Post by Scumhunter on Jun 5, 2018 4:18:07 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: masslive.com)
From masslive.com:
FRAMINGHAM - Jennifer Case walked up to her mother and handed her some flowers. The gift from the then 14-year-old girl was in celebration of Karen Marchioni's 41st birthday.
It was the last time Case would see her mother alive. Two days after a family birthday party, Marchioni was savagely stabbed to death inside her home on Oct. 8, 2001. The case will reach a grim milestone once the calendar hits Oct. 8, 2016, the date that marks the 15-year anniversary of the murder.
"I just remember I gave her flowers," said Case, now 29. "I'm always grateful that was my last encounter with her, her smiling on her birthday. It was the last time I saw her."
Marchioni called 911 around 11:10 a.m. on the day of the killing and said she had just been attacked inside her 14 Nelson St. home. Emergency responders found Marchioni with multiple stab wounds in the face, neck and chest.
"She locked herself in the bathroom and she said I've been stabbed. They came right away," Case recalled. "She was airlifted to UMass in Worcester and she died two hours later."
Questions about who killed her mother and what prompted such a brutal attack remain in Case's mind. At first, the news about her mother's death was surreal. But Case, who still lives in town, remains steadfast in wanting answers.
"I know if the situation were reversed, she would be here fighting for me," said Case, who is Marchioni's only child.
Marchioni was divorced from her first husband and on the way to getting another divorce from her second husband, who was in jail at the time of the murder.
Case said her mother struggled with hard drug use and alcohol abuse and went to rehab several times. Marchioni had also been in abusive relationships after her first marriage. Case said her mother showed up at the home of her ex-husband, Case's father, days before her killing and talked about being afraid to go home.
"It's more important that I feel the authorities care, and I feel that they are not trying. I just wonder if they didn't try because she had substance abuse issues," Case said. "She was a great person and a great mother."
In the summer of July 2005, The MetroWest Daily News quoted a Framingham Police lieutenant who identified a suspect in the killing. The police official said the suspect was Aaron Sutton, who had just been arrested on charges of trying to kill his girlfriend, the newspaper reported.
Framingham Police did not return a call for comment on the case. The Middlesex County District Attorney's Office sent a statement about Marchioni's death, but did not respond to a reporter's question about suspects.
"After 15 years, our office remains committed to solving the murder of Karen Marchioni Henderson and to bringing closure to the victim's family and loved ones," the district attorney's statement said. "While we have made progress, this remains an open investigation."
Case still wonders if enough was done. She hasn't heard from investigators in a while and believes police should be talking to her again. Since her mother's death, Case had heard that more than one person might have been in her mother's home during the killing.
"I 100 percent think they went there with a purpose," Case said. "I don't know if it was planned to get that bad."
Investigators are still holding the jewelry worn by Marchioni at the time of her murder as evidence, Case said. Her mother wore fake nails and some of those were taken too.
The brutal stabbing took from Case and her family a mother, animal lover and woman with a big heart. Case said the killing left her without a mother at an important time in a 14-year-old girl's life.
"That's definitely a crucial age. It was hard not having someone to talk to about boys and relationships. I think it was kind of hard for my dad to play both roles," she said. "She was a huge animal rights person and an animal lover. She had a million cats. She volunteered with the elderly and sat with them and did their nails."
Project Cold Case, an organization that focuses on getting information out about unsolved cases, recently highlighted Marchioni's death in an online post that has been shared across social media. Case hopes the attention will bring more details to light.
"I haven't given up hope," Case said.
Anyone with information on this case are urged to contact the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office at (781) 897-6600 or Framingham Police at 508-872-1212.
www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2016/03/almost_15_years_later_brutal_m.html
Project: Cold Case page on Karen's case: www.projectcoldcase.org/2016/03/06/cold-case-spotlight-karen-marchioni/
Thoughts? Project: Cold Case is pretty well-updated and Karen's case is sadly one of Massachusetts' more well-known unsolved murders, so I'm assuming her case is unfortunately still unsolved as of this posting date. (6/5/2018). Hopefully the recent arrest in the case of Lisa Ziegert, whose murder was also a well-known Massachusetts cold case, is a positive sign we may soon see a breakthrough here as well.
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