District Attorney's Office officially named a person of interest.

Kathy Curran: For the first time, I thought this is it. There will be justice …

THE BISH FAMILY LOSES HOPE

On June 3, 2021 — more than two decades after Molly Bish disappeared — there was finally news.

WBZ NEWS REPORT: Tonight, a break in the murder of Molly Bish. More than 20 years after the teenager was killed, Investigators have named a new person of interest.

D.A. Joe Early Jr.: We named the person of interest.

Erin Moriarty: But you had never done that before.

D.A. Joe Early Jr.: Never done that — never done that in this case. … But we did get more information to come in, we pursued those leads. And at that point I was comfortable saying … this person is a person of interest. Yes.

Francis "Frank" Sumner, Sr. was a local auto repair shop owner with an extensive criminal record. Kathy Curran was the first to report the details.

Kathy Curran: Frank Sumner seemed like a great suspect. … Frank Sumner has a violent past. He was convicted of rape and kidnapping.

Erin Moriarty: Was he familiar with the area?

Kathy Curran: He was, he was familiar with the area. … He was from the area. He had access to a white car.

Kathy Curran: And when you compare the photo of him smoking the cigarette to the sketch … you can see a resemblance there.

And just like the sketch, Sumner was photographed smoking with his left hand. D.A. Joe Early Jr. says Sumner, who died in 2016, had been well known to investigators working the Bish case for years.

Erin Moriarty: What made Frank Sumner rise to that top to actually be called a suspect?

D.A. Joe Early Jr.: Information that came in … some dots that were connected.

Although tight-lipped about the details, the Worcester D.A.'s office was confident that Sumner was a viable suspect and planned to compare his DNA to DNA found at the crime scenes. But as it turned out, they couldn't obtain Sumner's DNA. Sumner had been cremated and his DNA had never been submitted to the national CODIS database.

Heather Bish: I don't know who dropped the ball. But somebody dropped the ball …

So authorities traveled to Ohio to get DNA from his son, Frank Sumner Jr. He was serving time in prison for robbery.

Heather Bish: And so we waited and we waited cause they said … we're going to, you know, do some DNA analysis.

Heather, who had started that TikTok months earlier, reached out to her followers to see if she could drum up more evidence.

Heather says it took investigators about a year before they finally told her the results of the DNA testing.

Heather Bish: It was inconclusive.

Erin Moriarty: What do you mean inconclusive? Was he eliminated from the DNA?

Heather Bish: I don't know what that means.

Erin Moriarty: Oh, you don't —

Heather Bish: And they won't tell me.

Heather wonders if authorities who collected discarded cigarettes and other evidence at Comins Pond even have a viable sample of the killer's DNA.

Erin Moriarty: Do you have enough DNA that you could do genetic genealogy and have you done any?

D.A. Joe Early Jr.: I can't speak to the DNA. … I can speak in this way. We continue to test. … And we've gotten well over a hundred, uh, pieces of information tested and we continue to test.

Erin Moriarty: You know that the Bishes have been frustrated. They don't feel they're getting enough information from your office. They wanna know is the DNA being preserved properly, what kind of DNA?

D.A. Joe Early Jr.: As a general rule of thumb, no matter what family it is, the Bishes, uh, other families that we have, we just don't share the information because … someone might say something they just shouldn't say and it can compromise the entire case.

However, he says DNA is just one piece of the puzzle.

D.A. Joe Early Jr.: This isn't just a DNA case. There's a — a lot of investigation that's been done. … We need a little bit more. I'm not going to say what it is … But we need a little bit more to get where we want— need to get to name a person as the per — as a defendant in this case.

But Heather says she's losing faith in the investigators.

HEATHER BISH (TikTok): It's really a sad situation to be a victim family member in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Investigator Shawn Murphy says he understands Heather's frustration.

Lt. Shawn Murphy: Heather is a fierce advocate for her sister and her family, and I wouldn't have it any other way. And I have no problem being held accountable by Heather and I'm happy that she holds me accountable.

25 years after Molly Bish's murder, the case remains active and there is a new detective who has recently joined the investigation. She has a plan.

Det. Chelsea Safford: When I dedicate myself to something I do not stop until it's accomplished …

A RENEWED LOOK AT THE MOLLY BISH CASE

In March 2025, Detective Chelsea Safford was hired to take over the Bish investigation.

Det. Chelsea Safford: It's a perfect job for someone that has an overactive mind, thrives on challenges, and doesn't sleep much.

One of her first tasks has been to weed through and organize over 80 boxes of case files that have accumulated over the years.

Det. Chelsea Safford: I saw all those boxes and I just wanted to dive in. I just wanted to learn more.

Safford believes the answer to who killed Molly may just lie within these 80 boxes.

Det. Chelsea Safford (pulls out a yearbook from a box in the evidence room): This one, I found Molly's, um, high school yearbook and I went through that. Um, you know, I have a few tips that I was trying to track down.

It's part of her strategy to organize and look at past tips with fresh eyes.

Det. Chelsea Safford: Who else might have heard or seen something that they didn't realize was significant. That one person that we haven't spoken to, they might be the missing piece that we've been searching for this entire time. … I believe that that one more piece is out there. … I just have to keep digging.

And Detective Safford faces an overwhelming task. She says there has been almost 8,000 tips that have come in since Molly went missing — and they keep coming.

Det. Chelsea Safford: I can honestly say that since I've been in this office, I don't think a week has gone by where we haven't received a Molly Bish tip, if not multiple throughout the weeks.

Detective Safford says she's also studying the many pieces of evidence involved in Molly's case. She allowed "48 Hours" to accompany her to the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab's DNA Cold Storage facility in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Sherri Mittelholzer is a forensic support section manager at the Crime Lab.

Erin Moriarty: And what am I looking at right in front of me?

Sherri Mittelholzer: So this is a bay, um, full of evidence … And all of these items here go with … the Molly Bish case.

Inside some of the brown paper bags are items taken from the crime scenes.

Erin Moriarty: Is the … swimsuit here?

Sherri Mittelholzer: (pulls evidence bag from a shelf): It is … Oh, it's this one I believe. I don't think it says it on it but I know it was sent out for additional testing.

Erin Moriarty: Are there any cigarettes here? Or any –

Sherri Mittelholzer: There definitely are cigarettes.

Det. Chelsea Safford (looking at an evidence list): Containers ABC. There are a lot of them in ABC.

Sherri Mittelholzer: ABC is this one here. They've been repackaged over time.

Erin Moriarty: Have they been tested?

Det. Chelsea Safford (looking down at her paper): Oh yeah.

Erin Moriarty: Chelsea, are you going to be looking at this to see if there's something else … your thinking, what, why don't we try to test that?

Det. Chelsea Safford: Absolutely. Yeah.

Today, Detective Safford has her eye on one piece of evidence in particular: Molly's backpack.

Det. Chelsea Safford: I'll tell you this is the number one item that I've been looking for … (points to a box that says "backpack.")

Erin Moriarty: Why?

Det. Chelsea Safford: I think what we carry in our … backpack or our pocketbook, uh, I think it says a lot. And I, I personally think learning about the person, the victim, I think is a very important part of each case.

Despite the challenges, Detective Safford says she is determined to find answers for the Bish family.

Det. Chelsea Safford: None of us can bring Molly back, but the best thing I can do is … find out what happened.

Erin Moriarty (Pointing to photos of other cases posted on Safford's bulletin board): I see you have some of these … solved, guilty, captured … Is that what you want to do in this case?

Det. Chelsea Safford: It's not what I want to do, it's what I'm going to do. We -- we will do it.

Heather Bish, who has been critical of the Massachusetts State Police investigation in the past, says she is encouraged by Detective Safford's passion.

Heather Bish: I feel like she has the same energy and commitment to solving this as I do.

Heather still makes TikTok videos about Molly's case, hoping her efforts will one day generate a tip that can help investigators.

HEATHER BISH (TikTok): Somebody knows something, and somebody knows who killed Molly Bish.

Heather Bish: I will never give up. I — I'll fight. … Molly deserves that justice.

D.A. Joe Early Jr. insists that investigators are moving in the right direction.

Erin Moriarty: As you sit here, is Frank Sumner still on the top of the list of people of interest?

D.A. Joe Early Jr.: He's the only person of interest we've named. The only person of interest that's been named in this case. … Yes.

On June 27, 2025, the Bish family gathered with friends and family to remember Molly 25 years after her death — first at the cemetery and then at a more formal ceremony in the center of Warren.

Heather Bish: I feel her beside me. Because of Molly, I have become braver than I ever thought possible. I have faced my deepest fears. I have endured unimaginable heartbreak. I have survived.

Magi Bish: I believe Molly's love and light have guided us through these 25 years. So today we share our family's gratitude. … And because of Molly we have conquered what evil could not … for love is much stronger.

The evening ended with a gathering at Comins Pond.

Heather Bish: I don't want people to ever forget Molly. … And we will never … stop honoring her.

If you have any information that can help authorities find Molly's killer, please reach out to the Molly Bish Tipline: 508-453-7575.

Produced by Chris Young Ritzen. Alicia Tejada is the coordinating producer. Michael McHugh is the producer-editor. Marc Goldbaum is the development producer. Michelle Harris is the editor. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.

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