Investigators are chasing new leads in the 1974 murder of 15-year-old Swampscott student Henry Bedard after a court order gave them permission to exhume his body this week, the Essex County District Attorney’s Office said.
“Advances in forensic science and technology have led to new criminal investigative avenues that were not possible in the past,” Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker said in a press release Wednesday. “We are hopeful that these advances will lead to significant evidence.”
Bedard was last seen on Dec. 16, 1974, walking home from Christmas shopping in Vinnin Square, prosecutors said. The teen was found dead the next day in the woods off Suffolk Avenue in Swampscott behind what is now the Department of Public Works building on Paradise Road.
A baseball bat with “unique markings” on its handle was found near his body, prosecutors said.
“What happened to Henry has never left this town, and young or old, all of the community still talks about Henry and what happened on that fateful day,” Swampscott Police Chief Ruben Quesada said in the release.
Investigators encourage anyone with information about Bedard’s murder to contact the Unresolved Case Unit tip line at 1-855-MA-SOLVE or at mspunresolved@pol.state.ma.us.