Erin Moriarty

Francis Frank Sumner Sr.

was a local auto repair shop owner with an extensive criminal record.

Kathy Curran was the first to report the details.

Frank Sumner seemed like a great suspect.

Was he familiar with the area?

And just like the sketch, Sumner was photographed smoking with his left hand.

DA Joe Early says Sumner, who died in 2016, had been well known to investigators working the Bish case for years.

What made Frank Sumner rise to that top to actually be called a suspect?

Although tight-lipped about the details, the Worcester DA's office was confident that Sumner was a viable suspect and planned to compare his DNA to DNA found at the crime scenes.

But as it turned out, they couldn't obtain Sumner's DNA.

Sumner had been cremated, and his DNA had never been submitted to the National CODIS database.

I don't know who dropped the ball, but somebody dropped the ball.

So authorities traveled to Ohio to get DNA from his son, Frank Sumner Jr.

He was serving time in prison for robbery.

And so we waited, and we waited, because they said, we're going to, you know, do some DNA analysis.

Heather, who had started that TikTok months earlier, reached out to her followers to see if she could drum up more evidence.

If you know something, if you heard something, please call the state police tip line.

We are still waiting for answers.

Heather says it took investigators about a year before they finally told her the results of the DNA testing.

It was inconclusive.