For months, people in New England have been whispering about a possible serial killer.
Now, Massachusetts investigators are putting a name and a face to that fear.
According to Boston 25 News reporter Bob Ward, prosecutors in Middlesex County say 38-year-old Kevin J. Lino, a homeless man, fits the federal definition of a serial killer – and they believe there may be more victims they haven’t found yet.
Newsweek reporter Jenna Sundel adds that Lino is already a convicted double murderer. Now he’s charged in two more killings that were once considered cold or accidental deaths.
When you line up all four cases, a disturbing picture comes into focus.
Prosecutors Say: “Mr. Lino Is A Serial Killer”
In Bob Ward’s “New England’s Unsolved” report, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan doesn’t hedge her words.
Asked if Lino is just a suspect or something more, Ryan replies flatly: “Mr. Lino is a serial killer.”
She points to the Department of Justice definition, which says a serial killer is someone who has taken the lives of at least two people in separate incidents.
Ryan tells Ward that in Lino’s case, there are already two convictions, and now two additional murder charges have been filed in Massachusetts.
Sundel explains that Lino has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the 2010 killing of Gary A. Melanson, 54, and the 2012 killing of Douglas Leon Clarke, 30.
At the same time, Lino is already serving time for two other murders – one in Boston and one in Montana – both victims also homeless.
Put together, that’s four deaths over four years in two states, almost all of which originally slipped under the radar.
The Lowell Killing That Started It All
Bob Ward reports that investigators now believe Lino’s trail of violence began in Lowell in 2010.
According to Sundel, that’s when the body of Gary Melanson was found near a homeless encampment by the Rogers Street Bridge.
Melanson had multiple visible wounds, and yet, at the time, the medical examiner listed his manner of death as “undetermined.”
It would be years before that changed.
Sundel writes that in 2018, while Massachusetts State Police were working on an unrelated investigation involving Lino, they learned about his possible link to Melanson’s killing.
From there, the Middlesex DA’s Cold Case Unit began re-examining evidence from the encampment.
Prosecutors now say both men were unhoused and staying in the same area and that tension built over something as simple – and heartbreaking – as a fire to stay warm.
According to the DA’s office, Sundel reports, Lino allegedly ordered Melanson to stop lighting fires because he feared they would draw police and firefighters to the camp.
When Melanson ignored him, prosecutors say Lino rushed the older, smaller man and beat him to death with a metal baseball bat.
If that’s true, a man trying to survive the cold was killed by someone who didn’t want attention from authorities.
That alone says a lot about how invisible these lives are, right up until the moment they end.
A “Hot Shot” On The Banks Of The Charles River
Two years later, in 2012, another homeless man turned up dead – this time on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge.
Bob Ward reports that Douglas Leon Clark(e) was initially believed to have died from an accidental overdose.
A toxicology report, Sundel notes, found morphine, codeine, alcohol, and the medication gabapentin in Clarke’s system. The case was logged as an accident and moved off the front burner.
But six years after his death, new evidence surfaced.
According to the DA’s office, as summarized by Sundel, investigators now believe Lino intentionally gave Clarke a dose of heroin strong enough to kill him – the kind of deliberate poisoning often called a “hot shot.”
Prosecutors say the poisoning followed a confrontation between the two men.
If that allegation is true, Clarke didn’t just overdose; he was executed in a way that could easily be dismissed as routine drug use among the unhoused.
It’s a chilling tactic: use a method of killing that blends in with the background noise of addiction and street life, betting that no one will look too closely.
Two More Murders Already On His Record
The reason investigators are now confident enough to use the phrase “serial killer” is that Melanson and Clarke are not the only victims.
Bob Ward reports that Lino is already serving prison time for two other murders.
One of those victims was Normand Varieur, killed in Charlestown in 2012.
The other was Jack Gilbert Berry, a homeless man killed at an encampment in Missoula, Montana, in 2014.
Sundel notes that both of these prior victims were also unhoused, just like Melanson and Clarke.
So, when you line them up, you see a pattern:
Four men.
All homeless.
Killed in separate incidents over four years, in two different states, with methods ranging from blunt force to poison.
That’s not random street violence – that’s a series.
And if the charges in Massachusetts stick, the system will officially label Lino what Ryan already has: a serial killer who hunted among the most vulnerable.
Why Homeless Victims Get Overlooked
One of the most striking parts of Bob Ward’s reporting is how little the public has heard about this case.
Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, who co-authored Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder, tells Ward there’s a painful reason people don’t recognize Lino’s name.
“The homeless are vulnerable. They’re easy targets. They’re defenseless,” Fox says.
He adds that when homeless people are killed or disappear, “we just don’t have the same response. We might not even know that they are dead. They are just not there.”
That blunt truth explains how a man can allegedly kill four people over four years without becoming a household name.
Our systems – and honestly, our culture – are much louder when a college student or suburban parent disappears than when someone from a tent camp goes missing.
From a commentary standpoint, that’s the part that stings the most.
If the victims had been housed, middle-class, and plugged into social networks, would these cases have been stamped “undetermined” and “accident” for so long?
We can’t know for sure, but Fox’s point is hard to ignore: serial killers who target the marginalized are often hiding in plain sight.
Fears Of More Victims Still Out There
Ward’s report doesn’t stop at the four known killings.
He also speaks with Travis Mateer, a Montana citizen journalist who runs the Zoom Chron blog and who once worked as a homeless outreach coordinator in Missoula.
Mateer tells Ward he first encountered Lino in 2014 during his outreach work and has been worried about him ever since.
He says he is “very concerned” about the fate of Monte Swanson, a missing homeless man who was close to Lino in Montana.
“I think that Monte Swanson is dead and I think Kevin Lino was involved in his death,” Mateer tells Ward.
That is not an official charge, but it shows how people who knew both men are connecting the dots on their own.
Bob Ward asks DA Marian Ryan directly if she is worried there might be more victims out there.
Ryan answers that her office “continues to investigate” and that they “never give up on those cases” or forget about them.
Sundel also quotes Ryan emphasizing how Lino allegedly “repeatedly and deliberately” targeted unhoused individuals, calling the actions “violent and cruel, but inhumane.”
It’s the kind of language prosecutors use when they believe the known crimes may only be part of a larger pattern.
What Happens Next – And What This Case Really Shows
Right now, Sundel reports, Kevin J. Lino is incarcerated in Massachusetts, awaiting trial in the Melanson and Clarke cases.
If he’s convicted on those new charges, Ward says he could effectively spend the rest of his life behind bars, on top of his existing murder sentences.
On one level, this is a story about good police work finally catching up with a dangerous man.
Cold case units re-opened files, re-examined old scenes, and re-framed what looked like accidents or undetermined deaths into possible homicides.
But on another level, it’s a story about who we pay attention to – and who we don’t.
It took nearly a decade, multiple states, and at least four dead homeless men before the words “serial killer” were openly used in public.
As Bob Ward and Jenna Sundel both show in their reporting, this isn’t the movie version of a serial killer stalking suburbs or taunting police with letters.
It’s a man, allegedly preying on people society already ignores, in encampments most people drive past without looking.
If there’s any lesson here beyond the courtroom, it’s that every life on the street counts – and when those lives are taken, the response should be just as fierce, just as determined, as it is for anyone else.
The article Massachusetts Investigators Believe They’ve Found A New Serial Killer first appeared on Survival World.
Gary’s love for adventure and preparedness stems from his background as a former Army medic. Having served in remote locations around the world, he knows the importance of being ready for any situation, whether in the wilderness or urban environments. Gary’s practical medical expertise blends with his passion for outdoor survival, making him an expert in both emergency medical care and rugged, off-the-grid living. He writes to equip readers with the skills needed to stay safe and resilient in any scenario.
