The ‘Town Neck Torso’ case: a gruesome mystery on Cape Cod

By Emily Sweeney, The Boston Globe

August 14, 2024

3 minutes to read

On the evening of June 4, 2014, someone walking along Town Neck Beach in Sandwich noticed something strange in the grassy dunes.

Police were called to investigate the suspicious object, which was wrapped in trash bags and a tarp. When they removed the layers of plastic, they made a grisly discovery: the mutilated body of a Black man. His head, arms, and legs were missing. His torso was duct-taped to a blue two-wheeled folding dolly.

The man’s body hadn’t been there long, but investigators could not identify him. A decade later, in a case that became known as the “Town Neck Torso,” they still haven’t.

There was one clue on the man’s body: he was wearing a dark blue T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “I Got Serviced” on the front, and “Cranston Windustrial Company” on the back, along with the slogan “Here To Serve” and the logos of several other companies.

Two days after the body was discovered, Michael O’Keefe, the Cape and Islands District Attorney, asked the public for help.

“The hope is that somebody might remember that shirt,” O’Keefe said at a news conference.

This photo of the press conference appeared in the Globe on June 7, 2014. – Boston Globe archives

Cranston Windustrial is a business in Warwick, R.I. that supplies contractors with fire protection pipe, valves, and fittings. O’Keefe said the T-shirt was produced between 2006 and 2008 and thousands of them were made.

In addition to the distinctive T-shirt, the victim was wearing black sweatpants and two other shirts, a Gazy white T-shirt (size 4XL) and a Fruit of the Loom white T-shirt (size 3XL). He was also wearing striped Hanes boxer shorts.

O’Keefe said the condition of the body indicated that the homicide was “a fairly recent event” and that the body had been there no earlier than June 2, two days before it was found.Authorities believed that the man was killed somewhere else before his body was dumped on the beach.

Investigators determined that the man stood between 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall, weighed 220 to 230 pounds, and appeared to be in good health. They also found another clue: there was a 3- to 4-inch surgical scar on the right side of his abdomen that may have been the result of hernia surgery.

The FBI released this poster in the hopes of identifying the man whose remains were found in Sandwich on June 4, 2014. *– FBI*

The victim could have been killed anywhere in New England, or even somewhere farther away, O’Keefe said.

O’Keefe encouraged people to come forward if they recognized the dolly, which was blue and foldable, or knew that such a dolly was missing.

After the 2014 press conference, investigators received numerous tips from the public. DNA testing was later used to create a facial composite of what the victim looked like. The FBI has since included the forensic composite on posters in the hopes that someone will recognize him.

But a decade after his remains were discovered, the man’s identity remains a mystery.

To this day, O’Keefe is convinced that the victim was killed somewhere else before his body was left at the beach.

“This looks like a dump, as distinguished from a murder that occurred here on the Cape,” O’Keefe said in a recent interview. “That adds to the difficulty in dealing with it.”

O’Keefe said the man’s DNA “was put through every database known” but resulted in “no hits.”

Even though the investigation has reached many dead ends, O’Keefe holds out hope that someone with knowledge of what happened will eventually decide to cooperate with authorities.

“The evidence tends to suggest that more than one person was involved in this,” O’Keefe said. “Usually one of the perps gets in trouble and wants to sing their way out of trouble.”

Anyone with information that could help solve this case should call the State Police detective unit assigned the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s office at 508-790-5799 or the State Police Unresolved Cases Unit at 1-855-MA-SOLVE (1-855-627-6583).

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Emily Sweeney can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @emilysweeney and on Instagram @emilysweeney22.