No Bail for Man Charged in 1992 Murder of South End Woman

The man charged in the 1992 slaying of a South End woman was ordered held without bail Wednesday at an arraignment in Boston’s Suffolk Superior Court.

James Witkowski, 42, of Dorchester, is facing a first-degree murder charge for allegedly killing Lena Bruce, of Philadelphia, at her South End home. Investigators say Bruce was found dead by her roommate on July 12, 1992.

Forensic evidence which had been preserved for decades helped investigators solve the puzzling case. A wallet recovered from Bruce’s apartment had one of Witkowski’s fingerprints on it.

“The Crime Lab re-tested evidence – including a wallet found outside Lena Bruce’s building on the night her body was discovered. Inside was one slip of paper with one fingerprint that the BPD Latent Print Unit matched to Witkowski’s left thumb,” Suffolk County DA Daniel Conley said.

Investigators allege Witkowski restrained Bruce with a telephone cord, sexually assaulted her, and then suffocated her. Bruce had just graduated from Tufts University when she was killed. She was the first woman in her class to earn an electrical engineering degree.

Witkowski’s defense team questioned why it took 23 years to link him to the crime. Witkowski is already serving time for an assault and battery conviction at the Suffolk County House of Correction.