WORCESTER—It was two days before Christmas, 1982, and Marion Kerswell was almost ready. She was hosting the holiday at her small cottage on Margin Street, and still had a few last-minute errands to run and some gifts left to wrap. She had plans with her daughter, Lorraine Jacobson, for the following day. Around 9 p.m., she spoke to Florence Cronin, her coworker at Catholic Charities. Kerswell, 58, had taken Christmas Eve off, so she wouldn’t see her friend the following day.
Kerswell’s son, Gene, and grandson, Eugene, lived with her, and when they didn’t see her when they arrived home, assumed she had gone to bed. And when they didn’t run into her in the morning, Christmas Eve, they thought she’d gone to work, not realizing she’d taken the day off to prepare for the holiday.
Around 5 p.m., Jacobson arrived to meet her mother, as arranged, but Kerswell was not home. A half-hour later, Gene Kerswell and his son arrived, and the three sat down to wait. They were surprised Kerswell had not left a note; Gene Kerswell told his sister he’d expected to hear from their mother around noon that day, but Kerswell never called.
By 9 p.m., Kerswell’s children were worried and began calling friends and relatives, as well as cab companies and hospitals, and realized no one had heard from her since her call to Cronin 24 hours earlier. Gene Kerswell and Jacobson looked around – there was no sign of a struggle, and nothing valuable seemed to be missing. Marion Kerswell’s beige trench coat and blue and white bathrobe were missing, along with her Bulova watch and a pair of heart-shaped onyx earrings she wore frequently, but all her shoes were in the closet. Her heart and blood pressure medication were still in the medicine cabinet, even though Kerswell took them daily.
Around 1:30 a.m. on Christmas morning, they reported her missing.
“[Kerswell] has not been found to this day, and the investigation into her disappearance is open,” Worcester Police Department’s Public Information Officer Lt. Sean Murtha said.
Margin Street abuts a forested area, and Kerswell’s home was one of the last on the dead-end street. In 1982, the rocky terrain extended almost a mile to Blithewood Ave. and Massasoit Road, a treacherous area for a middle-aged woman, in the winter, without shoes. Volunteer searchers and police scoured the woods for clues. Bloodhounds and a search dog from Gardner State Prison were used, but nothing turned up. Then, on Dec. 27, Frank Chase, another of Kerswell’s adult children, found his mother’s blood-stained dentures on her living room floor. As the appliance had not been there previously, the family surmised the family dog had found them outside and carried them in.
Police questioned Edward Kender, Kerswell’s boyfriend, who said he’d been at her home on Dec. 23 until 6:30 p.m. However, when neighbors told police they’d seen Kender’s car parked there later than that, he amended his story and said he’d been there until 9:30. Kerswell’s sons told police the two had argued.
Worcester police had given six of Kerswell’s relatives lie detector tests, and the family asked Kender to take a test as well. He refused “for medical reasons.” Kender died in 1987.
By May 1983, the case was being investigated not only by Worcester police and detectives but also by the Massachusetts State Police as a possible homicide. The officers searched nearby towns and made inquiries in Washington State, where another of Marion Kerswell’s children lived. They search Lake Quinsigamond. Her children continued to look for her and hired private investigators and psychics, but no new information came to light.
By 1992, both Kerswell’s family and the police believed that she was dead. Public records show the house on Margin Street was sold in 1992 by “the estate of Marion Kerswell.”
It’s been more than 40 years since that Christmas night, but police still hope to give Kerswell’s family closure. If you have information, please send an anonymous text to 274637 (TIPWPD) or an anonymous web-based message at worcesterma.gov/police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at 508-799-8651. Information from the Unsolved Worcester podcast with Dan Yeager, and Telegram & Gazette archives were used in this story.
This is the latest in The Worcester Guardian’s series about cold cases – unsolved incidents still under investigation by the Worcester Police Department. According to the WPD’s public information officer, Lt. Sean Murtha, the department has 75 unresolved homicides and 10 missing or endangered persons. The Worcester Guardian’s “Unsolved Chronicles” delves into these cold cases and mysteries that happened in Worcester, Massachusetts. Stay tuned for more in this series.
