Ex-priest suspected in altar boy s 1972 killing dies hours before arrest: He will face that higher power now
May 25, 2021 / 6:49 AM / CBS/AP
Investigators were preparing to seek an arrest warrant for a defrocked Roman Catholic priest long considered a suspect in the 1972 killing of a western Massachusetts altar boy shortly before his death last week, a prosecutor said Monday. Incriminating admissions Richard Lavigne made in a series of recent interviews while in a medical facility further implicated the longtime suspect in 13-year-old Danny Croteau s death, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni told reporters.
The Hampden County DA says Danny Croteau (left) was likely murdered by Richard Lavigne (right).
First Published: 11:42 AM PDT, May 25, 2021
Danny Croteau was the youngest of five brothers, who all served as altar boys at Saint Catherine s in Springfield, where Lavigne was a priest.
After a decades-long investigation, a Roman Catholic priest wound up as the suspect in a 1972 cold case killing of a young altar boy in Massachusetts, but he died hours before investigators planned to arrest him, prosecutors said this week.
Richard Lavigne has long been the suspect in the crime where 13-year-old Danny Croteau was found dead along the banks of the Chicopee River just a few miles from his home in Springfield nearly fifty years ago.
May 25, 2021
CWN Editor s Note: Richard Lavigne was laicized in 2004; he died on May 21 at the age of 80 as officials were obtaining an arrest warrant.
The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.
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Joe Croteau, Danny s brother, said his family is disappointed that Lavigne will not be brought to justice, but believe there s a higher power and he will face that higher power now.
Lavigne, the Croteau family s parish priest was the only named suspect in the killing of the boy found dead in Chicopee, miles from the family s Springfield home. But a lack of evidence left the case unsolved for decades.
Lavigne had a close relationship with the Croteau s family and often hosted the boy for overnight visits. Days after Croteau s body was found, Lavigne asked authorities: If a stone was used and thrown in the river, would the blood still be on it?
Massachusetts authorities investigating the 1972 murder of a 13-year-old altar boy have determined that a defrocked Roman Catholic priest who recently died was his killer, bringing an end to a cold case that remained unsolved for nearly half a century.