Bio

Charles E. Pierce was born in 1920. He grew up in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He became involved in a variety of jobs, including working in carnivals.

Pierce faced legal troubles, including incidents that led to his incarceration for raping a child in Florida in 1978.

He was linked to the tragic case of Michelle Wilson, a 13-year-old girl who was murdered in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1969. This event would ultimately lead to his conviction and life sentence in 1980. Pierce was arrested about a decade later in a Florida prison, where he confessed to the murder of Wilson and was connected to other cases.

Pierce remained incarcerated until he died of prostate cancer on February 17, 1999.

Murder Story

On November 22, 1969, Charles E. Pierce kidnapped 13-year-old Michelle Wilson in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Michelle was riding her bicycle home from a friend's house when Pierce approached her in his van. He forcibly took her inside the vehicle and strangled her. After her death, he committed necrophilia with her body.

Pierce then transported her body to some woods. There, he abused her corpse further, biting, beating, and kicking her. He placed a large rock on her head and covered her remains with leaves. The next day, a massive search for Michelle began when her family reported her missing after finding her bicycle nearby. Tragically, her body was discovered 19 hours later in the wooded area.

In the years that followed, Pierce's past came back to the spotlight when he was arrested for the murder of Michelle Wilson while serving time in Florida for other sexual offenses. He later confessed to killing Michelle after a decade of speculation on his involvement. In June 1980, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a life sentence.

Years later, in January 1999, Pierce, now in poor health, claimed to have killed several other children. He mentioned two victims, including a girl from Connecticut named Janice Pockett and a boy from Lawrence, but provided few details. Soon after, he retracted his statements, leaving investigators uncertain about the accuracy of his confessions.

Pierce died of prostate cancer on February 17, 1999, in prison, where he had spent the last years of his life. His late-life confessions and the uncertainty around other possible victims remain a mystery to this day.