Dark Downeast - The Murder of Charline Rosemond (Massachusetts)

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Charline Rosemond left home in Everett, Massachusetts one day in April of 2009 excited to buy a new car, but the evening took a deadly turn. Now for more than fifteen years, her family has waited for justice and answers in the still unsolved homicide.Someone knows something about Charline’s death. Someone is concealing the truth. It’s time to speak up. If you have information regarding Charline Rosemond’s murder, please call the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office at [phone].View source material and photos for this episode at: darkdowneast.com/charlinerosemond Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

Charlene Rosemond left home in Everett, Massachusetts one day in April of 2009, excited to buy a new car. But the evening took a deadly turn. Now for more than 15 years, her family has waited for justice and answers in the still-unsolved homicide. Someone knows something about Charlene's death. Someone is concealing the truth. It's time to speak up. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Charlene Roseman on Dark Down East. When 23-year-old Charlene Roseman drove off in her parents' car around 7 a.m. on April 7, 2009, it was the beginning of a typical day that, if everything worked out,

would be the last time she had to borrow their gray Honda Civic. According to reporting by Bob Ward for Boston 25 News, Charlene had made plans with a friend to go look at a new-to-her car after she got out of work that evening. If she loved it, she was going to buy it on the spot. She had $4,000 cash in her wallet ready to go. Charlene arrived to work at the Herb Chambers car dealership on Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton that morning as usual. When her workday wrapped up around 5 o'clock, Charlene briefly called home to talk to her mom, who told Charlene that she needed to bring their car back as soon as possible because her dad needed it.

Charlene assured her mother that she'd be back to hand over the keys by 6 or 7, no later. Charlene's mother and father waited as 6 p.m. passed and then 7 o'clock without the headlights of their car appearing outside of their home in Everett. She wasn't picking up her phone when they called either. They went to bed without any sign that Charlene would return, and she never did walk back through the door. The next morning, Charlene's mother woke up Charlene's sister, Rosalie, who also goes by the name Rosie. Her mother was concerned.

She told Rosie that Charlene hadn't come back when she said she would the night before, and she still wasn't home yet. Rosie has said that she actually wasn't too concerned at first. She and Charlene occasionally stayed out late hanging out with friends. After all, they were both in their 20s and liked to have a good time, and sometimes they got into fun that had them coming home the morning after. Charlene's mother and father continued calling Charlene, but the calls kept going to voicemail. Still, there was a degree of hope knowing the kind of person and the kind of employee Charlene was. No matter what had her out late the night before, Rosie and Charlene's family knew that Charlene did not miss work.

Charlene had worked in the office at the car dealership for about four years and was known to be a reliable, responsible employee, not someone who missed work or even showed up late. Jumping in to help her parents track down Charlene, Rosie called the office at the car dealership that morning and asked one of Charlene's co-workers if she'd shown up yet. Charlene usually got to work around 7 or 7.30am, but what the co-worker told Rosie was surprising and unsettling. No Charlene yet. Checks back in throughout the day revealed that Charlene never made it to work at all. Now that was definitely not like Charlene. Rosie's worry was growing, but she still wasn't convinced something was wrong or that something

bad had happened. She and her parents kept calling Charlene's phone, still with no answer. A few hours later, Rosie's dad walked into her bedroom with a look of concern and pain written all over his face. It had been a full day without any sign of Charlene. So he told Rosie it was time to go down to the Everett police station to report Charlene missing. Charlene's sister Rosie has been Charlene's voice from the earliest days of her case. Being only two years apart, they were an inseparable duo growing up. They wore matching outfits, styled their hair the same, and kept each other's secrets. They were as close as close could get, but the sisters were not without their disagreements and quarrels. It was all part of their special sisterly bond. Rosie shared Charlene's story and the impact it

had and continues to have on her family in an episode of her podcast, The Rosie Perspective. She no longer updates the podcast, but the episode titled Unsolved Murder of My Sister Charlene Rosemond was the 23rd episode of the show, first published on August 23rd, 2020. Rosie says she chose to publish the 23rd episode on that date because Charlene was 23 years old when she was killed. I've been in contact with Rosie throughout my reporting process for this episode, but we weren't ever able to connect for an interview. However, she wants Charlene's case to get more attention and wants more people to know her sister's name and story.

So I've leaned on her recollections and the narrative of her personal experiences throughout the timeline of the case that she shared in her podcast to help tell a complete story here on Dark Down East. Rosie shares on her podcast that this car Charlene was planning to go see that day, it was really exciting. Not only did it mean gaining some independence back because she would no longer have to ask her parents for the keys to their car every time she needed to go somewhere, but it was also a good deal. It was a Lexus that she believed was valued at about $6,000, but the friend who offered to take her to see the car said she could probably get it for more like $4,000. Not wanting to miss the chance to get a discount on a car like that, Charlene had gathered up the four grand in cash so she could buy it right then and there. Despite her mother's word of caution, Charlene carried the cash with her

to work on April 7th. As far as her family knew, she was supposed to come home right after seeing and possibly buying the car, but she never returned. Down at the Everett police station on April 8th, Rosie and her father explained everything to officers as they tried to report Charlene missing. They told them how Charlene hadn't come home the night before, that she never showed up for work, and that she hadn't answered any of their calls to her cell in almost 24 hours. It was all out of character and it was all extremely worrisome. Unfortunately, Charlene's family members were met with a response far too similar when an adult disappears. They were told they needed to wait 48 hours before a missing persons report could be filed.

Charlene was 23 years old. Police reasoned that maybe she didn't want to come home. But Rosie wasn't about to just sit and wait. She started investigating her sister's disappearance herself. As she explains on the Rosie Perspective podcast, because she and Charlene were only two years apart, they hung out with a lot of the same people and did a lot of the same things, so her first phone calls were to their friends to figure out the last time they had seen or heard from Charlene. Rosie says she spoke to one person who was in regular contact with Charlene. They were close friends and talked all the time. But when Rosie told this person that Charlene was missing, Rosie got the sense that the person didn't care. She said they were, quote, unbothered by the news, that no one could reach Charlene and that she never came home

after work the night before. According to Rosie, this person suggested that maybe Charlene was somewhere drunk. Rosie was offended by the response. She just knew that couldn't be the case. Rosie says she also reached out to the friend who was supposed to be taking Charlene to look at the Lexus for sale, but she claims that this person also was not concerned about the fact that Charlene was missing. She did not elaborate on the content or tone of their conversation, though. Rosie and Charlene's parents went to bed on the night of the 8th, still with no idea what was going on or where Charlene might be. Every day and night after that, more and more family members arrived from out of town

to support the search effort. They all hunkered down at Charlene's parents' house in Everett, doing everything they could to maintain hope that Charlene was out there somewhere and they'd find her soon. But fear seeped into every passing moment without her. By Friday the 10th, Everett police finally issued a missing person alert. According to reporting by Jessica Fargan and Orion Johnson, the alert stated the last known sighting of Charlene was around 5 p.m. on April 7th, when she left the Herb Chambers car dealership in Brighton,

driving the Honda Civic she'd borrowed from her parents. As part of the missing person's investigation, police checked on the activity on Charlene's bank accounts and found that her debit card had been used twice on the day of her disappearance, but they did not elaborate on if the activity was suspicious in any way. It's possible, and this is very much an educated guess, that the transactions were related to the cash she'd gotten to buy the car, but I can't be sure. Police had also attempted to triangulate the position of her cell phone, but it had been turned off, so it wouldn't be useful in tracking Charlene's movements. The source material I've been able to access for this case

does not indicate if there were any further sightings of Charlene after she left work that day. Something that was so confusing about Charlene's disappearance during those first few days of the missing persons investigation was how a woman and a vehicle could seemingly vanish. Because along with Charlene, her parents' gray Honda Civic she drove that day was missing too. Rosie believed that if they found the car, they'd find her sister.

Or at least, clues as to where her sister ended up. Each day was excruciating. Rosie's birthday was April 11th, but there was no celebration. Charlene's other sister in Florida was supposed to get married in the span of days that Charlene was missing But nearly the entire family was in Massachusetts to support the search for Charlene On April 13th, six days after Rosie last saw her sister She received a phone call from a friend The friend told Rosie that she and her family needed to speak with the Somerville Police Department

Simultaneously, Rosie's father's phone rang. The caller was his cousin, who was a taxi driver in the city. It was hard to make out what his cousin was saying in the busy house. Rosie's father handed the phone off to his son-in-law, who stepped into the other room. A few minutes later, he delivered news that shattered the delicate hope they'd clung to for nearly a week. Somerville police had found the missing Honda Civic. It was parked behind an apartment building in Union Square a few miles away, and Charlene's body was in the driver's seat. According to reporting by Jenna Nierstedt for the Boston Globe, the gray 2001 Honda Civic was discovered around 6.30 p.m. on April 13, 2009,

outside 10 Webster Avenue in Somerville. Immediately, Rosie and her mother and father rushed to the scene. Rosie was unwilling to believe it was really her parents' car, that the person inside could really be her sister until she could see it for herself. The crime scene tape kept her from inspecting the car up close, but she could read the license plate number from where she stood. There was no doubt it was the same vehicle Charlene had driven to work on the day they last saw her alive. Charlene's body was sitting slouched behind the wheel. It's believed that the car was parked there in the Union Square apartment building parking lot for the whole six

day stretch that she was missing. It sounds almost unbelievable that a woman could be deceased in her car for almost a week before someone noticed her there. But this wasn't a large visible lot. From an aerial view on Google Maps, you can see how the triangular-shaped patch of pavement sits in the shadows of several buildings. The driveways along each side of the Webster Avenue building are narrow, maybe only wide enough for one car to pass through at a time. But even if it is secluded, as secluded as you can get for a city neighborhood, it's still a parking lot for a large four-story residential building.

People had to have been coming and going, yet it took six days for someone to find Charlene. Aaron Smith reports for the Alston Brighton tab that the autopsy revealed Charlene had died from a single gunshot to the head. The medical examiner believed she was killed on the day she was last seen alive, April 7th. Her death was ruled a homicide. There's exceptionally limited public information available about the investigation into Charlene's murder. What little source material I have access to shows that based on the bullet wound and other analysis in the car, police could tell that whoever shot Charlene was sitting in the back seat. They also

had reason to believe that another person was sitting in the passenger seat, so it's theorized that two people were involved in the killing. At first, police didn't disclose if any of the cash Charlene was known to be carrying that day had been found on Charlene or in the vehicle, but later reports do indicate that the $4,000 was missing. With that, investigators believed that Charlene was robbed for that cash and shot, and her killer or killers made off with the money. The fact that the cash was missing, and that Charlene was planning to buy a car with that cash on the day she disappeared, was no doubt a hugely important detail for detectives to fully explore. According to Rosie, Charlene said an old neighborhood friend

had offered to bring Charlene to see the car. Who was that friend? And who owned the car she planned to buy? Was there even a car for sale at all? Or was it all a guise to steal the cash? Investigators with the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, Everett Police, and Somerville Police worked together on the case to track down answers to those questions and numerous others. And not long after the tragic discovery in that Somerville parking lot,

investigators had zeroed in on a witness who seemed to know more about Charlene's murder than he was letting on. Throughout the first few days of the investigation, police interviewed friends, family, and other possible witnesses to narrow down who might have been the last person to see Charlene alive on April 7th. According to reporting in the Somerville Journal, police had successfully identified the person they believed was with Charlene on the night she was killed. They didn't name the person, but the individual was being referred to as a suspect. There was a snag though. A witness gave this suspect an alibi. In an interview with police, 20-year-old Dokens Joseph said, well, he said a lot of things, and some details he gave contradicted other parts of his multiple stories.

But Dokens claimed that on the night of April 7th, he was with the person police had identified as a suspect in Charlene's murder. Dokens claimed that he, the suspect, and another person had all been hanging out at one of their homes. Except when police asked the suspect who they saw on the night of April 7th, the suspect didn't mention hanging out with Dokins at all. When police told Dokins that, he changed his story a bit, but he still said he was either with the suspect or the other person on two separate occasions between the hours of 5.30 and 10.30 p.m. on the night Charlene was shot and killed. The second person Dokens mentioned that he was with on the night of the murder

is also considered a suspect in this case. And investigators must have been building a pretty significant case against these two individuals because on April 23rd, 2009, prosecutors presented the evidence to a Middlesex grand jury. Appearing in front of the grand jury on April 23rd, 2009, Dokens Joseph took the stand to tell his story, testifying that he was with at least one

of the two suspects on two separate occasions during a five-hour span on the evening of April 7th. Appearing again in front of a grand jury on April 30th, Dokins doubled down on his previous version of events, but by then, investigators knew the information he provided to be false. Further investigation of his multiple statements revealed that other witnesses, as well as Dokins' own cell phone records, contradicted his testimony. Dokins was lying on the stand and perjuring himself. Dokins was arrested on May 8, 2009 and charged with two counts of perjury for refusing to provide truthful

information relating to the investigation of Charlene's homicide. I requested the files relating to Commonwealth v. Dokens-Joseph from the Middlesex District Attorney's Office to learn more about the circumstances of the case and try to glean more details about Dokens' multiple version of events shared during his interviews with police and his testimony, but the docket is subject to an impoundment order, meaning they're not available for public inspection. However, media reports as well as a press release from the DA's office refer to Dokin's Joseph as a significant witness in Charlene's murder case. He is believed to have useful information relating to her murder, but instead chose to knowingly provide false information under oath,

including a false alibi for two people, one of whom was believed to be the last person to have contact with Charlene before she was murdered. The following year, in April 2010, Dokens Joseph was found guilty of perjury and handed a two-and-a-half-year sentence. D.A. Jerry Leone wanted the conviction to serve as a notice to anyone considering lying to law enforcement and judicial fact-finders, saying, quote, We will pursue those who are untruthful in matters that are serious,

and that they cannot impede or obstruct our search for the truth and justice, especially in homicide matters, end quote. Months passed without any updates in Charlene's case. Though the conviction of Dokens Joseph for lying about significant details relating to the homicide was a sign that investigators were working on things behind the scenes, still no one had been charged with her murder almost a year later. The two suspects discussed throughout the grand jury proceedings

and the perjury case have not been publicly identified to this day. About two months shy of the one-year anniversary of Charlene's murder, an anonymous post surfaced on a site called Lipstick Alley. The social media accounts for Lipstick Alley say it is the internet's largest African-American forum with politics, news, sports, celebrity gossip, fashion, and relationship advice. The user appears to be using an anonymous function called incognito,

so there's no profile photo or identifying information. The title of the post reads, quote, Should I snitch or mind my own business? End quote. In the long post, the user explains that they heard about the murder of a woman named Charlene Rosemond in their home state the previous summer, and they'd talked about it with a friend. During that conversation, the friend said that people knew the person responsible for killing Charlene, but no one was speaking to police.

Based on the content of the post, it sounds like this person had mutual friends with Dokens Joseph. The author of the post alleged that the person who killed Charlene was someone they grew up with and they went to elementary and freshman year of high school together. The user writes that when they heard this person was possibly involved with killing Charlene, on one hand, they were shocked, but on the other, it wasn't too surprising. The alleged killer was someone who didn't pay attention in class and got into trouble. The user put it out to the forum, quote, for some reason I feel like I should snitch, but at the same time, I don't want to be put into this situation. Any advice? End quote.

Responses to the post were divided. Tell the police anonymously, one user said. Another warned that quote-unquote snitching could put their life in danger. Others discounted the information, saying it probably wouldn't be helpful to police anyway because of the secondhand nature of it all. Ultimately, the OP responded stating they were scared and decided not to say anything, assuming the police already knew who did it. Now, as a Dark Down Easter and true crime podcast listener, what is one thing you have heard ad nauseum when it comes to sharing information with investigators in an unsolved case? No detail is insignificant. No tip is unimportant. If the anonymous forum user is listening right now, or if this reaches the ears of anyone with knowledge of what happened to Charlene Roseman,

I hope they hear this. Charlene's loved ones deserve to know what happened to their daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. Whoever stole her life is still out there somewhere, and maybe has the capacity to do more harm. Maybe they already have. So I implore you to speak up and share what you know with investigators. It could make all the difference in the world to publicly available source material about Charlene's case is how this scene, the vehicle that Charlene's body was found in, was processed. And if any evidence was found inside or on the car.

What about fingerprints, a shell casing, hairs, anything at all that might yield some answers? If police had identified two possible suspects and the last person believed to be with Charlene on the night she was killed, maybe DNA analysis on any evidence would confirm they were in the car with her. But then again, maybe DNA or prints in the vehicle from the suspect or suspects

wouldn't necessarily be that compelling. Maybe there would be another explanation for them to be in and on the vehicle Charlene routinely drove because Rosie believes that whoever killed Charlene is most likely someone she knew. Charlene was supposed to go with a friend that night to look at the Lexus, and she was found dead in Somerville, her old hometown, where she went to high school. The town where Dokens Joseph was from too, by the way. But according to Rosie, the community of people in Somerville that they'd been a part of growing up seems to be keeping whatever they know about the case a secret.

I told you that Rosie called a close friend of Charlene's early on in the search, and according to Rosie, this friend seemed unfazed by the fact that her family hadn't been able to find or contact Charlene after she left for work on the night of April 7th. Now, I get the sense that Rosie believes this person was either involved in the murder or has knowledge of who did it, but she is not about to go public with that person's name. Rosie also said in her podcast that certain unnamed friends were notably not in attendance at the funeral. So yeah, these details suggest that the theory Charlene knew her killer and that person was possibly even considered a friend holds water. But just because we simply

don't know, let's talk about the possibility that the suspects are people completely unknown to Charlene. There have been cases across the United States of people responding to classified ads or for sale listings online, specifically for vehicles, only to come face to face with a killer. According to reporting by Jamiel Lynch, Faith Karimi, and Christina Maxoris for CNN, in January of 2015, husband and wife 69-year-old Elray Bud Runyon and 66-year-old June Runyon, made a three-hour trip to Telfair County in Georgia in hopes of buying Bud's dream car, a 1966 Mustang, just like the one he had after returning from Vietnam. When they arrived to look at the car, they realized in horror that there was never a 66 Mustang.

The seller, Ronnie J. Adrian Towns, shot and killed Bud and June, stole their personal belongings, left their bodies in the woods, and sank the SUV they'd driven there that day into a lake. The suspect pleaded guilty to two counts of malice murder and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In another case from August of 2020, 39-year-old Joseph Rowland and his wife, 40-year-old Jocelyn Rowland, responded to a listing for a car for sale on the LetGo app. Jennifer McRae reports for CBS Colorado that when the Rowlands arrived, the supposed seller, 20-year-old Kyrie Brown, told them he'd brought the wrong title for the car and asked if they'd follow him to an apartment down the road. And then Kyrie pointed a gun at the couple, demanding money. They tried to drive away, but Kyrie shot them.

Joseph and Joslyn later died at the hospital. They were survived by their five children. Records show that investigators were directed to Kyrie as a suspect in part by photos he posted of himself on social media with a stack of $100 bills believed to be stolen from the Rowlands after shooting them. He was later sentenced to two consecutive life terms for their murders. In yet another similar crime on November 26, 2023, 18-year-old Carlos Carazana Ricardo drove to Baltimore, Maryland to look at a car he found listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

Chris Baranato and Keith Daniels report for Fox 45 News that after seeing the car in person, Carlos actually decided not to buy it. That's when the seller, 18-year-old Marquez Harris, allegedly started shooting at him as he drove away. Carlos died from gunshot wounds. The case is pending. Using either a fake or real classified listing to target someone for robbery is not a novel scheme. The fact that several of these setups became homicide cases is tragic. Could this have been part of Charlene's case? Was there an unknown person with a fake or even real Lexus for sale at a steep discount to get Charlene to show up with cash? Whatever is at play in Charlene's case, here we are, 15 years later,

without so much as an arrest for her death. And while physical evidence and DNA analysis could provide crucial insights for the investigation, and witnesses coming forward with information might fill in the gaps of what happened on the night of April 7th, the truth likely lies deeper than what evidence or testimony alone can

reveal. The intimate nature of this crime, the suspected connections within Charlene's social circle, and the apparent silence of the community suggest that someone knows far more than they've shared. What could truly bring progress in this case is if the killer or killers, perhaps burdened by years of guilt or fear, were to come forward and confess. A confession would not only provide the clarity and closure Charlene's family deserves, but also allow the individual to unburden themselves and potentially begin the process of accountability and redemption. But unless that moment comes, or until other evidence stacks up to actionable answers, the case remains stalled, held hostage by silence and the weight of what remains unspoken. Rosie shared a direct and powerful message for those responsible at the

end of her podcast episode about Charlene. She said, quote, At the end of the day, justice will come. Justice will come. You know what you did. God knows what you did. Some of your people know what you did, but you cannot get away with it. You will not get away with it.

End quote. From the beginning, Rosie, her family, and investigators believed that Charlene was targeted for the money she was carrying with her that day. The killer or killers decided that Charlene's life was worth $4,000, but they stole so much more than that from Charlene and her family. The possibility of buying her own car was just one of many exciting things on the horizon for Charlene that spring. Charlene was planning to move out of her parents' house and get her own place. On top of that, her big sister was getting married soon and she was going to be a bridesmaid. And Rosie was eight months pregnant with Charlene's new

nephew at the time. He was due to arrive any day. Charlene would never meet Rosie's son, who was born just two weeks after the funeral. She wouldn't walk down the aisle holding a bouquet of flowers as a bridesmaid. Charlene never got to pursue a career in fashion and beauty. She never got the opportunity to open a salon, the dreams she often talked about with Rosie. All of it was snuffed out, and someone has yet to pay for what they did. It has now been 15 years since Charlene Roseman's murder. The case is lacking the evidence it needs to deliver justice to Rosie and her parents, and their entire family. This case needs people to speak up. So, if you have information regarding Charlene

Roseman's murder, please call the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office at 781-897-6600. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at darkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and Audiocheck.

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