He said goodnight to her and then drove back home. Rick claims that Lulu had forgotten her pocketbook and boots in the truck, so he called out to her and handed them to her. She heard them talking loudly they were doing so because of the muffler sound on his truck. She heard Lulu get out of the truck and walk up onto the porch. When his truck pulled up, he was about ten feet away from her window.
Her bedroom window was at the front of the building.
#Unsolved wiki rick trial#
She claims that she did not testify at his trial because of health problems.
Laurie was still awake when Rick brought Lulu home. Laurie Clark and her husband lived in the same building as Lulu. It was a four-minute drive between the two apartments. According to Rick, he dropped Lulu at her apartment building sometime after 2:30am. That night, when Cheryl heard Rick's truck pulling away, she went to the kitchen to call the all-night donut shop where she was employed. She maintained that their conversation was not angry. Cheryl felt that her words were misinterpreted. Specifically, they claimed that her saying "slow down" was her way of rejecting him. At one point, Lulu said "Slow down", and a minute later, Rick said "Get dressed, I'll take you home." To Cheryl, it sounded like a normal conversation.Īt Rick's trial, the prosecution tried to use Cheryl's testimony to establish a motive, claiming that he was angry with Lulu because she rejected his sexual advances. To them, it sounded like they were being intimate. They did not think that the two sounded violent. They remembered being awaken by Rick and Lulu, who were in the spare bedroom. Two of his friends, Cheryl and Marty McGuire, were visiting that night and staying in the master bedroom. While waiting for it to warm up, they kissed. They drank and shot pool until around 2am. That night, Rick and Lulu went to two different bars. Rick suspected that Darren was her fiancée and that Russell didn't want him to find out about Rick. When she handed the phone back to Russell, he told Darren that no one else was there, even though Rick was sitting right in front of him. When Lulu answered, she put her finger up to her mouth, which indicated to Rick that he should not say anything. Only later did Rick learn that Russell's brother Darren was Lulu's fiancée.Ī few minutes after Russell arrived, Darren telephoned from jail.
While he waited for her to get ready, a man named Russell Healy entered the apartment without knocking. At around 11:30pm on the evening of October 17, Rick arrived at her apartment. Despite the fact that she was wearing an engagement ring, they went out for drinks and made a second date for the next night. Rick met Lulu at the convenience store where she worked on Friday, October 16, 1987, less than forty-eight hours before she was murdered. In addition, at least two witnesses have now come forward and stated that another man confessed to the murder.
In July 1992, he was granted a retrial based on the misconduct of one of the jurors, brought to light when Tom went public with his belief that Rick was not guilty. Rick maintains his innocence he is saddened for Lulu's family's loss, and he is angry that it has taken so long for the truth to come out. He also felt that there was enough doubt that they should not have convicted Rick. He felt that he had made a mistake at the trial by not fully grasping the evidence that was presented. Almost three years later, Tom Magruder, one of the jurors from the trial, came forward with a stunning declaration. On December 6, 1988, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He had then killed her, probably in his pickup truck, and dumped the body. He had moved to Rochester just three weeks before the murder.Īt Rick's trial, the prosecution theorized that he and Lulu had argued after a sexual liaison at his apartment. Six months after her murder, police arrested the man she had last been seen with, twenty-four-year-old Rick McCue. She was engaged to Darren Healy, a local man who was then in jail. She was soon identified as thirty-four-year-old Alene "Lulu" Courchesne, a divorcee with three daughters. She had been strangled and beaten to death. Details: On October 18, 1987, a woman's body was found in a local dumping site near the Spaulding Turnpike on the outskirts of Rochester, New Hampshire.