Boston Prosecutors Charge Missoula Homeless Camp Killer in Two More Murders

MISSOULA — A Boston television station has aired a segment identifying Kevin Lino, a convicted killer with ties to Missoula, as a serial killer now facing charges in four murders across two states^1.

The Boston25 report, which aired Monday, features an interview with Missoula citizen journalist Travis Mateer, who encountered Lino in 2014 while working as a Homeless Outreach Coordinator in Missoula. The segment comes as another body was discovered on the Kim Williams Trail earlier this month, renewing concerns about unsolved deaths in the area.

“Mr. Lino is a serial killer,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told Boston25. “The Department of Justice defines a serial killer as someone who has taken the life of two individuals in separate situations. In this case we have already convictions in two. We’ve now brought charges in two more.”

According to prosecutors, Lino’s crimes began in Lowell, Massachusetts in 2010, when he allegedly beat Gary Melanson to death at a homeless encampment. Two years later, Douglas Leon Clarke’s body was found on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge in what was initially suspected to be an accidental overdose. Police now believe Lino killed Clarke by intentionally giving him a fatal shot of heroin.

Lino is already serving time for the 2012 murder of Norman Varieur in Charlestown and the 2014 murder of Jack Gilbert Berry at a homeless encampment in Missoula. Berry’s body was found in the Clark Fork River after being shot execution-style.

In the Boston25 segment, Mateer expressed concern about Monte Swanson, a missing homeless man who was close to Lino in Montana.

“I think that Monte Swanson is dead and I think Kevin Lino was involved in his death,” Mateer said in the interview.

Outside Attention on Local Cases

The Boston television coverage highlights what Mateer describes as a pattern of minimal public updates from Missoula authorities on unsolved deaths and missing persons cases.

In a post published Tuesday on ZoomChron, Mateer noted that the body discovered Nov. 12 on the Kim Williams Trail was found in an area known for homeless encampments. The Missoula Police Department’s brief statement said officers responded just before 3:30 p.m. after a hiker reported finding what appeared to be a body near the three-mile marker.

“KPAX could have included the information from the press release about my co-worker’s dead body, which stated that it’s policy to treat all deaths outside of medical supervision as homicides until evidence proves otherwise,” Mateer wrote, “but why worry the citizens of Missoula unnecessarily?”

Mateer’s post includes a list of unsolved deaths and missing persons cases from the Missoula area, including the 2024 murder of 88-year-old Delphine Farmer, in which no arrests have been made. He also noted that a Massachusetts-based documentarian is asking questions about the disappearance of Jermain Charlo, a missing Indigenous woman whose case gained national attention.

“No one else in Missoula was willing to go on the record about Lino’s time in Missoula, especially those in authority failing to quell concerns locals have about how many bodies show up dead with little to no follow up,” Mateer wrote.

Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, who was also interviewed for the Boston25 segment, said homeless victims often receive less attention.

“The homeless are vulnerable. They are easy targets. They are defenseless,” Fox told Boston25. “And when they are killed, or disappear, we just don’t have the same response. We might not even know that they are dead.”

District Attorney Ryan told Boston25 that prosecutors continue to investigate whether Lino may have additional victims.

“We never give up on those cases. We don’t forget about them, and we stay open to other information,” Ryan said.

Lino is currently incarcerated in Massachusetts, where he is awaiting trial in the Melanson and Clarke cases.