The Murder of Danny Paquette

[The Streets Don't Love You Back]

 

The Murder of Danny Paquette

On a cool November afternoon in 1985, 17 year-old Eric Windhurst chewed a stick of gum and peered down the telescopic sight of a .270 rifle at a man he'd never met. The teen was hiding in a stark field in Hooksett, NH, among the last of the rust-colored foliage, staring in at Daniel Paquette. Paquette was welding a tractor, unaware the firearm was trained on him. Remembering a promise he'd made, Windhurst steeled himself and pulled the trigger. A sharp crack echoed through the trees as the bullet pierced Paquette's chest and lodged into a telephone wire.

Police initially suspected Paquette had been killed by a stray round from a hunter, but would soon widen their net of suspects upon discovering just how many enemies Danny Paquette had made. They interviewed and dismissed one suspect, Eric Windhurst, because at 17, the preppy teenager simply did not fit the profile of a killer.

Relatives of Danny Paquette never believed his death was an accident. In 1990, the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" profiled the death of Paquette and the murder of his mother, Rena. Her son Danny discovered her body, burned and raped, in 1964 in a smokehouse on the family pig farm. Paquette grew up to be a man given to fits of anger and violence, and had more than one stay in a psychiatric hospital. Doctors there tried to help him recover from his past by piecing together the events from the day his mother was murdered. For years, investigators theorized that his killing was connected to hers.

(Part 1 of "Unsolved Mysteries" episode featuring Danny Paquette's murder)

Only 30 minutes north of the crime scene, in the idyllic town of Hopkinton, Windhurst spent much of the two decades following the shooting as a model citizen. A skilled carpenter, he was kind and charismatic, establishing solid relationships with Hopkinton's elite as he also maintained the friendships he'd had since childhood. Most described him as the greatest guy they knew. But Windhurst's deadly deed was hardly a secret. Many knew Windhurst had murdered a man, somewhere, some time ago. Many new he had killed a child molester in defense of a friend

Eric Windhurst grew up in one of the most influential families in Hopkinton. His mother was the sole heiress of a land baron who shaped the tiny town. His father John was a powerful figure who had once run for office. The Windhurst family had the desire and the means to protect their son. And as the family grew, so did the conspiracy of silence.

For a few, driven by jealousy or fear, Eric having gotten away with murder was something they were determined to undermine. Anonymous letters were sent to authorities fingering him as the killer, but for years police couldn't - or wouldn't - make a case against him.

In 1992, Paquette's brother Victor and two journalists received two anonymous letters accusing Eric Windhurst of the shooting. Police then questioned Melanie Paquette Danny's stepdaughter and Eric's high school friend, the only link between Windhurst and the victim. The lead went nowhere, as Melanie and Eric shared an alibi, and her story hadn't changed since 1985.

A college boyfriend of Melanie's contacted police in 1994, saying she once admitted taking part in the shooting death of her stepfather seven years earlier. In phone calls recorded by police, the boyfriend failed to get the woman to say anything incriminating. Instead, she reiterated her alibi from years before, that on the day of the shooting she and Windhurst were 60 miles away, at a field hockey game in Plymouth. Again, police couldn't make the case.

As a teen, Melanie Paquette, her sisters, and her mother had lived in fear of Danny Paquette. They had moved to Alaska to escape him. Melanie returned to New Hampshire to live in Hopkinton with her aunt, a state homicide prosecutor, because she was deeply unhappy in Alaska's harsh climate. Melanie became the first girl to play on the top-ranked Hopkinton High School boy's soccer team, where she met a handsome and charismatic Eric Windhurst. The two developed an intense friendship, for Melanie, it was an unrequited love.

The fifteen year-old girl was terrified Paquette would learn she had returned to New Hampshire. She told Windhurst that Paquette had raped and abused her, and had placed a gun to her head to ensure her silence. Melanie's fear, which climaxed as she learned of Paquette's pending notification of her whereabouts, coincided with her falling in love with the one person she might ever meet who had the means, the passion, and the skill to carry out an unspeakable crime. Fueled by teenage hormones and an inflated hero complex, Windhurst vowed to protect her.

In 2004, a decade after the anonymous letters, the Chief of Police in Danny Paquette's hometown decided to reopen the investigation in to the Paquette shooting. He hired an independent investigator, a crusty small-town cop who retraced the evidence and found a clear path that led to Windhurst as the primary suspect. Investigators soon realized that despite Eric's popularity, there were a few enemies in his life, mostly the result of personal fallings out between old acquaintances and family. The wife of Eric's beloved, deceased brother gave a key interview to police. As it turns out, she was one of the authors of the two letters received by investigators a decade earlier. Ex-wives of the Windhurst brothers also gave police information about the killing. They told police Windhurst regretted his action, and had said pulling the trigger was "the biggest mistake he'd ever made."

Armed with a solid case, the cops then flew out to Idaho to interview Melanie Cooper. By this time, Melanie had become a mother of five and a devout Mormon. Wanting to set a good example for her children, she agreed to tell police all she knew, but only after they convinced her that the old alibi wouldn't work this time. This interview,and Melanie's subsequent dramatic confession, would provide police with details they'd never before been able to piece together.

Police now had Melanie's confession, but they knew Eric had spent years in self-protective mode and would continue to stand by his original story. With gentle but persistent convincing, police persuaded Cooper to help them make the case against Windhurst. Tearfully, Melanie agreed to make a tape-recorded phone call to Windhurst to solicit details of the crime. In exchange for her cooperation, prosecutors offered Cooper a deal to keep her out of prison.

After the calls from Melanie, Windhurst knew the investigative net was closing in on him, and frantically began putting his life in order. Now in his mid-thirties, Eric had long ago left behind the recklessness of his youth and had established a stable, respectable life in his hometown of Hopkinton. Haunted every day by the memory of what he'd done, he sought redemption daily by living his life to the fullest, maintaining close relationships with his family and the friends he'd had since childhood, and establishing a reputation as a craftsman in a town where carpentry is a respected art. Though it had been twenty years since the murder, Eric always assumed he would eventually have to pay for what he'd done, and he chose to remain childless, despite having been married, and, at the time of the calls, in a committed relationship with a woman he loved.

In 2005, the image of Eric Windhurst in an orange prison jump suit, standing accused of a 20 year-old murder came as little shock to residents in his hometown of Hopkinton. Many who knew and respected him knew he had killed a man. But for years they kept his secret, some out of fear, some out of respect.Now, however, the house of cards built on 20 years of silence was about to crumble, and for different reasons, many of Eric's friends finally talked to police about what they knew.

Even though the case was solid, prosecutors were worried, because the prospect remained that the defense would play on a jury's sympathies, arguing the murder of a child molester was justified. But while interviewing potential witnesses, investigators discovered an alternative motive for the murder of Daniel Paquette.

A high school friend told prosecutors that around the time of the Paquette murder, a teenaged Windhurst learned his father, John, had molested his two half sisters sisters. The friends said teenaged Eric could not confront his father, the man who'd wielded so much power over him. Instead, he'd turned his rage on Paquette, a complete stranger, and assassinated him. This was a twist no one expected, least of all Windhurst, who was devastated to learn that his family's secret was out, but more, that his sister had corroborated the timeline of his learning of the abuse, something he refutes to this day.

The judge in Windhurst's case also rejected the third party self-defense Eric's legal team planned to argue. This blow to his case, coupled with the new theory about his motive, caused Windhurst plead guilty to the 20 year-old murder on the day before his trial was scheduled to begin. He knew the state would try to make its case by airing the family's dirty laundry and forcing his parents and sister to testify about the abuse. He also feared obstruction charges would be filed against the friends and relatives who harbored his secret but didn't come forward. The image of the great guy and his idyllic hometown would forever be shattered.

Meanwhile, the judge rejected Cooper's plea bargain, saying he didn't believe her claims that she didn't believe Windhurst wasn't actually going to kill Paquette. She would join Windhurst behind bars. Paquette's brother Victor claimed Melanie played a crucial role in the death of her father. He said someone had to point out which of the three men working on the property that day was Paquette.

Eric Windhurst's murder of Danny Paquette became a real life morality play for the stonebound hamlet of Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Where does a community draw the line between what is the law and what is justice? What is it about a small town that makes it the perfect place to live a normal life after committing an unspeakable crime?

Now serving a 15-36 year sentence at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord, Windhurst reflects on his time in high school and the life he lived after the murder with a new candor. He has many regrets,the biggest of which is his belief as a teenager he could solve a troubled friend's problems by pulling a trigger. He refutes many aspects of Melanie's version of events, and is conflicted about never having had a trial to tell his side of the story. However, he believes he deserves his punishment despite the pain it continues to bring his family, his friends, and to his girlfriend at the time of his arrest, who he says was the love of his life.

To many of the residents of Hopkinton who maintained the code of silence, Windhurst remains a hero, though Windhurst himself claims he is anything but. The full disclosure of Windhurst's sins has not tarnished his image, but had led many to view him as a white knight, who when confronted with the sins of his past, chose to fall on his sword and protect the people and the town that he loves.

For Danny's family, and his brother Victor in particular, there is nothing ambiguous about this case. Although Victor disputes the allegations of abuse levelled against Danny by Melanie, he is, in every other way, a valiant champion for justice for his brother. When Eric apologized to the Paquette family in open court, Victor didn't accept it. When Melanie received only a light sentence, Victor didn't believe it was enough. There is some relief, though, that Danny's case has finally been resolved, that his killer has been identified, and is serving a sentence for the crime at long last