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Clues and evidence in the John McCabe case
A teenager’s murder in Lowell, Massachusetts, goes unsolved for more than 40 years — were the clues there all along?
According to neighbors, John McCabe was the boy next door. On the night of Sept. 26, 1969, he went to dance and never came home.
The McCabe Family
This is the last photo taken of John McCabe and his family in the summer of 1969.
Clockwise from top left: John’s father, Bill, sister Debbie, mother Evelyn, sister Roberta and John.
Finding John’s Body
On the morning of Sept. 27, 1969, John’s body was discovered by children playing in a vacant lot.
Finding John McCabe
A policeman talks with one of the boys who found John’s body.
The Investigation
John McCabe was found lying on his belly with his feet and hands tied behind him, a rope around his neck and tape on his mouth and eyes.
The Evidence
The rope that was found tied around John’s neck.
The Evidence
Scrapings of a foreign material were found on John McCabe’s clothing, but without the sophisticated tests that exist today, police could not identify it.
Partial Fingerprint Found
There were no usable fingerprints found with John McCabe’s body. Without the benefit of DNA testing — police couldn’t connect any particular suspect to the scene.
Mike Ferreira & Nancy Williams
Teenagers Mike Ferreira and Nancy Williams were questioned the day John McCabe’s body was found because they had given John a ride to the dance.
Walter Shelley
Walter Shelley was questioned because he drove a car similar to one that was spotted at the crime scene on the night John McCabe died.
Mike Ferreira and Walter Shelley said they were together the night of the murder.
Ferreira says they took a ride in Shelley’s car to buy beer.
Mourning a Son
John McCabe’s funeral was held on Oct. 1, 1969. Hundreds turned out to mourn him. His sister Debbie, supports John’s grieving mother
John McCabe
John McCabe is remembered as a boy who loved to ride his bike and rebuild engines — a budding engineer, like his father.
John McCabe
John McCabe is also remembered as a boy who loved animals and once brought home an injured goose.
John’s Story
While police investigated his son’s case, Bill McCabe kept a record of John’s life — and the investigation.
Life Goes On
Despite a father’s persistent pleas to police to find his son’s killers, the murder investigation went cold for 40 years–and John would never see his sister’s children graduate college.
Pictured here are Bill and Evelyn McCabe with their granddaughter, Carolanne.
Mike Ferreira
Sometime in the late 1990s, this photo was taken of Mike Ferreira at a party in Tewksbury. That day would change everyone’s life.
New Information
Jack Ward, once a close friend of John McCabe’s, was also at the party. He would later tell Bill McCabe that a drunken Mike Ferreira accused Walter Shelley of killing John.
Mike Ferreira
Mike Ferreira denies all of Ward’s charges and claims it was Ward who said that Walter Shelley killed John McCabe.
Edward Alan Brown
In 2003, police questioned Mike Ferreira about Ward’s claim. This time Ferreira mentions a new name. He says Edward Alan Brown was with him and Walter Shelley the night John McCabe was killed.
Edward Alan Brown
Edward Alan Brown was 17 the night of murder. He is now retired from the Air Force.
Detective Zeroes In
In 2011, when Detective Linda Coughlin was assigned to the case, she zeroed in on Brown, and got him to confess his involvement in the murder of John McCabe.
Arrests Made
Edward Alan Brown told police that he was there when Walter Shelley and Mike Ferreira killed John McCabe.
In April 2011 Brown, left, Ferreira, center, and Shelley are arrested for the murder of John McCabe.
Indictments Announced
Following the arrests, Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone announces the indictments of Mike Ferreira and Walter Shelley for first-degree murder, and Edward Alan Brown for manslaughter.
Was Jealousy the Motive?
Edward Brown testified that John McCabe was killed for flirting with Walter Shelley’s girlfriend, Marla Shiner, who was 13 years old at the time.
Marla Shiner Testifies
Marla Shiner testified for the defense that she was not dating Walter Shelley at the time of John McCabe’s death, and that John never flirted with her.
Edward Alan Brown Testifies
Brown testified that John McCabe was picked up hitchhiking after the dance at the Knights of Columbus Hall, taken to the vacant lot, hogtied with a rope around his neck and left for some time.
Grilling the Witness
Defense Attorney Eric Wilson got Edward Alan Brown to admit he couldn’t keep his facts straight.
Ferreira Found Not Guilty
The jury deliberated just five hours before finding Mike Ferreira not guilty of the murder of John McCabe. Many of the jurors questioned Brown’s credibility.
Bill McCabe Dies
Just days after the not guilty verdict, Bill McCabe passed away and was buried next to his son — but not before Evelyn promised him to see that someone was held accountable.
Brown Testifies in Shelley Trial
Despite the not guilty verdict in the Ferreira trial, two months later, the D.A.’s office presented the same evidence in the murder trial of Walter Shelley.
Shelley Reacts to Verdict
This time, jurors believed Edward Alan Brown and Walter Shelley was found guilty of murder.
Five months later, Walter Shelley was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 15 years.
Justice for John
Evelyn McCabe visited Bill’s grave to tell him that someone was finally held accountable for their son’s murder.
Rest in Peace
A young John McCabe and his father, Bill.
Case Updates:
– Michael Ferreira pleaded guilty to perjury and was sentenced to probation for 5 years as of June 7, 2021.
– Because Walter Shelley was a juvenile at the time of the murder, his conviction was downgraded to second-degree murder and he will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in prison.
– Evelyn McCabe died in August 2016. Her wrongful death suit against Ferreira, Shelley and Brown is being pursued by John’s sisters. It is still pending
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MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Vikings rookie Khyree Jackson died overnight in a car accident.
The Upper Marlboro, Maryland native played for Alabama and Oregon. He was drafted by the Vikings in April in round 4 as the 108th overall pick.
He was 24 years old.
“Our thoughts are with Khyree’s family, friends, teammates and coaches, as well as all the victims of this tragic accident,” the Vikings wrote on X.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said he was “crushed” by the news of Jackson’s death.
“In our short time together, it was evident Khyree was going to develop into a tremendous professional football player, but what was more impressive was his desire to become the best person he could be for his family and those around him,” O’Connell added.
The crash happened in Upper Marlboro shortly after 3 a.m. and involved three cars, according to Maryland state police. Investigators believe the driver of a silver Infiniti car tried to change lanes at a high rate of speed and struck the car that Jackson was in, as well as a Chevrolet Impala.
The two other occupants of Jackson’s car also died in the crash. The occupants of the other cars were not hurt.
Officials believe that alcohol could have been a contributing factor in the crash.
In a statement, the Minnesota Vikings say they have offered support to Jackson’s family, and are offering counseling and emotional support to the players who seek it.
This is a developing story. Check back with WCCO.com for more.
Note: The above video first aired on June 24, 2024.
Alfred Handley leaned back in his wheelchair alongside a major Phoenix freeway as a street medicine team helped him get rehydrated with an intravenous saline solution dripping from a bag hanging on a pole.
Cars whooshed by under the blazing 96-degree morning sun as the 59-year-old homeless man with a nearly toothless smile got the help he needed through a new program run by the nonprofit Circle the City.
“It’s a lot better than going to the hospital,” Handley said of the team that provides health care to homeless people. He’s been treated poorly at traditional clinics and hospitals, he said, more than six years after being struck by a car while he sat on a wall, leaving him in a wheelchair.
Circle the City, a non-profit that works in multiple cities and hospitals and treats about 9,000 people annually, introduced its IV rehydration program as a way to protect homeless people in Phoenix from life-threatening heat illness as temperatures regularly hit the triple-digits in America’s hottest metro.
Matt York / AP
Homeless people accounted for nearly half of the record 645 heat-related deaths last year in Maricopa County, which encompasses metro Phoenix. As summers grow warmer, health providers from San Diego to New York are being challenged to better protect homeless patients.
Dr. Liz Frye, vice chair of the Street Medicine Institute which provides training to hundreds of healthcare teams worldwide, said she didn’t know of groups other than Circle the City administering IVs on the street. The organization also distributes tens of thousands of water bottles each summer and tries to educate people about hot weather dangers.
“But if that’s what needs to happen to keep somebody from dying, I’m all about it,” Frye said.
Bringing care to people in need
The amount of people requiring treatment for heat illnesses is rising. The Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, featured in last year’s book, “Rough Sleepers,” now sees patients with mild heat exhaustion in the summer after decades of treating people with frostbite and hypothermia during the winter, said Dr. Dave Munson, the street team’s medical director.
“It’s certainly something to worry about,” said Munson, noting that temperatures in Boston hit 100 degrees with 70% humidity during June’s heat wave. Homeless people, he said, are vulnerable to very hot and very cold weather not only because they live outside, but they often can’t regulate body temperature due to medication for mental illness or high blood pressure, or because of street substance use.
The Phoenix team searches for patients in homeless encampments in dry riverbeds, sweltering alleys and along the canals that bring water to the Phoenix area. About 15% are dehydrated enough for a saline drip.
Matt York / AP
“We go out every day and find them,” said nurse practitioner Perla Puebla. “We do their wound care, medication refills for diabetes, antibiotics, high blood pressure.”
Puebla’s street team ran across Handley and 36-year-old Phoenix native Phillip Enriquez near an overpass in an area frequented by homeless people because it’s near a facility offering free meals. Across the road was an encampment of tents and lean-tos along a chain-link fence.
Enriquez sat on a patch of dirt as Puebla started a drip for him. She also gave him a prescription for antibiotics and a referral to a dentist for his dental infection.
Living outside in Arizona’s broiling sun is hard, especially for people who may be mentally ill or use sedating drugs like fentanyl that make them less aware of their surroundings. Stimulants like methamphetamine contribute to dehydration, which can be fatal. Dr. Matt Essary, who works with Circle in the City’s mobile clinics, said the organization also often treats surface burns that can happen when a medical emergency or intoxication causes someone to fall on a sizzling sidewalk.
Matt York / AP
Temperatures this year have reached 115 degrees in metro Phoenix, where six heat-related deaths have been confirmed through June 22. Another 111 are under investigation, and the city is seeing an “increasing” number of patients with heat illnesses every year, according to Dr. Aneesh Narang, the assistant medical director of emergency medicine at Banner Medical Center-Phoenix, which treats many homeless people with heat stroke.
Narang’s staff works frequently with Circle the City, whose core mission is providing respite care, with 100 beds for homeless people not well enough to return to the streets after a hospital stay.
Extreme heat worldwide requires a dramatic response, said physician assistant Lindsay Fox, who cares for homeless people in Albuquerque, New Mexico, through an initiative run by the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine.
Three times weekly, Fox treats infections, cleans wounds and manages chronic conditions in consultation with hospital colleagues. She said the prospect of more heat illness worries her.
Highs in Albuquerque can hit the 90s and don’t fall enough for people living outside to cool off overnight, she said.
“If you’re in an urban area that’s primarily concrete, you’re retaining heat,” she said. “We’re seeing heat exposure that very quickly could go to heat stroke.”
Serious heat stroke is far more common in metro Phoenix, where Circle the City is now among scores of health programs for the homeless in cities like New York, San Diego and Spokane, Washington.
Circle the City works with medical staff in seven Phoenix hospitals to help homeless patients get after-care when they no longer need hospitalization. It also staffs two outpatient clinics for follow-up.
Rachel Belgrade waited outside Circle the City’s retrofitted truck with her black-and-white puppy, Bo, for Essary to write a prescription for the blood pressure medicine she lost when a man stole her bicycle. She accepted two bottles of water to cool off as the morning heat rose.
“They make all of this easier,” said Belgrade, a Native American from the Gila River tribe. “They don’t give you a hard time.”
