Sounak Sengupta
Investigation Discovery’s ‘See No Evil: Watching Amy Lord’ chronicles how 24-year-old Amy Lord was brutally murdered in South Boston, Massachusetts, in July 2013. While the police arrested the perpetrator within hours of the killing, they were shocked to learn Amy was one of the victims targeted by the killer.
How Did Amy Lord Die?
Amy Beth Lord was born to Dennis A. and Cynthia A. (O’Donnell) Lord in Springfield in Hampden County, Massachusetts, on December 21, 1988. Raised in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, she graduated from Minnechaug Regional High School in 2007. Known for her beauty and elegance, she was Captain of the Falcon’s Cheerleading Team at school and won the Western Massachusetts Cheerleading Championship. Amy pursued her higher studies at Bentley University and received her bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Liberal Studies.
After graduating in 2011, she joined Genuine Interactive as an Online Marketing Specialist and worked there till her untimely death. A resident of Wilbraham most of her life, Amy danced at the Dance Company since she was two. Hence, it was shocking for Amy’s mother when she received a concerning call from her daughter’s boss on July 23, 2013. The employer noted she had not shown up for work and was also not at her South Boston apartment. The worried parent said, “I tried to call her cellphone, but it went right to voice mail.”
She also tried texting her but received no response and stated it was unlikely on Amy’s part not to respond to her calls or texts. Hours after Amy’s family and co-workers reported her missing to the authorities, a biker named Edward Landrey found the 24-year-old’s remains on July 23 afternoon. He discovered the body on Bold Knob Path while bicycling through Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park. Edward could be heard shouting frantically in his 911 call, where he could be heard saying, “It’s a naked girl. I couldn’t see her face.” Her autopsy report determined she died from sharp force injuries to the neck and torso and asphyxia by strangulation.
Who Killed Amy Lord?
A busboy named Edwin J. Alemany, then 28, was arrested within hours of Amy Lord’s murder. According to court documents, the former busboy went on a 20-hour crime spree where he attacked two women and murdered Amy. His first victim was Alexandra Cruz as she was walking to work in the South Boston section at 4:23 am on July 23. He hit her on her jaw, rendering her briefly unconscious, as he dragged her into a parking lot. Edwin choked her as she pleaded with him to stop, and he proffered a profanity-laced reply.
However, Alexandra managed to run across the street of Old Colony Avenue when he briefly looked away. She alleged he claimed he made a mistake and was looking for someone else. Edwin threw her belongings toward her and threatened her not to call the police because he knew where she worked. She ran to her workplace, called 911, and the police arrived about an hour later. Edwin’s next victim was Amy, and court records stated she assaulted her in her building’s vestibule while leaving her apartment at 5:38 am.
Edwin pushed her into her Jeep Cherokee, with a mask covering his face. He drove her to five different ATMs across South Boston and Dorchester. Surveillance footage from the banks showed a masked man forced Amy to withdraw $960 in total from her bank account. Police sources stated the footage showed she had facial injuries, and her contact lens was found in the vestibule of her apartment building with impact damage to a wall. He then took her to an isolated path in a wooded area of Stony Brook Reservation and fatally stabbed her 40 times.
Edwin left the area in Amy’s vehicle and spent the following hour purchasing gasoline at a station in the Roslindale section of Boston and driving back to South Boston, where he set the car on fire. The police found the burnt Jeep Cherokee around 2:00 pm, hours after Amy was reported missing. Meanwhile, Edwin began spending Amy’s money — paying phone bills, buying a new cell phone, lottery tickets, and alcohol, and hiring a livery car to take him to his friend Eric Cataloni’s Roslindale home.
According to court documents, Edwin spent the evening eating and drinking with his brother, Eric, and another friend. Eric later testified he drove an intoxicated Edwin to South Boston as the latter passed out in the back seat. Edwin’s erstwhile girlfriend, Elisabeth Stephenson, alleged she had a bitter argument with him over his drunken state as their toddler slept inside. Following the quarrel, she claimed she left with her daughter and returned sometime later to find him walking away from the apartment around 11:40 pm.
Court records show his third and final victim was Kayleigh Ballantyne, whom he brutally attacked while she entered her home on Gates Street just after midnight on July 24. He stabbed her multiple times in her arms, face, and chest. But Kayleigh managed to escape after kicking Edwin and knocking him over as she frantically entered her apartment and locked her door. Kayleigh described her assailant to the authorities as her roommates rushed her to a nearby hospital.
Kayleigh’s roommates spotted Edwin at the same hospital, where he was throwing a tantrum over not receiving immediate treatment for some hand injury. They noticed his appearance matched the description offered by Kayleigh, and the authorities immediately arrested him. Edwin initially told the police he hurt his hand during an altercation at a gas station, though the investigators dismissed it as false with evidence. He was arrested for the stabbing attack on Kayleigh after blood evidence put him at the spot where she was attacked.
Edwin Alemany is Still in Jail Today
The detectives also charged Edwin Alemany with Amy’s murder after they found her blood on his sneakers. Alexandra identified him as her attacker in a photographic array the following day. Edwin was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed carjacking, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of armed robbery while masked, armed assault with intent to rape, stealing by confining, arson of a motor vehicle, and assault and battery in connection with Amy’s death.
The authorities also charged him with attempted murder, armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery, and aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in relation to assaults on Alexandra and Kayleigh. During his May 2015 trial, Edwin’s defense alleged their client had a history of mental illness. The killer engaged in multiple suicide attempts while in custody and during his trial. However, the court convicted him on all charges and sentenced him to life without parole for Amy’s murder.
He also received consecutive prison sentences of up to 20 years and up to 15 years for the attacks on the two other women. Edwin appealed against his sentence but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the first-degree murder conviction and other felony offenses in October 2021. The 37-year-old is incarcerated at the Souza Baranowski Correctional in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
