Steven Caruso

Passions

American homicide perpetrator. On August 15, 2003, Caruso was convicted of first degree murder of Sandra Berfield., and received a life sentence. Berfield died instantly when she opened a package with her sister’s return address that she found on her doorstep in Everett, MA. It had evidently been left for her between 9:30 and 10:15 AM on January 20, 2000 and contained explosives which detonated when Berfield opened the package. Caruso had been the primary suspect throughout the investigation. Berfield was a waitress whom Caruso met in a now-closed Bickford’s restaurant in Medford, MA, where she worked. Other waitresses said he visited the restaurant daily in the late 1990s and would stare at her. After she spurned his advances he stalked her and she took out a restraining order. In 1998, he spent six months in prison for slashing Berfield's tires and pouring battery acid into the fuel tank of her car. Prior to his arrest for her murder, he was a handyman, skilled photographer, and computer hobbyist. His victim, Sandra Berfield, was one of 13 children who had an unhappy, disadvantaged childhood. She was born on March 15, 1967 in Boston, MA according to her birth certificate. Unfortunately there is no time on the corrected copy and the original is restricted from view.