Dark Downeast - The Murder of Rita Curran Part 2 (Vermont)

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

VERMONT, 1971: Rita Curran and her family waited over 50 years for closure in her unsolved homicide, but with a renewed investigation beginning in 2019, detectives turned to advanced DNA analysis to find the answers that had been waiting in evidence storage for half a century.In part 2, you’ll hear what DNA analysis and genealogical research revealed, but it was only the beginning of finally closing Rita Curran’s cold case, once and for all.Donate & Share: Give Back for Rita  View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/ritacurran 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

After more than 50 long years, detectives with the Burlington Police Department had uncovered DNA evidence that would finally lead them to the suspect in And detectives did the legwork, building off the original investigation from decades earlier so they could finally deliver the news that Rita's family feared might never come in their lifetime. If you haven't yet, listen to part one of Rita's story on Dark Down East first to hear the details of the investigation into her murder up until the summer of 2022, 51 years after Rita Curran's life was so brutally taken at just 24 years old. Now, Rita Curran's family finally has closure,

and this is the story of how they got it. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Rita Curran's story part two on Dark Down East. In late 2022, Burlington Police Department sent a DNA profile pulled from a cigarette butt found at the center of Rita Curran's crime scene to Parabon Nanolabs for sequencing and familial DNA comparison, hoping that it would reveal a possible suspect. Not long after receiving the profile, Parabon Nanolabs' chief genetic genealogist CeCe Moore shared her results. Here is an excerpt from those results, directly from the report. It is Parabon's hypothesis that the subject is highly likely

to be William Richard DeRues. William should be strongly considered as a candidate to be the suspect based on the fact that genealogical connections were found to all five of the subject's top genetic matches, through both the maternal and paternal sides of his family tree and three of his grandparents' ancestral lines. Further, documentation was discovered that he resided in the same building as the victim at the time of the crime. Cece Moore also learned in her research that William DeRues was dead. The information was monumental in a case that had sat cold for decades. A suspect who lived two floors up, a suspect whose DNA was found at the center of the crime scene,

was identified thanks to familial DNA comparison. But it was only the start. As the Department of Justice noted in their paper about familial DNA, results drawn from this kind of analysis are leads, not evidence of guilt. Investigators still needed to independently compare the DNA from the cigarette butt directly to William DeRues or a family member as close to him as possible. According to Detective Trebe's report, DeRues died in San Francisco, California of an acute morphine poisoning and overdose in 1986. He was cremated, meaning no biological

evidence was available for DNA testing. So, a close family member was the next best opportunity to confirm what the familial DNA analysis had uncovered. You'll remember that William DeRues and his wife spoke to detectives several times during the initial investigation, and each time they said they were both in their apartment, giving each other an alibi for the brief window that Rita was home alone, asleep in her bed. Could detectives break apart this alibi almost 50 years later? Their work was cut out for them, but Detective Trebe and his team formulated their next steps. They planned to follow up on the testing performed on other pieces of evidence from the scene, collect a DNA sample from a living relative of William DeRues, track down William DeRues' wife at the time of the murder, Michelle, as well as interview another of his previous wives, and re-interview Rita's

former roommates, who were living at that Brooks Avenue apartment when she was killed. The investigation pressed onward in 2022 with a vigor that it really hadn't seen since the earliest days of her murder in 1971. The investigation was still awaiting results on the other evidence sent for analysis, and these items were certainly not neglected in the renewed investigation. At the time that DNA Labs International was processing the additional evidence, the technicians were not notified that familial DNA comparison had found the possible identity of the DNA contributor on the cigarette butt. DNA Labs International found that the square of linoleum contained

blood from at least one female contributor. Rita could not be ruled out as a contributor of that blood, but the DNA contributor from the cigarette butt, referred to as unknown number one, could be excluded as a contributor of that blood. The blood on the sections of wood cut from the back door of the apartment was more than likely Rita's as well. Unknown contributor number one could not be ruled out as the same contributor of the DNA on Rita's house coat. The DNA profile on Rita's underwear was found to be a mixture of at least two individuals, with the DNA from unknown number one unable to be ruled out as a contributor. These results are significant because with DNA from unknown number one not only on the cigarette but also on the articles of clothing that had been

ripped from Rita's body during the attack, it meant that more than likely the cigarette was not a red herring that was just coincidentally dropped into the crime scene without being of any real value to the case. William DeRues had his DNA all over that cigarette butt, and his DNA couldn't be excluded from Rita's housecoat or underwear. It was looking more and more likely that he was the one to carry out the heinous crime. As part of confirming the familial DNA results, detectives needed to collect a sample from the closest living relative of William DeRues possible for direct DNA comparison. Detective Chinette of the Burlington Police Department located DeRues' half-brother. Though his name is public in other sources, I won't use his real name. I'll refer to him as Andy. Andy was helpful in assisting detectives with the investigation and volunteered his DNA sample to compare to William DeRue's.

The sample was sent off for comparison to the profile found on the Lark cigarette. The results read, the relative probability that Andy is related to unknown number one as a half-sibling is 97.03% in the general population. These results support the conclusion that Andy and unknown number one are half-siblings. So, step one, independently compare the DNA profile found on the cigarette butt at the center of the crime scene to confirm the identity of the suspect? Check. The next phase of the renewed investigation involved interviewing William DeRuze's wife at the time of the murder. Her name was Michelle Roach, but she had since changed her first and last name. For simplicity's sake, I'll refer to her as Michelle. Michelle and William both spoke to police on more than one occasion during the initial investigation, telling

detectives that they were home during the estimated time of the attack and they heard nothing. They provided an alibi for one another. But 50 years later, detectives learned the alibi wasn't exactly the truth. Burlington detectives Chinette and Tremblay traveled to Oregon to meet with Michelle and interview her about the events of July 19th and 20th, 1971, and to learn more about her former husband. Michelle and William, who she called Bill, met in San Francisco sometime in 1970. They were both into what she referred to as the Buddhist scene. They started dating and moved in together in California.

Although her memory was fuzzy about a lot of the finer details of that time in her life, she did remember that Bill had served time in prison twice while in California, once for armed robbery. Michelle and Bill broke up sometime before 1971, though she couldn't remember why. She told the detectives that she never feared Bill and he was never physically abusive in their relationship. Bill was a, quote, serious Buddhist, end quote. After their breakup, Michelle ended up moving to Burlington and into her parents' house in the spring of 1971, leaving Bill DeRues behind in California. But a few months later, Bill showed up, unannounced. Their relationship rekindled despite her parents' disapproval. They weren't a fan of the guy. When Michelle's parents relocated to British Columbia, she and William moved in together again, this time to a third-floor apartment on Brooks

Avenue in Burlington, Vermont. They got married on July 5th, 1971, just over two weeks before Rita Curran was violently attacked and murdered, two floors below their own apartment. The detectives showed Michelle photos of Rita Curran. She remarked that Rita was beautiful, but she didn't recognize her. She didn't remember ever socializing with any of the other tenants in the apartment building on Brooks Avenue, or whether they'd even formally met. But Michelle did remember being woken up by a knock on the door on July 20th, 1971. A police officer told her that someone had been hurt pretty bad. She didn't recall the rest of the conversation with police, but she did remember what her then-husband said to her after the officer left. William told Michelle not to mention that he

hadn't been home during the estimated time of the murder. His reasoning was that he had a criminal record and didn't want police to try and pin the crime on him. But William was not home during the narrow 70-minute window that Rita Curran was assumed to have been attacked and killed. Michelle told detectives those 50-plus years after the fact that she and her husband of two weeks had gotten into a quarrel that night, and he went for a cool-down walk. Michelle didn't know how long he was gone or when he came back. She didn't remember if when he came back he had any scratches or injuries. She couldn't recall what he wore or if he did back. She didn't remember if when he came back he had any scratches or injuries. She couldn't recall what he wore or if he did laundry that night or if the articles of clothing

he was wearing disappeared soon after. Michelle couldn't remember what kind of cigarettes William smoked either, but she remembered that he did smoke. She reassured detectives in that 2022 interview that if she had had any suspicion that her husband was responsible for Rita's death, she would have, quote, quietly gone to police, end quote. Michelle said she never directly asked William DeRues if he killed Rita Curran, but the thought of him committing such a brutal act was, quote, inconceivable, end quote. Soon after Rita Curran's murder, William DeRues moved to Thailand without Michelle. Detectives asked her why she didn't go too, seeing as they were married, but she was confused by that detail too.

She thought maybe they only had enough money for one of them to move to Thailand at that point, but she did eventually join him there in March of 1972. William was a Buddhist monk at the time, but was then disrobed, losing his status as a monk. They traveled around Thailand together for some time before William became a monk again, and she became a nun. Given these circumstances, their marriage dissolved. It would have been against the rules to have a relationship. Michelle stayed in Thailand for about a year and a half and William had moved to another country, but she couldn't remember which one. The last time she had any contact with her then-husband was just before she moved out of Thailand.

William had asked her for money to fund his next trip out of the country, but Michelle refused. She never saw William again, and even had to go through a lawyer to get an official divorce without William's signature on the paperwork. Michelle was emotional as the interview with detectives Chinette and Tremblay continued on. She couldn't fathom what reason William had to commit such a crime. Quote, We had no relations with those people. Why would he do that? Never asked for a cup of sugar.

Nothing. End quote. Detectives were also able to track down William DeRuze's third wife, a woman named Sarah, and she gave investigators the feeling that it wasn't so inconceivable, as Michelle had said, that William could commit such a violent attack. From the 2023 supplemental report of Rita's case, quote, Though Michelle DeRuze stated that William had never been violent with her, Sarah was able to establish that he did have a propensity for violence,

describing two incidents at which she was present. The first was an unprovoked incident where William stabbed a friend of theirs for no apparent reason. Sarah believed that William was arrested for this incident, but we are still trying to confirm and are finding it difficult owing to the date of the incident, possibly in 1974. Sarah also stated that on one occasion, William had strangled her to the point she nearly lost consciousness, and again, this was unprovoked. End quote. This detail stuck out to detectives.

Rita's cause of death was asphyxia by manual strangulation. There was one last interview for detectives to complete before they felt confident in their conclusion about who was responsible for Rita Curran's death. Two of Rita's roommates in the Brooks Avenue apartment were still alive. Detectives wanted to hear from them if the man who lived on the third floor would have had any reason at all to be in Rita's bedroom. Again, from the supplemental report, quote,

Statements from Rita's roommates, Paul and Carrie, established that William had no reason to be present in Rita's apartment, let alone her bedroom, as they did not know each other. The renewed investigation, the DNA analysis, the interviews, and all of the work of present-day detectives built off the original efforts of investigators in 1971. Though it took over half a century, Rita Curran's case could finally, officially be closed. The 2023 supplemental report by Detective J.T. Trebe concluded by stating that the Detective Service Bureau was unanimously certain that the sole perpetrator of Rita Curran's murder was William DeRues.

Detectives contacted Rita's surviving family members, her brother Thomas Jr. and sister Mary, to deliver the news. They all met up in February 2023 for lunch. It was the first time that Thomas and Mary could finally ask any questions they wanted and actually get answers from investigators in return. Once Thomas and Mary knew the entire story, Burlington police went public, announcing at a press conference on February 21, 2023, that Vermont's oldest cold case was finally solved. Lieutenant Trebe summarized the efforts of the renewed investigation at the press conference.

We decided that there was some evidence in this case that we thought that we could send off to DNA labs and have it retested after all these years to see if we could develop a DNA profile of our suspect. That was one part of it. The second part was we were going to reopen the victimology. We were going to go through and scour through all the reports. And we were going to identify anybody that was close to Rita. And any name that was in that box, we added it to our suspect pool. Anybody that was close to the scene.

One individual was close, and his name was William DeRoos. And he lived up on the third floor of the same building. Here is acting Burlington Police Department Chief John Murad. Today, William DeRoos would be 83. Here is acting Burlington Police Department Chief John Murad. Rita's brother and sister also spoke at the press conference, thanking the detectives for bringing answers to their family, despite how long it had been. Three years ago, a little over three years ago, at the onset of the investigation, I was introduced to Acting Chief John Murrett. At that time, he looked me straight in the eye, which he can do. And he said, Mrs. Campbell, we're going to get to the bottom of this,

of your sister's case. We're going to, we're going to get to the bottom of this, of your sister's case. We're going to, we're going to solve this case. The team climbed up through the attics and get the boxes. They went through the files. They had to deal with the old, old evidence, old files, but they did it and they worked together. The team had to have patience, determination, and just plain grit with a little bit of Irish luck. They reflected on their sister's life and the impact her murder had on their families and the strength they found in each other throughout the decades. Life in those days was very different. My parents didn't have social workers and specialized grievance counselors.

They had the confessional and the rosary beads. My mother came here from Ireland and my father from Newfoundland. We were an old-fashioned strong Catholic family. I don't think so much about the guy who did this as I do about Rita and my parents, what they went through. I pray to my parents and I pray to Rita. My wife, Nancy, tells me we will get through this. We are current strong. Although Rita Curran's killer will never face justice, he'll never go to trial, and he'll never pay for what he did to their sister, Thomas and Mary say that the conclusion of Rita's case in this way was the kind of closure they needed. As they told the Vermont Standard, it saves them from the pain of a trial and reliving their trauma in that setting.

Mary told reporter Mike Donahue, quote, We are happy that we didn't see the person vindicated for a lack of evidence. We didn't see the person go to jail and get released. So in a way, it is a nice closing for us. End quote. Amongst all the pictures of Rita on the internet, the two most often shown are one taken from her driver's license and one from her yearbook. What's not shown is a little poem by E.B. Browning that she chose to be next to her yearbook picture. Little did she know that that poem would soon appear on her gravestone.

The lines from that poem on her headstone go like this. I seek no copy now of life's first half. Leave here the pages with long musing curled and write me new my future's epigraph, new angel mine, unhoped for in the world. Together as a family, Thomas, Mary, and all of the Currans past and present stuck together for Rita. Their words at the press conference were nothing but gratitude for the investigators who fought to bring them closure over the years, and appreciation for each other for sticking together in hope and prayer as a family. I'd like to thank my husband. He's always been there. He was there in July 1971, and he's still there. I want to thank my children and my grandchildren who have preserved our story and our family, Rita, as a part of our legacy.

And we never let it go. We're not ashamed of her. This is our case and this is our sister and she's always with us. Solving Rita Curran's case required expensive DNA analysis and testing. The Burlington Police Department was able to obtain that testing thanks to a podcast Crime Junkie, Season of Justice is a nonprofit dedicated to providing funding for investigative agencies and families to help solve cold cases. Sarah Turney is on the board of directors for Season of Justice. She's also the host of her podcast Voices for Justice

and an advocate for victims and their families. The mission of Season of Justice is of personal importance for Sarah. I don't think I can overstate how important this mission is to me. I actually had a pretty heavy hand in helping create the family grants program. My hope was that the grants can provide funding for all the things that were out of reach for me in my fight for my missing sister. Things like billboards, flyers, and targeted social media ads. I see so many families that literally go bankrupt in these cases, just trying to fight for their loved one. And that should just never happen. She shared with

me the role that Season of Justice played in Rita Curran's case. It's really rewarding to see that our work does result in some solves. In Rita's case, in 2021, we provided funding for DNA testing on some items that were collected at the scene originally. Luckily, technology has advanced quite a bit since then and resulted in justice for Rita. Mary and the Burlington Police Department shared their gratitude at the press conference for the support of Season of Justice in solving Rita Curran's cold case. Mary wanted to make sure she paid it forward to other families. It's what her parents and Rita herself would have wanted. We're so thankful for this day. If you knew my parents, Tom and Mary Curran of Milton, you knew that they were committed community service people. They were involved in so many activities, I couldn't even list them today.

And they were involved before Rita's death, but they continued their dedication to all their services after her death as well. It is with them in mind and in Rita's memory that I'm going to recognize an organization called Season of Justice. provided a grant to the Burlington Police Department to help cover the very expensive DNA testing and genealogy. And that DNA ultimately led to the solving of this case. This afternoon, there'll be a GoFundMe page announced, the beneficiary of which will be season of justice. The name of the page will be give back for Rita. And I would encourage anyone who can to make a contribution to that fund. We would like to repay season of justice for the grant that was delivered to the Burlington police department.

And that money will then be used and given to other families, other police departments, in their quest to solve their cold case. Season of Justice board member Sarah Turney has a message for other families awaiting their own day of justice. To any family members out there that are still waiting for justice for their loved ones, I'd say it may not seem like it every single day, but there is hope. These decades-old cold cases are being solved all the time. Hang in there, and don't donation to Give Back for Rita. There are two ways you can support this effort as well.

By donating to the GoFundMe or by sharing it on social media. Find the link in the show notes. Thank you for taking action to support families like Rita's in their search for answers and closure in long-standing cold cases. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Sources cited and referenced for this episode are listed at darkdowneast.com. Please follow Dark Down East on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now. And the best way to support this show is to leave a review and share this episode or any episode with your friends. If you have a personal connection to a case I should cover, please contact me at hello at darkdowneast.com. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do.

I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones, and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and homicide cases. 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.