Her disappearance led to the most extensive, largest, and expensive search for a missing person ever undertaken in the state of Massachusetts.

[2][3] In the summer of 2000, 16-year-old Molly Anne Bish (born August 2, 1983) began working as a lifeguard at Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts.

[4] On June 26, the day before her disappearance, her mother, Magi, saw a mustached man in a white car parked in the lot of the beach where Bish's lifeguard post was located.

However, another witness reported that he saw a man matching the stranger's description in the pond's parking lot just minutes before Bish arrived.

Her case was profiled on numerous American television shows, including Disappeared, America's Most Wanted,[5] Unsolved Mysteries,[6] and 48 Hours.

[1] A cause of death was not determined due to the body's advanced decomposition, but investigators presume Bish was murdered.

Rodney Stanger, a Florida resident convicted of murdering his girlfriend, had lived in Southbridge, Massachusetts — a few miles from the town of Warren — for more than 20 years.

In 2012, forensic evidence led authorities to name David Pouliot — who died in 2003 — as a person of interest in the Piirainen case.

Confidential Informant #62 for the Eastern Hampden County Narcotic Task Force, was named as a suspect in Bish's death by private detective Dan Malley of Massachusetts.

He attempted suicide in prison after newspaper articles identified him as a potential suspect in Bish and Piirainen's deaths.

[15] After Gerald Battistoni was named as a suspect, private detective Dan Malley and the Bish family asked for DNA testing to be done.

[19] Joseph Early, Worcester County District Attorney, announced a new person of interest on June 3, 2021—Francis P. Sumner Sr., a registered sex offender and a man with a more than 20-page criminal record, who was found dead inside his home in Spencer, Massachusetts, on May 4, 2016.

[21] As the 23rd anniversary of Molly Bish's disappearance approached, District Attorney Early provided an update on the investigation.

Early expressed confidence in the ongoing efforts by state police detectives and mentioned the continued testing of evidence with advancements in forensic science.