Missing-38yr.old Donna Paradis-Lewiston, Maine-last seen 10/23/07(BODY FOUND)
MsVada:
guess we were posting the news at the same time Nut.
At least they caught her killer.
Nut44x4:
Man held in killing
Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine)
LEWISTON - A man with a violent criminal past who worked with Donna Paradis was charged Tuesday with killing the 38-year-old mother of two.
Richard Dwyer, 44, of 30 Farrand Hill Road in Canton is charged with murder in the slaying of Paradis, a pregnant woman whose body was found buried Nov. 12 in woods behind Flagship Cinemas in the Promenade Mall on Lisbon Street nearly three weeks after she disappeared.
According to an affidavit by Detective Jennifer King of the Maine State Police, Paradis was strangled. When her body was found last week, she was nude except for strips of cloth around her neck and both wrists.
There was evidence that Paradis had been sexually assaulted, according to the affidavit.
Evidence is being examined at the Maine State Police crime laboratory.
Dwyer, who has been in the Androscoggin County Jail since Nov. 7 on an unrelated robbery charge, has previous convictions that include bank robbery, unlawful sexual contact, assault and escape from prison.
Dwyer worked with Paradis at Affiliated Computer Services on East Avenue, according to court documents. Friends and co-workers said Paradis had been talking with him about buying a car he had found for her.
A co-worker at ACS told police that on the afternoon Paradis disappeared Oct. 23, Dwyer passed her a note informing her that he had found a car she might be interested in buying. After Paradis left work and walked to Burger King on Lisbon Street, which is between ACS and the area where her body was discovered, she was never seen again by friends, police said.
Investigators believe Dwyer killed Paradis in a wooded area along an all-terrain vehicle trail between the Promenade Mall and Lincoln Street. Lewiston police discovered evidence there after beginning a search of places near the ACS offices on Nov. 10.
"It seemed like a logical place to search," said Lewiston deputy police Chief Michael Bussiere. "It was good police work, as it turned out."
Among the items found there, according to the affidavit, was a record of a money order Paradis had obtained at a local bank the day she disappeared. She had cashed the order and requested four $100 bills, according to the court document.
In the same area, police also found a coat, maternity pants with underwear coiled up inside, a black camisole and a pair of shoes. All of the clothing was believed to have been worn by Paradis the day she disappeared.
Searchers also found a pickax and shovel near the area where Paradis jacket had been discovered, according to the court document. Both were new with store stickers still on them. Police traced the pickax to Wal-Mart and the shovel to Lowe's, both in Auburn. Store surveillance cameras later revealed video of Dwyer buying both items, according to the affidavit. At Lowe's he used a $100 bill to pay for the shovel and a yellow flashlight.
Lewiston police began a large scale search of the area, enlisting Maine State Police and volunteers from the Maine Association of Search and Rescue to help over Veterans Day weekend. Lewiston police eventually discovered Paradis body in a grave roughly six inches deep.
Investigators began focusing on Dwyer as a suspect and spent a week putting their case together. On Tuesday, they went to the Androscoggin County Jail and charged him with murder.
"It's important to note that we knew that this suspect was in custody," Bussiere said. "In that regard, we knew that he didn't present a further threat to the community."
According to the affidavit, Dwyer told police he had stayed with a girlfriend in Lewiston the night Paradis vanished. That woman, when interviewed by police, said Dwyer had arrived at her apartment about 10:30 p.m. with a yellow flashlight.
The flashlight was found in the girlfriend's car, police said.
Dwyer, whose adult criminal history dates back to his 18th birthday in 1981, was charged with unlawful sexual contact that year. He served six months behind bars and returned several times to jail in ensuing years on charges that include burglaries, thefts, disorderly conduct and trespass.
In 1987, he was convicted of robbery in a heist at Norstar Bank in New Auburn. He was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. He was paroled in 1994.
In 1995, Dwyer was charged with raping a woman who was crossing the footbridge between Lewiston and Auburn. He was ultimately acquitted of that charge.
According to court documents, Dwyer had worked full-time at ACS for about a year before he was arrested Nov. 7 and charged with the September knife-point robbery of a Big Apple store in Lewiston.
According to a police affidavit, Dwyer appeared nervous when he was questioned about the robbery. He told investigators that he had smoked a few marijuana joints the day of the stick-up and that he was stressed about his relationship with a girlfriend.
Dwyer was free at the time Paradis disappeared, but he was at the Androscoggin County Jail the day her body was found.
According to the court documents, Dwyer was living with his brother and a girlfriend at 30 Farrand Hill Road in Canton at the time Paradis was killed. He has also lived at various locations in Lewiston, Auburn and Lisbon.
Supervisors at ACS have declined to speak about the case.
Paradis also worked nights at the Sun Journal on Park Street. Friends there said the night before Paradis disappeared, she complained of a medical problem possibly related to her pregnancy. They also said she appeared agitated as a co-worker took her to Central Maine Medical Center.
"She was very nervous," said Sandra Bruno, customer service manager at the newspaper. "She didn't even wait for me to take my foot off the brake before she jumped out of the car."
That was the last time any of her co-workers from the Sun Journal saw Paradis. She was seen in the hospital maternity ward and went to work at ACS the following day. She never returned home.
Paradis did not own a car, according to those who knew her. Dwyer had volunteered to help her find one to buy, according to the affidavit.
At the Sun Journal, co-workers said she did not speak much about her personal life other than to say she was at times romantically confused.
Earlier this year, Paradis was divorced from her husband after a 10-year marriage. In the spring, she flew to Syria, a country in the Middle East, where she married a man she had met on the Internet, according to friends and family members.
They said Paradis was pregnant when she came back to the United States but her new husband remained in Syria. Maine does not have a law that allows them to charge Dwyer with the death of Paradis unborn son, as 36 other states do.
"It's so sad," said Amy Lanois, a co-worker at the Sun Journal. "I keep thinking that she never got a chance to see her baby's face. She never got a chance to hold him."
Paradis has daughters 12 and 17 years old whom she lived with at 143 Pierce St.
"We're pleased that we can present some element of closure for the family," Bussiere said.
Some of Paradis co-workers from the Sun Journal attended her funeral service Tuesday at the Greek Orthodox Church of The Holy Trinity, 155 Hogan Road, Lewiston and burial at Broadview Cemetery, also in Lewiston. For nearly a month, they had been awaiting word on her fate.
"I think the Lewiston Police Department did a wonderful job investigating this," said Sun Journal employee Steven Farmer. "My heart goes out to her family. Hopefully in time, some of that pain will ease."
Dwyer is expected to make his initial court appearance Wednesday morning. He was being held Tuesday night without bail.
November 21, 2007
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:704837924&start=2
Nut44x4:
I can't find anything more recent than this>>>
There are some interesting comments at the bottom.
Dwyer faces more charges
By Christopher Williams , Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2007
snipped.....(article is mostly a repeat of the above post)
Dwyer's lawyer, George Hess, quizzed King on the witness stand about forensic analysis of physical evidence from the scene, including fingerprints. King said the state's analysis in the case wasn't complete.
Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese pointed to Dwyer's lengthy criminal history, including several failures to appear in court on charges and one instance of escape from Maine State Prison.
Hess argued his client should be freed on bail because all analysis of evidence in the case hadn't been concluded and Dwyer's court lapses weren't recent, but dated back to the 1980s.
Marchese pointed out that Dwyer had been in jail or prison most of his adult life.
Justice Thomas Delahanty II said there was probable cause linking Dwyer to the alleged murder and ordered him held without bail, noting his criminal record not only makes him a flight risk but also a threat to the community, given his likelihood to commit another crime if freed.
Delahanty also ordered Dwyer to supply a blood sample to be used in forensic analysis in the case. The judge gave both sides two months to present motions in the case.
Dwyer also was indicted on a robbery charge in connection with a Sept. 17 incident at a Big Apple in which he allegedly threatened a cashier with a knife.
http://www.sunjournal.com/story/241975-3/LewistonAuburn/Dwyer_faces_more_charges/
Nut44x4:
Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine)
September 7, 2008 Sunday
Trial in woman's death to start
AUBURN - A Canton man accused of killing a pregnant Lewiston woman is expected to stand trial this week.
Jury selection is scheduled for Friday.
Richard Dwyer, 45, faces charges of murder, gross sexual assault and robbery in connection with the fall 2007 slaying of 38-year-old Donna Paradis.
A judge in Androscoggin County Superior Court ruled recently that the state didn't have to conduct a comparative search of its DNA database for similar genetic profiles.
Dwyer's attorney, George Hess, filed a motion seeking to have the state's three DNA database indexes cross-checked for matches.
Justice Thomas Delahanty II wrote Tuesday that the state isn't required to carry out that task. Instead, Delahanty said Hess could make efforts to impeach the DNA results during the trial through other evidence and could attempt to cast doubt on conclusions drawn by state forensic workers during cross-examination of expert witnesses.
"This court fails to see any basis or sufficient precedent to order the state to conduct such a test or comparison," Delahanty wrote.
The state has no evidence that connects Dwyer to any of the exhibits, Delahanty wrote. But it does plan to offer proof that several pieces of evidence found in Dwyer's possession could be linked through DNA to Paradis, he wrote. That means the DNA found on that evidence would be compared to the genetic makeup of Paradis. It would not be compared to the genetic makeup of DNA profiles from unsolved crimes in the state. Nor would it be compared to missing persons and convicted felons in Maine. Those three categories make up the state's DNA database.
In earlier motions, Delahanty rejected Dwyer's motion to suppress statements he made to police during two interviews. Hess had argued his client's constitutional rights had been violated because police had not read him the Miranda warning. Delahanty ruled the statements were admissible because Dwyer had not been in police custody.
Hess also had argued the judge should dismiss the charge of gross sexual assault, citing lack of evidence. That motion also was denied. Hess then tried to have that charge separated from the murder charge. That motion was denied.
The nude body of Paradis, a mother of two and pregnant, was found in a shallow grave in a wooded area behind Promenade Mall on Lisbon Street on Nov. 12. She had been missing about three weeks.
A Maine State Police detective said Paradis had been strangled. There was evidence she had been bound. Her clothes were found, some inside out and stained with semen.
Police viewed surveillance cameras from two local stores where Dwyer reportedly bought a shovel and a pickax, using a $100 bill at one of the stores. Paradis reportedly cashed a $400 money order to buy a car, according to court records.
Police said Dwyer had promised to help her buy a car and told her she needed $400. The two worked together at Affiliated Computer Services, across the street from where Paradis body was found.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:847511380&start=1
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