Savela

The State Police Association of Massachusetts

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August 31, 1951

Trooper Savela graduated on June 16^th, 1947 with the 31^st Recruit Training Troop. His early service had been with Troop A in Framingham. He was later transferred to his native Worcester County and assigned to SP Athol.

On August 31^st, 1951, Trooper Savela was on patrol on Rte. 122 in the town of Barre, just west of Barre Center. There, he conducted a motor vehicle stop. During the course of the stop, Trooper Savela returned to his cruiser in an apparent attempt to use the radio. At 2020 hrs., a farmer from Barre heard several gunshots in the distance; he walked towards the noise and found a State Police cruiser parked with the motor running and the radio blaring. He observed the passenger door of the cruiser open and found Trooper Savela sprawled out, his feet in the cruiser and his head on the ground, his service revolver still in its holster. The farmers wife later stated that she observed someone with a flashlight get into the right side of a sedan parked in front of the patrol car, then the sedan sped away. Trooper Savela had been murdered with seven rounds from a 9mm automatic pistol. The crime spawned a nine day manhunt, which was unsuccessful. The killer was never apprehended and the case was never solved. A subject who later died in a Florida prison for the murder of an assistant prison superintendent was the prime suspect in the murder of Trooper Savela.

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