Ripper

by Linda Rosencrance

  Through DNA testing the medical examiner ultimately indentified the remains as those of Stacie Goulet.

  Chapter 19

  On July 23, seven days after Mailhot had been arrested for murdering Audrey, Christine and Stacie, his high-profile court-appointed defense attorney, Robert Mann, filed a motion to reduce Mailhot’s bail. Mailhot had been held in the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, Rhode Island, on $200,000 cash bail since July 16.

  Mann had represented some of Rhode Island’s most notorious murderers, including serial killer Craig Price. Price, a teenage football player, known as the “Iron Man,” lived in Warwick, Rhode Island. In the summer of 1987, the five-ten, 240-pound African American teen broke into his neighbor’s house and stabbed twenty-seven-year-old Rebecca Spencer fifty-eight times. He was thirteen years old.

  Two years later he butchered another neighbor, thirty-nine-year-old Joan Heaton and her daughters, Jennifer, ten, and Melissa, eight, with Heaton’s own kitchen knives. Price stabbed Jennifer sixty-two times. A police investigation led detectives to Price, who, like Mailhot, calmly confessed to the four murders.

  On July 30, 2004, Mailhot, dressed in blue prison clothes, appeared in district court in Providence to face three counts of first-degree murder. At that time his bail was revoked and he was ordered held without bail at the ACI. The hearing lasted just two minutes. Mailhot just gave his date of birth and his address—the Adult Correctional Institutions—before he was taken from the courtroom and brought back to jail. He did not enter a plea to the charges. Only Stacie Goulet’s parents attended the hearing.

  After the hearing William Shea, then Woonsocket’s police chief, told reporters that investigators were fairly certain that Audrey, Christine and Stacie were the only women Mailhot had murdered.

  “Mr. Mailhot basically worked an ordinary job,” he said outside the courtroom. “He went to work all the time. No police or criminal record. Originally he didn’t appear as though he would be capable of it.”

  Shea said in the twenty-five years that he had been a Woonsocket police officer, the murders of the three women were the most horrific murders the department had ever seen. At a news conference later that day, the Rhode Island attorney general said he hoped the charges would bring some solace to the families of the victims.

  But solace wasn’t what one family member was thinking about. At the news conference Madeline Desrochers, Christine Dumont’s sister, said if Mailhot was found guilty of the murders, she wanted an “eye-for-an-eye” justice.

  While police continued their investigation, Stacie Goulet’s family, at least, was able to bury her. On September 21, about one hundred of Stacie’s family and friends gathered at a funeral service at the T. Lauzon Funeral Home in Woonsocket to say a final good-bye to her. Stacie’s casket was closed.

  The Reverend Don Parker, interim pastor at St. James Episcopal Church, told mourners that Stacie was a good daughter and mother, who had gone home and met Jesus when she died.

  “If asked, I’m sure Stacie would have said she would have liked to have lived for another seventy-five or eighty years,” Parker said. “But on one summer night, through violence, her life was ended. God will wipe every tear from her eyes.”

  After the service Stacie was buried at a cemetery in Bellingham, Massachusetts, just over the Rhode Island border.

  But the families of Audrey Harris and Christine Dumont weren’t able to put them to rest. Without a body or a death certificate, their relatives had no way to hold a funeral. Audrey’s mother, Claudette, and Madeline Desrochers, Christine’s sister, met with members of the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office to discuss how they could obtain death certificates for the two women.

  Under state law a certificate of “presumptive death” can be issued, but only under the most extraordinary circumstances. The attorney general’s office told Claudette and Madeline that the statute had never been used in the case of a homicide. It seemed the last time a certificate of presumptive death was issued was nearly five years earlier after the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, on October 31, 1999. All 217 people on board were killed and many of the bodies were never found.

  According to the statute, the superior court would have to order the medical examiner to issue a presumptive death certificate, but the attorney general would have to start the process. At the time, although sympathetic to the plight of the families, the attorney general wanted to make sure none of the evidence against Mailhot was revealed before the case was presented to the grand jury. The problem was, if the attorney general initiated a petition for presumptive death, he would have to release some of the same information needed to get an indictment against Mailhot. And he was afraid if the evidence was released too early, it would compromise the state’s case.

  “We’re trying to balance the real concerns of the families, who are hurting very much, and the concerns of prosecutors, who are trying to bring the killer to justice,” a spokeswoman for the attorney general told the local newspaper, the Woonsocket Call. “Right now our first priority is bringing who we think the killer is to justice. We think the best way we can offer a small measure of solace to the families right now is to do the best we can to present the case to a grand jury.”

  Finally—without a death certificate—Audrey Harris’s mother, Claudette, held a memorial service for her daughter in December 2004 in St. James Baptist Church in Woonsocket. Mourners brought teddy bears, Audrey’s favorite collectible, with them to the service.

  And as of December 2007, Madeline Desrochers said she still hadn’t received Christine Dumont’s death certificate.

  Chapter 20

  At the beginning of January 2005, Mailhot was arraigned in Rhode Island Superior Court on charges that he murdered Audrey Harris, Christine Dumont and Stacie Goulet. In addition, Mailhot was also arraigned on two counts of felonious assaults for the attacks on Teese Morris and Jocilin Martel. Mailhot pleaded not guilty to all the charges and the judge remanded him back to the Adult Correctional Institutions, where he was to remain held without bail until his pretrial hearing on April 5. The judge did not set a trial date during his arraignment.

  At that time state prosecutors announced that they were going to seek a sentence of life without parole, the state’s maximum sentence, for Mailhot if he was to be convicted of any of the first-degree murder charges. Rhode Island does not have the death penalty. By making the case a life-without-parole case, prosecutors were letting Mailhot and his attorney know that they would be unlikely to accept a plea agreement from Mailhot—unless he was willing to spend many, many years behind bars.

  However, Mailhot finally decided to accept responsibility for murdering Audrey, Christine and Stacie, and he pleaded guilty on February 15, 2006, in Rhode Island Superior Court in Providence to three counts of first-degree murder, one count of assault with the intent to commit murder and one count of felony assault.

  At Mailhot’s sentencing hearing Rhode Island assistant attorney general J. Patrick Youngs, III said if there had been a trial, his office would have introduced evidence of Mailhot’s involvement in the disappearances and murders of Audrey Harris, Christine Dumont and Stacie Goulet, as well as the assaults on Jocilin Martel and Teese Morris.

  Youngs told the court that the investigation into the disappearances of the three women led investigators to Jocilin, who then told police about her experiences with the man who lived on Cato Street.

  “Jocilin Martel described the assault against her in June of 2004, wherein she accompanied a man, the defendant, to his apartment … ,” Youngs said. “Ms. Martel was choked, but she managed to break free. Frankly, she shoved her thumb into his eye. She described in detail the man, the building and the apartment.”

  Youngs told Judge Mark Pfeiffer that after talking to Jocilin, the police looked through their records and discovered that Teese Morris had also been assaulted in the same apartment on February 15, 2004. Both wom
en then identified Jeffrey Mailhot as the guy who attacked them, and after getting a warrant, the police arrested him. Then during a very lengthy interrogation, Mailhot finally admitted killing Audrey, Christine and Stacie and described how he lured them back to his apartment, choked them, dismembered their bodies in his bathtub, placed them in garbage bags and scattered their remains in Dumpsters throughout the city.

  “Then there was an exhaustive search by the Woonsocket police and state police at the central landfill,” Youngs told the court. “The search went on for ten days. It was a miracle they found body parts, which were [identified] by DNA as Stacie Goulet. The investigation also produced a surveillance video from Lowe’s hardware store in the city of Woonsocket on the Fourth of July, the day after Stacie was missing. Mr. Mailhot was on video buying a saw at Lowe’s. That saw is found in the basement of his apartment. That saw matches the grooves in the bathtub and matches the grooves in Stacie Goulet’s arms that were found at the landfill.”

  The prosecutor added that blood that matched both Audrey and Christine was found in Mailhot’s bathtub. However, he reminded the court, neither of those two women had ever been found.

  “Your Honor, had all of this been presented to the court, the state would have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Mailhot did, in February 2003, murder Audrey Harris. On or about April 3, of 2004, murdered Christine Dumont. On or about the Fourth of July, 2004, murdered Stacie Goulet. In June of 2004, assaulted Jocilin Martel with intent to murder. And on or about February 15, 2004, committed a felony assault on Teese Morris. All of these assaults and murders occurred in the city of Woonsocket at [address on] Cato Street.”

  The judge then asked Mailhot if he accepted each of those statements. Mailhot said he did.

  After Mailhot admitted what he had done, the court heard from Jocilin and Teese, as well as from the families of the murdered women.

  Jocilin said she was grateful for the opportunity to express herself to Mailhot on her behalf, as well as on behalf of Audrey, Christine and Stacie, who could no longer do so.

  “I believe God spared my life so I could be here today and testify against Mr. Mailhot so he cannot kill anybody no longer,” Jocilin said. “My mother, my one-year-old son, Andre, are also grateful I am still alive.”

  Jocilin told the court the whole experience had been very traumatic for her, her family and all the people who loved Audrey, Christine and Stacie. She said she would always remember the three women.

  “Mr. Mailhot, I hope that you get all you deserve today because a lifetime of suffering couldn’t be enough,” she said.

  The next to address the court was Audrey’s mom, Claudette Harris, who thanked Jocilin for coming forward with the information that led to Mailhot’s arrest. Then Claudette spoke directly to Mailhot.

  “Jeffrey Mailhot, you deliberately sought out and killed a part of us, my daughter, Audrey Harris,” she said. “And now her children, Anthony, Damica and Sean, do not have a mother. Her brother, Timothy, and sister, Alisha, miss her, and so do her entire family.”

  Claudette told Mailhot that all the families wanted to see him rot in prison for the rest of his pitiful life.

  “I want to know, where did you dump Audrey’s body?” she asked “Only you have the answer. And I would like you to tell me where to find her remains.”

  Claudette said mere words couldn’t express the way she felt about him.

  “You sit here quiet, trying not to be noticed,” she said. “But I’m here to tell you that all eyes are on you nonstop and everyone will continue to keep their eyes on you until the day that you die. Jeffrey Mailhot, God have mercy on your soul.”

  Youngs asked the judge if he could read into the record, two letters written by Christine Dumont’s nieces, who were in the courtroom, but didn’t want to speak.

  The first letter, entitled “Did You Know,” was written by Christine’s niece Amanda, and was addressed to Mailhot.

  In her letter Amanda asked Mailhot if he knew that her aunt was a terrific mother and a good person who would go out of her way to help people. She asked if he knew that her Aunt Christine had beaten death twice before she ran into him.

  Amanda also asked Mailhot if he knew that he broke her heart. She told him because of what he did she would never see her aunt laugh or cry again.

  “Did you know that you took that away from me?” she asked. “I don’t think you do. So I just thought you should know that. As for you, I hope you either die in jail or rot in hell.”

  Youngs said the second letter was from Christine’s niece, Michele.

  In her letter, Michele told Mailhot that she wanted him to know the impact he left on her family. She said he had no right to take her aunt away from her family. She said Christine was not a piece of trash even though Mailhot disposed of her that way.

  Like her sister, Michele told Mailhot that before drugs took over her life, she was a good mom, daughter, sister, aunt and friend. And she told Mailhot that he could never spend enough time in prison to pay for what he did to her family and to the families of Audrey and Stacie.

  Michele said Mailhot would still get to eat, sleep and breathe everyday, but her Aunt Christine would never get to do that again. Michele said her aunt would never see her family or children again.

  “You got life and she got death,” she said. “I believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You should be put to death. You are the devil in disguise. May you rot in hell,” Michele said.

  Then Christine’s sister, Madeline Desrochers, addressed the court.

  Madeline told the court some of the things she remembered about her beloved sister.

  “I remember when my mother brought my sister home for the first time. She looked like a little doll,” she said. “I remember the day she went to school for the first time. She thought she was a big girl. I remember when she got her first boyfriend. She thought she was so grown up. I remember when my sister got hit by a train when she was fifteen and she fought for her life and she made it.”

  Madeline said she remembered when her sister was eighteen and got a boyfriend and thought she was in love.

  “His name was Joe. She spent twenty-three years of her life with him,” Madeline said. “I remember when she told our whole family, she was going to have a baby. She was so very happy. My sister was a great mom. I remember when she used drugs for the first time. She did not know how to get off. The drugs started to run her life. For ten years my sister struggled with addiction. I remember when my sister called me from the hospital bed to tell me she was kidnapped and beaten in the head with a crowbar and she was left for dead. She fought that and she made it.”

  Then Madeline recalled the day Christine’s son told her the family hadn’t heard from her in two days. She said she knew something was wrong right away. And she remembered when the police knocked on her door and told her that her worst nightmare had come true.

  “And I remember the next day the police officers came and told me what you did to her, when and where you put her,” Madeline told Mailhot. “Now I have to remember her in my heart because I cannot go anywhere to visit her to tell her I still love her. My sister was still fighting for her life every step of the way and you had to take it away from her. My sister’s life was not yours to take. My sister still had a lot of fight and life left in her. And seven months from now, my sister would become a grandmother. She would have loved that and been so happy. My sister was a great person—full of life. And I believe she would have won her fight someday, but you made sure she will never fight again. As for you, I believe God will take care of you until your judgment day. I believe you will rot in hell, where you belong.”

  The next to speak was Raymond Boerger, Stacie Goulet’s father.

  Boerger told the court there was always a hole in his heart not knowing Stacie when she was young.

  “She was thirteen when she came into my life and filled my heart with joy and laughter,” he said.

  Boerger said when he first heard
Stacie was missing, he started looking for her day and night. Then one night his wife, Debbie, told him that the police wanted to talk to the family about Mailhot murdering Stacie.

  “When the police arrived that day and they told me and my family that you, Jeff Mailhot, confessed to murdering all three women, chills and shakes came through my body and I began to cry and my hands became fists of rage,” Raymond said. “I think, ‘How could you do such a horrific thing?’ Hearing police say that you, Jeff, have no record and seemed to be so smart in school and have a good job. You sure became a local freak with a twisted mind. What you did to my daughter, Stacie, my heart became an empty hole again. Like my wife says, I can forgive you, but I will never forget you for what you have done because I have a son named Jeffrey, and I call him Jeff. And every time I say that name, I will always be tormented by what your dangerous hands did to my daughter and the others. If you have any feelings about losing your parents, then you know how I feel about losing my daughter. If you don’t know how it feels, then you are a coldhearted person and you deserve to be in jail.”

  Raymond told Mailhot that at Stacie’s funeral her children asked over and over if they could see their mother. But all he could do was tell them that her coffin was locked and he couldn’t open it.

  “That was the most devastating thing I have ever heard in my life from two little children,” he said. “It hurt me to see my grandchildren in so much pain. And you didn’t only hurt my grandchildren, but you hurt myself and other families that loved Stacie very much. And because of you I will never hear her or see her warm smile. I will never be able to give her a hug or tell her I love her, because you brutally, viciously stole her from my heart. And you treated her like garbage. She wasn’t garbage. You may have torn apart our families, but you didn’t make us weak. You made us stronger, for we know we will see her in heaven someday.”

  Raymond told the court that Stacie didn’t have a drug record; she got caught up in the wrong scene at the wrong time. He told Mailhot that he was just a cold-blooded killer. He said Mailhot’s family must be very disappointed in him because he was going to be locked up for the rest of his life, even though he was considered the smart one.