Authorities in Massachusetts are calling a Lowell man a “serial killer” after linking him to four separate homicides spanning more than a decade.
Massachusetts Man Possibly a Serial Killer
Kevin Lino, 38, is already behind bars for two murders: the 2012 killing of Normand Varieur in Boston and the 2014 killing of Jack Gilbert Berry in Missoula, Montana, according to Boston 25 News. All three men — Lino, Varieur, and Berry — were experiencing homelessness at the time.
In August, prosecutors charged Lino with two additional murders, both involving men living unhoused in Massachusetts, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office announced.
“Mr. Lino is a serial killer,” District Attorney Marian Ryan told Boston 25 News. “The Department of Justice defines a serial killer as someone who has taken the life of at least two people in separate incidents. We already have two convictions, and now we’ve brought two more charges.”
Authorities emphasized that these cases are not connected to the string of deaths across New England that fueled online rumors about a separate serial killer earlier this year. Since March, the remains of more than 10 women have been discovered in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Investigators have said those deaths are unrelated, and many are not considered suspicious.
New charges filed against Kevin Lino
The newest charges trace back to 2010, when Lino was 23 and living in a homeless encampment in Lowell. Prosecutors say he beat 54-year-old Gary Melanson to death with a metal baseball bat after repeatedly telling him to stop lighting fires to stay warm. Lino allegedly believed the fires would draw police and firefighters to the campsite.
According to investigators, when Melanson ignored him, Lino “rushed the victim, who was much smaller and older, and struck him repeatedly with a metal baseball bat, killing him.”
Six years later, investigators tied Lino to the death of another man, 30-year-old Douglas Leon Clarke, who died in Cambridge in 2012. Clarke’s death was originally ruled an accidental overdose involving several substances, including morphine, codeine, ethanol, and gabapentin.
In 2018, detectives discovered Lino had been living in the same encampment as Clarke near the Harvard Square MBTA station. Witnesses reported that Lino had grown angry about heroin users frequenting the camp and was trying to push them out.
Prosecutors now believe Clarke was killed after Lino intentionally gave him a lethal dose of heroin — what’s commonly referred to as a “hot shot.”
Authorities say they’re continuing to look into Lino’s history and warn there may be additional victims.
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