The Renee Freer murder case: Candlelight vigil keeps a bright light burning | The Monroe Sun

Renee Freer was an outgoing eight-year-old, adored by her friends who affectionately nicknamed her Giggles for her infectious laugh. On June 22, 1977, police believe it was a male juvenile known to Renee, who took away her life, using a large rock as the murder weapon and leaving her body in the woods near her family’s Monroe, Conn., home.

On a cloudy Thursday night with a gentle breeze, close to 40 family, friends and supporters gathered in front of Monroe Congregational Church for a candlelight vigil honoring Renee.

Beth Pisani, who grew up in Monroe and now lives in North Carolina, was among the organizers of the event, which will be aired on The Crimetime with Brittani & Renae podcast on NTXRadio.

Holding a microphone, Pisani led those gathered in a moment of silence and played music from the ’70s to honor Renee and bring attendees back in time.

“We’re going to remember the good times and remember a little girl, who touched the lives of everybody standing here today,” she said. “That’s the reason why we’re here, because 48 years ago today, somebody special left us and we’re gonna remember.”

“For the next few minutes, just take a moment and reflect and try to pull yourselves back to a happier time,” she said. “We’re not gonna remember the bad times, we’re gonna remember the happier times right now, so try to put a smile on your face and remember the swings in the summertime and sunshine.”

Flameless candles lined the front walkway of the church and flames of real candles flickered on the front steps. Many wore black “Justice for Renee” T-shirts and held a small candle and Renee’s last class picture.

Among those gathered, Tawny Syrotiak, a close friend of Renee’s, who used to sit with her on the bus when they rode to and from Stepney Elementary School together, said, “the last thing I remember was getting off the bus, turning and waving.”

Cindie Dnistrian was in the seventh grade, but lived on Renee’s street, Williams Drive, where everyone knew each other and children would play together. On that fateful day in 1977, Dnistrian passed out programs at the Chalk Hill School graduation and returned home by 8 p.m.

“I heard Felicia driving slowly up and down the street and yelling for Renee,” Dnistrian said of Renee’s mother, who last saw her daughter as she left the house to buy ingredients to bake cookies for a party celebrating the end of the school year the following day.

“She stopped her car in front of our house,” Dnistrian said. “We ran up to her car window and she said, ‘have you seen Renee? She’s missing.'”

“She wasn’t overly alarmed, but she was certainly nervous,” Dnistrian said of Renee’s mother.

Bob Tranzillo was chairman of the Monroe Town Council at the time. He had also served on the Monroe Volunteer Emergency Medical Service.

Firefighters had joined police and neighbors in a search for Renee. “We were going to join the search, but they already found her,” Tranzillo said. “Police were very tight-lipped. They always intimated that they were close, so they had to be careful what they said. Then it just dragged on and on, from the ’70s to the ’80s …”

The Monroe Police Department continues to investigate every lead in the case, in hopes of finally solving Renee Freer’s murder.

Different detectives have led the investigation over the years. Most recently, Lt. Kevin McKellick assigned the case to Det. Jeff Marcel, who is now the lead investigator. He urges anyone with information to call Marcel at the Monroe Detective Division, 203-452-2831.

‘A bright light’

Syrotiak met Renee in kindergarten and Renee became one of her best friends. The first things that come to mind when Syrotiak thinks of Renee is her laugh, her smile and her love of animals.

“She was kind and she was a jokester,” Syrotiak said. “Renee was a tomboy. We would run around. We would chase the boys. We would sit on the bus together and had lunch together. She stole my chocolate pudding. She used to put her hotdogs in my chocolate milk. She as fun.”

If Renee saw someone who looked sad or lonely, she would try to make them happy, according to Syrotiak.

“She had the most infectious laugh. She was Giggles,” Syrotiak said. “On the bus, if she laughed, everyone laughed.”

Dnistrian has fond memories of her former neighbor.

“She was the kind of kid, who was such a friendly child that everyone knew her,” Dnistrian said of Renee. “She rode her bike down the road, knocked on our door and asked my mom if she could pick flowers that she could give to her teacher. She was just a bright effervescent, bubbly child. She might have done something brilliant in life. She had a kind, gentle nature to her.”

Sisters, Marti Kane and Kerri DiBlasi, took turns at the microphone to talk about their old friend. Kane recited a poem.

“I want to talk about my friend, a sweet girl, a bright light named Renee Freer, who was taken from us far too soon,” DiBlasi said.

She remembered sitting together every day with Renee and another friend, Abby, around a table in their third grade class.

“She had this beautiful, almost striking look about her, beautiful long brown hair and brown eyes and I even remember telling her once that she looked like Linda Ronstadt,” DiBlasi said of the famous singer, as laughter could be heard among those gathered. “She just laughed, a genuine lovely sound, at the idea. That was Renee, full of a happy grace and a wonderful laugh.”

“Then came the last day of school and Renee wasn’t at our table,” DiBlasi said, her voice shaking with emotion. “That day was one of the saddest of my life and it shook me to my nine-year-two-months-and-15 days core.”

DiBlasi called Renee’s murder “a heavy injustice that still hangs over our town today.”

Hope for Justice

“I hope they either make it a cold case, so people can FOI the files and let the family just know what happened and put it to rest in their hearts, or go for it, make your arrest and, even if they don’t convict — the family can at least know who it was,” Pisani said.

The hope of finally bringing someone to justice for Renee’s murder was felt throughout the vigil.

Alena Purciello, who lives across the street from Renee Freer’s old house, was among the speakers Thursday. Though she wasn’t alive back then, her closeness to the property and because the murder is “such a sick and twisted thing to do to someone so young,” sparked Purciello’s interest in the unsolved case.

“We need to start putting more pressure on the people who know something about it to come forward and I believe it will be solved,” she said.

“I have a lot of hope in this case,” Syrotiak said. “This case, it’s personal for me.”

Syrotiak’s uncle, Ken Heim, was a patrolman in 1977 and became one of the lead detectives on the Freer case later in his career.

“My father was on the search parties,” she added. “I found out at seven in the morning when I was getting ready for school. My dad told me. I hope it’s solved.”

“It isn’t a cold case, it’s a wound that has never healed,” DiBlasi said. “We need to find out who murdered her, not just for accountability, but that so Renee can finally rest and so that our town can begin to heal fully from this deep and painful injustice.”

DiBlasi urges anyone who knows something about the case, even the smallest detail, to come forward, “because it could be the key to unlocking this longstanding mystery.”

“Forty-eight years is far too long for a family and a community to live without answers,” she said. “Renee was an innocent child and she deserves to rest in peace knowing that justice was served.”

Renee’s presence felt

Two family members were among those gathered at the church Thursday, Lisa Victoria of Woodbury, who was the late Felicia Freer’s first cousin, and cousin, John Wasik of Shelton. Both expressed optimism that renewed attention could lead to police solving the old case.

In the past year, author Erik Hanson wrote the book, “Dead End Road” and Kristen Seavey, host of the podcast, “Murder She Told,” dedicated an episode to the unsolved case.

“You’re getting a lot of people across the country,” Wasik said of the interest. “Since the book came out, it snowballed.”

“There’s people that know stuff. There’s a $50,000 reward,” Victoria said.

Wasik said he feels optimism because police seem to believe they know who did it and there is still a chance of DNA evidence finding a link to the killer.

“Why should this person live their life, have children and grandchildren when Renee never got to be nine-years-old?” Victoria said.

“To dump her in the woods like she was a piece of garbage,” Wasik said.

Victoria and Wasik expressed sadness over Felicia Freer losing her daughter and the affect on Renee’s little brother, Nathan’s life.

“She never got to eat those cookies,” Wasik said of the cookies Renee’s mother was baking that fateful day. “Her brother, she was taken from him. It’s a domino effect.”

Wasik and Victoria are among those who believe lost loved ones find ways to make their presence known in our lives.

Wasik always thinks of his cousin when he hears the Beatles’ song, “Here Comes the Sun,” which he heard playing while leaving Renee’s funeral service with his family, when he had recently graduated from Masuk High School in 1977.

“We heard it at Bill’s today,” Victoria said with a smile, recalling hearing the famous song before attending the vigil on the cloudy night. “And there’s no rain.”

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