The Murder of Deanna Cremin (Massachusetts)

It should have been a routine school night in Somerville, Massachusetts for 17-year old Deanna Cremin. Homework, TV, and a walk home with her boyfriend before curfew. But by morning, Deanna was gone. Her body was discovered just a few hundred feet from where she was last seen. The community was stunned: who could do this, and why?

For three decades, Deanna’s friends and family have waited for answers, holding onto hope as forensic science evolves. DNA and forensic genetic genealogy is now at the center of the conversation. Could the key to solving this case be hidden in a decades-old sample, waiting for the right technology or the right name to match?

Discovery

It was the night of March 29, 1995 and 17-year old Deanna Cremin was over at her boyfriend’s place watching TV and doing homework. Deanna and 18-year old Thomas “Tommy” LeBlanc had been an item for at least a year at that point, and their studying-slash-television sessions were a pretty routine occurrence in their relationship. 

According to reporting by Peter Gelzinis for the Boston Herald, Deanna had a 10 p.m. curfew so when it was time for her to go home, Tommy would usually walk Deanna from his place on Broadway down to her home on Jaques Street, only about a half-mile away. But that evening, as Deanna’s curfew approached, she called her mother, Katherine Cremin, and let her know she was going to be late. Deanna said I love you, and Katherine said it back before hanging up the phone and drifting off to sleep on the couch.

When Katherine woke up around midnight, she realized that Deanna still wasn’t home.

Megan Tench reports that Deanna had just received a pager as a gift for her 17th birthday a few days earlier, so Katherine called the pager, but didn’t get a response. A few more pages, and still, nothing back from her daughter. Katherine explained away the jolt of worry in her belly with the most likely scenario: Deanna probably just fell asleep watching TV and was spending the night at Tommy’s house. She resolved to give Deanna a lecture about it when she saw her the next day.

The very next morning, Katherine got up early for work as usual. Realizing her daughter’s bed was still empty from the night before, Katherine decided to call Tommy’s house. She told Tommy he’d better tell Deanna to get her butt home…But he said Deanna wasn’t at his house. According to Katherine, Tommy explained that he’d walked Deanna half-way home the night before. They parted ways near the corner of Heath and Bond Streets, he said. That was only two or three-tenths of a mile down the street from Deanna’s house, almost a straight shot.

Katherine left for work, no doubt concerned after that call with her daughter’s boyfriend. She asked Deanna’s step-father, Michael Cremin, to call the high school just to make sure Deanna had shown up for class. Michael hoped that that the call would calm the fear rising in his wife’s mind, but the call did the exact opposite. Deanna had been marked absent.

Meanwhile, around 8 a.m. that day, two elementary school students taking a shortcut to school behind the James J. Corbett Apartments at 125 Jaques Street found a body along the walking path. She was lying next to a chain-link fence at the top of a steep embankment that separated the apartments from a different housing development on Mystic Avenue. The children thought the girl was asleep.

Deanna’s family had already called police to begin the search for their missing daughter as news about what the children had discovered began circulating in town, on the bus, and at Katherine’s workplace. When her husband called and told Katherine she’d better come home, she already knew the earth-shattering news she was about to receive. The body found behind the senior housing development that morning was her daughter, Deanna. She’d once babysat the children who found her.

According to reporting by Paul Langner and Pamela W. Walsh for the Boston Globe, Deanna’s uncle said that police first told their family that Deanna died of a drug overdose. That information couldn’t have been further from the truth.

There were no obvious signs of injury that first responders could see, but the autopsy later found that Deanna died from strangulation and her death was officially ruled a homicide. At the time, investigators did not disclose if the autopsy found indications of sexual assault. However, the condition of her clothing and state of undress at the time of discovery raised questions about a possible sexual element to the crime. 

Beverly Ford and David Weber report for the Boston Herald that Deanna was found partially nude. Witnesses claimed they saw Deanna laying on her back wearing a red jacket that was open in the front. Her pants were pulled completely off her right leg and halfway down her left thigh. Her right shoe was not on her foot, but her left foot was still wearing a sock and a sneaker.

As of today, there’s no clear answer to the question about where the murder occurred. Investigators at the time didn’t say if they believed Deanna was killed in that location or if she was left there after her death. However, residents who spoke to the media at the time said they didn’t hear anything strange or concerning the night before Deanna’s body was found.

Margery Eagen writes in her column for the Boston Herald that getting to the location of Deanna’s body required walking down a path that connected Jaques Street to the backyard of that senior housing complex. You’d pass a fence and several apartment windows while traipsing down a full flight of 13 stairs. By the sounds of it, it wasn’t exactly an area you’d just stumble upon, but given the fact that two children found Deanna there while taking a shortcut to school, it seems like it was a path known to locals and frequently traveled.

The location of her body was also less than 500 feet away from where her boyfriend Tommy said he’d left Deanna that night when he walked her halfway home.

Investigation

Police obviously had questions for Tommy, however, he was not considered a suspect at the time. As for his version of events of the night before Deanna’s body was found, he told police basically the same thing he told Deanna’s mother. He said that he walked Deanna halfway home. He didn’t accompany her all the way because he’d ordered some food and wanted to get back to his house for the delivery.

Friends who saw their relationship said that Tommy and Deanna were very close and they, “really loved each other.” Tommy’s mother has said that her son was extremely upset about Deanna’s death. And Deanna’s mother recalled Tommy being emotional as well. Katherine remembers Tommy holding her hand at Deanna’s wake as he sobbed, asking “What am I going to do now?”

Tommy was one among dozens of people police spoke to in the first critical hours of the investigation. Family and friends and fellow classmates and coworkers of Deanna’s gave their accounts of the girl they knew, the people she surrounded herself with, and anything unusual in her life in the days before somebody killed her. That’s how police came to interview a Somerville firefighter who had reportedly taken an interest in Deanna.

He’d been a firefighter for over a decade and came from a prominent family in town (his father was a well-known attorney). The firefighter worked out of the central fire station on Broadway, which was across the street from the supermarket where Deanna worked. Beverly Ford and David Weber’s reporting for the Boston Herald indicates that the firefighter worked on that Wednesday morning, the day before Deanna’s murder was discovered. He was scheduled again for that Sunday, but called out sick twice, maybe because of the scrutiny he was under at the time.

Police questioned the firefighter at least three times early on, with the first interview just a day after she was found. He was reportedly cooperative with the investigation and according to at least one source, he provided samples which could presumably be forensically tested against evidence police already had in the case. Police did not identify him as a suspect at the time and he has never faced any charges.

Investigators soon announced that they were searching for a potential witness seen in the area of 125 Jaques Street around the time someone murdered Deanna, and released a sketch and description of the potential witness. He was described as 40 to 45 years old, white with short dark hair, 5-foot 9 to 5-foot 11 inches tall, and 160 to 170 pounds. You can see the sketch at darkdowneast.com. Investigators stated that the man was not a suspect; they just wanted to talk to him about what he may have seen or heard that night.

Deanna Cremin’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.