August trial slated for man accused of killing woman found in burning car at Hope Cemetery
WORCESTER - The man accused of murdering a Sterling woman whose body was found inside the trunk of her burning car at a Worcester cemetery in 2017 is slated to go on trial in August, court records show.
Steven M. Foley, who was arrested shortly after the body of 59-year-old Cynthia L. Webb was found Dec. 12, 2017 at Hope Cemetery, is slated for trial Aug. 24.
Foley, a Level 3 sex offender whose record includes a nearly 20-year prison term for raping a college student, has been in jail since police tracked him to a Peabody hotel a week after firefighters extinguished the blaze.
Foley allegedly met Webb at a Webster strip club where she worked Dec. 11, took her to his fiancee’s Northborough home and set her car on fire with her body in the trunk the following morning.
Webb, who has been described by co-workers and her son as a generous person who had overcome many struggles in life, was identified by dental records, authorities have said.
Surveillance video
An autopsy determined her death was caused by "homicidal violence of unknown etiology," and that the manner of death was homicide by assault, prosecutors have said.
Foley, who was 56 at the time Webb died, is charged in separate indictments with murder and malicious destruction of a vehicle. Both are slated for jury selection Aug. 24, with evidence expected to begin Aug. 28.
Authorities have said that evidence in the case includes video surveillance of Webb and Foley driving in the same car Dec. 11, cellphone and cab driver evidence linking Foley to the cemetery the next morning and evidence of Webb’s blood underneath the floorboards of the Northborough home.
Authorities have said Foley’s then-fiancee was away on business the night Webb died.
The investigation
Foley was arrested Dec. 19, 2017, a week after Webb’s body was found in the burning car, at a Peabody hotel.
He had checked in with a false name, police have said, and was found with more than $30,000 in cash and money orders.
Prosecutors have in past court proceedings said that Foley had told multiple people he was present when Webb died, but maintained that he did not kill her and merely disposed of her body.
Foley’s lawyer, Sarah Hamilton of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, declined to comment on Foley's behalf Monday.
A spokesperson for Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. Monday said the office does not comment on pending cases.
Foley, who has three rape convictions, served nearly 20 years in prison following a 1985 conviction on charges he raped a Salem State College student.
Other convictions on his record include rape of a child with force in 1982 and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older in 2013.
The Salem News reported in 2010 that prosecutors tried to prevent Foley’s release from prison, arguing he was sexually dangerous, but that the courts ordered him freed.
Webb was 'a fighter'
Co-workers of Webb described her as the matriarch of Mario’s Showplace in Webster, where she looked out for and earned the respect of fellow dancers.
Her son, Brad Webb, said his mother struggled with multiple tragedies in her life including, before the age of 21, the death of both her father and her husband in the same week.
“She was a fighter,” Webb told the Telegram & Gazette in 2018. “I wish a lot of people would fight as hard as my mom did.”
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Trial nears in killing Cynthia Webb; found in burning car at Hope Cemetery
