Police: Shooting a murder-suicide
Boy, 7, left parentless; quiet city neighborhood stunned by ‘tragedy’
“No words can adequately describe the impact that SUCH A HORRIfiC ACT can have on family members, friends, loved ones, and the community as a whole.”
–RICADV spokeswoman Lucy Rios
WOONSOCKET — What is perhaps impossible to glean from police reports and arms-length observations of neighbors comes shining through crystal clear on Glenn and Michelle Benvenuti’s Facebook pages: they were both immensely attached to their son, Hunter.
Separated in 2012 – less than a year after the boy was born – and divorced a year later, the parents uploaded photo after photo of the 7-year-old on their respective social media pages – images of special occasions dating back to the time he was an infant. In scenes from Christmas, family gatherings and outdoor treks, the one constant is the smiling boy – just like the one of him and his dad posing with a freshly caught string of fish at the Mill River Dam on Priv- ilege Street.
It was a fractured family life – but a family life nevertheless – until it was snuffed out altogether in a blast of gunfire at his father’s white ranch at 11 Bluestone Drive Sunday morning. There, shortly before 11 a.m., while she was visiting to retrieve her son from a custodial visit, police say Glenn Ben- venuti shot his ex-wife to death before turning the weapon on himself, taking his own life.
He was 56 years old. Michelle, a North Smithfield resident, was 45.
“It’s awful,” said Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III. “This woman is the victim of the ultimate crime of domestic violence. She’s been murdered. You have a 7-year-old who’s missing both of his parents. Whatever psychological issues the father may have had – certainly not making
any excuses for it – it’s tragic.”
The boy was in the Bluestone Drive split-level when the murder-suicide of his parents took place, but he was unharmed, Oates told reporters during a briefing at headquarters Monday. When police arrived, they found the boy upstairs and the bodies of Glenn and Michelle downstairs, in two different rooms. Both appeared to have been shot once each, though Glenn suffered a secondary wound of uncertain origin. An autopsy is pending, Oates said.
The child “did hear some shots, but he didn’t think much of it” – he thought his father was doing work outside. The boy is now in the care of relatives.
Glenn Benvenuti had at least five other children from two prior relationships and some history of spousal discord, but he had never previously been charged with a domestic crime, according to Detective Capt. Adam Remick.
In 2004, Remick told reporters a woman with whom he was living sought a temporary restraining order against him after a quarrel in which no assault had taken place. In a standard operating procedure, the police removed a number of firearms from the home of the avid outdoorsman. They were later returned after the restraining order expired a few weeks later.
Police also investigated a report of a domestic disturbance involving Glenn and Michelle in 2013, but police found no evidence that an “actual assault” took place and did not charge him with a crime.
After members of the Special Response Team forced their way into Benvenuti’s house Sunday, they found a tnumber of long-barreled weapons and shotguns in a gun case, but Oates declined to say what type of weapon was used in the crime.
THE ORDEAL
began shortly before 11 a.m. when police received a phone call from a female friend of Benvenuti rwho told them she had just had a disturbing conversation with him on the phone.
After abruptly hanging up from an earlier conversation because his ex-wife had arrived to pick up Hunter, Benvenuti called her a second time.
“He said he had just shot her and was tgoing to shoot himself,” Oates said. “She tried calling him back to see if it was a joke, to see what was going on. She got no answer.”
After zeroing in on the location of the Benvenuti residence, police raced there and tried repeatedly to make contact with him, to no avail. Wary of entering a house with a child and an armed suspect inside, police ultimately summoned the SRT team to make a forced entry. They were unsure of it at the time, Oates said, but it soon became apparent that both adults were dead before police arrived.
Exactly what transpired between Glenn and Michelle after she arrived to pick up her son that caused him to commit murder is unknown, according to police.
Despite Benvenuti’s history of domestic discord, Oates said there was no indication that Michelle had reached out for support services or that she was the type of victim who was struggling to break out of a cycle of repetitive violence. She appeared to have made a clean break from Benvenuti when they divorced and to be leading an independent life.
According to papers on file in Family Court, the couple was married on Nov. 8, 2008, and separated in 2012, about a year before their divorce was finalized, the following September. The cause for the split was unspecified “irreconcilable differences” which led to an “irremediable breakdown of marriage with no possibility of reconciliation,” according to the final decree.
He was employed by Bimbo Bakeries in Millbury, Mass., a factory-scale bakery that owns some of the nation’s legacy baked-goods brands, including Arnold’s, Thomas’ and Entenmann’s. Michelle worked in the billing department at East Bay Community Action Program, a nonprofit agency that specializes in referrals for healthcare and social services, headquartered in East Providence.
As part of the divorce settlement, the court granted “physical possession” of the child to Michelle and shared custody with Glenn, who was allowed visits four days a week on a rotation designed to accommodate Michelle’s work schedule.
While residents of the Bluestone Drive area recalled Benvenuti as a friendly and generous neighbor, Michelle’s former divorce lawyer called him “cocky.”
“He didn’t seem like the type of person who would do this, but he did have a certain edge,” said lawyer Evan Kirshenbaum. “He wasn’t easygoing.”
While neighbors talked about custody-related friction between the Benvenutis, there is no evidence of it on the record. Kirshenbaum said Michelle had never approached him about amending the custody agreements after the original 2013 decree was entered.
“I wish she had,” said Kirshenbaum. “Maybe I could have helped her.”
Kirshenbaum said Michelle had filed an “abuse petition” against Benvenuti in Family Court that was wrapped into the divorce complaint. He said the complaint was detailed in Michelle’s own handwriting and may have boiled down to “threatening comments,” but he did not have additional details.
In a statement about the murder-suicide, The Rhode Island Coalition of Domestic said it was particularly distressing that the Benvenutis’ child was home when the crime took place.
“No words can adequately describe the impact that such a horrific act can have on family members, friends, loved ones, and the community as a whole,” said RICADV spokeswoman Lucy Rios. “Rhode Island has now experienced three domestic violence homicides in 2018. All three were murder-suicides, all three were committed with a firearm, and two of the three had children in the home at the time of the incident.”
A murder-suicide in the leafy subdivisions of ranch houses east of Jillson Avenue – an area that looks more like the tony tracts of nearby Lincoln than Woonsocket – was the last thing neighbors expected to happen at 11 Bluestone Drive. A shooting was so unexpected that Robert Carabina of Lydia Avenue thought nothing of it when he heard a series of “pops” coming from Benvenuti’s house, next door.
ABOUT TWO
minutes later, he saw a small army of police vehicles arrive, in addition to a heavily armed tactical squad – the police department’s Special Reponse Team.
“This is so out of character,” said Carabina. “It’s a complete stunner. He was always so pleasant.”
Benvenuti lived alone in a well-tended property, with an in-ground swimming pool in the back yard and a patio table adorned with a bright red umbrella. Carabina said he often saw Benvenuti outside doing yard work, and he frequently offered to lend others a hand with chores of their own. Carabina offered to chop down some of the low branches of his catalpa tree and told him he could borrow his power washer if he wanted to spruce up his house.
“He was always like a friendly guy, sort of,” said Carabina. “He never had a demeanor like he was rough. When he was doing his yard work, he always had his son with him. The boy would help – you know, what he could do.”
Co-workers of both victims were aware of their tragic deaths Monday, but they declined to comment about it. A man identified as a supervisor at Bimbo Bakeries declined to comment, and the CEO of East Bay Community Action Program said the organization doesn’t comment on personal matters involving its employees.
“We extend our respects to her family,” said EBCAP CEO Dennis Roy. “We really don’t comment on matters like this.”