Remaining family seeks answers 27 years after grisly Lynn murder

This is the fifth story in a weekly series about cold cases in the city of Lynn.LYNN – On Sept. 30, 1984, 26-year-old Mary Josephine Sweeney was stabbed 27 times in the chest, back and arms in her Lynnway apartment, blood gushing from her wounds as she lay clutching a telephone in an attempt to make a final plea for help.Her sister made the horrifying discovery the next morning, finding her body slumped against a blood-splattered wall in the bedroom of her Ocean Shores apartment at 50 Lynnway, where she lived alone. Handicapped from a severe beating in 1982, Sweeney needed leg and back braces to walk. The braces were found on the floor next to her bed.When police arrived, they were met by an unsettling scene – several religious candles still flickering from the night before and the apartment violently ripped apart. Sweeney’s purse had been rummaged through and emptied out onto the floor, but there weren’t any signs of forced entry into her home.”She was involved in several relationships, engaged in risky behavior and was known to hitchhike,” said Lynn Police Capt. Mark O’Toole. “In August of 1984, she was charged with possession of a handgun after she showed it to someone she hitchhiked with and was arrested prior to that in Milford in 1980 for shooting a loaded rifle. She associated with a cast of characters.”The night of her murder, neighbors mentioned hearing loud music coming from her sixth-floor apartment, but no one witnessed anyone coming or going. O’Toole said extensive interviews were conducted of friends and relatives, but nearly 27 years later, her killer remains on the loose.Sweeney’s step-mother, Brenda, 69, said she and her late husband, Joseph, always had suspicions about one of Mary Jo’s brothers, who was described as a bad influence on his sister and is currently serving a prison sentence in Massachusetts for witness tampering.”He used to go over her place with booze and drugs, destroyed her apartment one time and smacked her around,” she said. “He stabbed a homeless man to death in Waltham and served time for it. But we also thought it might have been her late sister’s husband, who Mary Jo said raped her.”Sweeney’s half-sister, Bonnie Peluso, 19 at the time of the murder, said regardless of who committed the crime she pines for closure and justice for her family.”We were told the night after she died that her alcohol level was really high and, at the time, you couldn’t buy alcohol on a Sunday in Massachusetts,” she said. “But he (her brother) lived in New Hampshire at the time where you can buy it. There are so many things that go through your head that you just don’t know what’s going on.”Peluso said she can’t imagine who would have wanted to stab her sister 27 times, which included two wounds to her heart, but admitted that Mary Jo often associated with the wrong crowd of people.”Whoever murdered her, put a pillow under her head and put a blanket on her to make her comfortable after they realized what they did,” she said. “So the person had to have cared for her at some point.”Sweeney’s father died last year at the age of 73, unable to get the closure he always wanted. Brenda, however, is still fighting for the truth.”She was a complicated person, but also a sweet, caring person,” Brenda Sweeney said. “She adored her sisters and brothers and did everything she could for me. I just want to know who did this.”Anyone with information on the cold case is urged to call the police at 781-595-2000. Anonymous tips can be submitted by texting the word tiplynn and the information to tip411 or 847411 or through the department’s Web site, www.lynnpolice.org and clicking the submit tip icon.