Murder suspect freed on bail
Tyler Grenon, one of two suspects in Gauthier slaying, released from custody
PROVIDENCE – The case of two men accused in the grisly 2016 stabbing death of Woonsocket octogenarian Constance Gauthier took an unexpected twist Wednesday when a District Court judge set bail for one of them.
Bail was set for Tyler Grenon, 23, of Attleboro, at $50,000 with surety after state prosecutors withdrew their objections during a brief hearing before Sixth District Court Judge Christine S. Jabour. He was released a short time later after the necessary amount – $5,000 cash – was posted by an individual identified as Ronald Therrien, 72. Therrien and Grenon both supplied the court with an address of 68 Brownell St. in Attleboro, but police say they’re not related.
Prosecutors offered no explanation for acceding to bail, but Grenon’s lawyer, Collin M. Geiselman, deputy chief of the trial division for the Public Defender’s Office, said there was a “lack of evidence” and his client had no prior record. Geiselman said he would have preferred $30,000 surety bail, but in view of “the severity of the allegations,” he would not contest the state’s request for $50,000.
“Mr. Grenon is looking forward to clearing his name,” Geiselman said during a break in the proceedings. “The state withdrew its objection to bail. As far as I can tell at this point there is no physical evidence against Tyler.”
The details were hashed out during an inaudible bench conference between Jabour, Geiselman and State Prosecutor Scott Erickson, but the judge later asked prosecutors to put the withdrawal of the state’s objection to bail on the record.
“Yes, your honor, the state has withdrawn their objection to bail,” said State Prosecutor Kate Revens, stepping in for Erickson.
Wearing a gray T-shirt, blue gym shorts and a pair of Topsiders, Grenon appeared briefly in court as the judge set bail, but said nothing. An adult male who Geiselman described only as a relative of Grenon sat in the spectator section, fidgeting nervously throughout the proceedings.
“He’s not guilty,” the same man uttered, clutching a Bible as Geiselman escorted him and other family members to an elevator after the hearing. Geiselman said they did not want to comment.
A former neighbor of Gauthier who now resides in Attleboro, Grenon and his alleged co-conspirator, Matthew Dusseault, 21, of 101 Cote Ave., Woonsocket, were both scheduled to appear before Jabour Wednesday for possible bail hearings – neither of which took place.
On the request of defense lawyer John Calcagni III, Dusseault remains held without bail at the ACI pending another hearing on Aug. 29. No new dates were set for Grenon, but a fresh timetable for court action could emerge after a pending grand jury review of the evidence.
After a lull of more than two years on visible police activity in the case, Dusseault and Grenon were both arrested on July 17 on charges of murder in conspiracy in the death of Gauthier, 81, of 191 Fairfield Ave. The medical examiner concluded that she’d been stabbed 68 times in the head, neck and torso with two different knives and may have died as many as 18 hours before her body was discovered beneath an overturned mattress in the bedroom of her stone bungalow on March 23, 2016.
Members of the Woonsocket Police Department still haven’t ascribed a possible motive for the heinous actions that the two men – described only as friends – are alleged to have committed. Police, in fact, have said little about their evidence in the case, but substantial detail has trickled out in affidavits they are obligated to file with the court to support various investigative activities, including the execution of search warrants.
Detective Thomas Gormley III, for example, filed papers with the Sixth District Court last week that explained how the two men came to be arrested through the use of cutting-edge DNA phenotyping and genetic genealogy. Using the private, Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs Inc., police developed a composite sketch of an unknown suspect whose DNA was found intermingled with Gauthier’s at the crime scene, Gormley’s affidavit says.
Police had been in possession of the unknown suspect’s profile for some time without the ability to link it to a name. In June, however, Detective Anthony Conetta Jr. suggested looking for a match in a Parabon database of known DNA profiles that was originally established for genealogical research. The effort led initially led to Dusseault’s mother, Paula Gauthier (no relation to Constance), indicating that the source of the unknown DNA sample was either her father or her son.
The technique is so new that it became national news for the first time in April when California police used it to arrest the Golden Gate Killer – a man in his 70s who’d been at large despite having committed a dozen homicides and scores of rapes that occurred 30 to 40 years ago.
When police took Dusseault in for questioning last month, he denied committing the homicide, but he put himself at the crime scene on the day of the murder. He gave police a series of conflicting statements, however, in which he claimed to have witnessed Grenon stab Gauthier one or two times before helping him stage the scene to look like a burglary.
“He also admitted (that) Gauthier, in her dying breath, reached out and grabbed him,” Gormley’s affidavit says.
He also claimed that during the attack, Grenon wore gloves and protective gear on his feet to keep from leaving behind evidence of his involvement in the crime and that he, Dusseault, later burned his clothing at a truck depot on North Main Street in Woonsocket.
Grenon, for whom Gauthier served as a sort of “surrogate grandmother,” according to police, lived with his father in the house next door to the victim at the time of the crime and has faced non-homicide charges that grew out of the investigation in the past.
He was also credited with helping find her body, peering in through a window, after a health care worker knocked on Gauthier’s door and no one answered, on the day the homicide was discovered.
Three days later, police took Grenon into custody for questioning when he caught their attention by asking several neighbors to see footage from their home security cameras. He allegedly bolted from police custody and leaped into the Blackstone River, prompting police to charge him with witness intimidation, obstructing and escape. All those charges were withdrawn in November 2016, however, and his record was later expunged.
Gauthier, who lived alone and had no children, had served as chairwoman of the Woonsocket’s Personnel Board since 2006. Acquaintances described her as an active senior citizen with an unusually robust appetite for life and learning new things.
Geiselman told reporters Wednesday that his client had a job before he was arrested and lives with “family friends” in Attleboro, but he declined to elaborate.
“I just think he’s looking for some privacy at this point,” Geiselman said.