Boston man charged in decades-old stabbing death of Dorchester woman
BOSTON, January 14, 2026 – A Boston man was charged Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court with the 1999 stabbing death of a Dorchester woman inside her Columbia Road apartment, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.
CORNELL BELL, 54, is charged with one count of first-degree murder. Bell, who was formerly on the Massachusetts State Police’s Most Wanted list, was convicted of murder in Norfolk County in 2022 and is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Clerk Magistrate Ed Curley ordered Bell held without bail. He will return to court February 19.
On May 19, 1999, the sister of Caryn Bonner conducted a well-being check of Bonner’s 467 Columbia Road apartment after not hearing from Bonner for several days. She found Bonner, 34, stabbed to death in her kitchen.
The case went unsolved for nearly 25 years. In July 2022, Bell was convicted in Norfolk County for murdering his girlfriend. His DNA profile was subsequently uploaded into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. Suffolk County investigators linked Bell’s DNA to that found on a cigarette butt in Caryn Bonner’s apartment. Investigators also re-discovered photographs of latent fingerprints in blood from inside the apartment and were able to individualize one of the prints to Bell.
Bell is the second defendant in several weeks brought before a judge to answer for decades-old unsolved homicides. In December BRIAN KEAZER, 50, was indicted and arrested for the October 17, 1997 murder of Ruth Foster, 56, at Foster’s 47 Withington Street apartment in Mattapan. DNA evidence played a significant role in Keazer’s arrest as well.
“The combination of advanced forensic science and unrelenting investigative work has given the family and friends of Caryn Bonner, like those of Ruth Foster before them, the reality of seeing a charged defendant answer for a crime that has left years of loss and sorrow in its wake. We never consider a homicide case unsolvable, no matter how much time has elapsed,” Hayden said.
All charged individuals are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office serves the communities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. Our office handles more than 20,000 cases a year. Nearly 160 assistant district attorneys practice in nine district and municipal courts, Suffolk Superior Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Boston and Chelsea Juvenile Courts and the Supreme Judicial Court. Our office employs some 300 people and offers a wide range of services and programs for anyone encountering the criminal justice system. We are committed to educating the public about our mission and services while focusing on crime prevention to keep the residents, workers and visitors of Suffolk County safe.
James Borghesani, Chief of Communications