“We were close as sisters could be
with that age difference,” Morris says.
“Her smile lit up a room. I looked up to
her, she was the most beautiful girl in
the world.”
She’d been raped, knocked out and
du mped i nto t he pond, where she
drowned, her sister says. Her family was
destroyed, she says. She disliked cops
“very strongly after my sister’s murder,
there were so many inconsistencies with
them. But Sue came along and restored
my faith in the police. She is a great
human being.”
Cormier checks in with her every so
often, as she does with all victims’ fami-
lies. There’s hope for solving her sister’s
murder, Morris says, if only a little.
“Over the years, you start resigning
yourself to the fact there may never be
an outcome,” she says. “And then people
like Sue come along and you get your
head going again and think maybe there
will be.”
Cormier and I drive by a school in Cen-
tral Falls, where in 1988, Michelle Norris
was last seen in the playground with her
brothers and other kids. The playground
was in view of her grandmother’s house
just down the road. She went missing;
two days later, her body was found in a
heavily wooded area 1,500 feet from the
school. The playground now bears the
forever-seven-year-old’s name and like-
ness. The same likeness that’s on the
queen of diamonds gracing Cormier’s
deck of cards.
We park near the spot the girl was
found, a steep hill leading to a swampy
area littered with tires and other urban
detritus. Jammed in a rectangular win-
dow of a nearby worn tenement in this
hardscrabble neck of the urban woods is
a glimmer of optimism on a small sign
reading “Laugh. Love. Live.”
The longer a crime goes unsolved, the
more likely it never will be. Cases can
grow very cold as the years wear on.
Looking down at the spot where the little
girl’s body was found, Cormier talks
about it. She seems both energized by the
possibility of looking for the answer and
drained by the burden of finding it.
I ask how she goes on, knowing the
chances of resolving fifty-two cold cases
in the deck of cards are slim. She smiles
and talks about her love of Pawtucket
and her work and her passion. “I’ve got
a lot left to do.”
The Seasons Assisted Living
A Premier Non-Profi t Residence
The Seasons AssisteD Living
Experience the Non-Profit Difference
Traditional & Memory Care Neighborhoods Available
programs for qualifi ed veterans & short-term stays
Traditional & Memory Care Neighborhoods Available
Program For Qualified Veterans Short-Term Stays
Celebrate Life With Us!
Five Saint Elizabeth
Elizabeth Way
Way Five
East Saint
Greenwich,
RI 401.884.9099
East Greenwich, RI
www.theseasons.org
401.884.9099
www.theseasons.org
EAST GREENWICH
A joint venture of The Scandinavian Communities and
A joint venture of Scandinavian Home and Steere House
Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation
WATER PR O O F
WAT E R P R O O F
HARDWO
OD
H A RDWO O D
100% water and pet proof
Trends
come
and
go, go,
Trends
come
and
but
the
unique
character
but the unique character
of
is timeless.
of hardwood
hardwood
is timeless.
“Floors you love — Service you expect!”
144 Broad Street
Cumberland, RI 02864
401-724-8650
Exquisite | 1058 Champagne Oak
Exquisite | 1058 Champagne Oak
Navigating the
Legal Landscape
40 Westminster St., Providence, RI
373 North Main St., Fall River, MA
401.331.3400
rhgllp.com
Business Litigation
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY
l JANUARY 2020 63