By JENNA WOLF
Copyright 2006 Boston Herald Inc.
After church one morning in February 1981, Kathleen Mayer ran out of the house, eager to go babysit for a neighbor.
“I told her, ‘We’ll walk with you down there,’ ” recalls Bert Mayer, her father. “But you know teenagers. She went ahead.”
Minutes later, Kathleen, then 14 years old, lay near her family’s home on Cold Spring Road in Westford - the victim of a hit and run.
That tragedy changed her brother Michael’s life: He became a Westford police detective and then a state trooper - and he has spent years trying to find her killer.
“One of the reasons I became a cop was so no other family would have to suffer the way we did,” Michael Mayer said. “I wanted to find closure.”
Mayer re-examined the case in 1999 and spent most of his free time chasing down leads, after spending his workdays solving crimes for other families.
In 1981, there were no witnesses to the crime that killed the Mayers’ firstborn, a popular freshman at Westford Academy and cross country runner.
Eventually, witnesses emerged, including a family walking near the accident. They said they saw a man jump out of a car and check his front end, “like he hit something,” Michael Mayer said.
His hopes to find other witnesses are more fervent now than ever, as the case is currently featured on America’s Most Wanted Web site. The family believes that will bring national attention to the case.
Kathy’s sister, Christy Vercauteren, also is planning a candlelight vigil to be held on the anniversary of her death next month.
Bert Mayer still vividly recalls the accident. “I heard this thud,” Mayer remembers. “At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. But when I got outside, I found her laying on the ground. She was hit.”
The car - and the driver - were gone.
“Whoever did it is a coward,” he said. “What kind of person would leave a girl bleeding there?
“If this guy just stopped and helped Kathy, she could be alive today. Instead he just left her there to bleed to death,” Bert said.
“There’s nothing worse than losing a child. You just don’t recover from this wound.”
Anyone with information in the case can contact Detective Lt. Conley at the State Police Detective Unit at 617-679-6600 or the headquarters hotline at 508-820-2121.
HEARTACHE: Bert and Liz Mayer hold a photo of their daughter Kathleen, who was killed in a 1981 hit-and-run accident. STAFF PHOTO BY RENEE DEKONA
January 15, 2006