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Holly Piirainen Murder Mystery Unsolved Now For 23 Years

BOSTON (CBS) – It's been 23 years since a little girl from Grafton disappeared during a vacation and was later found dead.

To this day, there have been no arrests in the kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Holly Piirainen.

The Hampden District Attorney's Office is hoping Friday's anniversary might generate new leads in the mystery.

Holly was on vacation with her family at her grandmother's summer cottage in Sturbridge on August 5, 1993. She was last seen alive by her father at 11:45 a.m. as she wandered up the road to see a neighbor's puppies, and never returned.

When she didn't come home, her father reported her missing and later found one of her sneakers.

But a massive search turned up nothing.

More than two months later, on October 23, 1993, Holly's remains were found by hunters in the woods off Five Bridge Road in Brimfield, about seven miles away from where she disappeared.

"The Piirainen family has been coping with this tragedy for twenty-three years. Along with Holly's family, members of my office and the Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the case have never stopped investigating to try to bring justice to Holly and her family. If any member of the public has any information please contact us," Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said in a statement.

Anyone with information is asked to call State Police at (413) 505-5993 or text-a-tip by texting the word CRIMES (2-7-4-6-3-7) and type the word SOLVE into the body of the message followed by your tip.

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