Arrest made in decades-old cold-case killing of 15-year-old girl
Tracy Gilpin is seen in an undated photo provided by the Massachusetts State Police.
BOSTON — A North Carolina man has been arrested in the 1986 killing of the Massachusetts State Police commander’s teenage sister. Authorities say 61-year-old Michael Arthur Hand of Troutman, North Carolina, was arrested Friday and faces a murder charge in the death of 15-year-old high school freshman Tracy Gilpin.
The victim is the sister of current state police Col. Kerry Gilpin. CBS Boston station WBZ-TV reports that many site the crime as the turning point that led her to a life in law enforcement.
Gilpin said the arrest “leaves us cautiously optimistic that justice for Tracy is within reach.”
Tracy Gilpin, of Kingston, Massachusetts, disappeared on Oct. 1, 1986. Her body was found in Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth three weeks later.
District Attorney Timothy Cruz says Tracy died from a “massive skull fracture.”
It was not immediately clear if Hand has a lawyer.
Authorities are moving forward to return Hand to Massachusetts.
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