D.M. Testa

ALLITERATION

Carmen Colon
There were two of you
Wanda Walkowicz
the original and then a copycat
Michelle Maenza
both monsters.

Churchville
I choose to believe the first a coincidence
Webster
but with the second came a killer of little girls
Macedon
who dumped their bodies in places sharing the same double initials – a perverted joke.

Marks on her throat
No one stopped to save Carmen
She was covered in scratches
running naked along the expressway
Discarded in a field until two boys rode their bicycles past.
as she frantically waved for help.

Last seen walking home
Wanda had street smarts
She fought back
and knew better than to get into the car of
A trooper found her body, tossed carelessly down a hill.
somebody she didn’t know.
Like the others
Police saw no link
She came from a broken home
between Michelle’s disappearance and
Vanishing in late afternoon, unearthed early the next morning.
the slayings of Carmen and Wanda.

Carmen’s uncle
In 1991, Miguel Colon
Fled to Puerto Rico
committed suicide in his home during a domestic dispute
After her doll was discovered within his freshly scrubbed car.
but he couldn’t have murdered Wanda or Michelle.

Suspected to be a serial rapist
The prime suspect in the “double initial” killings
A fireman caught the attention of police
Dennis Termini’s corpse would be exhumed in 2007,
As they closed in, he put an automatic to his head and pulled the trigger.
his DNA did not match the genetic evidence collected by police.

Over five decades have passed
A veritable horror show of suspects has been considered
Since these investigations started
Arthur Shawcross, Joseph Naso, Kenneth Bianchi -The Hillside Strangler,
Yet the leads never seem to stop.
while retired cops search their memories for anything missed.


D.M.'s YouTube video reading of "Alliteration":



Subscribe and turn on Notifications for Channel 52.


D.M. confesses: "I drive past where Carmen ran for her life. I pull over near the dump site for Wanda's body. I know the neighborhood where Michelle lived...they are not forgotten."

A deeply held fascination for wrongs from the past provides much of D.M. TESTA's inspiration to write about crime. She is the author of Defending the Dillinger Gang: Jessie Levy and Bess Robbins in the Courtroom.