The Murder of Denise Robert (New Hampshire)

She was out on her usual Sunday night walk when an unknown killer pulled up and shot her, leaving her mortally wounded in the street of what locals considered a safe neighborhood. Why someone would target Denise Robert and take her life still doesn’t make any sense to her family and those who knew her best, even 10 years later. 

This case is not short on theories. Police have fielded questions about everything from a possible gang initiation to serial killers, but we still don’t know what really happened.

August 30, 2015

It was around 9 p.m. on Sunday night, August 30, 2015 when the 9-1-1 call came in to police in Manchester, New Hampshire. The caller reported that there was a woman in the road in the area of Ray and Carpenter Streets, a neighborhood in the city’s North End.

According to reporting by Mark Hayward for the New Hampshire Union Leader, the woman was deceased on arrival of law enforcement. And from the beginning, officers realized they weren’t dealing with a medical episode or some other innocuous unattended death; the woman had an injury consistent with at least one gunshot wound.

The victim didn’t have any identification on her at the time, however, as police secured the area in front of 313 Ray Street to the corner of Carpenter Street and the perimeter of Ray Street with crime scene tape, they found a key fob for a car near the woman’s body. Searching the surrounding neighborhood, police located its respective vehicle in the parking lot of Brookside Congregational Church. It was a copper-colored Volvo S90 with dealer plates on it at the time, so the registration wasn’t much help, but inside on the floor police located a purse. It belonged to 62-year old Denise Robert.

Sometime around 3 a.m. Denise’s brother Tom Robert heard a knock at his front door. He peeked out the window to see a woman and two men wearing police jerseys. They told Tom the news that his older sister – the first-born child in a family of twelve kids – had been found dead. Her death would later be ruled a homicide.

About Denise Robert

As the oldest child and first-born daughter of a large family, Denise Robert stepped into a caretaker role alongside her brother Tom from an early age. 

“ I’m one of the older ones,” Tom began. “The mission of the older ones was to help raise the younger ones. Denise was in front of that.”

On top of helping her parents care for the younger kids, Denise got her first job at 14-years old, working at the New England staple Dunkin’ Donuts. She’d always been independent and became exceptionally career focused as she got older. For thirty years, Denise worked as an advertising sales rep for a group of local newspapers, including the New Hampshire Union Leader. Everyone who knew Denise – from clients to coworkers, friends and family – they all spoke of her work ethic. Denise’s brother John Robert remembers a conversation he had with an editor at one of the papers about his sister.

“She was very important at the newspapers that she worked at,” John explained. “Before she worked for the Union Leader, she worked at a string of weekly newspapers. And I was talking to the editor and she was responsible for 70% of the ads in those newspapers. So she was the one really paying the bills over there. So, I was surprised to hear that number. And she could walk into the office at 10:00 PM Sunday night and worked till two. She had her own schedule and her own routine.”

Tom spoke of his sister’s atypical schedule, “She used the full day. She would take the time she needed to accomplish what she needed to accomplish. It could be any time”

Between work and exercise (her other passion) Denise didn’t have much downtime for relationships and dating, and it may not have been a priority for her based on what Tom knows about Denise’s values and their upbringing.

Denise was described as outgoing but unassuming, very kind and endearing. The term ‘quirky’ was used a few times. When she wasn’t at a client meeting trying to sell newspaper ads to local businesses, Denise was exercising, whenever she could get it in. She was a member at Executive Health Club in Manchester, and was often the last person out the door as they locked up behind her.

According to Denise’s family, also part of her fitness regimen was a Sunday night walk in the North End; she’d been doing it for years. Denise was familiar with the neighborhood because she grew up there on Sagamore Street.

It didn’t make any logical sense to Denise’s family that their sister, who had no known enemies to speak of, would be the target of a killer for any reason. Her lifestyle as far as they knew just didn’t align. But a random killing in the North End? That didn’t compute, either. 

Reporting in the Union Leader described Ray Street as affluent with “stately colonial homes owned by doctors, lawyers and business owners.” Residents believed that violent crime, especially murders, just didn’t happen in their neighborhood, no matter what time of day or night.

Needless to say, as the investigation unfolded and residents saw crime scene tape going up on their street, everyone was on edge and feared for their safety due to the seemingly random nature of the murder. However, police commented on at least one occasion that they felt there was some sort of intent or specific motive for killing Denise, but they had no basis (or couldn’t talk about what supported that belief) as the investigation got its bearings. 

Early Investigation

Early reporting from August 31, 2015 by Carol Robidoux for Manchester Ink Link indicates that an autopsy showed Denise died of a single gunshot wound to the head. According to Tom and John, that may be a simplification or generalization of the actual autopsy findings. Specifics of the autopsy are being withheld in the interest of protecting the integrity of the investigation. What I can confirm is that Denise was shot and she died as a result.

Now, Manchester PD investigators were able to secure surveillance footage from local businesses and speak to witnesses right off the bat, which proved invaluable in piecing together Denise’s last known movements. Props to these businesses for having functioning cameras that were on and recording that day, and to police for tracking down the footage before it was overwritten…If you’ve been here a while or listen to any other true crime podcasts-slash-watch any crime docuseries, you know that faulty cameras are far too common.

Based on that footage and witness statements, we know Denise left Executive Health Club around 6 p.m. on the night of August 30th. At 6:08 p.m. Denise was seen leaving a vitamin store on South Willow Street before heading to Walmart. She left Walmart within an hour at 7:07 p.m. and then went to Hannaford Supermarket on John Devine Drive. She left around 8:21 p.m. All the stops she made after leaving the health club were within about a mile of each other, and less than three miles from the health club.

After leaving Hannaford, Denise drove her car to the parking lot of Brookside Congregational Church at the corner of Elm and Clark Streets. That’s where she always parked for her Sunday night strolls. It’s a 5 to 8 mile drive between Hannaford and the church depending on which route you take, so about 10 to 15 minutes. And just 39 minutes total after she left the supermarket, Denise was found dead. The 9-1-1 call came in at approximately 9 p.m.

As far as her brothers know, Denise wasn’t being followed in any of the surveillance footage. There are no red flags that they’re aware of from the cameras.

In security footage on the night of her death, Denise was wearing a dark long-sleeved striped shirt with a white belt, white sneakers and white shorts. Police put out a photo from the footage and asked that anyone who may have seen or encountered Denise on that Sunday night to reach out with information.

One of the only witness-reported details that has been widely disseminated to the public was from a passing motorist who was driving through the area of Ray Street around 9 p.m. that night. The witness said she saw a mid-sized pickup truck speed east on Carpenter Street before it turned onto Union Street without stopping. After hearing about the shooting, the witness returned to Ray Street to tell police what she had seen.

Another witness report supported this. A neighbor told police they saw a dark, possibly rusted older model pick-up truck speeding from the area. The driver went north on Ray Street, took a right and then another right onto Union Street and over to Webster Street. Witnesses reported that the driver of the truck may have been a white man in his 20s or 30s with close-cropped hair and wearing a sleeveless t-shirt. The most updated description of the truck we have is that it was possibly red.

In addition to the reports of a speeding truck, people who lived in the neighborhood reported hearing what sounded like fireworks or a firecracker just before 9 p.m. It all lined up with the estimated time of the murder.

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