Harold Meade (murderer)

Harold W. Meade III (1948 – December 9, 2007) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer who bludgeoned three mentally disabled individuals to death on August 12, 1970, in New Haven, Connecticut. He was later arrested in December of the same year, and pleaded guilty to the murders in 1972. In addition to the three murders he was convicted of, Meade is suspected of committing several other killings in Connecticut dating back to 1969. In 2007, Meade died from an illness in prison.

On December 9, 2007, Harold Meade died from an illness while incarcerated.

In 1996, an inmate told his lawyer that Meade confessed to murdering Diane Toney. Meade also allegedly stated that the police could never connect him to the case unless they found the girl's underwear.

On the afternoon of June 26, 1992, 43-year-old Linda Rayner was bludgeoned to death with a rock in a remote area of Hammonasset Beach State Park. Before her body was discovered, a rainstorm and high-tide caused the majority of forensic evidence to wash away, and DNA of the perpetrator was never recovered. Although an award of $50,000 was offered for information leading to the arrest of a suspect, no one was ever charged with Rayner's murder.

Between 1985 and 1993, Meade was granted 184 one-day furloughs and 68 weekend furloughs from prison. While on furlough, he met and married his second wife, Adrianne.

On August 12, 1970, Meade bludgeoned three people to death with a boulder in West Rock Park, New Haven, Connecticut. The victims were Sandra Hedler, 15, Donna Schlitter, 23, and William White, 20. They were developmentally disabled residents of the nearby New Haven Regional Center. Later that same day, the bodies of Hedler and Schlitter were found behind a ventilator shaft in a tunnel of the park. White was found alive in the nearby woods, but died in St. Raphael's hospital seventeen days later.

Several witnesses around the park at the time of the crime told police that they saw a late-model blue car in the area. Using this information, the police investigated hundreds of cars in the area with this description, one of them belonging to Meade. After uncovering more evidence linking Meade to the crime, he was arrested and charged with the murders on December 11, 1970. Meade pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole on April 27, 1972.

Meade is suspected of murdering at least four young girls in Southern Connecticut from 1969 to 1970. The victims, 11-year-old Diane Toney, 10-year-old Mary Mount, 14-year-old Dawn Cave, and 5-year-old Jennifer Noon, were all bludgeoned to death with rocks and left in wooded areas. Although Meade was never charged in any of the four murders, there is circumstantial evidence and witness statements connecting him to each crime. Meade was never charged with any of these murders because his public defender made a plea deal with the prosecution which stated that if Meade confessed to the three murders he was convicted of, authorities couldn't charge him with any other murders.

Harold Meade was born in 1948. Meade's father owned a gas station in Bethany, Connecticut.