Twists and Turns of the Pacquette Story

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
minuted murder. In the early nineteen sixties,

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two young girls were brutally sexually assaulted
and murdered in Hooksett, New Hampshire.

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The first killing took place in February
nineteen sixty when eighteen year old Sandra

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Volade disappeared during a snowstorm and was
later found beaten, raped and shot to

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death. The news of Sandra's disappearance
shook the community, but there were no

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leads and the case when cold.
Four years later, during another snowstorm,

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fourteen year old Pamela Mason was abducted, raped and killed. Authorities quickly linked

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the two murders together, and within
weeks of Pamela's body being found, there

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were rumors that a local housewife knew
the identity of the killer. The woman's

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name was Rena Paquette, and although
she claimed that she knew who had committed

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the murders, investigators never got the
chance to speak with her. Early in

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the morning of February third, nineteen
sixty four, Rena's thirteen year old son,

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Danny, walked downstairs for breakfast,
but couldn't find any sign of his

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mother. After searching the house,
Danny realized that she must have gone outside

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on the farm, but it was
a cold winter's morning and Rena had not

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taken any of her warm clothing with
her. Danny went and found his uncle,

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and the two of them began to
search the large property, calling out

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her name. There was no response, but around an hour into the search,

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Danny saw something in the distance.
Smoke was rising from the family's barn,

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which was almost a mile away from
the farmhouse. In the barn,

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lying in the pig stye, Danny
found his mother's body. The local police

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arrived at the farm shortly afterwards,
but after evaluating the scene, they decided

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that there was nothing suspicious about a
woman being found burnt to death. After

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revealing she knew the identity of a
killer, the police decided that Rena must

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have committed suicide by setting fire to
the barn herself. Danny and the rest

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of Rena's family never believed this story
for a second, and they were convinced

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that whoever killed Pamela and Sandra had
also killed Rena to prevent her from revealing

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his identity, and only a couple
of weeks later, Pamela and Sandra's killer

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was caught his name was Edward Coolidge, a deliveryman whose twenty two caliber rifle

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was found to be the murder weapon
in both cases. For the rest of

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his life, Danny was haunted by
Rena's death and the way that it had

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been brushed off by the police.
He never got any closure, and that

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trauma began to affect all aspects of
his life, in particular his mental health

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and his relationships with others. In
nineteen eighty one, his ex wife took

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him to court during their divorce and
filed for full custody of their children,

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which she was granted. Danny grew
more and more angry that he wasn't able

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to see or speak to his children. Finally, he reached his breaking point

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and traveled to his ex wife's house, ordering her to let him see the

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kids. She did not let him
in. Instead, she called the police,

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and Danny was required to spend some
time receiving treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

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One of the hospitals specialists decided to
put Danny under hypnosis, hoping to

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reveal the cause of his anger outbursts. While he was hypnotized, Danny shared

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him memory from his childhood. On
the very same day that his mother died.

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He had seen her getting into an
argument with a delivery man who he

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believed was Edward Coolidge. After almost
six months as a psychiatric impatient, Danny

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had become much more mentally stable,
and he was discharged from the hospital.

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He returned to his job, where
he had an excellent reputation as a skilled

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mechanic and welder. On the ninth
of November nineteen eighty five, Danny was

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at work with two of his friends. His friends were inside the garage working

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on a car, while Danny was
outside doing a repair job on a bulldozer.

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Just passed eleven am, both of
Danny's friends were startled by a loud

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popping sound. Concerned that something had
gone wrong with a bulldozer, they rushed

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outside. The bulldozer was fine,
but Danny was sprawled on the ground next

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to it with a single fatal gunshot
wound to his back. He had died

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instantly. Danny friends naturally called the
police, who arrived to secure the scene.

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Close to where Danny had been working, There was a trail of unidentified

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footprints which appeared to show the killer
approaching Danny to shoot and then fleeing the

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scene on foot. Shortly after,
Danny had been the only one shot and

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the bullet had exited, his body
becoming wedged in a nearby telephone pole.

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Wondering if the footprints said the scene
could have been a red herring, investigators

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briefly considered that Danny might have been
accidentally hit and killed by a stray bullet.

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They identified a gravel pit one mile
away from the crime scene, where

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it was possible that a hunter could
have misfired and hit Danny, but this

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theory was quickly discarded. There were
too many obstacles between the gravel pit and

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Danny's body, and the bullet would
have essentially had to defy the laws of

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physics to reach him. For basically, Danny's whole life, he had been

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haunted by conspiracies about the mysterious death
of his mother, and now his own

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debt was being viewed in the same
way. His friends and family began to

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wonder if Danny's killer was the same
person who had staged Rena's death on the

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family farm, but Edward Coolidge,
the family's main suspect and Rena's death,

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had been imprisoned at the time Danny
died in nineteen ninety one, six years

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after Danny died, the Paquette family
finally began to get some justice. The

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state agreed to have Rena's remains exhumed
and re examined, resulting in her official

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cause of death being changed from suicide
to simply undetermined. However, to this

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day, the events that led to
Rena's death and the identity of the killer

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have never been proven. Shortly after
the body was exhumed, Edward Coolidge was

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released from prison. The following year, several of Danny's family members appeared on

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television, hoping to raise awareness about
this case. Their TV appearance resulted in

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two anonymous letters being sent, which
both stated the same thing. The killer

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was a local man by the name
of Eric Windhurst. In two thousand four,

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the Danny Paquette case was reopened.
Lead Detective William Shackford spent weeks reading

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every detail in the file, and
he came to one conclusion he needed to

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speak to Eric Windhurst. Since the
Paquettes appeared on TV, several more tips

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had been sent in all suggesting that
Eric may have been involved in Danny's death.

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One of the tips came from a
girl who had even dated Eric in

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the past. After compiling all of
the information that he had available, Detective

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Shackford believed that he had enough evidence
to justify and arrest, and in late

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two thousand five, Eric Windhurst was
charged with the murder of Danny Paquette.

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It turned out that in Eric Winhurst's
family, his murder of Danny had been

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kind of an open secret. They
didn't really acknowledge it, but they all

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knew what he had done. When
Danny was killed, Eric had been only

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seventeen years old, and he had
been actually dating Danny's stepdaughter, fifteen year

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old Melanie. Initially, Eric had
an alibi for the murder, as he

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and Melanie had been watching a field
hockey game, but later Melody admitted that

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this was a lie. They had
not been at a hockey game at all.

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In fact, Melanie had been there
when Danny died and she watched Eric

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kill him. According to Melanie,
her stepfather was sexually abusive, and she

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finally decided that she needed to tell
Eric about what was happening to her.

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Eric had recently been traumatized by finding
out about the abuse taking place in his

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own family, so when he found
out that his girlfriend was a victim of

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abuse as well, he was furious
with Danny. During that conversation, he

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promised Melanie that he would save her
from abuse by killing her stepfather. It

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was late to two thousand and six
when Eric was sentenced to a minimum of

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fifteen years in prison for second degree
murder, even though Melanie had been only

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fifteen years old at the time her
stepfather was killed, charged with hindering an

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investigation, and received a three year
prison sentence. In October twenty twenty,

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after fourteen years in prison, Eric
Winhurst's application for parole was approved, and

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two months later he was released.
Danny's killer may have been brought to justice,

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but nobody will ever know for sure
who shut Rena Paquette in the family

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barn and litter on fire. There
was only one person who had something to

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gain from Rena's silence, the murderer
whose name she threatened to reveal to the

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police. And if that name was
Edward Coolidge, Rena Paquette's killer walked free.

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That is ten minute murder for today
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Joe, that's my name. Hi. I really appreciate you listening today and

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right, But then I'm also going
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it in September, but it's September
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just in case you're listening to it
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October, I'm going to be giving
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going to be choosing some people at
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Why Target, because I love Target. So more details on that are

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sharing this podcast, all right,
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Thank you so much for listening to
ten minute Murder