New England's Unsolved: Deborah Bates, missing and murdered

LOWELL, Mass. — Twenty-three-year-old Deborah Bates was seven months pregnant when she disappeared from Lowell. Her body was found more than a decade later, but authorities think her killer moved her remains.

New England's Unsolved's Bob Ward talked to Deborah's family, who is desperately trying to find the murderer.

"We're letting the murderer know that we haven't forgotten what they've done," said Bonnie John, Deborah's sister.

She tells Boston 25 News, the time has done little to dull their pain. In 1993, Deborah Bates was pregnant with her second child. She was living in an apartment in Lowell with her brother, Frank. On Feb. 23, she told Frank she was heading out to the store, but she was never seen alive again.

"Somebody out there got away with murder," said Frank Bates.

At the time Deborah disappeared, she was battling a drug addiction. Her family says, it felt like no one looked for her for nearly a decade.

"We dont feel anything was done from the beginning because they feel she had a drug problem and the drugs brought her to wherever. Not that she was abducted," said Bonnie John.

Finally found, but a shocking twist

But on March 11, 2004, that all changed. An off duty state trooper found a tarp next to the Lowell Connector.  Inside that tarp, investigators found the skeletal remains of the woman and a seven month to full term fetus. The remains were later identified as Deborah and her unborn child. It appears Deborah was murdered shortly after she disappeared.

But in a shocking twist, it appeared Deborah's body was not buried there for 11 years, but instead had been moved there, shortly before it was found.

"Its mindblowing, how somebody could even go back and visit what they did and carry out another crime and relocate it. But I’m glad they did, or we wouldn't have her home," said Bonnie John.

Boyfriend denies involvement

The discovery of Deborah's body thrust her boyfriend, George Stanichuk into the spotlight. Stanichuk was the father of Deborah's first child, but not the father of her unborn baby.  In the two years leading up to Deborah's disappearance, she took out three restraining orders against him, claiming he broke her fingers, and repeatedly threatened to kill her.

Stanichuk denied the allegation to Boston 25 News in 2004.  He said he never beat Deborah, did not know the first thing about her disappearance, and was not her murderer.  Boston 25 News tried unsuccessfully to reach out to Stanichuck for this story to talk about the case.

No one has ever been charged with the murder of Deborah Bates and her unborn child.  But Deborah's family won't let it go.

"We loved her. And we miss her. And we want the world to know she deserves better than how she ended up. And right now, that's getting her justice," said her sister.

If you know what happened to Deborah Bates, reach out to the Massachusetts State Police at the Middlesex District Attorney's office at: 781-897-6600.

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