Family wants to exhume body of hitchhiker murderd in 1978 for DNA test

MILFORD, Mass. — Theresa Corley was 19 years old when her naked body was found on the side of Route 495 in December 1978.

She had been strangled and left on the side of the road in the Milford area. Her killer was never found.

"There's a killer out there," Corley's sister, Gerri Houde said. "I truly believe there is a killer still out there."

After 40 years, the family isn't giving up hope and they say a critical piece of evidence may have been buried with Theresa.

"Our objective now is to exhume her and to see if by chance there is any forensic evidence left with her body," Houde said.

On the night before she was likely killed, Corley was with friends at a bar in Franklin called the Train Stop. She got into a heated fight with her friends and angrily stormed out.

She was dressed in a jean jacket, and on a cold December night, started hitchhiking home to Bellingham, about 10-15 miles away.

Three men picked her up and brought her to an apartment in Franklin, where she was sexually assaulted.

Early the next morning, still under the influence, she got out of the apartment and started hitchhiking. She was seen and picked up by drivers.

One was a Garelick Dairy driver who picked her up and dropped her off in Bellingham, near the police station -- about a mile from her house. It was the last place she was seen alive.

Police say a fourth person likely came upon Corley and ultimately killed her.

"I know she fought back. I would have to say even in the state she was in, she had to have fought back. I don't think this person was able to kill her easily," Houde said.

Her family is frustrated there has never been an arrest and have conducted their own investigation.

They are raising money to have her body exhumed for DNA testing. There is a fundraiser at the end of November and they're appealing for help from the community on Facebook.

"It kills us as a family to ask people to donate to this cause, but we feel it's something that needs to be done," said Houde.

The family says this is their last chance for justice.

Cox Media Group