Paul Wilson was killed in a Cambridge park a year ago. Authorities are asking for the public’s help with the investigation.
“Paul lived in Cambridge for 24 years and he loved the city. It was home, and if it’s your home, please, don’t forget him.”
Authorities are asking for the public’s help as they continue to investigate the murder of a 60-year-old Cambridge man, whose body was found in Danehy Park a year ago. During a press conference Thursday, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said investigators have yet to identify a suspect in the murder of Paul Wilson, who lived nearby and visited the park often, and urged members of the Cambridge community to scour their memories of the days before and after Jan. 2, 2019, when Wilson was found. “This is an area where people frequently make their way from the Alewife T Station, as well as from the buses on Concord Avenue,” Ryan said. “It’s a well-traveled area. We’re asking people to call us if they remember anything that might have caught their attention. “Many times people see something, they do not realize the significance, and for us that is a critical link in getting us to be able to identify a suspect in this matter and to be able to bring to Mr. Wilson’s family some information about what took place in the park that evening,” she said.Wilson’s sister, Elizabeth Dobbins, issued her own message to the public during the event, held on the anniversary of her brother’s death. “The loss of my brother is both incomprehensible and senseless,” she said. “We all miss him terribly and ask the Cambridge community to think back over the last year since his death — what you may have heard from someone or about someone or something that could help us. “Paul lived in Cambridge for 24 years and he loved the city,” Dobbins said. “It was home, and if it’s your home, please, don’t forget him.”On Jan. 2, 2019, Cambridge police responded to a call around 6:48 p.m. reporting what appeared to be a body lying on a paved pathway in Danehy Park. Ryan said officers found Wilson suffering from significant head trauma on the New Street side of the park, on a path near the entrance from the parking lot. “It was dark at that time but Mr. Wilson was found directly under a street light, which was operating and on at that point,” she said. Wilson was transported to Beth Israel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead as a result of the multiple blunt force injuries he suffered to his head. On the night of the attack, as was his routine, Wilson came home from his job at IBM by arriving at the Porter MBTA Station, where he picked up a Blue Bike, according to the DA’s office. He rode it home, parking it at the docking station on Sherman Street near his home before walking through the park.
Elizabeth Dobbins speaks about her brother, Paul Wilson, at a press conference on Thursday.
The 60-year-old was known to frequently walk through Danehy for recreation as well as to get to the nearby Whole Foods market.
“He went through there like you would walk to your front door,” Dobbins said of her brother’s use of the park. “He felt it very safe. He would take his telescopes there at 2 in the morning just to stargaze. He felt so safe.”
Ryan said Wilson, who was about 6’6’’ tall, was in good shape physically at the time of the attack. His belongings and valuables, including an Apple Watch, were found with him at the scene, suggesting robbery wasn’t the motive. He was wearing a pair of shorts, a red winter coat, a winter hat, and gloves at the time.
“There are a number of things that are confounding about this incident,” Ryan said. “First of all there is Paul Wilson’s size and physical condition — one would not expect that he would be a likely target for a random attack.”
On top of that, she said, the area where he was found is busy with commuter traffic, vehicular and pedestrian, at the end of the day, and his body was found in an area visible from the parking lot.
There are no city cameras in the park, but Ryan said investigators have collected nearby private surveillance video, scouring the scene and surrounding neighborhoods. Several samples of biologic matter were found near Wilson’s body, but forensic testing determined the blood was from an animal.
A baseball bat discovered nearby was also tested, but nothing was found to connect it to the assault on Wilson, according to officials.
“Since the time of the attack investigators have also been made aware of some similar incidents that have occurred in Cambridge and other communities,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. “To date, investigators do not believe any of those incidents are connected to the death of Paul Wilson.”
Dobbins asked that the public remember that her brother was more than just the description often used for him — a 60-year-old man from Cambridge.
“He was very close with his family, spending hours every week with our elderly parents and weekends with us watching sports, riding his motorcycle and enjoying the holidays with family dinners and cookouts,” she said. “To know him was to love him. He had the biggest, most genuine smile, and he loved life. Paul maintained lifelong friendships with so many people. From elementary school classmates to college friends to work friends that he made through a 30-year career with IBM. He could connect with everyone and anyone and had an amazing joy for life and a curiosity about the world.”
Paul Wilson.
Not knowing what happened to him, has been an “enormous black hole” for her and her family. Her brother — a “sweet, gentle giant” — was the last person she imagined would ever have violence perpetrated against him, she said.
“I can’t imagine what happened that night,” Dobbins said. “I’ve tried to wrap my head around it and think of the possibilities. But none of it comes back — it just comes back senseless. And that’s why I’m asking that the people of Cambridge just try to remember what was going on for them that night and he was one of their own.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office at (781) 897-6600. Cambridge police can also be reached at 617-349-3300. Information may be provided anonymously through the Cambridge Police Anonymous Crime Tip Hotline at 617-349-3359, via the Cambridge Police MyPD mobile app, or by text message to 847411 by beginning your text with TIP650 and then typing your message.
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