Denise Marie Seckinger (hereinafter “Seckinger”) told Trooper Murphy that she met with Kenneth Mitchell in Chicopee, Massachusetts, on December 23, 1989. She had been expecting to see a friend, Peter Jones, at her residence, but when he did not show up she called Mitchell.
Seckinger first asked why he appeared in disarray. He said he was in trouble and had done something terrible. He asked her what was the worst thing she thought he was capable of and she said “murder.” Mitchell then told her that he was the one who had killed the girl at the Hampshire Mall. Seckinger stated that she was not aware of what he was talking about.
Seckinger told Trooper Murphy that at the time Mitchell was having a bad emotional time because his mother had been sick with a heart condition and while being treated she suffered a stroke. Mitchell said he was mad at “God” and wanted to strike out. He said that he took a kitchen knife from his home and put it in his truck. He said that he had gone out before to kill someone but “chickened out.” He said that on Monday, December 18, 1989, he was parked at the mall in his truck and this girl came out to her car. She was parked next to him and he got out and tried to strike up a conversation with her. The girl went nuts and started to scream. He grabbed her with his left hand and tried to quiet her. She bit him and he began to stab her. She continued to bite and struggle and he continued to stab her until she stopped fighting. He said that he had trouble getting all of her into the car and finally threw her feet in and they finally came to rest on the back of the pasenger (sic) seat. Mitchell told Seckenger (sic) that he then walked away from the car and went out toward MacDonalds (sic). He walked around for a while and then returned to his truck and left. He said he threw the knife someplace in the area.
He showed Seckinger his left hand which was bandaged. She saw his hand without the bandage and there was an obvious bite mark on his hand. She said there was broken skin and she asked if he received medical treatment and he said no. He told Seckinger that he would kill her if she told anyone about his confession.
“Mr. Murphy. I, Kenneth Roy Mitchell, make this statement, completely of my own free will, that I am the sole person responsible for the murder of Sharon Galligan at the Hadley Mall, December 18, 1989 about the hour of 9:45.
To start, I must tell you of everything that leads up to this night.
At about the end of July, my mother suffered a major heart attack and stroke. That night both the paramedics and the doctor thought she would not make it though (sic) the night.
Many people and I believe that this attack was brought on party (sic) by the stress and condition of the house. You can ask my neighbor and he will tell you about the mess the house was in. He can also tell you she deserved better than this.
My family and I start (sic) to try and clean up the mess and put the house back the way she had wanted it. At the same time we all knew that it would take a great deal of our time at the hospital to get our mother back on the road of recovery. It toke (sic) her over one month before she could even feed herself.
While this work was going on with the house and spending every possible moment at the hospital, my company was operating at a full capacity. Our sheet metal dept. employes (sic) were work (sic) 12 hours days, 4 days a week, plus Friday and some Saturdays overtime, while I was trying to work only the minimal 40 hour work week. The stress of all this started to make me loss (sic) my appetite.
In the month of Oct., I had lost about 20 lbs, and was so stressed out over everything, that I had walked up to my boss, yelled at him and I was giving him my 2 week notice, turned and walked away. The production manager was down to talk to me in about 10 minutes, to find out whats (sic) the problem.
I had told him that with all his work going on, everyone working a lot of overtime and me working only about 40, working on the house, and spending every possible minute with my mother, that I was about to pull my hair out. That I just couldn't keep up with all that was going on. I was losing weight fast. He had offered to get me some counseling. But because of the way my father (who was in the military) raised me, I turned him down.
My father had the opinion that if you had a problem, you take care of it yourself and don't bother him with it. This made me very independent.
Though (sic) the month of Dec., I was so sick of life that I wanted to kill myself, but knew that I could not because of my mother and the house.
The thought of killing myself was extremely strong. So I took a knife from the house and decided to go some place where my family and friends would not find me, the Hadley Mall. I was now down to 135 lbs. My mind at this time was full of problems that was going on in my life. How I thought if I killed myself, that the (sic) would make things easier on myself, but thought it would only make everyone else's problem worse. This made my problem even worse because I just couldn't get away from it.
I was standing by my truck (parked next to her's (sic) thinking about all this, when Sharon walk (sic) up to get into her car. What happens after this even I can not remember all of it.
What was I think (sic)? What good would killing her do for me? These and other questions I can not answer. What I do remember is; she did scream. When I heard how many times I had stabbed her, I could not believe it. I could not remember any part of this. This is one of the many things that scared me. That I stabbed her that many times and I could not remember.
During the straggle (sic) she fell out of the car. I then put her back in the car, her feet sticking over the top of the seat. I walk (sic) back to my truck and drove home. Somewhere along the way, I through (sic) the knife out the window.
If this does not make much sense, I appoligize (sic). What happened I can not figure.
Kenneth R. Mitchell.”
