After Mailhot confessed, Lee asked him to go into detail about how he murdered Audrey, Christine and Stacie. It was now up to Lee to get as much information from him and relay that to the other officers at the crime scene. Coincidentally, just about the same time Mailhot was confessing, the police officers who had been searching Mailhot’s apartment for evidence that he assaulted Teese and Jocilin were ready to wrap up. They had no idea they were going to be looking for evidence of a triple homicide. But as soon as he confessed, Gerry Durand and the other BCI officers got the word that he had killed three people in his apartment and they were told to wait for a new search warrant, which would let them look for evidence of the murders.
“What happened?” Lee asked, trying to compose himself.
Mailhot told Lee it just went too far.
“Okay. You’re doing the right thing, okay? You know what? A lot of people are going to be thankful for this. A lot of families are going to be so happy to know what happened and they’re finally going to get peace. Okay, you’ve gotta think hard. You’re the only one that’s gotta tell us where the girls are. How did you fit them in trash bags?” Lee asked.
“Cut ’em up.”
“You cut them all up?” Lee asked, not quite believing what he was hearing. “Where?”
“My house—in my bathtub.”
“What did you cut them up with?”
“A saw.”
“What kind of saw?”
“Just a regular saw you can get in Lowe’s—just a woodcutting saw,” Mailhot said matter-of-factly.
“Are we talking electric?” Lee asked, trying to come to terms with what Mailhot was telling him. Trying to figure out how the hell this monster cut up three human beings with a regular woodcutting saw.
“No, just a handsaw.”
“Handsaw?” Lee asked, still trying to comprehend what he was hearing.
“Hm-hmm.”
“Each girl was cut up?” Lee asked.
“Hm-hmm.”
“Three?”
“Three.”
As Lee was questioning Mailhot, Nowak came back into the room and asked Mailhot if he wanted a soda or cigarette or something. Mailhot said he’d just like a cup of water, if the detective didn’t mind. But he could wait if it was too much trouble. The scene in the interrogation room was surreal. The cops couldn’t believe they were dealing with a polite serial killer.
“Unfortunately for me—when he confessed, it had been my turn to be out of the room,” Nowak recalled later. “Me and Eddie thought that these disappearances were connected, but we didn’t have anything else other than these other girls who were attacked, so we said, ‘Let’s take a look at this guy.’ So we were going into it with an open mind. If he didn’t do it, we didn’t want to pin it on him. But it was good that it ended up being him, but when we first started questioning him, we didn’t really give too much thought to the fact that this was the guy who was doing it.”
As Nowak went out to get Mailhot some water, Lee continued asking Mailhot about how he murdered Audrey Harris, Christine Dumont and Stacie Goulet.
“You put them in what type of trash bags?”
“Trash bags.”
“Where did you get them?”
“Like, at Wal-Mart—the drawstring kind.”
“Did you already have those trash bags?”
“No. Actually, yeah, I did. I had them the first time.”
“Okay, the first time you already had the trash bags—after the first time, did you go out and buy them?”
“I already had them.”
“Who was the first girl?” Lee asked.
“She was,” Mailhot said, pointing at Audrey’s photo.
“Do you remember what date this happened on?”
“That happened last year—like February or March.”
“She was cut up and put in a trash bag and she was disposed of where?”
“Um, in Woonsocket, in Rock Ridge Apartments and Brunswick bowling alley.”
“Okay. So different parts—different places.”
“Yeah.”
“This second girl, Christine Dumont, where is she?” Lee asked, holding up Christine’s picture.
“Same thing,” Mailhot said. “I did the same thing for all three.”
“When did this one happen?” asked Nowak, who had just walked back into the room.
“That was earlier this year.”
“Do you remember what month?” Lee asked.
“I believe it was either February or March. I think it was March.”
“This girl?” Lee asked, pointing to Stacie’s picture.
“Probably about a month ago.”
“Okay, same thing? You cut her up and put her in bags?” Lee asked.
“Hm-hmm.”
“All the girls were choked? Do you remember what night you picked up [Stacie Goulet]?” Lee asked.
“I don’t remember the exact night.”
“Any events going on at that time that might help you remember?”
“It was late. It was just about a month ago.”
“Okay, around Fourth of July?”
“Probably around Fourth of July—probably right around that time. I’m not sure.”
“Where did you pick her up?”
“Arnold Street. Actually, no, I picked her up in front of Warehouse Liquors in Woonsocket.”
“Okay, this young lady right here, the first one, okay? Audrey Harris—how many pieces did you cut her up in?” Lee asked. “And let’s describe how you actually went about this.”
“Yes.”
“Head?” Lee asked.
“Limbs, head, torso cut in half from the waist.”
“Okay, and each one was placed in one bag?”
“No, each one was placed in several bags, probably like four or five bags.”
“Reason being?”
“To make it smaller.”
“When did you come up with this idea?”
“Like, a couple days after I did it.”
“Where was she?”
“She was in my bathtub.”
“How was she in your bathtub?”
“I put her there after I choked her.”
“Why? Did you keep her preserved or anything like that?” Lee asked, wondering how Mailhot lived with the smell of the decomposing body.
“No.”
“No? But you were able to stay in your apartment with her in your bathtub? Did you sleep there while she was there?”
“While she was there? Yes, I did,” Mailhot responded. “There was no smell given off from her or anything like that.”
“And then you come up with the idea to dispose of the body?” Lee asked.
“How did you come up with the idea of cutting them up?” Nowak asked.
At that point the detectives figured it was better to let Mailhot tell them his story. So for the next four hours Mailhot calmly detailed how he murdered the three women in cold blood. Audrey Harris was the first woman to meet her death at the hands of Jeffrey Mailhot; Christine Dumont was the next to die; Stacie Goulet was Mailhot’s last victim.
Nowak told Mailhot the detectives wanted him to tell them everything beginning with the first time he ever saw Audrey, Christine and Stacie. Nowak reminded Mailhot that the interrogation was being recorded and that the detectives would be taking notes.
“So as you go along if we see anything we have to ask—I’m going to try not to ask a lot of questions, but I want you to go right through the story.”
“Okay. I had been going to the K2U in Woonsocket with a couple of my friends that night. It was a Thursday night. I don’t remember the date. This was last year. It was right around the time the Station [nightclub] fire happened. We had been hanging out at the K2U and I had gotten intoxicated and then we parted ways.”
“Where did you part ways?” Nowak asked.
“At K2U—we’d come in separate vehicles. I didn’t come with them. I had just met them there.”
“Okay. What tim
e did you part from K2U?”
“I’d say probably, like, eleven,” Mailhot said. “I can’t be sure of the exact time.”
Mailhot then told him how he first saw Audrey when he was on his way home from the strip club and stopped to pick her up.
“How long after you left K2U—”
“Did I pick her up?” Mailhot asked, finishing Nowak’s sentence.
“To the time that you picked her up?” Nowak decided to ask the question his way.
“It was, like, probably ten, fifteen minutes.”
“All right, that’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“So you pretty much drove straight [home]?”
“I just drove straight home, yes.”
“You know the city of Woonsocket pretty well and you know all the streets, Arnold Street, High Street, stuff like that. You know where all of that is?” Nowak asked, referring to the area in Woonsocket known for prostitution. “That’s your neighborhood?”
“Yeah, I mean, I know streets I’m familiar with. I’m not too good at retaining a lot of street names.”
“Okay,” Nowak said. “If I ask you about a street, and if you don’t know where it is, let me know.”
“Right.”
“So you left K2U, which is on Front Street, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then you drove from K2U to Arnold Street and you found her on Arnold Street.”
“She was right around the area where Joseph’s breakfast place used to be on Arnold Street,” Mailhot said. “It was right around that area I picked her up.”
“Okay. How did that go, when you picked her up?”
“Um, I just saw her walking, so I pulled up alongside her and she got [in].”
“Did she know you? Did you know her?” Nowak asked.
“No.”
“No? She just got in?”
“She just got in.”
“She say anything?”
“Yes, she asked me if I wanted to party and stuff.”
“What did you tell her?”
Mailhot said he told Audrey that he wanted to party and they could go back to his place, which was nearby on Cato Street. Audrey agreed. Mailhot explained that when he picked Audrey up, he only planned to have sex with her. He told Nowak they agreed on a price of $30 for straight sex.
“And this time what were you thinking you were going to do with her?” Nowak asked, trying to find out if Mailhot planned to kill Audrey.
“I was thinking I was going to have sex with her.”
“And you had offered that, you said that to her?”
“Yes.”
“Did you say what type of sex?”
“Yeah, just sex.”
“Straight sex?” Nowak asked.
“Straight sex.”
“Okay, and she agreed?”
“Yes—yes, she did.”
“Did you pay her?”
“Actually, I went to go get the money and then she turned around and I choked her.”
“You choked her in the truck?” Nowak asked, trying to get the story straight.
“No, oh no, I went to pay her when we were in the house.”
Once in his apartment Audrey asked for the money upfront. Mailhot went to his bedroom to get the money, but then something went horribly wrong and Audrey ended up dead.
“When we got into the house, I gave her a little tour of the house and we went into my bedroom,” Mailhot explained. “She got undressed. I got undressed. I was wearing a pair of shorts and she was totally naked. Then she asked me for the money and I went to go give her the money, and then she turned around and I started—that’s when I went up from behind and started choking her.”
“How long from the time you got in the house to the time that you started choking her?”
“Probably about seven, eight minutes.”
“And what did you do [during that time]?”
“We were just talking.”
“What did you talk about? Do you remember?” Nowak asked.
“I don’t remember too much—I was pretty drunk that night.”
“Really drunk?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t remember the conversation? Did it get heated or anything?”
“No, there was no arguing or anything like that.”
“No arguing whatsoever?”
“No.”
“Earlier in the night?” Nowak asked.
“No.”
Nowak thought the reason Mailhot decided to kill Audrey was because he didn’t have the money to pay her, but Mailhot said that wasn’t the case.
“You had the money with you? There wasn’t an issue that you couldn’t pay or anything?” Nowak asked, trying to make sense of the murder.
“No.”
Nowak then asked Mailhot to explain to him exactly how he killed Audrey, which he did. Mailhot even demonstrated the choke hold he used. He explained that she struggled a bit and they both ended up on the floor. Mailhot continued choking her for another thirty seconds or so before he finished her off by smothering her with a pillow.
“Did she say anything like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Did she look at you? What happened?”
“Well, no, I didn’t see her face ’cause she was facing away from me, and all she was doing is gagging.”
“Hm-hmm.”
“I didn’t hear her saying anything.”
“Was she kicking, scratching at you, or anything?”
“Yes, that’s when I dragged her to the floor.”
“How long and then what?”
“And then I had her remaining in the choke hold until—until she stopped moving.”
“How long did you actually choke her before you had to take her to the floor?”
“It was like within seconds—probably like ten seconds.”
“Was there any struggle at all?” Nowak asked. “I mean, I watch movies and you can see it on TV and stuff, you know. They go up and they grab them and [they] can go out right away? Was it like that?”
“No, no, she struggled a bit.”
“She struggled a bit?”
“That’s why I went down on the floor with her to try and keep her from struggling.”
“Yeah. Now when you got down to the floor, what happened then?”
Mailhot said he kept the choke hold on Audrey for about another twenty or thirty seconds.
“And what was she doing at that point?”
“She was, you know, kicking and scratching, trying to get away still, but you know, when I got her to the floor, she … was losing her breath, struggling,” Mailhot said. “She eventually stopped struggling about probably, like, twenty to thirty seconds after I got her to the floor, and then I let go and that’s when I looked at her. I saw her eyes were just staring up—she wasn’t looking at anything and there was blood coming out of her mouth and she was gagging with, like, blood bubbles coming up. And so that’s when I figured she was dying.”
“But you didn’t think she was dead?” Nowak asked.
“No, ’cause she was still, like, breathing—I figured maybe she was still alive, so that’s when I got the pillow and I suffocated her with the pillow.”
“And, then, well, how did you know she was dead?” Nowak asked.
“I mean, I wasn’t sure after I took the pillow off her. I just kind of looked at her and then just kind of sat back for a few minutes in disbelief of what had happened.”
Nowak wanted to know if Mailhot had planned to kill Audrey or if he just felt like he had to satisfy an urge that had been building.
“It was an urge—it was no particular reason why it happened.”
After Mailhot realized he had killed Audrey, he paced around his bedroom, trying to figure out what to do. He checked on Audrey again after a couple minutes and knew she was dead.
“So you sat with her, how long out in the kitchen floor?” Nowak asked.
“This was actually—I did this—this was in my bedroom.”
“O
kay, in the bedroom. How long did you sit with her? She’s on the floor of the bedroom.”
“She’s on the floor of the bedroom,” Mailhot said, echoing Nowak’s words.
“You already killed her—brought to the ground, pillow over her head, took the pillow off—”
“No,” Mailhot said, interrupting the cop.
“Realized she was dead how?”
“After I took the pillow off, I, you know, stood back for a few minutes, just kind of looking and pacing around, not knowing what to do,” he explained. “I went and checked on her after a couple of minutes and I just knew she was dead. She hadn’t moved, she hadn’t breathed—nothing—all the breathing and everything stopped,” he said.
“Okay, then what did you do after that?”
Mailhot explained to the detectives as much as he could remember about how he killed Audrey Harris. About ten minutes after Mailhot murdered Audrey, he dragged her lifeless body into his bathroom, put her in the bathtub, then put her clothes in a trash bag in the kitchen.
“Okay, so you put her in the bathtub. How much time would you say had gone by up to this point from the time you picked her up, which is sometime around eleven o’clock?” Nowak asked. “I mean, obviously, I don’t expect you to know seconds, but just give it a guess.”
“I would say probably, like, forty minutes or so—somewhere around there—forty, forty-five.”
“All right, so you put her in the bathtub and she’s still—you had never undressed, right?”
“No, she had already undressed herself,” Mailhot reminded Nowak.
“Where did her clothes go?”
“In my kitchen trash bag.”
Unlike some serial killers who keep souvenirs, Mailhot didn’t keep any of Audrey’s possessions. He threw them all away.
“So you threw it away with the regular garbage—all of her clothes?”
“Yes.”
“Did she have any jewelry, ID, anything like that?”
“I think she had some, like, braids in her hair.”
“Did you take those off?”
“No, I left those.”
“She had no jewelry on, or nothing like that?”
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