Why is the East Lyme, Connecticut area so murdery, by murders?

The East Lyme area is a stretch of Connecticut shoreline in New London County, with three towns within five miles of the centre: East Lyme itself, Niantic three miles out and Waterford five. Taverns brought travellers off the road in the late 1700s, the beaches brought them in from the 1800s, and the town was incorporated in 1839. The town also has the Thomas Lee House, built in 1660, the oldest house in Connecticut and still in its original state. The population given in 2017 was 19,343. Five murders across the three towns put the area 85th overall and third in Connecticut.

The five murders come in three episodes and three decades. Episode 27 covers one killing in East Lyme in March 1994: a 28-year-old nursing assistant who had lately begun stripping, living in a converted tool shed behind his parents' house. Episode 378 goes back to August 1985 in Niantic for two victims, a couple on a quiet stretch of shoreline. Episode 661 covers the 1990s again, with two killings in Waterford in June 1997 and May 1998.