New evidence discovered involving Molly Bish murder, person of interest

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A wallet belonging to a figure in the Molly Bish murder investigation is yielding potential new evidence in the 12-year-old case.

Former Southbridge resident Rodney Stanger has emerged as a possible suspect in the Bish case.  Stanger is serving a life sentence for the 2008 murder of his longtime girlfriend, Chrystal Morrison.

In June, Morrison's sister, Bonnie Kiernan, travelled to Florida to retrieve items belonging to Morrison from the trailer where she was killed.

Kiernan and her boyfriend, Scott Reynolds, retrieved, among other items, a wallet they say was hidden in a kitchen cabinet.

The wallet contains a number of documents including Stanger's Massachusetts Firearms Identification Card.

The F.I.D. card was renewed on April 17, 2000, just two months before Bish's disappearance from Comins Pond in Warren, Mass. on June 27, 2000.

The F.I.D. card contains a picture of Stanger that bears a striking resemblance to the mystery man Molly's mother, Magi Bish, saw at Comins Pond the day before the abduction.

Police have never identified the man in the sketch.

Kiernan also recovered two keys to a safe deposit box in Florida. Until now, investigators were unaware that Stanger rented a safe deposit box. No one knows what is inside.

Stanger's wallet also yielded a Massachusetts Fishing Liscence, a Florida Driver's License issued one year after the Bish murder, and Stanger's birth certificate.

According to the birth certificate, Stanger was born in Warren, Bish's hometown, and the town where she was abducted.

Bish's remains were recovered three years after she disappeared in the woods of the Whiskey Hill section of Palmer.  FOX 25 has talked to people who fished with Stanger at Comins Pond and hunted with him in Whiskey Hill.

Recently, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early told reporters he is considering sending Massachusetts State Police investigators back to Florida in an attempt to re-interview Stanger.

In 2006, former Worcester County District Attorney John Conti dismissed a grand jury investigating the Bish murder. No indictments were returned. No arrests have ever been made. And the District Attorney has not publicly named any suspects in the case.

Cox Media Group