WORCESTER — A Worcester County grand jury has indicted a second man in connection with the 2021 murder of Franklin Mane, a 19-year-old Worcester resident whose decomposing body was found near a catch basin at the edge of a parking lot on Industrial Road in Leominster.
Jose Pacheco, 23, of Worcester, was indicted on June 16 on one count of murder, according to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. He is expected to be arraigned in Worcester Superior Court on June 27.
Mane’s body was discovered on May 12, 2021, after a passerby called 911 to report what appeared to be human remains at 46 Industrial Road. Police responded and found the body in an overgrown corner of the parking lot, covered in trash bags, a blanket, dirt, and rocks, according to a report by State Police Trooper Chad Smith.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide, concluding that Mane died from multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. At the time, he had been missing for over two months, having last been seen alive on March 6 and officially reported missing by Worcester Police on March 24.
According to the district attorney’s office, Pacheco was first arraigned on the murder charge in Leominster District Court on April 11, 2025, and held without bail. The indictment now moves the case to Worcester Superior Court.
Pacheco is the second person to be charged in the case. In May 2023, Wilbert I. Nieves, 25, of Fitchburg, was indicted on a murder charge after two acquaintances came forward with statements implicating him. One reported to Leominster Police on May 13, 2021, a day after the body was found, claiming Nieves confessed to the killing. A second witness later provided detailed accounts in two interviews, telling investigators that Nieves admitted to shooting a man in the head and torso and described how the body was disposed of — details consistent with the crime scene.
At the time of his arraignment in 2023, Nieves was already in custody on unrelated firearms charges. He was ordered held without bail following his court appearance.
Investigators believe Mane was killed in Worcester before his body was transported to Leominster and discarded.
