N.H. AG and State Police Report Solving 1972 Murder of Haverhill Woman, But Assailant Died in 2019

File photograph. (Image licensed by Ingram Image.)

New Hampshire officials say the murder of a 48-year-old Haverhill woman in 1972 has been “solved,” but the man they believe committed the crime died in 2019.

N.H. Attorney General John M. Formella and Col. Nathan Noyes of the New Hampshire State Police said Wednesday the murder of Arlene L. Clevesy was committed by Albert Francis Moore Jr. They said her body was discovered on June 4, 1972, in the area of Hume Brook in Newton, N.H. An autopsy found she suffocated due to trauma to her neck and drowning.

According to a final report, “At the time of her death, Arlene Clevesy had been happily married for almost a year to Harold Clevesy and they lived on Union Street in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Harold Clevesy told investigators that on the night of June 3, 1972, he and Arlene went to the Hotel Whittier in Haverhill for drinks and stayed until around 9 or 9:30 p.m. At that time Harold returned home but Arlene stayed out as she often would. Harold became concerned when Arlene did not return home the next day.”

Forrest Hicks, an acquaintance of Moore, told investigators he saw Moore with Clevesy at the Eagles Club in Haverhill. Official say Clevesy accepted a ride home in Moore’s bronze 1972 Chevy van. Moore would go on over the years to make a series of admissions to different individuals about his responsibility for her death.

A grand jury indicted Moore for second degree murder in Rockingham Superior Court in April, 1977, but he was not prosecuted because he was then serving a life sentence for the August 1972 murder of Donald Rimer in Salem, Mass.

The New Hampshire Cold Case Unit reopened an investigation in 2015. Investigators conducted interviews with relevant witnesses and confirmed their earlier statements which included descriptions of the crime scene. They also conducted multiple interviews with Moore in prison during which he denied responsibility for the murders of both Clevesy and Rimer. In April of 2021, Detective James Soucy learned Moore died Nov 11, 2019, from metastatic prostate cancer, at age 88.

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