Dublin suspect may be linked to three other murders
DOG3
Dublin suspect may be linked to three other murders
Associated Press, 04/16/98 18:08
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The man charged with raping and killing a Dublin woman a
decade ago may be linked to the murders of three other women, including two in
Portsmouth, the state's top criminal prosecutor said Thursday.
But Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Ramsdell declined to characterize
the deaths as serial killings.
Police arrested John Brewer, 39, in Jacksonville, Fla., this week for the death
of Michele LaFond in 1987. The arrest came after Portsmouth detectives seeking
to connect a Florida killing to the unsolved early 1980s murders of two beauty
school students were led to Brewer.
He was to be arraigned on a first-degree murder charge charge Friday in
Jaffrey-Peterborough District Court.
At a news conference, Ramsdell praised the work of Detectives Jim Tucker and
Michael Ronchi, who continue to work on the murders of Laura Kempton and Tammy
Little.
``We're working on it,'' he said, adding that ``we're nowhere close to charging
him with those murders, but we are not leaving any stones unturned. It would be
a stretch to say we are close to an indictment.''
Kempton, 23, was murdered in her apartment on Sept. 28, 1981; Little, 20, in
her apartment on Oct. 19, 1982. Both Portsmouth Beauty School students suffered
blows to the head.
Ramsdell said Tucker was in Florida last month at a homicide conference
pursuing the Kempton and Little murders. He followed up on information from the
conference and conversations with other law agencies that led to Brewer's
arrest.
Brewer had been charged in the 1990 death of Dina Kichler, 21, in Mayport,
Fla.., but the case was dropped because of evidence issues, Ramsdell said.
Ramsdell said DNA evidence in the Florida murder matched that in the Dublin
murder. He said he was not certain whether Brewer would be charged again in the
Florida death.
Ramsdell said the similarities between the Dublin and Florida killings included
both women being strangled, husbands of both having worked with Brewer and
Brewer having been in the homes of the victims before their deaths.
LaFond was 23 and three months pregnant when she was raped and strangled in her
home in Dublin on March 4, 1987.
Her mother, Maxine Lambert, said at the news conference she was ``on such a
high ... to put an answer to the puzzle I've been searching for for 11 years.''
Brewer has a long criminal record in New Hampshire. He was free on parole from
a burglary conviction at the time of LaFond's murder. He was returned to prison
six days after the death on a drunken driving charge that violated his parole.
The charge was filed several months earlier, but he was free until it made its
way into court.
Ramsdell said Brewer was not a suspect and was not questioned at the time of
the LaFond murder.
Authorities said Brewer worked at a Dublin factory with LaFond's husband,
Garry, and that's how he got to know the victim.
------------------- In taberna mori
Ut sint vina proxima
Morientis ori.
-- The Archpoet, 12th Century
Joe1orbit
Hello,
Great post! Here is an update on this case. Not a lot of new info here, but
it is looking more and more like 39 year old John Brewer is indeed a
full-fledged serial killer. He was formally charged yesterday with raping &
murdering a woman in NH, 11 years after her lifeless body was found inside of
the bathtub.
John is a prime suspect in 3 other serial killings of women, in the states of
NH and FL, dating back to 1981. A written affidavit submitted to the court
paints quite an intriguing set of facts that serve to link John to these 4
murders. The Modus Operandi of the killer is very similar, and John had worked
with the husbands of at least two of the 4 victims, and he visited their homes,
just prior to them being murdered. Three of the murders occured in NH. The one
that occured in FL is the shakiest, it looks like, in terms of prosecution, due
to scant evidence, but the FL prosecutor is not ruling out the possibility of
bringing John back to the state and putting him on trial, once NH is finished
with him. DNA evidence DOES link John to the FL killing. He definately will
stand trial on murder charges in NH, first.
He entered no plea in court yesterday, and was ordered held without bail. At
least 2 of the 4 victims were brutally beaten in the head, others were
strangled to death. Most of the murders occured inside of the women's
apartments. All the victims were in their 20's. The killings occured in 1981,
1982, 1987 and 1990. So, what has 39 year old John been up to LATELY, in terms
of serial killing?? Is it possible that he has VOLUNTARILY been INACTIVE for
the past 7-8 years?? Of course it is. Every serial killer is unique, and it is
very possible that in 1990, at age 31 or so, John simply decided to RETIRE from
his chosen pastime of serially killing. This of course contradicts all of the
so-called "experts" on serial killers, who proclaim that a SK CANNOT make
himself stop. Bullsh*t! Every serial killer is unique, and there is every
reason to believe that MANY serial killers can and do choose to stop killing,
on a PERMANENT basis, and carry out this decision successfully, at ALL ages,
ranging from their mid-late 20's, up to their 60's or 70's. The MYTH that
serial killers have some "uncontrollable" compulsion to kill is just that, a
MYTH.
We also get a whole bunch of fascinating details about John's criminal
history, including the fact that he committed the 1987 murder just 5 days
before he appeared in court on an unrelated parole violation charge that
resulted in him having to spend the next 2 years in prison. That's pretty cool,
5 days BEFORE his court appearance on the parole violation charge, he raped,
strangled, and beat a 23 year old woman, who was 4 months pregnant, to death.
That was his THIRD alleged serial murder. He is believed to have committed his
fourth and perhaps FINAL murder in 1990, less than a year after he got out of
jail. He apparently has avoided any serious legal problems since 1989, but
during the 1980's he had quite a long criminal record, although not for violent
crimes.
We learn how lucky John was, in escaping suspicion as a possible suspect in
the 1987 murder. Police knew that John had been to the woman's house on a
delivery errand just weeks before the murder occured, and yet they never
interrogated John or considered him a serious suspect in the murder.
John's first 2 victims, the 20 and 23 year old gals beaten to death inside
their apartments in 1980 and 1981 BOTH attended the SAME beauty school in the
city of Portsmouth when they were killed. Interesting. I wonder whether John
staked out this beauty school, and then stalked his victims, figuring out where
they live, before attacking & murdering them both?
We also hear about how a NH detective used the FBI's VICAP criminal profiling
to establish his hunch that John could be linked to all four of these killings.
This is another reminder to all would-be serial killers that it is importand
and VERY tactically wise to VARY your Modus Operandi as MUCH as possible, in
every killing that you commit.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of today's Associated Press news wire:
Murder suspect linked to 3 other killings
Associated Press
04/18/98
A 39-year-old Jacksonville man charged with raping and murdering a New
Hampshire woman was arraigned in Dublin, N.H., on Friday, 11 years after the
victim's body was found in the bathtub of her home.
The suspect, John Brewer, has been linked to three other slayings, two in
Portsmouth, N.H., and one in Florida.
The chief investigator in the March 1987 strangulation of Michelle Lafond said
in an affidavit that the cases were linked by similarities.
Both Lafond and the Florida woman, 21-year-old Dina Kichler, were strangled,
and Brewer had worked with the victims' husbands and visited their homes before
their deaths, authorities said.
In Florida, Brewer was arrested in Kichler's death, but the charges were
dropped because of evidence problems. The prosecutor in that investigation said
the case was still open.
Brewer was arrested in Jacksonville last week after Portsmouth detectives found
evidence connecting him to Lafond's death. The 23-year-old Dublin woman was
three months' pregnant when she died.
Brewer was arraigned Friday on a first-degree murder charge in
Jaffrey-Peterborough District Court. He did not enter a plea, and was ordered
held without bail in the Cheshire County Jail in Westmoreland, N.H.
During the brief courtroom appearance, Lafond's parents, Maxine and Herbert
Lambert, looked at Brewer but said nothing. Maxine Lambert occasionally shook
and wiped away tears.
A day earlier she said she was ``on such a high . . . to put an answer to the
puzzle I've been searching for for 11 years.''
The affidavit by New Hampshire State Police Sgt. David Kelley outlined how
Portsmouth Detective Jim Tucker, who had attended a homicide conference in
Florida, and his partner Michael Ronchi were struck by similarities among the
two unsolved Portsmouth slayings, the Lafond killing and Kichler's death.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Ramsdell would not call the deaths
``serial killings'' Friday. He said DNA evidence in the Florida slaying matched
that in the Dublin killing, but he played down any links to the Portsmouth
deaths.
Laura Kempton, 23, was slain in her Portsmouth apartment on Sept. 28, 1981;
Tammy Little, 20, was killed in her apartment on Oct. 19, 1982. Both Portsmouth
Beauty School students suffered blows to the head. Kichler was killed in 1990.
Brewer was free on parole from a burglary conviction at the time of Lafond's
slaying. He was returned to prison on a parole violation six days after the
death.
Lafond's husband, Gary, had been Brewer's supervisor at a Dublin factory.
--------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/18/98 online edition of The
Manchester Union-Leader newspaper:
Affidavit: Police Missed Brewer
By Paul Montgomery
Union Leader Correspondent
JAFFREY -- He was just a blip 11 years ago.
The name of John E. Brewer, the man police say raped and strangled Dublin
resident Michelle LaFond inside her home March 4, 1987, surfaced shortly after
the murder as someone who had been to her house weeks earlier on a delivery
errand.
But the name was offered in passing and, at the time, meant nothing to
police.
With investigators busily compiling page after page of reports regarding the
death, Brewer never registered as someone who should be questioned about the
murder. And he never was.
Instead, police initially focused on associates of the 23-year-old pregnant
woman. They talked with people she attended school with at Mt. Wachusett
College in Gardner, Mass., as well as friends in Dublin and surrounding towns.
The also talked with people who knew Michelle's husband, Garry.
Those efforts never produced a solid suspect in the violent death.
In an affidavit in support of a first-degree murder arrest warrant for the
39-year-old Florida resident, the Brewer oversight from 1987 stands out.
On March 16, 1987, New Hampshire State Police interviewed Robert Ward, who
worked at High Standard Inc., in Dublin. He worked there with Garry LaFond, as
well as Brewer, who had left the company six weeks earlier.
Ward, who was a friend of Garry LaFond, told police, according to the
affidavit, that "he had been in the LaFond residence two to three weeks prior
to Feb. 21,1987 with another employee of High Standard named John Brewer to
deliver particle board to the LaFond residence."
Ward died last year at age 34, his father said.
While police talked with Ward, Brewer was never questioned, according to
officials.
Six days after the murder, Brewer was returned to New Hampshire State Prison
on a minor parole violation. He had originally been sentenced to two to seven
years in prison in 1984 for burglary. He was paroled in mid-1986 and went to
work at High Standard and encountered the LaFonds.
Officials said Brewer knew Garry LaFond only in passing, which is why they
did not think to interview Brewer at the time. Also, police were unaware he was
a parolee, another factor that might have led them to him sooner had they
known.
As the months and years went on, Brewer disappeared into a sea of
investigative paper, his name -- until his arrest this week -- a forgotten
footnote to the investigation.
Michael Ramsdell, associate New Hampshire attorney general, said that police
cannot interview every individual whose name is tossed out in the course of an
investigation.
Hundreds of names can be put forth in an unsolved murder, Ramsdell said. Not
all those names reach the level that demand investigation.
Simply put, Ramsdell said, there was not "a logical connection to be drawn,"
between Brewer and Michelle LaFond at the time of her death.
"I'm not going to be critical of the investigation," he said.
It wasn't until nearly 11 years after the death that Brewer's name again
surfaced.
This time when a Portmouth detective, attending a seminar in Florida, heard
about a murder there that sounded similar to the LaFond killing as well as two
murders in his jurisdiction.
That detective, Jim Tucker, passed along his lead to New Hampshire State
Police, who were able through DNA testing to show that Brewer was a probable
suspect in LaFond's murder.
--------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/17/98 online edition of The
Manchester Union-Leader newspaper:
Dublin Suspect Linked to Fla., Portsmouth Killings
4/17/98
From Staff and Wire Reports
CONCORD -- The man charged with raping and killing a Dublin woman a decade
ago may be linked to the murders of two women in Portsmouth and one in Florida,
the state's top criminal prosecutor said yesterday.
Associate Attorney General Michael Ramsdell, head of the office's homicide
unit, declined to characterize the deaths as serial killings.
During a news conference, he played down the tie between the Dublin and
Portsmouth deaths, but said similarities exist between the Dublin and Florida
killings.
After waiving his right to an extradition hearing in Jacksonville, Fla., on
Wednesday, John Brewer, 39, was flown to New Hampshire yesterday. He is
expected to be arraigned today on a first-degree murder charge in
Jaffrey-Peterborough District Court.
After the plane carrying Brewer landed in Manchester at about 2:30 p.m.
yesterday, he was whisked away by two New Hampshire State Troopers in a
cruiser. For security purposes, a third officer in another car trailed the
first cruiser all the way to the Cheshire County Jail in Westmoreland.
The cruiser carrying the bespectacled Brewer, his hair cut close to the
scalp, pulled up to a large garage door at the jail at about 4:15 p.m.
The door opened, the cruiser pulled inside and the door shut, placing Brewer
behind the walls of the jail that he will likely be his home until the murder
case is settled.
Police arrested Brewer this week for the death of Michele LaFond, who was 23
years old and three months pregnant when she was killed in 1987.
The arrest came after Portsmouth detectives seeking to connect a Florida
killing to the unsolved early 1980s murders of two Portsmouth beauty school
students were led to Brewer.
Ramsdell said Portsmouth Detective Jim Tucker was in Florida last month at a
homicide conference pursuing the murders of Laura Kempton and Tammy Little. He
followed up on information from the conference and conversations with other law
agencies that led to Brewer's arrest.
Brewer had been charged in the 1990 death of Dina Kichler, 21, in Mayport,
Fla.., but the case was dropped because of evidence issues, Ramsdell said.
Kempton, 23, was murdered in her apartment on Sept. 28, 1981; Little, 20, in
her apartment on Oct. 19, 1982. Both Portsmouth Beauty School students suffered
blows to the head.
Tucker ended up uncovering similarities between the Jacksonville case and the
LaFond murder, and legwork by his Portsmouth police partner, Michael Ronchi,
was credited with leading to Brewer's arrest by Florida authorities.
Ramsdell said DNA evidence in the Florida murder matched that in the Dublin
murder. He said he was not certain whether Brewer would be charged again in the
Florida death.
Ramsdell praised the work of Tucker and Ronchi, who continue to work on the
murders of Kempton and Little of Portsmouth.
"We're working on it," he said, adding that "we're nowhere close to charging
him with those murders, but we are not leaving any stones unturned. It would be
a stretch to say we are close to an indictment."
Ramsdell said an affidavit expected to be released at the arraignment today
will show a number of similarities between the Florida and Dublin killings,
including that both women were strangled, the husbands of both had worked with
Brewer, and Brewer had been in the homes of the victims before their deaths.
Although Brewer worked with LaFond's husband, Garry, at High Standards Inc.
in Dublin, Ramsdell said there was no particular relationship between the two.
The investigation began after Tucker's discovery that Brewer was mentioned in
a police report as helping to deliver something to the LaFond residence prior
to the murder.
"We came up with his name that way and we knew at that point there was some
basis for follow-up," Ramsdell said.
He suggested there could be a motivation other than jealousy or bad feelings,
"one that most of us don't understand and try hard not to accept."
LaFond's mother, Maxine Lambert, said at the news conference she was "on such
a high...to put an answer to the puzzle I've been searching for 11 years."
Also yesterday, New Hampshire State Prison officials clarified information
provided earlier regarding dates of Brewer's prior New Hampshire
incarcerations.
Brewer was initially sent to prison in 1984 for burglary in Keene. The
sentence called for him to serve 2 to 7 years. Due to laws at the time
regarding time off for good behavior, Brewer was released from prison on June
24, 1986, according to prison officials.
He violated terms of his early release by driving drunk in Marlborough in
late 1986, and was sent back to Concord prison on March 10, 1987, six days
after the LaFond murder.
He was released again on July 1, 1987, but again got into trouble in Keene
and went back to prison on September 14, 1987.
On May 25, 1988, he was released, but violated parole a third time and
returned to prison on July 13, 1988, serving an additional year, finally
winning unconditional release on July 26, 1989.
He then apparently left New Hampshire and returned to Florida.
------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/17/98 online edition of The
Manchester Union-Leader newspaper:
Port City Detective Found Key Links Leading to Arrest
By Jody Record
Union Leader Correspondent
4/17/98
PORTSMOUTH -- Portsmouth detective Jim Tucker was at a seminar in St.
Petersburg, Fla., last December listening to the details of an unsolved murder
when "a light bulb went off" in his head.
It was shortly after lunch, a time when it might have been easy to let his
mind wander just long enough to miss what appears to be the link between the
killing of two Portsmouth beauty school students and an expectant mother from
Dublin.
Fortunately, Tucker was paying attention.
On Wednesday, Florida resident John E. Brewer was arraigned in Jacksonville
in connection with the death of 23-year-old Michele LaFond. The Dublin woman
was found raped and strangled in the bathtub of her Wind Mill Road home March
4, 1987.
In Portsmouth on September 28, 1981, 23-year-old Laura Kempton was raped and
beaten to death in her Chapel Street apartment. A year later, the body of
20-year-old Tammy Little was discovered in the bathtub of her Maplewood Avenue
home, severely beaten, her skull fractured.
Both murders remain unsolved.
Tucker was at the Institute for Police Technology Management in St.
Petersburg when the break in the LaFond case occurred. He was attending a class
on unresolved homicides and the description of a Jacksonville woman's murder
snagged his attention.
"There were similarities in the crime scenes," he said of the woman and the
Kempton-Little murders. "I met with Jacksonville's chief medical examiner and
found out Brewer had a connection to New Hampshire."
Tucker then learned Brewer had been charged with the woman's death but the
charges had been dropped because of problems with evidence. He and Jacksonville
investigators turned to VICAP, the FBI's violent criminal apprehension program.
"Anytime you have an unsolved homicide, the details are entered in the data
bank," Tucker said. "In checking VICAP, we found a hit on a similar case."
That case turned out to be Michele LaFond's and, through DNA testing, John
Brewer was identified as her alleged killer.
"We're happy that through the efforts of the Jacksonville police, the FBI,
the state police and the Dublin police we now have this person off the
streets," Portsmouth Commander Brad Russ said yesterday. "We had all been
concerned these past few months...we wanted to move this along before someone
else was hurt."
While he would not characterize Brewer as a possible serial killer or say if
he was suspected of murders committed in other states, Russ did say, "he has
moved around a lot."
Police records show Brewer was in and out of jail in New Hampshire from 1982
to 1986. He was wanted in the state as early as 1980 on check forgery charges.
Kempton was killed in September 1981 and Little in the fall of 1982.
As a result of Brewer's arrest, Russ said they will be "revisiting evidence"
in the deaths of both women. But he stopped short of making a connection
between them and Brewer. He did say that Portsmouth police had not talked to
him after the murders and that Brewer had not been on their list of suspects.
"But it's important that you don't get tunnel vision in cases like this,"
Russ said, referring to the fact that Tucker and his partner Mike Ronchi never
ruled out any possibilities in the murders. "If you got locked on to one thing,
one person, Jim might have missed it because he was looking for something
else."
Ronchi said Tucker's December discovery had "shifted the focus" of the
unsolved homicides assigned to the pair -- some dating back more than 20 years
-- and had brought Kempton and Little back to the forefront.
"Even if there's no connection, the more we get their names out, the more
people respond," Ronchi said. "And each time we come out with a name, a new
call comes in. That's what it's going to take, someone knowing someone who was
involved."
"This was a real team effort," Russ said of the investigation into the LaFond
murder. "There are 20 guys in this division who've been doing the unglamorous
stuff so Mike and Jim would be free to pursue this. No one is interested in who
gets the credit; they're interested in getting the cases solved."
-----------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/16/98 online edition of The
Manchester Union-Leader newspaper:
Ex-Convict Held in Dublin Murder
By Paul Montgomery
Union Leader Correspondent
4/16/98
SWANZEY -- The Florida man police say killed a pregnant Dublin woman 11
years ago should be back in New Hampshire today or Friday to answer a murder
charge.
John E. Brewer, 39, waived his right to an extradition hearing in a
Jacksonville, Fla., court yesterday, clearing the way for New Hampshire
authorities to bring him back to the state.
Brewer was arraigned on a fugitive-from-justice charge in Florida involving
the murder of Michele LaFond on March 4, 1987 at her Wind Mill Road home in
Dublin. LaFond was 23 years old and four months pregnant when she was found
raped, strangled and dumped in the upstairs bathtub of her home.
Patrick Donovan, an associate New Hampshire Attorney General, said Brewer
would likely be arraigned in Jaffrey-Peterborough District Court when he
returns to New Hampshire accompanied by two New Hampshire State Police
detectives, Sgts. Clay Young and David Kelley, and Michael Ramsdell of the
attorney general's staff.
The three men have been in Florida working on the Brewer arrest.
Donovan declined yesterday to say what led authorities to suspect Brewer in
the crime, although it is believed that DNA evidence left behind in the rape
helped police zero in on Brewer.
Brewer was born in Jacksonville, Fla., and spent much of his 20s in and out
of jail in Florida and New Hampshire.
As early as 1980, he was in the Granite State but wanted in Florida for check
forgery charges. He was returned to Florida to deal with those allegations.
At that time he was living on Monadnock Street in Troy and listed his
occupation as meat cutter, according to records.
From 1982 to 1986, Brewer was in and out of trouble in New Hampshire and in
and out of jail. Many of his crimes were minor -- motor vehicle violations and
the like -- but other charges include a 1982 burglary charge and a 1987 assault
arrest.
In 1984, Brewer was sent to the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord to
serve a 2 to 7 year sentence for burglary. Because he was sent away before
truth-in-sentencing laws, he was allowed 150 days good time for every year of
his sentence, according to records.
That fact allowed Brewer to be paroled in mid-1986 and he went to work at
High Standard in Dublin, the same small factory where Michele's husband, Garry
LaFond, worked.
Officials have said that, through FBI profiling, they determined that Michele
LaFond knew her killer. Brewer belonged to a circle of acquaintances the
LaFonds had at the time of Michele's death, according to officials.
On Christmas Eve of 1986, Brewer, who was by then living on Park Street in
Swanzey, was arrested by Marlborough police on a drunken driving charge.
That was enough to violate his parole, but the case had to go through the
justice system before Brewer would be sent back to prison. He remained free
pending the outcome of the drunken driving case.
He appeared in Keene District Court on March 9, 1987 -- five days after the
killing -- and the next day was returned to state prison to serve the remainder
of his burglary sentence, according to prison officials.
In July of 1989 he had served the maximum time allowed by law and he was
released. Once he was free, he apparently returned to Florida, where he has
family.
It's possible that Brewer never surfaced as a suspect in the Dublin murder
because authorities were not aware that he was out of prison at the time of the
killing.
There is also confusion over records involving Brewer's criminal past. New
Hampshire State Prison officials contend Brewer was being held in Concord from
shortly after the murder until September 1989.
Other records indicate that Brewer was free in August 1987 -- five months
after the death -- as well as July 1988. Both times he got into trouble with
local authorities in Keene, according to records.
Officials could not explain the discrepancy yesterday.
For Maxine Lambert, Michele's mother, word of the arrest has been a salve.
Yesterday she returned to Monadnock View Cemetery in Swanzey to visit her
daughter's grave, something she has done hundreds of times during the past 11
years.
"I'm very happy we got somebody," Lambert said. "It's been a long, long,
road. Our prayers worked."
The grave also contains the remains of grandson Nicholas, who died a
4-month-old unborn child.
Lambert, her sister, Janice Leonard of Keene, and Michele's aunt, Barbara
Buckley of Swanzey, comforted each other at the cemetery.
Maxine Lambert admitted to times when her faith wavered and she doubted
anyone would ever be charged with the killing.
"The longer it went on, the more I thought we would lose evidence, all the
accountability, all the accuracy of who said what," she said. "God bless DNA."
She commended the investigators who stayed with the case as leads became thin
time and again.
"It shows they don't give up," she said. "It shows they truly care and are
dedicated."
When Brewer returns to New Hampshire, Lambert said, "I want to look right at
him. I want him to look at me."
After saying that, Lambert knelt by the grave and placed a bouquet of flowers
near the headstone of her daughter and her grandson. Then she cried.
Family members are expected to attend a press conference this morning at the
Attorney General's Office. Details of the arrest will be discussed at that
time.
monkey...@gmail.com
> Dublin suspect may be linked to three other murders
>
> Associated Press, 04/16/98 18:08
>
nosliw...@gmail.com
> Dublin suspect may be linked to three other murders
>
> Associated Press, 04/16/98 18:08
>
>
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