Background: News footage of the scene where human remains were found in Shirley, Mass., on March 4 (WBZ). Inset: Authorities identified the victim as Peter Degan (Middlesex County District Attorney”s Office).
Authorities in Massachusetts identified the victim whose body parts were found in a pond by a group of teenagers.
On March 4, the teens were playing in the snow near a bridge over Phoenix Pond when they found what appeared to be a human body part in the water. In a Facebook post published the same day, the Shirley Police Department confirmed that what the teenagers saw was a human limb. According to reporting by local Fox affiliate WFXT, Katy Marsh, a woman walking her dog in the same area, said she witnessed the teens “dry heaving into the snow bank” and saying, “That’s so messed up, that’s so messed up.”
Marsh told WFTX that she later heard someone say, “Yep, that’s a leg. That’s a right foot, right leg.'”
Local CBS affiliate WBZ spoke to 15-year-old Dominic Dunn, who was one of the teenagers who found the first body part. He said, “I definitely didn’t like that. I didn’t like finding a leg with younger siblings here. Especially from having a snowball fight with my little sister, that was messed up.”
A day after the horrific find, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan held a press conference, during which she identified the owner of the human remains as 69-year-old Peter Degan. According to Ryan, a police diving team arrived at the scene after the initial report and found “additional body parts” in the pond. Ryan described the limbs as having been “clean cut” and “severed with a sharp force instrument.”
During the press conference, Ryan said that while a full body was not recovered, all the body parts that were found belonged to Degan. He was identified by his fingerprints.
Ryan stated that Degan was a convicted felon who was living in a “pre-release house” after being released from the MCI-Shirley medium-security prison on Feb. 6. Degan pleaded guilty to money laundering and cocaine trafficking in 2019 and had completed his sentence. He was last seen alive on Feb. 27, Ryan said.
Authorities do not believe that Degan’s apparent homicide was random. The investigation into Degan’s death is ongoing, and Shirley Police Chief Samuel Santiago said that anyone with information that may be helpful can call 978-425-2642.
