Did An Affair Cause Man To Violently Lose his Life?
The last time 33 year old Frank Cannon was seen alive was Friday evening on October 1st, 1982. He had gone to a political meeting on Hope Street on the east side of Providence. His 1976 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight was found the next day on a road near a sand pit used by Pawtucket Ready Mixed Concrete Company. The area was along the Blackstone River. Cannon’s body would be found by his sister in law. He had been shot several times.
Cannon was a counselor that worked for Urban League of Rhode Island and was involved in many community organizations and mentored many youths.He also served as a campaign aide for Republican Mayoral candidate Frederick Lippitt. Years before his murder, he and his family experience threatening phone calls and even had two of their dogs shot to death outside their home in the Roger Williams housing projects in the southern part of Providence. Nearly a year earlier, Cannon was forced into a car by two males where he was shot five times. Alive, he was dumped on the Gano Street exit ramp of Interstate 195 in Providence.
Cannon never did say who the men were that harmed him, but rumors have persisted for years that he was involved in a romantic relationship with a woman whose father disapproved of the two dating. The man in question was a businessman who is believed to have had ties to Rhode Island Organized Crime. That man in question is now deceased and police have never confirmed or denied that was a motive for murder.
There was however, a major piece of evidence from the bullets indicate that the same gun used to kill Cannon was used in the November 29th, 1980 murder of 13 year old Mary Francis “Frankie” Harvey from Providence. The troubled runaway’s body had been found in a sand pit in Wrentham, Massachusetts. She had previously lived at the Marathon House which was a shelter in Providence. Providence and Wrentham Police were investigating the murder. Both murders have many similarities and in both cases, robbery was not a motive due to money and jewelry being found on the deceased.
INFORMATION SOUGHT: There was a note found in Mary Harvey’s possession that mentioned someone named Sharon. Detectives would like to talk to this person. There is also a person (possibly white male in his 20’s) who went by the name T-Man. He is alleged to have been a sex trafficker.
If you have any information about Cannon’s case, please contact the Pawtucket Police Department at (401) 726-3911.
If you have any information about the murder Mary Francis Harvey contact the Wrentham Police Department at (508) 384-2121.
Married Father of Three Killed by Hit and Run Driver
It was 2:35 a.m on November 14th, 1986, when a vehicle moving at a high rate of speed struck and killed a 34 year old Terrence O’Reilly on Allens Avenue in Providence. The married father of three young children was standing alongside his pickup truck which was parked. He was thrown about 65 feet and pronounced Dead at the scene. He was in the process of walking across the stret to the Orient Express restaurant which is also near Toronto Avenue. O’Reilly was an HVAC Technician for the Providence School Department and lived with his family on Indiana Avenue. At one point there were persons of interest yet, no one has ever been arrested for his death.
If you know who the person is that killed Terence Reilly (also known as Terry), please contact the Providence Police Department at 401- 272-3121. If you don’t wish to talk to the police you may contact us at this website.
A Daytime Errand and then Murder
On June 17th, 1969, sixteen year old Louise McMillen left her family’s summer home in the Bonnet Shore Neighborhood in Narragansett. She went to return some clothing she had purchased at Kenyon’s Department Store in Wakefield section of South Kingstown. The Providence teenager never made it back to see he family alive. Her blue colored Buick Skylark was found abandoned on Oak Dell Street. Nearly a month later on July 8th, her remains were found off of Broad Rock Road. A knife was found at one of the crime scenes and her case is a homicide. There are several persons of interest in this case.
If you know anything about this case please call the South Kingstown Police at 401-783-3321.
A Murder Forgotten and a Killer Never Caught?
Pawtucket Murder Victim February 1st, 1947 was the date that 17 year old Rita Bouchard was found brutally murdered in the woods near a lover’s lane in the mill town of Pawtucket. The area was near the Ten Mile River about a hundred feet from the riverbank and near the Notre Dame Cemetery. She came from North Providence and even though a suspect was questioned, no arrest has ever taken place. Bouchard was brutally killed as she was stabbed around 30 times and had her throat slashed by someone with a dagger. There were no signs that Bouchard was sexually assaulted. The weapon was retrieved but forensics at the time could not find the person who used it to kill Rita Bouchard.
There is an in depth article at the Asylum Antiquarian here https://medium.com/the-asylum-antiquarian/a-fiendish-murder-the-rhode-island-cold-case-you-never-heard-of-e353771e8bcc#.9a0xlqi80
A Brutal Crime Scene and Still No Arrest
It was June 8th 1998 when a warehouse worker for Eastern Bearings Inc. made a horrible discovery behind a building at 862 Eddy Street in Providence. A body wrapped in a rug. Police would later find the naked and bloodied body of Michelle E. Hazard, 29, of 82 Sassafras Street in South Providence. Her body had been wrapped in bloody sheets found near a dumpster. Police believe that the mother of six children had her body dumped in that location hours earlier during the night.
If you have any information about this case please contact the Providence Police Department at 401-243-6276.
Who Left Baby Miriam Angel for Dead?
It was July 22, 2000, when a horrible discovery was made at a the Grappa Restaurant at 525 South Water Street in Providence. After noticing a foul odor, a police officer discovered the body of a female newborn infant in a black bag in the Providence River. Due to the decomposition of the body, the cause and manner of death were never able to be determined. In other words it is unlikely that whoever left the unidentified baby will ever be charged with homicide because it cannot be determined if the child was a stillborn or a murder victim. The deceased child’s race is not known, though she did have black curly hair. The umbilical cord of the baby was still attached to the body as well. The mother nor father has ever come forward to claim the unknown child. It is possible the body of the child was placed several miles up the river from another location. The baby was given the name, Miriam Angel even though she is also referred to as Baby Doe.
This Child deserves a name and if she was murdered. Justice. If you have any information about who this child may be. Or who her parents are. Please call the Providence Police Department at 401-272-3121. You can remain anonymous.
Did Someone Get Away with Murder?
Hillary Hellewell was a 22 year old URI (University of Rhode Island) student that was found dead on a sidewalk that was in front of 25 Anthony Street around 4:15 am on May 19th 1985. The Medical Examiner would rule that the Jamestown resident was strangled. Police did have some persons of interest, which included a man that she had been seen in company with just hours before she was found deceased. She had been seen leaving a friend’s apartment at 1 Friendship Street. At the time of her murder, she wore a a white pullover sweater with a blue design on the upper third, a pair of white painters’ pants and sneakers.
On March 22nd of 1980, the naked body of Diane Drake was found on Easton Beach of Newport. The nineteen year old had last been seen walking from Valley Road in Middletown to her job at the Photo Patio Booth the afternoon prior. She died from strangulation and blunt force trauma. For more information about this case please click here.
If you have any information about these two murders please call the Newport Detective’s Bureau at 401-847-8300.
Two years earlier in an unrelated case, 24 year old Deborah A. Stone of 157 Maton Avenue of Providence was found murdered in the Narrow River in Narragansett on September 2nd, 1984. She had been strangled and her nearly naked body was wrapped in a sleeping bag that had been weighed down by a cinder block. Her remains were found about 300 yards north of Middlebridge Road. She is described as a white female who had reddish-blonde hair and had a tattoo of a marijuana leaf on her right wrist. Around the time frame of her murder, there were many other women in Rhode Island that were murdered by strangulation, however, Law Enforcement at the time felt her case was not connected to those. If you have any information about this murder, please call the Narragansett Detective Bureau at 401-789-1093.
Professional Dancer Who Planned for Career in Beauty Industry Brutally Slain
Kim Morse was a native from York, Maine that was earning money at the Foxy Lady Gentleman’s Club in Providence. Aside from dancing, the thirty-two year old was taking classes at the Warwick Academy of Beauty Culture in the town of Warwick. In the early morning hours of January 19, 2000, police believe she was ambushed and brutally murdered. She had been stabbed numerous times and her bathroom (where her body was found ) had been set on fire using gasoline.
Morse had lived for several years at the Brick Manor Condominiums at 5 Garibaldi Road in North Providence.
According to earlier media reports, Police have struggled to find a motive and have not connected her death to her dancing at the club. A Law Enforcement official in North Providence was quoted as saying that Morse lived “a drug free” lifestyle. She also had goals and wanted to move to Florida once she graduated.
The Podcast “Murder She Told” did an excellent episode on this case which talks about some known and unknown persons of interest. https://www.murdershetold.com/episodes/kimberly-morse
If you have any information about this case, you are urged to contact North Providence Police at (401) 231-4533. You can remain anonymous.
Homicide In Park Has Neighbors on Edge
Warwick City Park is a place where people go to unwind. They go biking, walking, running or sit and relax to escape the stress of everyday life. Sometime between the evening of May 16th and the early morning of Mary 17th of 2013, someone came to the park and committed a murder. Around 10:20am, Warwick Police arrived at the park to investigate the homicide of 66 year old John “Jack” Fay. He had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer and was stuffed in a trash barrel that had been covered with brush. The location where he was found was near the trails he would run daily. Fay was an avid runner who used the bike trails often at the park. Police believe there was a violent struggle and that the assailant(s) might have been injured. It is possible that there could have been more than one attacker. Fay was a retired postal worker who served in Vietnam who had a loving family. They want answers and justice.
The Fay Family are offering a $25,000 dollar reward for information that will lead to an arrest/conviction of the person(s) responsible for this homicide. If you have information about the murder of John Fay, please contact Sergeant Mark Canning at the phone number of 401-468-4236. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can call the TIPS line at 401-732-8477.
UPDATE February 12th 2019: 33 year old Michael Soares of Pawtucket has been charged with the first degree murder of John “Jack” Fay. The investigation is still active according to Warwick Police.
Small Town Murder Still Talked about in Town
The town of Warren often does not see crimes such as murder. For decades the unsolved slaying of 60 year old shopkeeper Amon Jamiel. Police were called to the residence of 33 Miller Street on March 19, 1978. Family members had just come back from a birthday party in Newport and discovered Jamiel shot eleven times in the bathtub. Police believe that the weapon that might have been used was a 32 caliber revolver that was kept in the victim’s general store that he owned. That gun has never been recovered. There were no signs of a break in. In the months prior to the homicide, Jamiel had reported that someone had stolen money from his store and that there was no forced break ins. Six days before his murder, Jamile’s store suffered severe damage from an arson fire.
For years, attention has focused on certain family members of the victim which has created major rifts amongst his relatives. For more information as to who some of the suspects might be visit http://caught.net/cases/jamiel.htm . To date the murder is still unsolved, it was nearly four decades before the town of Warren had another murder (parents killed by their adult son). The case still remains open and investigators hope to solve it. If you have any information about who gunned down Amon Jamiel, you are urged to call the Warren Police Department at 401-245-1311.
Brutal Killing of Baby Still Haunts Public
Rhode Island has had some very notorious crimes. The 1975 horrific abduction and murder of five year old Jason Foreman of South Kingstown by his 15 year old neighbor Michael Woodmansee was every parents worst nightmare. Four vicious murders in Warwick (Rebecca Spencer, Joan Heaton and her two daughters Jennifer and Melissa) by then teenaged killer Craig Price, made people believe in the boogeyman. But it is the unsolved murder of a four month old baby in Pawtucket in 1984 that made Rhode Islanders question humanity.
On November 11, 1984, Jeri-Ann Richard was reported missing from the 452 Main Street apartment she lived in with her parents Ralph and Donna Richard. The parents claimed that a possible individual had climbed through a window of their two story apartment and kidnapped their daughter as they slept in another room. The abduction garnered national news attention and then just days later, her badly beaten body was located in an alley that was less than a block from where she lived. Her skull had been fractured by several blows and she had been raped.
Police charged Ralph Richard with rape along with covering up the murder. Donna was charged with the murder. Despite numerous witnesses in a court trial, Ralph Richard was found not guilty of the charges brought against him. Charges against Donna Richard were eventually dropped. The couple moved out of state and to date this case is still unsolved. If you have any information about this case please contact the Pawtucket Police Department at (401) 727-9100 Ext. 777. Jeri-Ann deserves justice…
Savagewatch 