By Alice Waugh
Update, July 19 at 1 p.m: Lincoln Police say that an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death was conducted late Thursday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and no signs of trauma were found. The autopsy results are pending toxicology, which generally take several weeks to complete
The Boston Globe reported this morning that, while the cause of Stephen Rakes’ death is still undertermined, “authorities believe that he may have died elsewhere and that his body was dumped near a popular walking trail off Mill Street, where it was found, say several people familiar with the investigation.”
“Investigators were trying to determine Thursday how Rakes, who was not carrying a wallet, ended up in Lincoln, say those familiar with the investigation,” the Globe reported. His body was found by a jogger Wednesday afternoon on Mill Street near the entrance to a walking trail and gated access road to the Cambridge Reservoir.
Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Mooney said on Friday that the body was found 15 feet from the road. Lincoln police are involved in the ongoing investigation along with state police detectives in a joint effort under the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.
In another piece in today’s Boston Globe, columnist Kevin Cullen reported that “cops say the death is suspicious, probably because they don’t believe the body ended up there by accident.”
Rakes was expecting to testify against James “Whitey” Bulger in the alleged mobster’s trial now going on in Boston. Rakes had said that in 1984, Bulger threatened him with a gun in front of his children if he didn’t sell his liquor store. However, prosecutors recently decided not to call Rakes as a witness.