Rhode Island Murderer Linked To 2 Other Killings

BOSTON (CBS/AP) — Authorities say a convicted murderer who died in prison in Rhode Island in 2011 also killed women in New Hampshire and Massachusetts more than three decades ago.

Edward Mayrand, who was convicted of killing Patricia Paquette in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1994, also was an early suspect in the death of Judith Whitney in New Hamsphire, but prosecutors lacked enough evidence to charge him.

Whitney, from Amherst, Massachusetts, was last seen alive with Mayrand in Keene in July 1987. Her body was found four months later in Winchester.

New Hampshire's Cold Case Unit re-opened the case in 2010. Officials say DNA testing linked Mayrand to the 1983 murder of 25-year-old Kathleen Daneault in Gardner, Massachusetts, and that similarities between the cases enabled investigators to conclude he also killed Whitney.

"Our one solace is that Edward Mayrand passed away in prison alone without loved ones around him to comfort him, just as he left Kathy to die alone," the Daneault family said in a statement.

"While this does bring us some sort of closure, it does not erase the 31 years that the son whom she loved more than life itself, has been without his mother. Siblings have been without their sister and parents without a daughter. No family should have to live with that anguish."

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