Cold case solved: DNA identifies man who strangled mother to death in 1995

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- More than 30 years after a young mother was found dead in a western Massachusetts park, investigators say DNA testing has identified her killer.

Celestina Perez, 24, the mother of four young children, was found dead in Gurdon Bill Park in Springfield in 1995. Her killer was never found.

On Wednesday, Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni said Joseph James Ceravolo Jr. was identified as Perez's killer. Ceravolo died of natural causes in 2013, preventing criminal prosecution.

"If Ceravolo were alive today, he would be charged with the murder of Ms. Celestina Perez," Gulluni said.

On June 2, 1995, two men discovered Perez's body in a ravine at Gurdon Bill Park near Genesee and Warwick streets in Springfield's Lower Liberty Heights neighborhood.

Investigators found evidence of a violent struggle that began near the top of the ravine and continued down the slope, where Perez's body was located.

Authorities recovered blood evidence, torn buttons believed to have come from Perez's blouse and one of her shoes. The evidence was preserved for future testing.

An autopsy determined Perez died from manual strangulation that caused asphyxia, along with blunt-force trauma to her head. Her death was ruled a homicide.

The Hampden district attorney's office's Unresolved and Unidentified Case Investigation Unit reopened the case over the past two years using advances in forensic DNA technology.

Investigators believed the attacker may have injured himself during the assault, making blood evidence collected from Perez's clothing especially significant.

Testing by the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory developed a major male DNA profile from blood found on Perez's underwear. When the profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, it matched Ceravolo, who was 32 and living in Springfield at the time of the killing.

Two forensic laboratories also independently linked Ceravolo's DNA to stains on Perez's underwear and jeans, investigators said.

According to investigators, Ceravolo lived within walking distance of Gurdon Bill Park in 1995 and was not known to be incarcerated or hospitalized when Perez was killed.

The investigation also documented a history of assaultive behavior, including a violent domestic assault committed weeks after Perez's death that resulted in his arrest and conviction.

Because Ceravolo died in 2013, investigators sought independent forensic confirmation before publicly identifying him.

"There is now an answer," Gulluni said. "There is no longer any mystery. And after 31 years, the murder of Celestina Perez is no longer unresolved."

Officials said investigators met privately with Perez's family before announcing the findings.

"Nothing we announce today can return Celestina to the children who grew up without their mother or erase the grief her family has carried for 31 years," Gulluni said.

Gulluni credited the Springfield Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police, and members of the district attorney's office's Unresolved and Unidentified Case Investigation Unit for their work on the decades-old investigation.

"This case and the conclusion we reached validates why we do this work," Gulluni said. "Today, after 31 years, we can finally say that the person responsible for taking her life has been identified."

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