A measure of justice at long last

A measure of justice at long last

By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
george.barnes@telegram.com

I can't think of a better Christmas gift the district attorney's office could have given the family of Kathy Daneault than closure of her killing.

It was a Christmas present 31 years overdue.

Kathy died on Nov. 17, 1983, murdered, we are now told, by Edward M. Mayrand Jr., a drifter who lived at the time in Gardner. Police announced on Dec. 23 he was the murderer, a serial killer who also killed at least four other women. I can only imagine how Kathy's family felt when they were contacted by the district attorney's office and were told police could say with certainty Mayrand took the life of the happy-go-lucky 25-year-old.

I know how I felt. Kathy Daneault's death has weighed heavily on me for much of my news career. When her body was found in the woods between Timpany Plaza and the S. Bent Brothers Co. furniture factory on Mill Street, I was only a few months into my full-time career as a reporter. It wasn't the first homicide I covered, but it was one that would haunt me for years. Covering other tragedies I would be reminded of Kathy. I would think of the smiling picture of her we ran that day in the Gardner News, and would wonder if her killer would ever be brought to justice.


Always frustrating was that people knew who killed Kathy, or at least they felt pretty sure. They just could not prove it. Police had Mayrand penciled in as the main suspect from the beginning, but there was not enough evidence to prove it. DNA testing was not available then, and there was not enough at the scene for police to charge him with the killing. What I didn't know until years later was that not only did investigators believe he was the killer, they were sure he was traveling around killing others. He was a serial killer, they said.

I covered the case when it happened and sat down with Kathy's mother, Joan, and her husband, Jim Stephenson, a year later to talk about it. Living across the street from Kathy's grave in Riverside Cemetery in Winchendon, they said they thought about her all the time. Mr. Stephenson, who passed away in 2010, said they were always looking for her killer, wondering if police would ever catch him. I wish Jim was around today to hear the news.

Kathy Daneault had her whole life ahead of her. We think the monsters out there are just figments of our imaginations, but in Kathy's case it was true. Her killer was a monster and possibly not the only one operating in Gardner at the time.

There were many murders in the Gardner area in 1983 and 1984, and Kathy's was not the only unsolved killing. In March 1984, Holly J. Cote left a bar in downtown Gardner and disappeared. She was found four months later in a flooded area behind the Birch Hill Dam near the Royalston-Winchendon town lines.

As in the case of Kathy Daneault, police had a suspect from the start, but have not been able to prove he did it. James Randall, who knew Holly through his wife, was the last person seen with her. He was never charged. Eventually he made his way to Florida, where he killed two prostitutes. He is now serving two life terms for the killings and remains a suspect in Holly's death.

Knowing who is responsible and proving it are two different things. The advances in DNA research have allowed more cases to be solved, bringing closure to families.

Kathy Daneault's family will never get her back. They will never see her killer in court. He died of lung cancer in 2011. They will never get a chance to tell him what he took from their family that November day more than three decades ago. A jury will never pronounce him guilty of killing Kathy.

What they do have, and it is no small thing, is a certainty that, thanks to new science and police who never gave up, he did not get away with her death.

Contact George Barnes at george.barnes@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgebarnesTG