[3][4][5] At 4:20 p.m. on November 16, 1971, a 10-year-old Puerto Rican child named Carmen Colón disappeared while returning home from an errand in Rochester, New York.

[7] Colón was reported missing to the Rochester Police Department at 7:50 p.m.[8] Approximately fifty minutes after Colón exited the pharmacy, scores of motorists driving along Interstate 490 observed the child, naked from the waist down, running from a reversing vehicle believed to be a dark-colored Ford Pinto hatchback,[9] frantically waving her arms and shouting in an attempt to flag down a passing vehicle.

[11][n 1] Two days later, two teenage boys discovered Colón's partially nude body in a gully not far from Interstate 490, and close to the village of Churchville.

Numerous local businesses and residents added private donations to the reward fund, gradually leading the sum to exceed $6,000.

[17][n 2] Seventeen months later, at approximately 5:00 p.m. on April 2, 1973, 11-year-old Wanda Walkowicz disappeared from the east side of Rochester while returning home from an errand.

These searches failed to locate the child,[21] although several neighborhood residents recalled observing Walkowicz, struggling to carry the bag of groceries, walking just north of Avenue B.

[22] Walkowicz's fully clothed body was found by a police officer at 10:15 a.m. the following day,[23] discarded at the base of a hillside alongside an access road to State Route 104 in Webster, approximately seven miles (11 km) from Rochester.

[29] As had been the case with Carmen Colón, investigators established an anonymous telephone hotline in addition to distributing numerous flyers throughout Rochester appealing for information.

[30] These police inquiries produced an eyewitness who informed investigators that as Walkowicz had walked home from the delicatessen on the evening of April 2,[31] he had observed the child standing alongside the passenger door of a large brown vehicle, conversing with the driver.

This eyewitness was unable to obtain a clear view of the occupant of the vehicle,[28] although the location of this sighting was just two-tenths of a mile from the Walkowicz home.

[34] Seven months later, on the evening of November 26, 1973, 11-year-old Michelle Maenza was reported missing by her mother, Carolyn, after she failed to return home from school.

[35] Approximately ten minutes later, a witness observed Maenza sitting in the passenger seat of a beige or tan vehicle traveling at high speed on Ackerman Street before turning onto Webster Avenue.

[37] At 5:30 p.m on November 26, a motorist observed a man standing by a large beige or tan vehicle with a flat tire,[28] parked alongside Route 350 in the town of Walworth, holding a girl he strongly believed to be Michelle Maenza by the wrist.

[37] Maenza's fully clothed body was discovered at 10:30 a.m. on November 28, lying face down in a ditch alongside a rural road in Macedon, approximately 15 miles (24 km) from Rochester.

Her autopsy revealed that in addition to receiving extensive blunt force trauma to her body, Maenza had been raped, then strangled to death from behind with a ligature, possibly a thin rope.

Following the murder of Michelle Maenza, investigators released a composite drawing of the individual seen with the child by numerous witnesses to the media.

As each child hailed from a poor Catholic family,[50] had few friends, and had recently experienced issues such as bullying[51] or poor academic performance at her school, investigators have not discounted the possibility the murderer may have been employed by, or held knowledge of the practises of, a social service agency in his efforts to initiate contact with and/or gain the trust of each victim.

[41] All three victims were preadolescent females who had disappeared from Rochester in the early afternoon on days of light or heavy rain[52] and whose bodies were later discovered within nearby towns.

[60] Just weeks prior to Colón's abduction and murder, her uncle is known to have purchased a car closely matching the vehicle seen by eyewitnesses reversing upon Interstate 490 in pursuit of the child.

[64] Miguel Colón was unable to provide a credible alibi for his movements on the date of his niece's murder, and no individual could be located to corroborate his claims regarding his whereabouts.

[65] Miguel Colón died by suicide in 1991 at the age of 44 following an incident of domestic violence in which he shot and wounded both his wife and his brother.

Termini was a prolific serial offender known as the "Garage Rapist" who is known to have committed a minimum of fourteen rapes of teenage girls and young women between 1971 and 1973.

Shortly thereafter, he abducted another potential victim, although on this occasion he was pursued by the police, culminating in Termini committing suicide by shooting himself in the head.

In this interview, granted to Democrat and Chronicle reporter Jack Jones, Guillermina Colón stated that although she had lived her entire life in poverty, if she could have only one thing before her own death, it would not be wealth, but knowing who had murdered her daughter, adding: "[If] I could die knowing who killed my Carmencita, I could die more peacefully than I have lived.

"[83] The Democrat and Chronicle newspaper published a series of articles focusing upon the ongoing police investigation into the Alphabet murders in 2009, appealing for public information with view to closing the case.