Neighbor shocked to learn Kingston man may have murdered teen girl in 1986

A neighbor and a former classmate of a Massachusetts man accused of killing a 15-year-old girl 30 years ago say they are shocked to learn "the guy next door" was arrested for such a crime.

Michael Hand, 61, was arrested in North Carolina for the 1986 murder of Tracy Gilpin, and is now on his way back to Massachusetts for a trial.

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Hand grew up in Kingston, Massachusetts, in a house less than five miles away from Gilpin's Rocky Nook home.

Tracy was last seen buying cigarettes at a gas station near her house.

The store clerk working that night noticed Tracy talking to someone in a Jeep. The clerk even remembers offering Tracy a ride home, which she declined.

Three weeks later, she was found bludgeoned to death in Plymouth in the Myles Standish State Forest.

"The evidence suggests she was abducted from the place where she was and she was taken to another section of our county, where she was brutally murdered," said Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz.

Now, Hand's friends and neighbors are in shock at the possibility that he may have murdered Tracy back in 1986.

JIm Carvalho graduated from Silverlake Regional High School in 1975 with Michael Hand, and says there was never any indication back then that hand would have gotten wrapped up in something like this.

"I could never recall him being troublesome in any way," said Carvalho. "If he was an ice cream flavor, he would be vanilla."

MORE: Arrest made in the 1986 murder of Kingston teen

Carvalho remembers Hand playing on the football team, but mostly he remembers him staying out of trouble.

"1975 to 2018 is 43 years, and a lot of things can happen, not just in people's minds but in their actual lives too, that can alter their behavior in significant ways," said Carvalho.

After decades of mystery, the truth about Tracy Gilpin and Michael Hand will be settled in a Massachusetts courtroom later this month.

Cox Media Group