Rhode Island authorities arrested a 61-year-old man on a first-degree murder charge tied to the 1985 death of a 22-year-old woman after DNA taken from a discarded water bottle matched evidence from the crime scene.
Fox News coverage described the Oct. 6 arrest of William “Billy” Morton in the long-cold case of Hillary Hellewell, found dead on a Newport sidewalk more than four decades earlier.
Morton was held without bond. The case is set to go to a grand jury, with a status conference scheduled for Oct. 20. The charge remains an allegation. Investigators have not publicly stated a motive.
Two brothers, ages 17 and 20, were heading to work about 4:15 a.m. on May 19, 1985, when they found Hellewell on the sidewalk along Anthony Street in Newport. She was 22. She wore white painter’s pants, a sweater, and socks. She had no shoes.
The medical examiner found asphyxia due to strangulation and classified the death a homicide. Court records described her body as mostly “cold to the touch,” with some areas still “slightly warm.” A “heavily soiled” blue T-shirt lay near her head. A blood stain marked the back of her white pants. Internal swabs showed spermatozoa, pointing to sexual contact.
Hellewell had attended a gathering the night before where alcohol was consumed. She offered to walk an intoxicated male friend home. He made it back. She did not. The next day he was still too intoxicated to give many details. Men close to her were later ruled out as potential donors of the sperm.
State reviewers examined the file in 2004 and entered DNA profiles into the FBI Combined DNA Index System. In 2023, the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit took another look and sent evidence to a private lab that used newer DNA technology. That work pointed investigators toward Morton.
Michael Nayor, a senior cold case investigator with the attorney general’s office, followed Morton and his fiancée on Aug. 21. They stopped at a Burger King, then went to a theater in Woonsocket for a Bad Animals show, a Heart tribute band. Nayor bought a ticket. He watched Morton purchase popcorn and two bottled waters, sip from a bottle, and set it on the seat.
The couple left early. Nayor seized the discarded bottle and submitted it for testing. The Rhode Island Department of Health reported that the DNA profile from the water bottle “is consistent with the previously reported partial profiles” from the sperm stain on Hellewell’s pants and a stain on the blue shirt found near her body.
"is consistent with the previously reported partial profiles"
Court records cited in the reporting show Morton was convicted in 1987 of a violent sexual assault in Newport. That assault occurred about 45 days after Hellewell’s death and a couple of miles from where her body was found. He received a 20-year sentence, served seven years behind bars, and spent the rest on probation.
Morton, now 61, worked as a service technician at a Volkswagen dealership. Officers went to his home about 7 a.m. on Oct. 6 as he left for work and took him into custody on the first-degree murder charge. Fox News Digital could not reach his attorney for comment.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha’s office worked the case with the Newport Police Department and help from the Smithfield Police Department. Neronha’s office said the matter will go to a grand jury. The status conference is set for Oct. 20 in Rhode Island District Court Second Division.
Authorities have publicly tied the water-bottle DNA to partial profiles from the pants stain and the shirt stain. They have not released match statistics beyond that consistency finding. Investigators will need to establish before a grand jury, and potentially a trial jury, how the physical evidence and timeline connect Morton to Hellewell’s death on Anthony Street.
No public results have detailed every step of the private lab’s methods. Officials have not described any on-record statement from Morton. The charging documents, as described, focus on the DNA comparison, the 1985 scene findings, and the first-degree murder allegation.
Hellewell’s death sat unsolved while technology and unit structure changed. The Cold Case Unit’s formation in 2023 and the discarded bottle collection show how a single piece of trash can reopen a file that stalled for years. The grand jury process will test whether that evidence supports an indictment.
When a killing goes cold, the public still expects the system to keep working the evidence, not file it away forever. A discarded bottle and a revived unit put this case back on the calendar. Accountability now rests with the grand jury and the proof prosecutors can present.
