Woman who helped solve 41-year-old murder was to go dancing with the victim on night he died

• Trio of killers made 'pact of silence' after 1969 death

• Tragic sweetheart's persistence pays off

• One of the accused still lives close to the victim's parents

• Family never knew the motivation for the fatal attack

Determination: Carol 'Maggie' Coffey's persistence to keep the murder investigation alive finally paid off
Carol Maggie Coffey has spent her life thinking of how her life could have been different, having been on the periphery of a murder mystery that began on a September night in 1969.
But her persistence to discover the truth behind the death of 'puppy-love' sweetheart John Joseph McCabe has led to 'an incredible turn of events' more than 41 years later.
Police say the dogged determination of Mrs Coffey and others always kept the cold case open, and led to the arrests linked to the 15-year-old Massachusetts boy's murder.
McCabe's body was found in a vacant lot in Lowell on September 27, 1969. He had been bound with rope, his eyes and mouth taped shut.
Mrs Coffey, then 15, had just moved to the area when McCabe was killed, and revealed that she was supposed to have been his date for the evening on the night he was killed.
Ever since, she has been touch with authorities frequently in an effort to help with the investigation.
Mrs Coffey, now 56, said she and McCabe shared an art class at the same school, and they had been asked to make anti-war posters.
She said: 'We were in art class together, and he had startling blue eyes and red, red hair, and he came right up to me and showed me his poster and said, "I made this for you". Then he asked me to the school dance.
'That was going to be our first little puppy-love date. I, of course, said yes. But my mum made me stay home and babysit. I cried and cried and moaned about the whole thing.
'John never came back from the dance that night. The case never went away in my mind. I kept it going. I would email old school friends, and anything I heard I just shot it immediately to the police.

'Red, red hair': Mrs Coffey remembers 15-year-old John McCabe, whose body was found in a vacant parking lot in 1969
'Today, the investigative machine is getting all the attention, but what I firmly believe is that John's friends and the impression John made on us and the fact that we could never forget him - it was that kind of resilience that kept the heat up all those years. It renewed efforts and, finally, I think it got done.
'All we wanted was for the truth to come out and to know what happened before John's parents died.'
It was this relentless pressure - and probably the guilt of what he had done - which finally led one of the accused to break an alleged 'pact of silence' that the trio had kept for four decades.
Edward Brown, one of the three accused, allegedly broken down and revealed the terrible secret to police.
Today Brown's wife Carolyn defended him, saying he was an 'honourable man'.
And, after all these years, the motive for the brutal murder has finally been revealed to McCabe's tormented parents - their boy was murdered because he allegedly flirted with the girlfriend of an older teenager.
McCabe was kidnapped after leaving a dance by the youth and two of his friends.
The teens allegedly assaulted him and left him to die as he struggled to free himself, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said.
Authorities arrested Walter Shelley, 60, of Tewksbury; Edward Allan Brown, 59, of Londonderry, New Hampshire; and Michael Ferreira, 57, of Salem, New Hampshire yesterday.
Shelley, who lives just a couple of miles from McCabe’s parents, is charged with murder and Brown is charged with manslaughter. Ferreira faces a murder charge in juvenile court because he was a juvenile at the time of the slaying; he also faces a perjury charge in adult court for allegedly lying to investigators.

Arrested: Walter Shelley is arraigned on murder charges stemming from the 1969 slaying of John McCabe, who allegedly flirted with Shelley's girlfriend


Accused: Michael Ferreira, 57, left, Edward Brown, 59, both face charges and now live in New Hampshire

Finding closure: John's family, the McCabes, celebrate today after the arrests of three suspects in connection to the death 41 years ago
Authorities aren't saying exactly what led them to the suspects, but Mr Leone called it an 'incredible turn of events'. Thomas O'Reilly, a prosecutor in Lowell District Court, added that information has been provided by an unnamed confidential witness.
Mr O'Reilly said the killing was sparked by jealousy over a girl.
Pressed by authorities who never let the case drop, one of the men, according to the police report, finally admitted his role in the crime to authorities and named the two other men.

Price to pay: John McCabe was punished for simply flirting with someone else's girlfriend
While they did not identify Brown as the witness who broke the case, his wife confirmed yesterday that he had cooperated with authorities.
Carolyn Brown said: 'He’s an honorable man,’  adding that he served for 35 years in the Air Force as a cargo specialist, most recently in Iraq.
Coping with the revelations about the case, she said, has been difficult. “We live in quite a small town,’’ she said.
Mr O'Reilly alleges that on that night in 1969, the three friends - who were teenagers at the time - were drinking and driving around town in Shelley's 1965 Chevy Impala, when they came up with a plan to find John and 'teach him a lesson' for flirting with Shelley's girlfriend.
At that time, John was walking home from a dance at the Knights of Columbus in Tewksbury.
The three older friends allegedly found John and forced him into their car, where they beat him, according to O'Reilly.
The boys then allegedly drove to the vacant lot on Maple Street. At this point, John was crying and begging to be let go, according to what police say Brown told them.
The younger boy was allegedly dragged from the car, then bound and left in the lot.
The three suspects are said to have returned an hour or two later, and found John dead. The cause of his death was later recorded as asphyxia from strangulation.
When the teens saw that John was dead, they 'panicked' and fled, according to police. Later, they allegedly made a pact to never talk about it with anyone.
However, police say the truth has come out.
Shelley pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail.

Parents: Evelyn and William McCabe, listen as police officials announce the arrest of three men in connection with their son's murder at a press conference at Lowell city hall

Scene of a cold case: Maple Street in Lowell, Massachusetts as it looks today. Police say John was left to die on this quiet street in 1969 by older boys

LOWELL: A PEACEFUL TOWN WITH
A STRONG INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

Lowell, about 25 miles north west of Boston, was one of New England's centres of the textile industry.
It was also one of the American Industrial Revolution's first planned communities.
Originally named East Chelmsford, it was renamed after Francis Cabott Lowell, inventor of the power loom that made it possible to transform raw cotton into finished fabric within a single factory.
In 1826 Lowell boasted 2,500 residents but the population quickly expanded as the railway industry moved into the town.
As the textile industry drifted south, Lowell began to attract other manufacturing industries.
In 1969, the year of John McCabe's death, the population stood at just other 90,000, with Irish-Americans being the predominant group.
The town enjoyed a fairly peaceful, low-crime reputation and was on the verge of attracting high-tech industries that became the hallmark of its rebirth in the 1970s.
In the early 1990s the town suffered a series of economic setbacks and bankruptcies. The decade was also marked by a wave of immigration from south east Asia and Latin America. 
There was no answer at a phone number listed under Shelley's name. His lawyer did not immediately return a message left at his office seeking comment.
Brown was released on personal recognisance after pleading not guilty. Ferreira first faces a fugitive from justice warrant in New Hampshire before appearing in a Massachusetts court.
It was not immediately clear who their lawyers were. Mr Leone said: 'The investigators on this case, as well as the victim's family, never gave up hope that those responsible for the murder of John McCabe would be held accountable for his death, and today marks the remarkable beginning of that accountability and day of reckoning for all involved in John's death'.
John's family, particularly his father, William, never gave up on finding his killers, Lowell police Superintendent Ken Lavallee said.
Mr Lavallee added: 'Their determination to see this matter resolved motivated all of us in law enforcement to keep this matter on the front burner'.
John's parents and two sisters attended a news conference Friday.
Roberta McCabe-Donovan, John's sister who was six at the time of the killing, said the family did not know the death was over a girl.
She said: 'There was no reason known for 42 years and then today we found out it was because of a girl. I don't believe John even knew the three of them.'
Speaking of her joy at the arrests, Roberta, who saw the perpetrators for the first time Friday at the courthouse, said: 'Suddenly they said we had to meet at the police department to discuss and my parents and I were almost in shock.
After hugging detectives at the news conference, she said: 'From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.'
John McCabe’s mother Evelyn also said she felt relieved by the arrests and spoke of the heartbreak over looking at people in town and wondering if they were responsible.
'I was having a hard time just dealing with life,' she said. 'I went to church looking at everybody . . . wondering if they did it. Everywhere I went I would stare at people.'
She said John enjoyed working on car engines. 'He was a wonderful boy, and I’m sure he would have been a wonderful man and father,’ she said.