“I’ve worked with many in law enforcement
who aren’t like that. Here, they want to hear
what you have to say even if they don’t agree
with it.”
The technology used in finding the bad
guys from cold cases has improved consider-
ably over the years, and Cormier constantly
studies changes to keep up to the new-school
ways. But her initial approach is decidedly
old school.
At a talk she and Keatley give at URI on
forensics, she describes reopening old cases,
of “taking my allergy pill, putting my jeans
on and going into the musty basement of city
halls” to peruse old records, evidence, photos,
case files and newspaper clippings, putting
all into individual cold-case binders in “cookie
cutter fashion, the same way, so any detective
can open the file and read it like a novel, with
solvability factor, reviews of evidence and
witness statements.”
On her wish list of new-school crime-
solving equipment is a state-of-the-art M-Vac
DNA testing machine that’s 200 times more
powerful than traditional machines. She’s
raised some $4,000 towards the price tag
of $44,000, she says, “about the cost of a
police cruiser.” “If each of the state’s thirty-
nine communities kicks in $1,000 each, we’ll
be there” for the benefit of Rhode Island’s
collective crime-fighting efforts.
Cormier’s approach, using social media
and getting one case a week from the deck
highlighted on Friday afternoons on WPRI-
TV news, is also new school. It puts her “at
the forefront in terms of promotion and
using these tools, so much so other states
are looking at it. It’s an incredible idea, a
brilliant way of getting information out.
“It’s a huge responsibility she takes on,
this weight of hope,” Keatley says. “It’s a
beautiful thing to give to families, a little
hope. But with that comes the responsibility
of never being able to rest.”
A
S OPEN AS COR MIER IS A BOUT
her work life, she’s equally closed
about her private one, given the
criminal world she probes and the chance
of someone in that world seeking revenge.
“I like to hit the heavy bag; it works out
frustrations and helps me think,” says Corm-
ier, who is fifty and was once a bodybuilder.
All she allows about her non-cop life is:
“I’m very happily married with three kids
involved in sports. We travel a lot, that keeps
me sane along with a good support system
at home.”
Which, she says about the framed deck
of cards on her office wall, “makes me real-
ize how fortunate I am not to be on that
board.”
Wendy Madden, the murder victim who
inspired Cormier’s cold-case work, is the
nine of hearts in the deck. She left her Cen-
tral Falls house on March 11, 1991, to get
cigarettes and never returned. Two days
later, her body was found behind a bar, Jan’s
Place.
One gray fall day, I sit with Cormier in
an unmarked cruiser on Middle Street, a
lawn now where once stood Jan’s Place, a
tiny gin mill in an industrial cluster of bars,
scrap yards and old mill buildings that still
dot the gritty urban landscape. I ask what
goes through her mind when she visits
places where cold cases were borne out of
brutal deaths.
“I’ll come and stand, stare, think,” she
says. “It’s personal. Wendy’s picture is on
my desk. Like with all the victims, I want
to know about her life, her Christmases, her
childhood, her birthdays.”
We drive around, stopping at various old
Easy Street
Rehab Center
at Saint Antoine Residence
Build strength, endurance
and confidence
while transitioning from
hospital to home
Saint Antoine Community
AND
T HE U LTIMATE IN A SSISTED L IVING
E XCELLENCE IN N URSING AND R EHABILITATIVE C ARE
10 Rhodes Ave., North Smithfield, RI 02896
www. stantoine .net
Specializing in orthopedic, cardiac & stroke recovery care
State-of-the-art rehab module and simulated home environment
Spacious & hospitable accommodations
A health care ministry of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.
For more information or to pre-book your stay, contact Kimberly Morse,
Director of Admissions, at kmorse@stantoine.net or call 401.767.3500, ext 102
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY
l JANUARY 2020 61