Tight-Lipped on Murder of Manchester Pawnshop Owner

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By JASON SCHREIBER
Union Leader Correspondent
AUBURN, N.H., Dec. 29 - The suspicious death of Manchester pawn shop
owner George Jodoin is now a murder investigation.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Andrew yesterday ruled George
Jodoin's death a homicide after an autopsy showed he died of gunshot
wounds, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael
Delaney. Investigators remained tight-lipped about the killing at a
press conference late yesterday afternoon. Delaney would not identify
the person who found the 50-year-old Jodoin's body Thursday morning in
his yellow farmhouse at 718 Chester Road (Route 121), although they
did say the person has been questioned. Investigators from the New
Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit and Auburn Police Department
have spent the past two days gathering evidence from the crime scene.
They are trying to trace Jodoin's whereabouts before the murder and
identify those with whom he had contact, Delaney said. Investigators
are optimistic the information they've collected will lead to some
answers, said Delaney. He urged anyone who is familiar with Jodoin's
whereabouts before the shooting or who has other information that may
help in the investigation to call New Hampshire State Police at
271-3636.
He also said a team of investigators is following up on several
leads in an attempt to find out who killed Jodoin. Delaney would not
comment on where Jodoin was shot or the number of gunshot wounds he
suffered. According to Delaney a witness/victim advocate was in
Auburn early Thursday morning after Jodoin's body was found, who was
to contact relatives about the crime. He did not know what time
Jodoin's siblings were told of their brother's death. But as of 4 p.m.
Thursday, after investigators had been at Jodoin's home for nearly
eight hours, one of Jodoin's sisters told a reporter that the family
still had not been apprised of the situation. All they were told, she
said, was that a victim-witness advocate would be contacting them. She
and seven of her siblings were next door to their brother's home at
the home of Peggy Glidden, one of Jodoin's sisters. Jodoin's
neighbors, Jean (Fred) and Jennie Belanger have told investigators
during several interviews that they recalled hearing as many as four
shots fired at Jodoin's home across the street around 11 Wednesday
night. They didn't call police at the time. Jennie Belanger, 87, said
she remembered seeing a couple of men at Jodoin's home shooting at
targets earlier that night around 6. When they heard the gunshots, she
said she didn't think the men would still be target shooting, but she
wondered if Jodoin was just joking around.
Delaney would not say whether the killing was a random act.
However, he said he has no information to indicate the killer poses a
threat to the general public. Still, Jodoin's murder has rocked this
quiet town of less than 5,000. Auburn Police Chief Edward Picard
recognizes the undercurrent of panic violent crime can cause,
particularly in small towns.
"In general, smaller towns are tight-knit communities and it's not
unusual for a murder to be cause for alarm, not that we feel this is a
random act," he said.
Until Thursday and the discovery of Jodoin's body, it had been
about a decade since there had been an actual murder in Auburn, Picard
said. But because Auburn borders some of the largest cities in New
Hampshire, sometimes crimes spill over into the little town by Lake
Massabesic. The community still remembers July 20, 1999, the day Mary
Stetson's torso was found floating in the Piscataquog River on
Manchester's West Side. Stetson, a mother of four from Manchester, had
last been seen two days earlier at Flo's Bar and Grill in Manchester.
A month later, some of her limbs and her head were found along the
Londonderry Turnpike bordering Lake Massabesic in Manchester. Vaclav
Plch, a 40-year-old Czech native who worked for 10 years as a butcher
in Hooksett, was convicted of her murder. And on Jan. 20, 1997, Auburn
police found the body of Rosalie Miller, 36, of Manchester, who was
also murdered. The case remains unsolved, although police believe she
was killed in Manchester and her body disposed of in Auburn. Word of
Jodoin's murder has been a chilling reminder that no one is safe from
violent crime, even in small-town America.
"It was a shock. For something like that to happen, it just brings
the reality home. It can happen anywhere, not just in the big cities,"
said Athena Foote, 21, owner of the Massabesic Village Pizza on
Chester Road.
However Foote's sister, 16-year-old Jennifer Tsourvakas, said she
wasn't frightened by the murder. Tsourvakas lives in Manchester and
works at her sister's Auburn pizza shop. "I'm really not scared
because there's a lot of that happening in Manchester," she said.
Other residents, such as Diane Southworth, a cashier at the nearby
Auburn Supermarket who's lived in town for 14 years, said that despite
Thursday's murder their town is still a safe, quiet place to live.
"It's a nice, quiet little community for the most part," said
Southworth yesterday afternoon while cashing out customers at the busy
convenience store.
The Belangers said they were the neighbors who knew Jodoin best -
they bought their home from him 26 years ago. Others got to know him
when he ran for Auburn selectman last March. But Jodoin's attempts to
enter local politics failed. Jodoin received about a third of the
votes, recalled Selectman Bruce Knox, who won the race. Knox said he
never had occasion to meet Jodoin until the two entered the
selectman's race. Jodoin also faced defeat in 1989 and 1993, when he
ran unsuccessfully for alderman from Manchester's Ward 5.
Jodoin was in business with Glenn Baroody of Manchester. Together
they owned Mr. I Buy and Sell Everything, a pawn shop at 32 North Main
St. in Manchester. According to Troy Dionne in Manchester's Business
Licensing Division, Baroody was listed as president of the pawn shop's
corporation on licenses to operate as a second-hand antiques dealer
and to conduct business on Sunday. Neighbors said they saw Baroody at
Jodoin's home Thursday morning when state and Auburn police were there
collecting evidence. And the Union Leader has learned that Baroody was
interviewed by State Police at the Manchester Police Department on
Thursday. Baroody listed his address for the business licenses as 392
Massabesic St., where Baroody's Market is. He did not return a message
left by a reporter yesterday with his father at the convenience store.
Mr. I Buy and Sell Everything was closed for business yesterday;
all was dark inside and the doors were secured. A couple of small
crates full of junk had been placed near its front entrance, and
chains blocked off access to the small parking lot adjoining the
store.
(Staff reporters Pat Grossmith and Ben Kepple contributed to this
report.)
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