New England’s Unsolved: Henry Bedard’s family still searching for justice

SWAMPSCOTT, Mass. — In Swampscott, the murder of Henry Bedard Jr. in 1974 still haunts investigators.

The teenager was beaten to death with a baseball bat.

His killer has never been identified.

For the first time, Boston 25 News Reporter Bob Ward recently interviewed Henry’s father, who says he never thought he would have to wait this long for justice.

“All I know is, whoever did it, has no conscience. No conscience. Just an animal,” Henry Bedard Sr. said.

Bedard Sr. has lived half a century without knowing who viciously killed his son.

Speaking to Ward from his home in Florida, Henry Sr. says he is losing hope.

“I’ll probably die and never know,” Bedard said.

Henry Bedard Jr. was 15 years old, a high school sophomore, when he died. On December 17, 1974, his badly beaten body was discovered in woods behind a Swampscott DPW Yard in an area known as Kite Hill, or Swampscott View.

Investigators say Henry Bedard Jr. was murdered with a baseball bat.

“We have been told he was not just hit in the head with the baseball bat, but he was hit several times. And he was hit after he was down,” Lynda Bedard, Henry Sr.’s wife said.

Henry Bedard Jr. was last seen alive in the afternoon of the day before. In Vinnin Square, Henry dropped off a roll of film to be developed at a CVS, and he looked for a Christmas present for his sister.

Sometime between 3 and 3:30 p.m., DPW workers saw Henry walk down the street.

And so did the late Swampscott Police Chief Peter Cassidy, as he told Ward in 2004.

“I just stopped the car, waved at him, he went across. He knew me and I knew him,” Chief Cassidy said. “He just went up that way, which is the direction of where we found him.”

The wooded area where Henry was found is near neighborhoods and an abandoned railroad line.

The tracks are long gone.

But in 1974, young people were familiar with the area.

“They would go up either from one of the side streets, or through the DPW yard and they would take those tracks, and kind of skip those side streets to get to where they were going,” Swampscott Police Detective Sgt. Candace Doyle said.

She is now working the Bedard murder case.

Det. Sgt. Doyle said a key piece of evidence that is still being is analyzed is the baseball bat, a 31-inch Louisville Slugger.

“This belonged to somebody in the town,” Doyle said.

Carvings on the bat and what might be a “K” continue to interest police.

“This marking right here on the top was homemade and is significant to the bat, and to the owner, we assume,” Doyle said.

Fifty years later, Henry Bedard Sr. is still frustrated the bat’s owner has never been identified.

“I mean, how many Little League teams in Swampscott? How many bats? Nobody knew anything about it,” Bedard Sr. said.

In Swampscott, police are not giving up on finding Henry Bedard’s killer.

“It’s equally as important today as was back then in December of 1974,” Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker said.

Henry’s Dad is not giving up either. He is just tired of waiting for justice.

“It would clear my mind for sure,” Henry Bedard Sr. said of the hope for an arrest in the case. “I always said I would like to know before I die. Well, I’m 92 in a month. So how much longer have I got?”

If you have any information about the murder of Henry Bedard in 1974, contact Swampscott Police at 781-595-1111 or Mass State Police at 1-855-MA-SOLVE.

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