10:45 AM Sun, Dec 26, 2010
Kate Bramson Email
By Kate Bramson
and Paul Parker
Journal Staff Writers
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A 35-year-old woman was killed in her home and found by her mother on Christmas Day, as the victim's 9-month-old twin daughters lay crying.
The police are now investigating what they say appears to be a domestic-related homicide, Police Chief Joseph H. Tavares said in the lobby of the police station shortly before 11 p.m. on Christmas.
The police on Sunday identified the woman as Staria Silva of 9 Fifth St.
Tavares said the Silva's mother called the police to her daughter's home just before 2 p.m. After speaking with possible witnesses, Tavares said, the police issued a bulletin to all officers and surrounding police departments with the description of a male suspect and the man's vehicle.
The suspect -- Raymond Grundy, 35, also of 9 Fifth St. -- was arrested in Warwick and turned over to the East Providence police, Tavares said. He and the woman had what Tavares described as "a substantial relationship that included a history of domestic violence." He is being held at the station and is charged with violating a restraining order, Tavares said.
In early November, Grundy was arrested and charged with domestic simple assault against Silva, the police said. On Nov. 8, the day the charges were lodged in District Court, the judge issued an order barring Grundy from contacting Silva.
Further details on the November incident were not immediately available.
Outside Silva's home Christmas night, family and friends huddled on the street in the cold darkness, kept back from the home by yellow police tape -- crying and raging over the woman's death.
This was the twins' first Christmas, sobbed Rachel Murray, who identified herself as the woman's cousin. Murray's mother, Linda Sparfven, is the victim's godmother, and she had tried to get into the home Christmas morning when she heard the babies crying, Murray said.
At about 10:30 p.m., a police officer walked out of the home, carrying one of the little girls in an infant car seat. The victim's mother left the home then, too. And someone else carried the other baby, also in an infant car seat. The friends and family in the street rushed toward the babies and cooed at the girls, through tears.
"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus," one woman cried as she looked into the baby's face. "Hi, my pretty girl."
The girls would be going home with their mother's mother, Murray said.
The original version of this story was posted at 12:03 a.m. Sunday.
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