Wendy Ann Lavallee Morello was 40 when her life ended in late summer 2004. A former licensed nurse practitioner and mother of two, she had struggled with heroin addiction and was known to spend time in Worcester, Massachusetts. Family last saw her on September 1, 2004; a Worcester detective saw her on September 5 after she abruptly left a friend’s apartment in the early morning hours and got into a waiting car.

On September 13, 2004, the day her daughter filed a missing persons report, a walker found Morello’s body in a trash barrel in a wooded area off a side road in York, Maine. Investigators believe she was killed elsewhere, likely in Massachusetts, and her body transported roughly 90 miles to Maine. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Her murder raised concern about a possible pattern of killings targeting vulnerable women from Worcester’s Main South neighborhood, but the case has since gone cold: no suspects have been named and no arrests announced. If anyone knew Wendy, saw her in early September 2004, or has information about her movements or who drove her from that Worcester address, please come forward.