Pawtucket Police make arrest in 31-year-old child murder case

July 18, 2019 5:06 pm

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PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WLNE) – A 31-year-old cold case murder investigation has been solved thanks to huge advances in forensic science and the tireless efforts of a Pawtucket Police Detective.

Pawtucket Police announced Thursday that an arrest was made in a decades-old cold case investigation into the murder of Christine Cole.

Christine Cole left her home on January 6, 1988— just days after her tenth birthday— to go to the market. That was the last time she was ever seen alive.

On February 28, 54 days later, her body washed up on a Warwick beach.

The murder went unsolved for over three decades, until a determined Pawtucket detective cracked the case.

59-year-old Joao Monteiro was arrested Wednesday night after DNA found on Christine’s pants matched his.

“I feel like my sister Christine can finally be at rest,” said Christine’s brother Clint Cole who was just five years old at the time.

Cole said his sister’s murder destroyed his family, but Thursday’s news gave the family a bit of closure.

“I feel like now I can let my guard down in how I feel,” said Cole. “And I think I can move on, but it’s always going to be there.”

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Pawtucket Police Detective Susan Cormier has worked tirelessly on the case, opening the investigation in August 2018.

Cormier said police got a DNA sample from Monteiro Wednesday morning, arresting him that same night as he was leaving his workplace in Woonsocket.

Police said there does not seem to be any sort of connection between the suspect and the victim. Christine Cole, they said, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“There was no relationship as far as we can show,” Cormier said. “He was a stranger.”

Christine Cole’s case is one of 52 unsolved cases represented on “cold case cards”, an initiative started by Detective Cormier.

Cole, the deck’s queen of hearts, is the first victim to have their case solved.

“I’m going to continue to work on this,” said Cormier. “I hope that this is a message to the people that are responsible for these crimes that we are coming for you, and we’re not giving up.”