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Log inGray shooting victim had been 'pushed around'
Gray shooting victim had been 'pushed around'
by Outspoken on Thu May 22, 2008 5:13 am
Gray shooting victim had been 'pushed around,' her brother says
John Valliere says Jennifer Lessard left Albert Merrill because he'd been violent, but Merrill's family says that wasn't his reputation.
By ELBERT AULL
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
GRAY — Jennifer Lessard walked out on her boyfriend in the early morning one day last month, taking only the clothes she and her two children were wearing to her mother's home a few miles away.
Lessard told family and friends that Albert "Sonny" Merrill Jr. had pushed her around that day and that she wasn't going to live with a violent man.
Weeks later, Lessard told her brother, John Valliere, that she needed to return to Merrill's house to retrieve some clothes. The two made a plan, and she wasn't supposed to go alone, he said.
"She was supposed to contact the police" and have an officer there while she gathered her things, said Valliere, 38, of New Gloucester.
Instead, Lessard went to the house on Hemlock Lane alone late Monday afternoon.
Valliere said his sister's pickup truck was backed into the driveway -- tailgate down -- when police found her body hours later.
Investigators said Merrill apparently shot Lessard in the head before he used his .22-caliber handgun to commit suicide Monday night.
Police are still trying to piece together exactly what led to the murder-suicide, including why Lessard went to the house. Authorities released no new details about the case Wednesday.
Lessard's death, the state's 13th domestic violence homicide this year, left a total of four children without a parent.
Lessard, 40, was a pharmacist with a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Rhode Island. She moved to Maine from New Hampshire in the 1990s and worked hard to support her two sons from previous marriages, Valliere said.
Merrill, 48, worked for a local concrete contractor and didn't have a record of domestic violence or a criminal past.
Family and friends said he was an affable man who had struggled with alcohol abuse.
The two families disagree on whether Merrill had started drinking in recent months. Valliere said that Lessard told him that Merrill came home drunk and "pushed her around" the night she left him.
"That was it. She wasn't going to live a life like that," he said.
Domestic violence is the leading cause of homicide in Maine, accounting for about 50 percent of cases over the past two decades. This year's ratio -- 13 of 17 -- is much higher.
"Right now it's so skewed where it's 13 out of 17," said Jen LaChance Sibley, outreach coordinator for Family Crisis Services, which serves victims of domestic abuse in southern Maine. "I don't know if there's any sense of why this is happening now."
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=189338&ac=PHnws
Family photo
John Valliere says Jennifer Lessard left Albert Merrill because he'd been violent, but Merrill's family says that wasn't his reputation.
By ELBERT AULL
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
GRAY — Jennifer Lessard walked out on her boyfriend in the early morning one day last month, taking only the clothes she and her two children were wearing to her mother's home a few miles away.
Lessard told family and friends that Albert "Sonny" Merrill Jr. had pushed her around that day and that she wasn't going to live with a violent man.
Weeks later, Lessard told her brother, John Valliere, that she needed to return to Merrill's house to retrieve some clothes. The two made a plan, and she wasn't supposed to go alone, he said.
"She was supposed to contact the police" and have an officer there while she gathered her things, said Valliere, 38, of New Gloucester.
Instead, Lessard went to the house on Hemlock Lane alone late Monday afternoon.
Valliere said his sister's pickup truck was backed into the driveway -- tailgate down -- when police found her body hours later.
Investigators said Merrill apparently shot Lessard in the head before he used his .22-caliber handgun to commit suicide Monday night.
Police are still trying to piece together exactly what led to the murder-suicide, including why Lessard went to the house. Authorities released no new details about the case Wednesday.
Lessard's death, the state's 13th domestic violence homicide this year, left a total of four children without a parent.
Lessard, 40, was a pharmacist with a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Rhode Island. She moved to Maine from New Hampshire in the 1990s and worked hard to support her two sons from previous marriages, Valliere said.
Merrill, 48, worked for a local concrete contractor and didn't have a record of domestic violence or a criminal past.
Family and friends said he was an affable man who had struggled with alcohol abuse.
The two families disagree on whether Merrill had started drinking in recent months. Valliere said that Lessard told him that Merrill came home drunk and "pushed her around" the night she left him.
"That was it. She wasn't going to live a life like that," he said.
Domestic violence is the leading cause of homicide in Maine, accounting for about 50 percent of cases over the past two decades. This year's ratio -- 13 of 17 -- is much higher.
"Right now it's so skewed where it's 13 out of 17," said Jen LaChance Sibley, outreach coordinator for Family Crisis Services, which serves victims of domestic abuse in southern Maine. "I don't know if there's any sense of why this is happening now."
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=189338&ac=PHnws
Family photo
"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'."
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
