A discarded water bottle at a Rhode Island concert gave cold case investigators the DNA link they needed, and on Oct. 6 they arrested 61-year-old William “Billy” Morton on a first-degree murder charge in the 1985 killing of Hillary Hellewell.
Morton remains held without bond. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said the case will go to a grand jury, with a status conference set for Oct. 20 in Rhode Island District Court Second Division.
Fox News reported that DNA recovered from the bottle matched partial profiles tied to evidence on Hellewell’s clothing, closing in on a suspect more than four decades after her body was found on a Newport sidewalk.
Hillary Hellewell was 22. Two brothers, ages 17 and 20, found her body at about 4:15 a.m. on May 19, 1985, while walking to work along Anthony Street in Newport.
Officers described her body as mostly “cold to the touch,” with some areas still “slightly warm.” She wore white painter’s pants, a sweater, and socks. She had no shoes. A blood stain marked the back of her pants. A “heavily soiled” blue T-shirt lay near her head.
The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. The cause was asphyxia due to strangulation. Internal swabs revealed spermatozoa, showing sexual contact had occurred.
The night before, Hellewell had attended a gathering with friends in Newport where alcohol was consumed. She offered to walk home with an overly intoxicated male friend. He made it home. She did not. When she was identified the next day after being reported missing, that friend remained so intoxicated he could not give police many details. Men close to Hellewell were later ruled out as “potential donors” of the sperm.
Investigators collected and preserved DNA evidence at the time of the killing. In 2004, state officials reviewed the case and entered DNA profiles for Hellewell and the then-unknown suspect into the FBI Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS.
Newport Police never developed a viable suspect in the original investigation. The case sat for years.
In 2023, the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office formed a Cold Case Unit. The unit reviewed Hellewell’s file again and sent evidence to a private lab that could apply newer DNA technology. That work pointed investigators toward a family line, then to Morton.
Senior cold case investigator Michael Nayor with the Attorney General’s office took the next step on Aug. 21. He followed Morton and Morton’s fiancée to a Burger King, then to a theater in Woonsocket where the Bad Animals Heart tribute band was performing.
Nayor bought a ticket. He watched Morton purchase popcorn and two bottled waters. He watched Morton sip from a bottle and set it on his seat. When the couple left the concert early, Nayor seized the bottle and submitted it for DNA testing.
The Rhode Island Department of Health later 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"
That laboratory finding became the bridge between a 1985 crime scene and a living suspect.
Court records described in the reporting show Morton was convicted in 1987 of a violent sexual assault in Newport. The assault happened 45 days after Hellewell’s death and only a couple of miles from where her body was found.
A judge sentenced him to 20 years. He served seven years in prison and completed the rest on probation. At the time of his Oct. 6 arrest in the Hellewell case, Morton worked as a service technician at a Volkswagen dealership.
Those facts do not decide the pending murder charge. They do explain why cold case investigators treated the DNA lead with urgency once the family line and Morton’s name surfaced.
Around 7 a.m. on Oct. 6, officers from multiple agencies were at Morton’s home as he left for work. They took him into custody. Prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder. He is held without bond.
The Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit worked the file with the Newport Police Department and received help from the Smithfield Police Department. Neronha’s office has said the case will proceed to a grand jury. A status conference is scheduled for Oct. 20.
Fox News Digital could not reach Morton’s attorney for comment. Authorities have not publicly confirmed a motive. Investigators will need to present the DNA comparison, the chain of custody on the water bottle, and the original crime-scene forensics to a grand jury before any indictment decision.
Morton is accused, not convicted, of killing Hellewell. The first-degree murder charge alleges he is responsible for the strangulation death. The courts have not adjudicated guilt on that charge.
A discarded bottle can supply a DNA profile. Prosecutors still must prove identity, timing, and criminal agency beyond a reasonable doubt if the case reaches trial. Grand jurors will weigh whether the Department of Health comparison, the 2004 CODIS work, the private lab retesting, and Nayor’s surveillance collection form a coherent forensic chain.
They will also confront the long gap between 1985 and the 2023 reopening. Memory fades. Witnesses age. Physical evidence must still meet courtroom standards even when technology improves.
The original scene details remain central: the sidewalk location, the clothing, the spermatozoa, the medical examiner’s homicide ruling, and the exclusion of men close to Hellewell as sperm donors. Those points frame what any jury would eventually hear.
Newport is a seaside resort city with a polished public face. The Hellewell killing left a raw file that local police could not close. The 2004 DNA entry kept the unknown profile alive in CODIS. The 2023 Cold Case Unit put investigators back on the street, including the concert surveillance that produced the bottle.
That sequence shows how old evidence and new process can meet. It also shows the cost of delay. Hellewell’s family waited more than 40 years for a named defendant. Morton now faces the charge under modern forensic scrutiny he did not face in 1985.
The legal system’s next moves are procedural and public: grand jury review, the Oct. 20 status conference, and whatever charging decisions follow. Bond is already denied. The allegation is first-degree murder. The proof still belongs in court.
When a cold case finally names a defendant, the test is simple and hard at once: whether institutions finish the job with evidence strong enough for a jury, not just a press conference.
