Investigators search a house "under the control" of a man linked to the three women. He has been arrested on an unrelated charge.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, July 18, 2004

BY CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY and CYNTHIA NEEDHAM
Journal Staff Writers

WOONSOCKET -- The police believe three Woonsocket women who disappeared over the past year and a half have been killed.

Until last week, the police did not know of a relationship between the women, but they said a break in the case led to an arrest Friday of a man on unrelated charges. The man, a Woonsocket native in his 30s whom police refused to identify, remains in custody and will be arraigned tomorrow, the police said yesterday. They said he has no criminal record.

He is the common thread in the investigation, said Capt. Luke Gallant, spokesman for the Woonsocket Police Department.

"This case is now considered a homicide investigation," Gallant said.

The police would not disclose the victims' names, but said all three women had been involved in prostitution or drug use. They said their names have appeared in recent published reports.

"Other than their lifestyles there was no single common denominator to link them together," Gallant said.

On July 9, the Woonsocket Call reported that Stacie Goulet, 25, disappeared from World War II Veterans Memorial Park after the fireworks display on July 3. The article noted that at least two other women had disappeared in the city in the last 18 months.

Christine C. Dumont, 42, disappeared on April 23, and Audrey L. Harris, 35, vanished on Feb. 9, 2003, according to the article.

"We have spoken with the families of the women involved and we have given them information that we believe will help them to begin the process of closure," Gallant said.

Squad cars swarmed Cato Street yesterday, a residential stretch off Arnold Street, known for high crime rates and police activity. They converged on 221 Cato St., a single-family house with dark green trim and a picket fence that had been converted into apartments.

Shades, furniture and even garbage bags covered every window. Banging could be heard from inside the house. Detectives in medical gloves came and went with little to say.

Gallant characterized the property as "under the control of the man in question," but declined to say whether the man actually lived there.

Investigators first gathered at the house Friday and had been there since, "searching for evidence," Gallant said.

The search came a day after an undercover sting in which Woonsocket Police arrested 18 area men for soliciting prostitutes. However, the police stopped short of saying there was any connection between the Thursday night arrests and the homicide investigation.

Yesterday, Dumont's sister, Madeline Desrochers of Woonsocket, struggled with the news of her sister's death.

"She was loved. She was a caring person no matter what her lifestyle was," Desrochers said. "She was a good person."

Dumont, a Woonsocket native, had two children, 9 and 19. She had been with her boyfriend for 23 years.

Dumont was last seen stepping out of her roommate's car on Arnold Street on April 23, The Call reported.

Family and friends of Stacie Goulet declined to speak to the media yesterday, saying they needed to wait a few days.

Goulet had two children and was pregnant when she disappeared during the Independence Day fireworks display, according to The Call.

A woman at the home of Audrey Harris' mother also said she did not want to talk yesterday.

In a Nov. 19 story in The Providence Journal, nine months after her daughter's disappearance, Claudette Harris spoke about the months-long search and the gentle daughter whom she said suffered from a drug addiction.

She said her daughter had phoned her on Feb. 9 telling her she was coming over for a visit to discuss a drug rehabilitation program. She never showed up that night, or in the weeks and months afterward.

"She told me, 'Mom,' I'll be right over,' but she never got here," Harris said. "For me the hardest thing is just not knowing. But I know somebody out there knows what happened, knows where she is. And I know that sooner or later someone's going to say something."