EP 51 | Breanne Pennington, Migdalia Perez, Kathleen Daneault, Patricia Joyce & The Dark History of Murder In Gardner, Massachusetts

+Episode 51: Breanne Pennington, Migdalia Perez, Kathleen Daneault, Patricia Joyce & The Dark History of Murder In Gardner, Massachusetts

This is a true crime, local history, and storytelling podcast. I write about crimes, I set the scene, connect story themes, I talk about things that happened here, in Massachusetts and New England. 

This episode deals with gun violence, mental health, murder-suicide, stalking, terrorized communities, domestic violence, sexual assault, serial killing, murder, and society. Listen with care. 

We peel back the layers to decades of crimes that shook the quiet town of Gardner, Massachusetts to its core and delve into the timeline of Breanne Pennington's murder, sharing her happiest times and her most proud moments spent with her family, her faith, her love of horses and raising chickens. The young mother met a tragic end at the hands of her own husband, Aaron Pennington, who still has not been apprehened.


Casting light on Gardner's dark past, a town with a rich history and the unsettling details of other women's murders dating back to the 1960s, we say the names of those Gardner women whose disappearances and deaths are far less known today.

In 2020, Migdalia Perez was stalked and killed by a man she was terrified of. She got no help or protection in her final days. 25-year-old Kathleen Daneault was found murdered in 1983. More than 30 years later, we learned she was killed by a man whose notorious reputation of violence against women paints the chilling picture of a serial murderer, and the mystery of the still-unsolved case of Patricia Joyce. In the Summer of 1965, Patty was a hard-working 17-year-old preparing for her senior year in high school. Her story is hardly known today and her case was looked at closely for its similarities to The Boston Strangler murder case of the 60s.


We examine the grim reality of domestic violence in its many forms and the dangers that exist behind closed doors in what could be any home, in any neighborhood.

Special thanks to The Gardner News for their reporting - thegardnernews.com

Crime of the Truest Kind
Online: CrimeoftheTruestKind.com
Follow @crimeofthetruestkind

Domestic Violence does not look the same for everyone.

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
NCADV.org

The Hotline
TheHotline.org
Call 1.800.799.SAFE (7233)

Transcript

Anngelle Wood: 0:00

Well, hello, my name is Anngelle Wood and this is Crime of the Truest Kind . Oh, we are counting down the days. Our very first live event is happening this Thursday, November 9th, Off Cabot in Beverly, Massachusetts. I am looking forward to it. I hope some of you can join us. I know some of you have already told me you will be there. I'm looking forward to it. Oh, and there will be more. So let me know where you are and we'll make a plan. My name is Anngelle Wood.

Anngelle Wood: 0:52

This is . This is a true crime. Local history and storytelling podcast. I write about crimes, I set the scene, I connect story themes and I talk about the things that happened here in Massachusetts and New England. This episode is about gun violence and mental health and mass murder, terrorized communities, society. I also do talk about sexual violence and murder. Please listen with care. This is episode 51, the murder of 30 year old's mother of four, breanne Pennington, in Gardner, massachusetts, and the ongoing manhunt to find her killer. Authorities believe is her husband. The plan for the second half of this episode was to talk about the tragedy in Lewiston, Maine. I have a new plan. I have a full interview with Bernadette from the Murderific podcast True Crime podcast, currently on hiatus. Bern might tell you that it's not coming back, but I'm not entirely sure. I decided that there's so much to each story that they will be split into two episodes. Stand by for episode 52.

Anngelle Wood: 2:18

We begin in Gardner, Massachusetts, Worcester County. Population 21,287 according to the 2020 census. Gardner is home to such sites as the Blue Moon Diner, Dunn State Park and Mount Wachusett Community College. Now Gardner, officially called the City of Gardner, is just under 40 miles away from Worcester and 70 miles from Boston via the Massachusetts Turnpike. Well, the pike, as we call it. Gardner has been the setting for a number of film productions. It was the filming location for the 1992 movie School Ties starring Brendan Fraser. Gardner was the filming location for the Hulu show, Castle Rock, a television series based on a book by Stephen King. Gardner was also one of the filming locations for the Showtime series Dexter in 2021.

Anngelle Wood: 3:22

Because they brought it back, remember, Gardner's Blue Moon Diner has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2003. Located in its present location since 1954, it is a well-preserved example of a late model barrel roof diner manufactured by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, who built it in 1949 when it was originally located in Winchington as the Miss Toy Town Diner. Now it has had a few owners during its time and it was restored in 1984. And it is the only diner in all of Gardner and I learned. It's open seven days a week, 6 am to 2 pm, and I am going to go. The Gardner Museum is a local history museum located in the heart of Central Massachusetts. Their mission is to collect and preserve materials that represent the town's rich history. It is considered a treasure trove of Gardner history and their 18th annual Festival of Trees begins on November 8. Tickets are on sale now.

Anngelle Wood: 4:29

Gardner is also known as the Chair City of the World and Furniture Capital of New England. The town was home to the Haywood Wakefield Furniture Company, a large furniture manufacturer that specialized in handmade wooden chairs Alongside other manufacturers of fine furniture. The City embraced the Chair City nickname wholeheartedly and a number of giant chairs can be found around town, all part of the giant chair flare, one of which is known as the Bicentennial Chair, now a tribute to the City's glorious manufacturing history and its sense of competitive spirit. The first giant chair the City had was built in 1905, claiming to be the largest in the world before being replaced in 1922 by another novelty chair, also built by Haywood Wakefield, that stood over 13 feet tall. That is a big-ass chair. Now Gardner has been in the news recently, but not for any restored landmarks or historic diners or tree fests or any other big-ass chairs. It is because on Sunday, october 22nd 2023, life for a young family was upended.

Anngelle Wood: 5:51

The affidavit lays out the timeline in the case of Breanne Pennington. Around 9:07 am, four children went to their neighbor's house asking for help, telling them they were scared because they could not find their father and their mother was in her room crying. The children said that their father's car was no longer in the driveway. Around 9:14 am, their neighbor, kerry McDermott, called 9-1-1. Police arrived within five minutes to the home at 42 Cherry Street, a three-bedroom, three-bathroom, 3200 square foot white antique colonial. According to ZILLOW, the home was sold on June 23, 2022 for $475,000. Now Breanne Pennington, mother of the four children, was found lying in bed in an upstairs bedroom with a clearly visible gunshot wound to her face. The responding officers swept the home to see who, if anyone, may still be inside. No one was found and no weapons were found. Three spent shell casings were found in the bedroom. Breanne Pennington was pronounced dead at 9:30 am.

Anngelle Wood: 7:07

We learned a neighbor's surveillance camera captured Breanne's husband and father of the four children, 33-year-old Aaron Pennington, leaving the home around 8.50 am that morning. He was seen leaving the driveway in a white 2013 BMW 3-series sedan. This sent shock and panic through the community. It's a place where we often hear things like stuff like this just doesn't happen here. It's one of those smaller towns where people say nobody here locks their doors. Well, you know how I feel about that one. The Gardner News reported that the death of Breanne Pennington was the first murder there in over three years, and there are other murders of women in Gardner's history and I'm going to tell you about them.

Anngelle Wood: 7:58

Two people died in an apparent murder suicide on Saturday, august 8, 2020. Migdalia Perez , a 47-year-old's mother of four, and Jose Muñoz Badilla, 49, both of Gardner. Badilla, who lived at 46 Prospect Street, killed Medalla outside the third floor apartment where she was staying in the Haywood-Wigfield departments. He then took his own life. According to the report from the Worcester District Attorney's Office, police found Badilla and Perez both shot dead in the hallway of the Central Street apartment building at about 4:3 0 pm. Witnesses reported hearing an argument between the two before the shooting. Now, in the weeks before her murder, Midgalia had become more afraid, worried to the point where she hardly left her apartment because she was terrified of her ex-boyfriend, who her family said did not leave her alone, calling, texting andcessantly making threats. He would also show up at her work unannounced. Sadly, she was denied a restraining order two days before her death.

Anngelle Wood: 9:11

According to a no-transcript Boston 25 News report, on November 18, 1983, a 25-year-old gardener woman named Kathleen Denault was discovered in a wooded area off Mill Street. A number of people said they saw her in the company of a man on November 17. That was the night Kathleen arranged for a babysitter for her five-year-old son and went out on a date. It was a decision that cost her her life. Her body was found the next day on a dirt path a short distance from the restaurant by workers from the nearby S Bent furniture factory. Kathleen had been strangled with a piece of her own shirt that had been torn off. While that man, her date that night, was a suspect, investigators never had enough evidence to charge him, so her murder went unsolved for over 30 years. Then enter advanced DNA evidence testing the identity of Edward M Mayrand Jr, the man she had been seen with on her last night alive was officially connected to her case.

Anngelle Wood: 10:21

Mayrand, who was 36 at the time of Kathleen's murder, was also tied to the murder of 43-year-old Judith Whitney of Amherst, Massachusetts. Judith was reported missing to the Amherst Police Department on July 20, 1987 by her estranged husband and her brother. She was last seen at the Valley Green Motel in Keene, New Hampshire on July 2nd by motel staff who saw Judith with Mayrand together for the first two days. But on the third day a housekeeper saw Mayrand alone and he was driving Judith's Ford Mustang and staff found a number of items were left behind Four bags of personal belongings including clothes, Judith's pocketbook some people call them purses, we call them pocketbooks and there was a spare set of keys to that Mustang.

Anngelle Wood: 11:16

At the time of Judith's disappearance Mayrand was out on parole for a 1975 rape and assault conviction and he was in violation of his parole for being in New Hampshire. Not unlike Kathleen Denault, Judith had been seen at a local bar with Mayrand before she disappeared. Four months later, on November 8th, a hunter found Judith's decomposing body buried in a shallow grave in the town of Winchester, New Hampshire. Similar to Kathleen, she had been strangled A piece of cloth that was torn from her sweater was fashioned into an open knot, as was the drawstring to Judith's raincoat. Keene to Winchester is a distance of just 14 miles, so wait a minute that is not too far from where the Connecticut River killer operated, along the Connecticut River in New Hampshire and Vermont. In fact, lone survivor, jane Borosky, a very sweet woman I met her. She was attacked in West Swanzey, new Hampshire, in 1988. But I'm thinking about that timeline, it doesn't add up. Stay with me.

Anngelle Wood: 12:23

Edward Mayrand has been called the serial killer. He found himself in a quiet town like Gardner, making them part of the story. I mean I would have gotten to it eventually. He drifted from place to place and had a long history of violence against women, many entries dating back to the mid-1970s rape, assault, illegal firearms. Mayrand would be convicted of the 1975 rape and assault of a woman he met at a bar in Warwick, massachusetts central mass, near the New Hampshire line, 12 minutes from Winchester and only 30 minutes from Gardner. He befriended that woman, offered her a ride, then attacked, raped and choked her with her own scarf. That woman later told police she believed Mayrand would kill her. She survived because she escaped, running through the woods to safety to a nearby house.

Anngelle Wood: 13:20

Mayrand was released on parole in the fall of 1983 and went back to prison that December. He was free for a very short window of time and that is when he murdered Kathleen DeNault. He was a suspect in Judith's murder all along and police would eventually find him hiding in the closet in the Peterborough, new Hampshire apartment of someone named Deirdre Gladue, another woman he met at the same place. He met Judith Whitney. In fact she said it was the day after Judith went missing and yet somehow Mayrand's let her live in. This woman, deirdre, who he didn't strangle to death and allowed him to stay in her apartment in Peterborough, had a necklace of Judith's in her possession. Mayran said it was his ex-wives. Mayran continued to drive Judith Whitney's Ford Mustang around for about a week before he dumped it in Fitzwilliam.

Anngelle Wood: 14:17

Somehow this violent killer was let out of prison over and over October 1988. But the following year he was picked up for weapons possession. See, convicted felons don't have gun rights. So then he was invited to change his address to read New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord, where he stayed for two and a half years and bragged about killing women. But nothing ever came of it, and after his release he moved to a house in Providence, rhode Island, where he met 46-year-old Patricia Paquette at a bar in 1994. Her body would be found on December 21st in a vacant house around the corner from where Mayran was living at the time. She was strangled and, similar to all the other women, patricia was last seen in the company of Mayran drinking at the club bar, flying it, and her dismembered remains were stuffed inside several plastic garbage bags. Mayran was arrested in New Haven, connecticut, in February of 1995. His murderous tendencies would be stopped when he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of Patricia Paquette. By the time advanced DNA technology caught up with him, he was already dead, ravaged by the Big C metastatic lung cancer. Too many years before that DNA would confirm him as the killer of and Judith Whitney. That might be a long way to go to tie other murders of women to Gardner, but it really is interesting. And we get to say their names Breanne Pennington, Kathleen Deneault, Judith Whitney, Migdalia Perez and one more, Patricia Joyce.

Anngelle Wood: 16:12

Patti, as she was known, was 17 years old when she was reported missing by her mother on July 5th 1965. The high school junior, a brunette with blue eyes and freckles, left her house at 9.30 am on her way to work at the Gardner Manor nursing home on Green Street that morning. But she never made it out of the wooded stretch she regularly used as a shortcut. She was due at work at 10, but around 11 am someone from her job called her mother, lenora, to ask where Patty was. She was already an hour late, very unsettling for Mrs Joyce. She called the police. It was not like her daughter. She didn't skip out, but police looked at it as a teenager dodging her responsibilities. It was the day after the 4th of July and maybe something more fun was going on, and she wasn't gone long enough to be considered missing. Not yet. There was no real reason to think anything was wrong, but her family, they were sure of it and they were right.

Anngelle Wood: 17:19

Patti was found 300 feet from the water pumping station at the foot of Haywood Street, roughly 30 feet off the path from the old trail. There was a bruise above her left eye, though the blow was considered not big enough to have knocked her out. There was a slight trace of blood and signs of a struggle. The Gardner Police Chief at the time reported that there was bits of evidence but not much else. It was also reported that Patti had a slight trace of deafness. She was still in her work clothes, except for her stockings and shoes. The shoes were near her body and one stocking was tightly nodded around her neck. The other was also wrapped around her neck. Her dress was pulled up but by all accounts I read said she was not sexually assaulted or molested, as they say, a more comfortable term in the 1960s, I suppose. Patty had worked at the rest home since the previous March and would be starting full time the week she was killed. She would be a senior that fall. She had a boyfriend, daniel Remgren. He was in the Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey. When news over her death came he was given emergency furlough to return for questioning.

Anngelle Wood: 18:37

The region was on high alert. The Boston Strangler killings were in the headlines. Albert Desalvo had confessed to those murders in late 1964. Authorities needed to rule out any link between Patti Joyce's murder and the Boston Strangler killings. There was no memorial at the side of her murder. It must look very different today. We just have news archives and stories like this one telling you that once upon a time a 17-year-old girl named Patti Joyce lived and then died at the hands of an unknown killer. So, yes, the first murder in Gardner, Massachusetts, in 51 years. At that point, Patricia M Joyce, July 5th 1965, is unsolved. Ice cold.

Anngelle Wood: 19:30

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Anngelle Wood: 20:06

Breanne Pennington is the most recent story to shock the people of Gardner. While it is believed that her killer is known, they are not in custody. Breanne's husband, aaron Pennington, fled the day after she was found shot to death. On Monday, October 23rd, his car was found abandoned in the woods of Camp Collier in Gardner by a hunter. A massive manhunt by ground and air covered 200 heavily wooded acres. The suspect is described as six feet two inches tall, 175 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes. Authorities are still requesting the public's assistance in locating him. To check cameras, be aware on hiking trails and authorities warn citizens to be vigilant and to not approach him. He is believed to be armed and is considered dangerous. Over the near two weeks since Breanne was killed, news reports have come out about the Penningtons. Aaron Pennington's social media indicates he was in the Air Force and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Wcvb, channel 5 in Boston, reported that his prior military training could be hampering the search efforts. He might know how to hide and survive.

Anngelle Wood: 21:30

Breanne Alece Hull Pennington was born in Tacoma, Washington, on October 27th 1992. She didn't make it to 31. She grew up in Riverside, California. Her family is mostly in Texas now. Breanne met her husband in a singles group at church in their home state of California. They also lived in Arizona during his career in the Air Force. The couple, who have four young children, have been experiencing trouble in their relationship With family members telling investigators that Breanne Pennington had been planning to take her children to Texas. She did not get that chance.

Anngelle Wood: 22:10

Her aunt, Brenda Hull, talked about her niece Breezy, her nickname. Since childhood she was a strong spirit, she had a mind of her own and she was very, very smart. The nickname well, it came about because of her love of riding horses she rode throughout her entire childhood. Breanne Pennington considered being a mother to her four children as her most important role. It was the most important thing to her. It was her world. She gave that her full attention. Her aunt believed that one day she would pursue a career as a genetic counselor, a field that she had loved since she began breeding horses as a child, that she was fascinated with the genetics of that process. The Pennington's four children Averie, Levi, Charles, also known as Chippy, and Heidi are said to be safe and being well cared for. According to a GoFundMe page set up by Brea nn's uncle, Jeff, their extended family are planning for the future of her children to provide for their physical, emotional and educational needs.

Anngelle Wood: 23:22

The Pennington's had only been in Gardner for a short time, a little over a year. Bree Ann loved it, the people. She loved the seasons, the snow. She was from California, she loved Halloween and all things spooky, and she was interested in the history of Massachusetts. One of the very first things she did was made a visit to Salem Don't. We know it's full of rich witch history. According to Aaron Pennington's LinkedIn profile, he has been a senior supervisor at Raytheon and Andover since May 20, 22. This must be what brought the Pennington's to Massachusetts. I will add that Gardner to Andover is quite a haul back and forth and also indicative to the state of the real estate market. You can't touch real estate around Andover big dollar bills. The Pennington family were active in their local church. Bree Ann's faith was a very important part of her life and something that she taught her children. She enjoyed doing makeup, both for herself and for others, and had developed a passion for raising exotic chickens in her backyard.

Anngelle Wood: 24:36

We now know that Brea nne kept a firearm for protection. It has been reported that no one in the home was licensed in Massachusetts and we know that they were having trouble, but what kind and to what extent is not clear. There are a number of statistics of what can happen to a woman in an abusive relationship when there is a firearm present. Around 4.5 million women in the US have been threatened with a gun and nearly one million have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner. Over half of all intimate partner homicides are committed with a gun. A woman let's make that a partner is five times more likely to be murdered when an abuser is shot A woman and abuser has access to a gun. Some important statistics about domestic abuse and firearms from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence for everyone.

Anngelle Wood: 25:33

Domestic violence and firearms are a lethal combination. The facts and statistics well, they speak for themselves. The presence of a firearm in an intimate partner violence situation increases the risk of homicide by at least 500%. Between 2008 and 2013, 44% of mass shootings in which four or more people were killed involved intimate partners. Women are especially vulnerable when it comes to the deadly intersection of domestic violence and gun violence. Approximately 1,000 women are murdered annually by intimate partners, and two-thirds of them are killed with guns. A woman is killed by an intimate partner with a gun roughly every 14 hours.

Anngelle Wood: 26:19

Firearms are also used to control, terrorize and intimidate victims and survivors of domestic violence. A survey by the National Domestic Violence Hotline found among the 16% of responders whose abusers had firearms, 10% said their abuser had fired a gun during a domestic violence incident. 22% said their abuser had explicitly threatened to kill them, their children, families, pets, friends and or commit suicide. There is serious intimidation and manipulation as well. Breanne Pennington was killed in her home with her children present. Now I don't believe the children saw her murder, but they knew something was going on. What was Breanne going through that led up to her murder? Is it why she was planning to leave and to add to the domestic violence stats? It is a known fact that people in abusive relationships are at greater risk when they try to leave. It's important to note that domestic violence isn't always physical abuse. It presents in different forms and I don't know what Breanne Pennington was dealing with, but we do know she was murdered at home. Something very serious was going on.

Anngelle Wood: 27:40

Breanne's sister, brooke, spoke about her sister and her sister's husband. Aaron Pennington, suffered from mental illness and he had threatened to take his own life. He on the outside was a very nice person, but he's been struggling with some mental health issues. They were just getting worse, she said. The sisters last spoke three days before Breanne's death.

Anngelle Wood: 28:04

Given all that we know, it was reported that Breanne's sister said there were no red flags to the violence that unfolded in that house and her sister has urged Aaron Pennington to turn himself in. So far he has not done that. We do not know where he is, whether he is alive or dead. It has been an exhaustive search with no results. Outside of finding his car, investigators searched Lake Wampanoag. They used dive teams and they used drones near where his car was found, abandoned less than five miles away from the Pennington's home. They came up with no evidence of the suspect and now the Massachusetts state police have paused their search efforts and will reassess. Breanne's aunt told CBS News Boston that until a body is found she will assume that he is still alive. She is of the opinion that he will head to California. It would be difficult to elude capture and so far there are no federal warrants which suggest he is still in New England.

Anngelle Wood: 29:13

A search warrant for Aaron Pennington's phone included the discoveries made about his contents. Investigators learned that there was a note from Saturday, october 21st at 7.04pm the night before Brienne was killed. It stated this Don't say anything, be quiet. If she wakes up, just say you're getting nasal spray, get on side of bed, very close proximity to head, put hole in her head. He did that and he left. Anyone who sees him should call 911. Gardner Police at 978- 632-5600, or the Massachusetts State Police at 508-829-8236. Do not go looking for him, do not approach him. No one knows where he is.

Anngelle Wood: 30:12

The hunt for Aaron Pennington is just one of the manhunts that was taking place in New England. At this time Authorities were seeking a person of interest in the Worcester State campus shooting. That person was found in Brooklyn, new York, and is now in custody. And, as we have been all too aware, tragedies struck in small town, southern Maine, when a man opened fire at two businesses, killing and injuring and traumatizing an entire community. Now there is a great deal of information about Lewiston, Maine, which I will share with you in a dedicated episode.

Anngelle Wood: 30:57

Yes, I decided to split this into two. Initially, episode 51 was going to be about the dueling manhunts, if you will, around New England, but there's just too much info. So what I will do? I will post what is now episode 52 right after I get finished posting this one. Thank you for listening. I'm going to run up on the true crime charts, the history charts and the society charts. That was a proud moment and I do do do hope to see you those of you who are in the area Thursday night, this coming Thursday night, november 9th, off-cabot, beverly, massachusetts, for our very first live crime night Operation True Crime and Wine. This will be meetup, it'll be wine sampling, it'll be a little bit of trivia and a true crime case discussion. Not all will be wine related. I have some different ideas.

Anngelle Wood: 32:18

Reach out to the show. Crimeofthetruestkindatgmailcom. Thank you for listening. Episode 52 is coming up. Thank you, patreon patrons. Superstars Lisa McColgan, rhiannon Brand new, solid gold, devon M, pam K, deborah Wicca, cool Brandy, devil Dog, rebecca, mark Dominique. Thank you to new followers. Thank you for dropping a tip in that jar. It really helps getting show support. Follow Crimeofthetruestkind's Instagram, facebook, twitter, x Threads Blue Sky, blue Sky anyone. Youtube, tiktok. Alright, I am off to Episode 52, where we visit the community of Lewiston Maine and I talk to Bernadette. Lock your goddamn doors. I am off to Episode 52, where we visit the community of Lewiston Maine and I talk to Bernadette. I am off to Episode 52, where we visit the community of Lewiston Maine and I talk to Bernadette. I am off to Episode 53, where we visit the community of Lewiston Maine and I talk to Bernadette.