The Murder of Rose Marie Moniz (Massachusetts)

Sometimes, a case can have evidence, a suspect, and a theory investigators believe explains what happened yet a family is still left without the ending they waited decades to hear. 

Grief and justice don’t always move at the same pace. Grief looks for truth, meaning, and someone to answer for what was taken. The justice system looks for proof, and proof has to survive questions, strategy, doubt, and twelve separate minds in a jury room. 

This is a case about a woman killed inside the place where she should have been safest, a family fractured by loss and suspicion, and what happens when an answer feels clear to the people who loved her, but the verdict says something else.

Discovery

It was Friday morning, March 23, 2001, and a small tree decorated with pastel Easter eggs stood near 41-year old Rose Marie Moniz’s mailbox on Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The eggs bobbed gently in the breeze outside the home, a quiet seasonal touch that was very Rose – cheerful and warm, just like her.

But the scene soon to be revealed inside the house stood in stark contrast to the lighthearted decorations outside.

Around 10 a.m., Rose’s father, Alfred, arrived to pick Rose up for coffee. Every day, Alfred and Rose enjoyed coffee together, and he usually dropped off a pack of cigarettes for her, too. She didn’t like to leave the house much on her own, so family often came to her.

When Alfred walked inside, absolutely everything looked wrong. Rose was a very clean and tidy person, but that morning her home was in disarray. Her purse was empty on the living room floor. Items from the kitchen had been tossed all over the place. It looked like there had been a struggle. And then he found his daughter. 

Rose was on the bathroom floor, lifeless and lying in a pool of blood.

Alfred started screaming for Rose’s son, his grandson, 19-year old Bobby, whose car was outside in the driveway. Fearing Bobby might be injured or worse, he climbed the stairs to Bobby’s bedroom, finding him asleep and safe with their dog, a big pitbull – the guard dog of the home. He shouted Bobby awake and called 911.

By then, whatever had happened inside Rose Marie Moniz’s home was already over. But the questions were only beginning.

About Rose Marie Moniz

Rose’s brother Gary Cunha told me that Rose mostly kept to herself. She didn’t get into trouble. She was quiet, reserved, and she liked being home. But quiet didn’t mean cold. Rose had a soft way of showing people they mattered.

Gary’s daughter, Rose’s niece Jewel Cunha remembered her aunt Rose as one of the few aunts or uncles who really interacted with her when she was a child. Rose had what Jewel described as an innocence about her; a kind of young-at-heart sweetness.

One of the clearest memories for Jewel is Rose sneaking candy to her and her sister. Rose loved making children feel special. Around holidays, she made baskets or bags of treats for all the kids, and Jewel remembered them looking almost professionally done.

Rose had a gentle way of reaching out. When a new neighbor moved in across the street, Rose left a note on the door to welcome them. She loved to bake, loved to make soup, and loved taking care of people. She once cooked pots of soup for a customer at the donut shop where she worked after his wife passed away, and she helped care for her brother’s wife when she was sick.

Rose also loved decorating. Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, you name it, there was always something. The whimsical egg tree outside was part of her rotating collection that kept the exterior festive. Inside, her home was decorated in a beach theme, with seashells, coastal touches and paintings that reflected both Rose’s style and her family’s roots in New Bedford’s fishing community.

Gary told me they had a big Portuguese family and they loved to get together, whether it was a summer barbecue or a multi-generational vacation to New Hampshire with all the aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents together. 

Even though she kept to herself at home, Rose always attended family gatherings. And Gary saw Rose often for another reason: he is a carpenter, and Rose usually had something around the house that needed fixing. In fact, Gary was at Rose’s house the day before she was killed. Rose wanted to build a room downstairs for Bobby, so Gary went by to look at the space and tell her what she would need.

It was Gary’s final memory of his sister before everything changed.

Rose was remembered as kind and giving, someone who made people feel cared for in small, practical ways. That made the violence inside her home even more difficult to understand.

Investigation

Rose suffered significant head trauma. Her skull was fractured. She had deep lacerations, bleeding from both ears, broken nasal bones, a broken left cheekbone, and multiple contusions from blunt force trauma across her body.

Investigators also noticed unusual abrasions, contusions, and puncture wounds on her face. Those marks appeared to match two items from inside her own home: a fireplace poker and the spines of a conch shell Rose kept on display as part of her beach-themed décor. In fact, John R. Ellement reports the Boston Globe that a conch shell and a cast-iron kettle were found next to Rose’s body.

Investigators later alleged that Rose had been beaten with three different weapons: a fireplace poker, a cast-iron fireplace kettle, and that conch shell.

There were signs that Rose may have fought back. Strands of her hair were found in the bathroom sink, and her earrings had been knocked loose from her ears and were lying on the floor. The rest of the house told its own story, too. Items had been knocked over and tossed around, and there was Rose’s empty purse found on the living room floor.

But what investigators didn’t find was any sign of forced entry at Rose’s house, which left open the possibility that whoever attacked her may have been someone she willingly let inside.

Before she was violently attacked, Rose appears to have spent an ordinary evening at home. She did laundry and ordered a pizza for delivery. At some point after that, police believed, her killer got into the house.

Early on, investigators heard allegations about one person Rose’s family believed could have wanted to hurt her: an abusive ex-boyfriend.

Rose’s mother, Francis Cunha, told Jose Martinez and Dave Wedge of the Boston Herald that Rose had dated the man for about six months before leaving him because of the alleged abuse. According to Francis, he drank, yelled at Rose, and had once threatened to kill her. Francis said he told Rose, “It may take a week, it may take a month, it may take a year, but mark my words, I will kill you.” Francis also claimed the man threatened to kill Rose’s son.

This man was the only person that Francis could imagine wanting to harm her daughter. But the circumstances inside the house would eventually pull investigators in a different direction…And suspicion fell a lot closer to home.

Rose Marie Moniz’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the episode wherever you get your podcasts.