The rusty steel span that carries Sayles Street across the Blackstone River is a common old truss bridge, typical of the mill towns of the Northeast, but for Charlotte Saulnier it became a sort of shrine.
Even after she moved to Mississippi, she'd return to the spot once a year to honor the memory of Katrina McVeigh, her daughter, a mother of three who vanished without a trace 25 years ago.
"I'd bring a bouquet of carnations because those were her favorite," said Saulnier. "I'd throw the flowers in the river and just pray that they would find her."
A petite woman with wavy brown hair and a flashy smile, McVeigh was 27 years old and had three small children when she disappeared, the oldest of them a daughter, Natasha, who was just seven.
Saulnier says her daughter was a loving, kind-hearted girl who worked hard to take care of her children. Married to an abusive man, however, the cards were stacked against her.
She was last seen getting into a car at Lincoln and Front streets on or about May 15, 1992, although she wasn't reported missing to the police until the following month - by Saulnier.
At the time, McVeigh wasn't living with her husband, Richard McVeigh - he'd been in and out of prison. She was residing at 295 Second Ave. with a friend named Judy Burton, who was supposedly the last person to see her alive, according to Saulnier.
The apartment in the Fairmount section was the last stop for Katrina after a violent falling out with her husband. She had been living in a shelter for battered women, but she was forced to leave when Richard McVeigh somehow figured out the secret location of the site and showed up there looking for her. Deemed a security risk, the operators of the facility told her to leave.
For a time, said Saulnier, McVeigh was homeless and lived in World War II Memorial Park until Burton, feeling sorry for her, took her in. When Saulnier decided to honor her daughter's memory by tossing carnations into the Blackstone River, the location wasn't an arbitrary choice. Saulnier says she had good reason to believe that her daughter was buried somewhere along the Blackstone - because Richard McVeigh allegedly told her so.
In the weeks after her daughter vanished, Richard McVeigh called her on the telephone "and told me she was by the Blackstone River."
"Did he kill her? I don't know," says Saulnier. "I can't point the finger at him. But he was involved. I'm positive he knew."
Thibeault says rumors that his sister was buried along the riverbank prompted him to search for her remains on more than one occasion. Not more than a couple of weeks after McVeigh disappeared, Thibeault said he found what he believed was the shirt his sister was wearing when she was last seen. He found it in an area where the river cuts through Costa Park.
That's when another strange thing happened, according to Saulnier.
A FRIEND OF HERS, who was in a Bible study class with Richard McVeigh, called her on the phone. He had a message for her that she believes came from McVeigh.
The caller told her to tell her son: "You're never going to find her."
The menacing warning has always been a source of great - sometimes unmanageable - emotional pain for Saulnier.
"For years I had nightmares of her being dumped someplace, animals pulling her apart," she says. "You can't imagine the things that go through your mind. I've had care, yes, I've been under professional care. I have an open line when I need it. I know where to go."
Thibeault remembers walking in the door as his mother got the ominous call about the futility of searching for her daughter.
"It couldn't have been better than a movie shot," he says. "I was more overwhelmed and in disbelief… I actually thought at the time it was my brother-in-law. His first wife died under suspicious circumstances. My immediate thought was he had done something to my sister."
Richard McVeigh is no longer alive. Saulnier says he died of lung cancer in prison some time ago.
Sgt. Ryan says McVeigh appears to have been in jail shortly before and after his wife's disappearance. But he was not in jail around the time she vanished.
Richard McVeigh was sentenced to six months for domestic assault in September 1991, according to Ryan. He was incarcerated again on a charge of first-degree sexual assault in September 1992. McVeigh also had a record for committing second-degree child abuse in 1989 as well as other crimes.
The detective said McVeigh's missing persons case is one of four active investigations now considered cold. In addition to McVeigh, they include two unrelated shooting victims from 2008 - Brandon Jones, 17, and Robert Smith, 22, and the 1992 stabbing death of Meaghan Paul, 28, in a North Main Street apartment next door to the fire station.
Detectives Sgt. Kevin Sanford, Thomas Gormley, Jamie Martin, Anthony Conetta and Ryan are the core members of the cold case squad. They'll work under the supervision of Detective Cmdr. Michael Lemoine and Detective Lt. Brad Scully.
Excerpted from The Call (Woonsocket, RI) - Sunday, March 12, 2017
Even after she moved to Mississippi, she'd return to the spot once a year to honor the memory of Katrina McVeigh, her daughter, a mother of three who vanished without a trace 25 years ago.
"I'd bring a bouquet of carnations because those were her favorite," said Saulnier. "I'd throw the flowers in the river and just pray that they would find her."
A petite woman with wavy brown hair and a flashy smile, McVeigh was 27 years old and had three small children when she disappeared, the oldest of them a daughter, Natasha, who was just seven.
Saulnier says her daughter was a loving, kind-hearted girl who worked hard to take care of her children. Married to an abusive man, however, the cards were stacked against her.
She was last seen getting into a car at Lincoln and Front streets on or about May 15, 1992, although she wasn't reported missing to the police until the following month - by Saulnier.
At the time, McVeigh wasn't living with her husband, Richard McVeigh - he'd been in and out of prison. She was residing at 295 Second Ave. with a friend named Judy Burton, who was supposedly the last person to see her alive, according to Saulnier.
The apartment in the Fairmount section was the last stop for Katrina after a violent falling out with her husband. She had been living in a shelter for battered women, but she was forced to leave when Richard McVeigh somehow figured out the secret location of the site and showed up there looking for her. Deemed a security risk, the operators of the facility told her to leave.
For a time, said Saulnier, McVeigh was homeless and lived in World War II Memorial Park until Burton, feeling sorry for her, took her in. When Saulnier decided to honor her daughter's memory by tossing carnations into the Blackstone River, the location wasn't an arbitrary choice. Saulnier says she had good reason to believe that her daughter was buried somewhere along the Blackstone - because Richard McVeigh allegedly told her so.
In the weeks after her daughter vanished, Richard McVeigh called her on the telephone "and told me she was by the Blackstone River."
"Did he kill her? I don't know," says Saulnier. "I can't point the finger at him. But he was involved. I'm positive he knew."
Thibeault says rumors that his sister was buried along the riverbank prompted him to search for her remains on more than one occasion. Not more than a couple of weeks after McVeigh disappeared, Thibeault said he found what he believed was the shirt his sister was wearing when she was last seen. He found it in an area where the river cuts through Costa Park.
That's when another strange thing happened, according to Saulnier.
A FRIEND OF HERS, who was in a Bible study class with Richard McVeigh, called her on the phone. He had a message for her that she believes came from McVeigh.
The caller told her to tell her son: "You're never going to find her."
The menacing warning has always been a source of great - sometimes unmanageable - emotional pain for Saulnier.
"For years I had nightmares of her being dumped someplace, animals pulling her apart," she says. "You can't imagine the things that go through your mind. I've had care, yes, I've been under professional care. I have an open line when I need it. I know where to go."
Thibeault remembers walking in the door as his mother got the ominous call about the futility of searching for her daughter.
"It couldn't have been better than a movie shot," he says. "I was more overwhelmed and in disbelief… I actually thought at the time it was my brother-in-law. His first wife died under suspicious circumstances. My immediate thought was he had done something to my sister."
Richard McVeigh is no longer alive. Saulnier says he died of lung cancer in prison some time ago.
Sgt. Ryan says McVeigh appears to have been in jail shortly before and after his wife's disappearance. But he was not in jail around the time she vanished.
Richard McVeigh was sentenced to six months for domestic assault in September 1991, according to Ryan. He was incarcerated again on a charge of first-degree sexual assault in September 1992. McVeigh also had a record for committing second-degree child abuse in 1989 as well as other crimes.
The detective said McVeigh's missing persons case is one of four active investigations now considered cold. In addition to McVeigh, they include two unrelated shooting victims from 2008 - Brandon Jones, 17, and Robert Smith, 22, and the 1992 stabbing death of Meaghan Paul, 28, in a North Main Street apartment next door to the fire station.
Detectives Sgt. Kevin Sanford, Thomas Gormley, Jamie Martin, Anthony Conetta and Ryan are the core members of the cold case squad. They'll work under the supervision of Detective Cmdr. Michael Lemoine and Detective Lt. Brad Scully.
Excerpted from The Call (Woonsocket, RI) - Sunday, March 12, 2017
The rusty steel span that carries Sayles Street across the Blackstone River is a common old truss bridge, typical of the mill towns of the Northeast, but for Charlotte Saulnier it became a sort of shrine.
Even after she moved to Mississippi, she'd return to the spot once a year to honor the memory of Katrina McVeigh, her daughter, a mother of three who vanished without a trace 25 years ago.
"I'd bring a bouquet of carnations because those were her favorite," said Saulnier. "I'd throw the flowers in the river and just pray that they would find her."
A petite woman with wavy brown hair and a flashy smile, McVeigh was 27 years old and had three small children when she disappeared, the oldest of them a daughter, Natasha, who was just seven.
Saulnier says her daughter was a loving, kind-hearted girl who worked hard to take care of her children. Married to an abusive man, however, the cards were stacked against her.
She was last seen getting into a car at Lincoln and Front streets on or about May 15, 1992, although she wasn't reported missing to the police until the following month - by Saulnier.
At the time, McVeigh wasn't living with her husband, Richard McVeigh - he'd been in and out of prison. She was residing at 295 Second Ave. with a friend named Judy Burton, who was supposedly the last person to see her alive, according to Saulnier.
The apartment in the Fairmount section was the last stop for Katrina after a violent falling out with her husband. She had been living in a shelter for battered women, but she was forced to leave when Richard McVeigh somehow figured out the secret location of the site and showed up there looking for her. Deemed a security risk, the operators of the facility told her to leave.
For a time, said Saulnier, McVeigh was homeless and lived in World War II Memorial Park until Burton, feeling sorry for her, took her in. When Saulnier decided to honor her daughter's memory by tossing carnations into the Blackstone River, the location wasn't an arbitrary choice. Saulnier says she had good reason to believe that her daughter was buried somewhere along the Blackstone - because Richard McVeigh allegedly told her so.
In the weeks after her daughter vanished, Richard McVeigh called her on the telephone "and told me she was by the Blackstone River."
"Did he kill her? I don't know," says Saulnier. "I can't point the finger at him. But he was involved. I'm positive he knew."
Thibeault says rumors that his sister was buried along the riverbank prompted him to search for her remains on more than one occasion. Not more than a couple of weeks after McVeigh disappeared, Thibeault said he found what he believed was the shirt his sister was wearing when she was last seen. He found it in an area where the river cuts through Costa Park.
That's when another strange thing happened, according to Saulnier.
A FRIEND OF HERS, who was in a Bible study class with Richard McVeigh, called her on the phone. He had a message for her that she believes came from McVeigh.
The caller told her to tell her son: "You're never going to find her."
The menacing warning has always been a source of great - sometimes unmanageable - emotional pain for Saulnier.
"For years I had nightmares of her being dumped someplace, animals pulling her apart," she says. "You can't imagine the things that go through your mind. I've had care, yes, I've been under professional care. I have an open line when I need it. I know where to go."
Thibeault remembers walking in the door as his mother got the ominous call about the futility of searching for her daughter.
"It couldn't have been better than a movie shot," he says. "I was more overwhelmed and in disbelief… I actually thought at the time it was my brother-in-law. His first wife died under suspicious circumstances. My immediate thought was he had done something to my sister."
Richard McVeigh is no longer alive. Saulnier says he died of lung cancer in prison some time ago.
Sgt. Ryan says McVeigh appears to have been in jail shortly before and after his wife's disappearance. But he was not in jail around the time she vanished.
Richard McVeigh was sentenced to six months for domestic assault in September 1991, according to Ryan. He was incarcerated again on a charge of first-degree sexual assault in September 1992. McVeigh also had a record for committing second-degree child abuse in 1989 as well as other crimes.
The detective said McVeigh's missing persons case is one of four active investigations now considered cold. In addition to McVeigh, they include two unrelated shooting victims from 2008 - Brandon Jones, 17, and Robert Smith, 22, and the 1992 stabbing death of Meaghan Paul, 28, in a North Main Street apartment next door to the fire station.
Detectives Sgt. Kevin Sanford, Thomas Gormley, Jamie Martin, Anthony Conetta and Ryan are the core members of the cold case squad. They'll work under the supervision of Detective Cmdr. Michael Lemoine and Detective Lt. Brad Scully.
Excerpted from The Call (Woonsocket, RI) - Sunday, March 12, 2017
Even after she moved to Mississippi, she'd return to the spot once a year to honor the memory of Katrina McVeigh, her daughter, a mother of three who vanished without a trace 25 years ago.
"I'd bring a bouquet of carnations because those were her favorite," said Saulnier. "I'd throw the flowers in the river and just pray that they would find her."
A petite woman with wavy brown hair and a flashy smile, McVeigh was 27 years old and had three small children when she disappeared, the oldest of them a daughter, Natasha, who was just seven.
Saulnier says her daughter was a loving, kind-hearted girl who worked hard to take care of her children. Married to an abusive man, however, the cards were stacked against her.
She was last seen getting into a car at Lincoln and Front streets on or about May 15, 1992, although she wasn't reported missing to the police until the following month - by Saulnier.
At the time, McVeigh wasn't living with her husband, Richard McVeigh - he'd been in and out of prison. She was residing at 295 Second Ave. with a friend named Judy Burton, who was supposedly the last person to see her alive, according to Saulnier.
The apartment in the Fairmount section was the last stop for Katrina after a violent falling out with her husband. She had been living in a shelter for battered women, but she was forced to leave when Richard McVeigh somehow figured out the secret location of the site and showed up there looking for her. Deemed a security risk, the operators of the facility told her to leave.
For a time, said Saulnier, McVeigh was homeless and lived in World War II Memorial Park until Burton, feeling sorry for her, took her in. When Saulnier decided to honor her daughter's memory by tossing carnations into the Blackstone River, the location wasn't an arbitrary choice. Saulnier says she had good reason to believe that her daughter was buried somewhere along the Blackstone - because Richard McVeigh allegedly told her so.
In the weeks after her daughter vanished, Richard McVeigh called her on the telephone "and told me she was by the Blackstone River."
"Did he kill her? I don't know," says Saulnier. "I can't point the finger at him. But he was involved. I'm positive he knew."
Thibeault says rumors that his sister was buried along the riverbank prompted him to search for her remains on more than one occasion. Not more than a couple of weeks after McVeigh disappeared, Thibeault said he found what he believed was the shirt his sister was wearing when she was last seen. He found it in an area where the river cuts through Costa Park.
That's when another strange thing happened, according to Saulnier.
A FRIEND OF HERS, who was in a Bible study class with Richard McVeigh, called her on the phone. He had a message for her that she believes came from McVeigh.
The caller told her to tell her son: "You're never going to find her."
The menacing warning has always been a source of great - sometimes unmanageable - emotional pain for Saulnier.
"For years I had nightmares of her being dumped someplace, animals pulling her apart," she says. "You can't imagine the things that go through your mind. I've had care, yes, I've been under professional care. I have an open line when I need it. I know where to go."
Thibeault remembers walking in the door as his mother got the ominous call about the futility of searching for her daughter.
"It couldn't have been better than a movie shot," he says. "I was more overwhelmed and in disbelief… I actually thought at the time it was my brother-in-law. His first wife died under suspicious circumstances. My immediate thought was he had done something to my sister."
Richard McVeigh is no longer alive. Saulnier says he died of lung cancer in prison some time ago.
Sgt. Ryan says McVeigh appears to have been in jail shortly before and after his wife's disappearance. But he was not in jail around the time she vanished.
Richard McVeigh was sentenced to six months for domestic assault in September 1991, according to Ryan. He was incarcerated again on a charge of first-degree sexual assault in September 1992. McVeigh also had a record for committing second-degree child abuse in 1989 as well as other crimes.
The detective said McVeigh's missing persons case is one of four active investigations now considered cold. In addition to McVeigh, they include two unrelated shooting victims from 2008 - Brandon Jones, 17, and Robert Smith, 22, and the 1992 stabbing death of Meaghan Paul, 28, in a North Main Street apartment next door to the fire station.
Detectives Sgt. Kevin Sanford, Thomas Gormley, Jamie Martin, Anthony Conetta and Ryan are the core members of the cold case squad. They'll work under the supervision of Detective Cmdr. Michael Lemoine and Detective Lt. Brad Scully.
Excerpted from The Call (Woonsocket, RI) - Sunday, March 12, 2017
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