Erin Moriarty

Heather says she took this tip to the state police, who have confirmed that Battistone, who died in prison in 2014, was on their radar, along with many others.

Finally, in 2021, 21 years after Molly disappeared, it looked like investigators had enough evidence.

The district attorney's office officially named a person of interest.

For the first time, I thought, this is it.

On June 3rd, 2021, more than two decades after Molly Bish disappeared, there was finally news.

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.