Remembering Constance
Two years ago today, Woonsocket’s Constance Gauthier was brutally slain in her home. The case is still a mystery.
WOONSOCKET – Today marks two years since the brutalized body of Constance Gauthier, 81, was found in her home near St. Agatha’s Church – and two years that family members have been clinging to hope that police will catch her killer.
“Every month or so I post something on Facebook and I ask people to share it,” says Sandy Paul of North Smithfield, Gauthier’s niece. “I just want it to be out there so people don’t forget. Hopefully the right person sees it...I think it’s just a matter of time until that happens.”
Known for her youthful zest, Gauthier took pride in making every day count. She was a world traveler and drove around town in a sporty Pontiac convertible with a vanity plate that advertised her credo: LIVE. She celebrated birthdays with new tattoos and, at the time of her death, was a respected member of the city’s Personnel Board.
On March 23, 2016, a massage therapist with whom Gauthier had an appointment knocked on the door of her tiny stone bungalow at 191 Fair- field Ave. and got no answer. After summoning neighbors, she later peered in through a window and saw a portion of Gauthier’s body sticking out from beneath an upturned mattress.
Though police have withheld many of the grisly details, the state medical examiner later declared that Gauthier died from multiple stab wounds. Police said her body was discovered amid signs of a struggle.
“The brutality of what happened, it had to be someone she knows,” said Paul. “I think it was somebody who was mad...for whatever reason. It’s just insane for anyone to have done something like this.”
A graduate of Woonsocket High School, Gauthier left town after she got her diploma and lived for a time in New York, where she worked a number of jobs, including private detective. She never got married and had no children. At the time of her death, her closest surviving relatives were a handful of nephews and nieces, including Paul. Two others live in Burrillville and two more, including a church pastor, reside in Connecticut.
Though she was very active, Gauthier lived a very private life, says Paul. She is known to have had a longtime relationship with an man about her age, but he died sometime after Gauthier was murdered.
“She did her own thing, and she liked to keep it that way,” she says.
Paul says she keeps in touch with members of the Woonsocket Police Depart- ment about the status of the case and seems satisfied that they are doing their best to track down whoever was responsible for killing her aunt.
Paul just had a three-way conference call with members of the WPD two nights ago. The massage therapist who discovered Gauthier’s body also took part.
Paul said she was told the case has recently been reassigned to Detective Anthony J. Conetta Jr. He will review some of the work that has already been done in hopes that a fresh look at the evidence will reveal something important that might have escaped the attention of others.
“It’s an active investigation,” said Police Chief Thomas F. Oates. “It’s an important case that we think about every day.”
Oates confirmed that Conetta has been assigned to the Gauthier case “to bring a fresh set of eyes” to the evidence, a common practice in law enforcement when one team of investigators has spent considerable time on a high-profile case without closing it.
The chief said Conetta is still following leads and parsing bits of evidence, including the results of DNA analysis of materials collected from the crime scene that continue to be processed by the state lab.
Neighbors of Gauthier – not just family members – have also expressed concern that the police have not made an arrest in the case.
“I don’t like living around here and having someone murdered and not knowing anything about it,” one neighbor said. “To have some kind of closure would be nice.”
Within days of the homicide, suspicions appeared to fall on a 21-year-old man who lived next door to Gauthier after he allegedly asked several neighbors for permission to look at footage from their home security cameras. When police took Tyler Grenon to headquarters for questioning, he allegedly escaped from their custody, bolting from the police station and eventually leaping into the Blackstone River before he was recaptured.
Grenon was ultimately charged with intimidating witnesses and obstructing police – but all of those charges were later withdrawn. He’s never been charged with any new offense associated with the homicide investigation.
Though the police won’t talk about their theory of what might have happened to Gauthier, they have always indicated that the murderer – as Paul believes – was likely someone familiar to her. Shortly after the homicide, the police held a community meeting at St. Agatha’s Church, a block from Gauthier’s house, to quell the fears of anxious neighbors. Police reassured them that the area was safe, saying Gauthier’s murder was not a random crime.
Regardless of whether the police investigation results in an arrest, Paul says she is already talking to Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt about estab- lishing a memorial to Gauthier to make sure she is never forgotten.
Paul says she and the mayor have been discussing the possibility of erecting a stone marker with a plaque honoring Gauthier’s life and her service to the community.
Where it will be located is an open question, but Paul says she favors a spot where the marker will get the one thing that, in life, Gauthier seemed to have little appetite for – attention.
“I’d like it to be someplace where it has very high visibility so it can be seen by people who are walking by or driving by,” says Paul.