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Twists and Turns of the Paquette Story · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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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 brief and bingeible True Crime. I'm
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Thank you so much for listening to ten minute Murder