BOSTON (WHDH) - A convicted killer who is serving time in Alabama for murder and rape in 1982 was indicted Wednesday on new charges in connection with the death of a 19-year-old mother who was found murdered and raped in a Boston hotel room in 1980, authorities said.
A Suffolk County grand jury returned indictments charging 60-year-old Steven Jerome Fike with rape and first-degree murder in Wendy Dansereau’s homicide, Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins announced. He is currently up for parole in Alabama.
An employee of the Hotel Diplomat in the South End discovered Dansereau’s body inside a room on March 18, 1980. Prosecutors say she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
A sample of DNA collected during the early stages of the investigation was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System and was recently matched to Fike’s genetic profile, which had been on file in the national database as the result of his conviction in the 1982 rape and murder, according to Rollins.
“Ms. Dansereau was 19 years old when she was murdered, and her family has waited nearly four decades to know what happened to her,” Rollins said. “Today, we have not only the advances in forensic testing necessary to identify her killer but a team of dedicated professionals.”
Police reports place Fike in New England the day before Dansereau’s body was found.
Dansereau’s daughter was just four weeks old at the time of her death.
“We have not forgotten Wendy Dansereau, and we haven’t forgotten the hundreds of victims whose murders remain unsolved or the families who are still waiting and praying for answers and accountability,” Rollins said. “I have prioritized unsolved homicides and the needs of survivors.”
In September, Rollins announced the Project for Unsolved Suffolk Homicides — an office-wide initiative to review unsolved homicides and invest her agency’s resources in important cases.
An arraignment date in Suffolk Superior Court has not yet been set.
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