Dorchester woman pleads guilty to fatal 2023 stabbing outside Park Street MBTA station
BOSTON, April 1, 2026 – A Dorchester woman charged with the fatal 2023 stabbing of a 21-year-old woman outside of the Park Street MBTA station pleaded guilty today to manslaughter and was sentenced to up to 20 years in state prison, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.
ALYSSA PARTSCH, 33, charged with fatally stabbing Jazreanna Sheppard, 21, of South Boston, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Judge Mary Ames sentenced Partsch to 15-20 years in state prison.
A jury trial was scheduled to begin later this month.
At about 11:30 p.m. on July 20, 2023, Sheppard was in the Boston Common near the Brewer Fountain with a friend. As Sheppard and her friend went to leave the park, they encountered Partsch. Both witness testimony and documentary evidence indicate that prior to July 20, Sheppard and Partsch engaged in a series of social media exchanges where Partsch threatened Sheppard and was seeking to entice her to fight. Evidence indicates that the two had not met in person prior to that day.
As Sheppard approached the Park Street MBTA pavilion, Partsch approached her with a knife. Video surveillance shows the two engaging in a physical altercation, during which Partsch stabbed Sheppard several times in the face, head, and torso. Partsch fled the scene through the MBTA system. Sheppard was transported to the hospital in critical condition and later died from her injuries.
Several of Sheppard’s family members delivered impact statements during today’s hearing. Sheppard’s cousin described Sheppard as a daughter, a mother, a cousin, who was “a deeply loved human being,” and “her heart was poured into everyone around her.”
Ames addressed Partsch before delivering her sentence, saying: “It’s the senselessness of this act, the senselessness of the act that you committed, Ms. Partsch. And I hope now that you see the consequences of what you’ve done to this family—a child who will not grow up knowing his mother except through this beautiful family who will keep her memory alive.”
Hayden praised Sheppard’s family members for their “heart-rendering expression of their love and their loss.”
“Jazreanna Sheppard was poignantly and eloquently remembered by her family and friends today, remembered as a compassionate daughter, sister, cousin and mother who was taken from everyone’s lives in a senseless, impossible-to-understand moment of violence,” 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