STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. — After an autopsy failed to immediately reveal last night how 11-year-old Celina Cass ended up dead in the Connecticut River, residents of this tranquil village near the Canadian border grappled with the jarring possibility of a killer in their midst.
“Whoever did this might be living here,” said Carole Rodrigue, whose grandson went to school with Celina. “I just hope they get the person and he pays for what he did, because she was just an innocent little girl.”
After a nearly weeklong search, dive teams found the missing fifth-grader Monday about a quarter mile from her home. Assistant Attorney General Jane Young said the girl’s death was suspicious because of the condition of the body, but she declined to be specific.
Last night, Young announced an autopsy did not determine the cause or manner of the girl’s death and further study is required, including a toxicology test.
Residents of this town told the Herald yesterday they were hoping the autopsy would shed light on what until this week had seemed unimaginable in this village of 960 people, where it was not uncommon for residents to leave their doors unlocked at night.
“Something really hasn’t added up since we heard about it, but what it is I don’t know,” said Donna Allen, the local librarian. “We were hoping for the best, but we thought the longer she was missing, it would be bad news.”
Johanne Rodrigue said her 10-year-old son went to a nearby park with Celina and her family July 22, the Friday before she vanished.
The following Tuesday, Celina’s 13-year-old sister, Kayla, and a friend came into her shop asking whether she had seen the 11-year-old. That evening, when Rodrigue dropped off food at the Cass home, the girl’s stepfather, Wendell Noyes, told her they had last seen Celina about 9 p.m. the day before on the computer at home, she said.
“My first thought was she had met someone on the Internet,” she said. “They weren’t girls who hung out on the street. They were quiet girls, very respectful.”
The family could not be reached yesterday for comment.
Noyes was taken to a hospital by ambulance Monday after dropping to his knees in the family’s driveway, his face in his hands.
The death certificate indicates both the cause and manner of death are still pending," Young told reporters. "The attorney general's office continues to investigate her death as suspicious."
Cass, who had long brown hair and hazel eyes, went missing on July 25 from her home in West Stewartstown, New Hampshire, near the state's border with Canada. The FBI received more than 500 tips in the case and offered $25,000 for information leading to her whereabouts.
Divers from New Hampshire's Department of Fish and Game located the girl's body on Monday in the river near a hydroelectric plant in the community of about 1,000 people.
The decision to open a criminal investigation in the girl's death was based on visual evidence from the girl's body both in the water and when viewed on shore, Young said. She declined to comment on whether police had identified any people of interest in the case.
