October 2, 2024 • 52 mins
Charline Rosemond, a vibrant 23-year-old woman who dreamed big and lived bigger. With help from her younger sister, Rose, we tell the story of Charline’s life and unravel the details of her tragic death in April 2009, and get to understand what families like the Rosemonds face as they seek justice for her murder through their grief and frustration.
We explore the emotional landscape of Charline’s case, painting a picture of her life, her dreams, her plans, against the unknowing, then the unbearable agony her family faced when they learned she was dead. Murdered. We see the anguish of being dismissed by authorities through Rose's eyes, and the family's 15-year effort to keep Charline’s story from fading away.
And there are many questions: Who shot Charline? Did they set her up? Was there really a car for sale? Was it a ruse? Why won't police accept a family's word that their loved one is in fact missing?
Anyone with information about Charline Rosemond’s murder please call the State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office at 781-897-6600.
Emily Sweeney's Cold Case Files feature in the Boston Globe, June 2024
Charline Rosemond new Facebook page
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Anngelle Wood (00:00):
Well, hello, my name is Anngelle Wood and this
is Crime of the Truest Kind.
(00:24):
Hey, everybody, it's spookyseason, officially October,
Rocktober as I have been knownto call it.
My name is Anngelle Wood.
This is Crime of the TruestKind.
Massachusetts and New EnglandCrime Stories, history, always
advocacy- focused, because thatis the most important part of
(00:46):
all of this.
We borrow these stories frompeople who lived these
experiences and, at the veryleast, we can treat them with
respect, at the most, help thesepeople sort through and be a
support.
A couple things at the top.
Thanks to our supporters,including Michelle, who supports
(01:12):
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Give the dogs a bone, it's "Buyme a coffee.
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Your support goes directly intothe production of the show.
(01:34):
Like everything, leaving thehouse costs money.
Hell, staying inside the housewith the internet costs us money
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We are in it.
istory is season four of Crimeof the Truest Kind and we kick
off this new season with a liveshow.
I am back at Off Cabot inBeverly next Thursday, October
(01:56):
10th.
North Shore Crime Cases, byrequest.
That's what you asked for.
That's what we will do.
We will talk about crimes fromthe vicinity - Beverly, Salem,
Peabody, Lynn.
There are, unfortunately, a lotof things to talk about, but
(02:23):
these shows have been enjoyablein terms of being able to meet
all of you who are local toMassachusetts and New England
who come out.
So thank you for that.
So next live show next Thursday, October 10th.
Tickets are available offcabot.
org.
Crime of the Truest Kind.
com, all linked there.
Thank you, cannot wait to seeyou.
If you have some questions inadvance, you can email the show:
crimeofthetruestkind@gmail.
com Thank you.
(02:47):
This week's episode deals with acase that I've been talking
about a lot.
I've talked about CharlineRosemond for a couple of years
and always intended to do anepisode dedicated to her story.
But I really wanted to reach afamily member and I had really
tried to reach her sister, rose,and I wasn't able to make
(03:14):
direct contact.
Enter Emily Sweeney of theBoston Globe, who does the Cold
Case Files.
Emily and I did a live show afew months ago at Faces in
Malden where I talked aboutCharline's case.
Emily then wrote a feature inthe Cold Case Ciles for the
Globe about Charline, got intouch with Rose and then put
(03:36):
Rose and I in touch.
So, Rose and I have hadconversations about Charline's
story.
I will keep in touch with Roseand the Rosemond family for as
long as they'll have me.
The advocacy work I want tocontinue to do as part of this
coalition that we are startinghere in the state of
Massachusetts, MassachusettsMissing and Murdered Persons
(03:59):
Advocacy Coalition, MMMPAC, it'slong, but that's what we're
calling it.
With the express purpose ofsupporting families like
Charline's.
Families don't know what to dowhen their loved one goes
missing.
Truly, there is no playbook.
We want to help.
I've learned a lot about whathappens to families.
(04:19):
It ain't good.
And Charline's case is one ofthose cases that bothers me.
For all of these reasons thatyou will learn, and more so
today, episode 71, I ask thequestion who shot Charline
Rosemond?
, Somerville, Massachusetts,Somerville, Massachusetts has,
(04:57):
has seen its share of headlines.
The city next to Boston wasrocked by a still unsolved
sexual assault and murder of17-year-old, Deanna Cremin.
I talk a bit about Deanna'sstory in episode 65 when I talk
about the fight that crimevictims' families have when
their juvenile lifer goes up forparole in the Commonwealth.
Now, while Deanna's killer isat large, four months later, a
(05:22):
Somerville mom named JanetDowning was brutally killed in
her Somerville home on July 23,1995.
Shocking, yes, Janet's killerwas found, arrested, tried and
convicted and handed a lifewithout parole sentence.
He was 16 years old.
Eddie O'Brien, the grandson ofthe former Somerville police
(05:44):
chief, Eddie O'Brien, thegrandson of the former
Somerville police chief O'Brien,went before the parole board in
June of this year and we areanxiously awaiting their ruling.
I check for a decision aboutonce a week.
I still haven't seenone.
safe.
I mean there's crime, like mostcities theft, drugs.
According to Neighborhood Scout, chances of becoming a victim
(06:07):
of violent crime is 1 in 395 inSomerville, it's 1 in 311 in
Massachusetts.
And amber is the color of yourenergy.
Sites that sell securitysystems will tell you there are
home invasions nightly.
No such thing.
Bestplaces.
(06:29):
net lists Somerville propertycrime as 26.4.
The US average is 35.4.
With a violent crime rate inSomerville 13.
A national average 22.7.
In 1987, the City of SomervilleCity Council adopted a
resolution establishingSomerville as a sanctuary city.
(06:51):
That is defined as amunicipality that limits or
denies its cooperation with thenational government in enforcing
immigration law.
A city's council and mayor willusually declare itself a
sanctuary city and subsequentlyenact measures and policies that
are welcoming and favorable tomigrants.
(07:12):
I know that is a hot buttonissue, thank you, but I'll tell
you what.
I am not talking about politics, we are talking about Charline.
Some fast facts about Somerville.
Bobby Pickett wrote the oldieshit, " the Monster Mash.
He's from Somerville.
Here's something I learned LeonRussell plays piano on that
(07:33):
1962 Halloween classic.
What Alex Rocco from theGodfather from Somerville, mo
Green character Somerville, oneof the most ethnically diverse
cities in the US.
over 50 languages are spoken inpublic schools.
Somerville has the most artistsper capita in the U.
(07:57):
S.
Everywhere you look inSomerville there's somebody who
makes something, and I know alot of those people.
And those people are wickedcool.
The beloved New England staple,Fluff, invented in Somerville.
Fluff is a marshmallow-likesticky, ooey-gooey substance
that we put on bread with peanutbutter.
(08:19):
There is a Fluff Fest everyyear.
It was in September in BowMarket in Union Square.
ver mob kingpin James Joseph"Whitey Bulger was the leader of
the Winter Hill Gang, holdinghis post for decades.
Then he split town in 1994 whenthe heat was coming down.
He was caught eventually whileon the lam, many years later,
(08:43):
sentenced to prison for all hismisdeeds and many murders, and
then he was beaten to death bythree men in federal prison
Karma.
He was moved into a veryviolent federal prison in West
Virginia.
That's a whole other story.
I talk about it in my first twopodcast episodes.
By the way, you can listen toone and two.
(09:07):
Charline Rosemond, born February5th 1986 in Boston, one of six
siblings.
Charline and her younger sister, Rosalie, who goes by Rose, are
the youngest and the twosiblings who share the same
parents.
The Rosemonds are a very closefamily and the youngest
daughters lived at home at thetime Charline went missing.
(09:28):
It was incredibly hard for themand still is.
The family lived in Somervillefor about five years before they
moved to Everett.
Now, Everett is a smaller cityabout four miles away.
I didn't do a lot of work onthis part of the research, but a
couple notable mentions EllenPompeo, Meredith from Grey's
(09:48):
Anatomy, is from Everett andTeddy Peanut Butter.
That's a Fluffanutter waitin'to happen.
49,000 people in Everett in2022 to Somerville's almost
80,000 in 2022.
The Rosemonds lived near UnionSquare and the Mid Nite
Convenience, about 10 minutesaway.
(10:10):
That is the area where Charlinewould be found, so it was
familiar to all of them.
There isn't a lot about Charlinenot her life that's available
online.
I sent her sister a series ofquestions so I could fact check
and try to tell her story, toadd to her presence.
(10:32):
Her story is upsetting.
Charline was killed, a victimtargeted possibly and the person
or persons who did this to herperhaps planned it, set her up
(10:53):
and they're still out there.
Charline was a driven andfocused woman with big dreams,
dreams that I have no doubt shewould have achieved,
outperformed, making way forwhat she would accomplish next.
A word her sister used abouther is savvy.
At 23, she had mapped out hermoves.
I wish I could have been thatmotivated at 23.
(11:15):
Oh, I was not.
In an attempt to illustrate thekind of person Charline was, a
vibrant, light-up-the-room kindof woman, and I say that about
absolutely no one, but you cansee it in her photos, always the
best-dressed in the room- tothe nines- with that kind,
(11:38):
bright smile.
Charline was a cosmetologist.
She studied that in high schoolas part of the CTE vocational
program as a Somerville Highgrad class of 2004,.
(12:00):
There is a career in graphicarts, drafting, culinary arts,
metal fabrication, healthservices, auto repair.
I'm repeating myself Trades area game changer for many, many
kids, students, young people.
Do not scoff at trade school.
(12:24):
Someone needs to know howthings work, how to make them
work when they stop working andhow to perform services.
Now, this brings to mind thebrilliant South Park episode
from last year, where none ofthe men, the dads, the business
executives, none of them knowhow to do or fix anything, so
they are desperate for thesetradespeople.
It's called "Call the Handymanand I linked it in the show
(12:46):
notes atcrimeofthechewestkindcom.
So trades very good.
One of Charline's passions wasstyling ha hair and her love of
that spilled over to others,like her younger sister, and
Charline knew how to put a looktogether.
She had style, she had presence.
A fashionista.
(13:08):
Is that a good thing?
I don't know if I like thatword.
Demure, oh no, no.
She was chic.
Her favorite show, America'sTop Model.
Music, the great uniter, as Ilike to call it, Reggae was her
thing.
She went to school and studiedbusiness accounting.
She had an entrepreneurialspirit.
(13:30):
She set her sights on openingher own hair salon.
When I think of Charline an theway that I've gotten to know
her a little bit.
I envision her on Shark Tankwith some invention, some beauty
regimen or some hair care item,because let's call it what it
(13:53):
is.
Charline had hustle.
At the time of her death,Charline was working for a car
dealership in Brighton.
She had money saved.
She had a lot of money savedand she took some of it with her
with the plan to look at a carlater in the day.
She left her home on thatmorning of April 6th, speaking
(14:15):
to her mom that night around 7,saying she'd be home.
There was no mention of seeingthat car that was allegedly for
sale.
No one saw or heard from herever again, no one in her family
anyway.
I spoke with Charline's sister,Rose.
With thanks to Emily Sweeney ofthe Boston Globe Cold Case
(14:39):
Files.
There is a new CharlineRosemond Facebook page created
by me, with the permission ofCharline's family.
Rose will be a part of it todrive some new attention and
more presence for her story andto help push this case.
(15:01):
Charline and Rose were veryclose.
They were both living at homewith their parents in Everett
and Rose was expecting a babywhen Charline went missing.
That is a sorrow on a level thatno one should ever have to
experience, and I certainly wishthat they had not had to
(15:26):
experience what they experiencedin 2009, when Charline
disappeared and when Charlinewas found murdered six days
later, and what they have had todeal with since the unknowing,
or at least the longing forsomeone to be held responsible
(15:47):
for what happened to theirsister and their daughter.
I want to thank Rose for takingthe time to speak with me and
answer my questions, becausewhat people who have never
experienced what Rose and herfamily have experienced don't
know or understand is that itdoesn't go away.
(16:08):
Even 15 years later.
15 years have passed sinceCharlene was murdered, 15 years
of hoping and wondering andwaiting and second-guess,
guessing themselves.
That's what we do.
That's our nature as humanbeings.
We break down and dismantleevery single thing that we did
(16:33):
or said before that loved onewent away.
It's very difficult and somefamily members who have
experienced this kind oftraumatic loss, like the
Rosemonds, have speaking aboutit is re-traumatizing.
It is a real thing.
Someone who has had this kindof event.
(16:55):
I'm grateful for her time.
I'm grateful for her having alittle bit of faith in me that I
will do some justice to thisstory.
Coming up is my conversationwith Rosalie Rosemond, sister of
Charline.
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When I first heard Charline'sstory or first learned about
Charlene's story, I may havebeen researching another case,
Deanna Cremin's story.
Rose Rosemond (17:57):
They always say Deanna Cremin's and Charline's
case are like the biggestunsolved cases, in Somerville
specifically, and I had heardabout it throughout the years.
But unfortunately it's sad thatonce something similar happens
to you, you hear about it butit's not exactly hitting home,
so it's easy to forget.
However, once your family getshit with that type of you know,
(18:19):
unfortunate situation, that'swhen you start diving in and you
learn so many similar detailson other families.
I know at some point I wastrying to get things together,
maybe with me myself andDeanna's sister, and maybe see
if we could form something Foundout she passed away shortly
after probably not shortly after, but some time ago which was.
(18:39):
It was one of those cases thatif you hear one, you tend to
hear the other, which it seemslike is the case now for some of
them.
Anngelle Wood (18:47):
One of the things I really aim to do when I cover
a case like this and I get totalk to a family member or
someone who knew the person well, is get to know them, to learn
about them.
Charline was on her way toreally great things.
Rose Rosemond (19:05):
She was.
It's interesting that we'retalking about it now, because I
was just talking to my dad abouther, how far she probably would
be in life now.
She was just.
She was always the life of anyparty, any gathering that my
family had.
She was the big sister that Ialways wanted to grow up and be
exactly like till like now, alot of my sense of style, a lot
(19:29):
of the things that I'minterested in, because I had to
kind of like follow her around.
Being that we were two yearsapart, it was kind of like, well
, she can't go, then If I can'tgo, then she can't go.
So I learned so much from herbecause she had to drag me
around pretty much.
And then there are just so manythings that I learned to learn
from her.
And she went to school.
She wanted to open up her ownhair salon.
(19:50):
She was a cosmetologist, tookthat in high school.
I'm not as savvy as she was,but I still remember all the
things that she taught me, evenso long ago that I'm able to
apply it and actually do hair.
Now we had it all figured out.
She went to school for businessaccounting.
She was going to open up thehair salon because I'm not as
hands-on.
I was going to handle the frontdesk and the decorating and she
(20:12):
was going to be the hairstylist.
Anngelle Wood (20:19):
It's unfortunate that we weren't able to see that
play out, but she wasdefinitely everything I wanted
to be.
She had an amazing sense ofstyle.
Any picture that I've seen ofthis woman, she looks incredible
.
Gorgeous all of the time.
Rose Rosemond (20:29):
Anytime we'd go somewhere sometimes it's the
smallest gathering she wouldcome in with the hottest outfit
and people are like, do you know, it's not like the biggest
event and she's like.
Well, I have to dress up, nomatter where it is, you never
know when you're going to seepeople, and she definitely did
that, so it was easy to catchgreat photos of her.
Anngelle Wood (20:44):
And the clothes.
I mean, she had a tremendoussense of style.
She must have had an amazingwardrobe.
Rose Rosemond (20:53):
She did and of course, being the little sister,
I wanted to borrow this.
Borrow that Didn't really goover well, but every now and
then she'd let me wear somethings, but that she definitely
had a great sense of style.
Anngelle Wood (21:04):
Your family seems very close, like you were very
close-knit.
Rose Rosemond (21:07):
We were.
We are very close Me andCharline we are.
We have the same parents.
I do have additional siblings,but they're my mom's children,
but Charline and I were myparents' only two children.
So we always grew up very, veryclose together and we were
always in the same householdfrom the day that I was born.
So we were definitely atight-knit family.
We will always have been.
Anngelle Wood (21:29):
Let's talk about that time when Charline left the
house for that last day.
So, as I understand it, sheborrowed your dad's car.
She had money in her pocket.
And then what came next?
Rose Rosemond (21:42):
That morning she did have my dad's car.
She had been using it for a fewweeks.
She had a car at the time, butthen, I don't know, maybe the
transmission or something blewout.
So she was out of commissionwith that car and was like, okay
, I'll just work on getting anew car.
So for the past few weeks priorto her disappearing she was
(22:06):
using my dad's car to go to andfrom work and my dad didn't have
to go to work that day.
So he let her borrow the car.
And that morning I was sleepingbecause at the time I was eight
months pregnant and my mom andmy sister were in the kitchen.
But I remember hearing theconversation slightly and my mom
did tell me what they end upspeaking about and she had
spoken to my sister and Charlenehad the $4,000 cash on her and
she had brought it to my mombecause she was giving my mom
(22:26):
some money for one of the bills.
So that's why my mom wasvisibly able to see the money
with her.
So before she left the house mymom said make sure you don't
take that money with you.
And she's like oh well, I'mplanning on buying a car after
work.
My friend has a friend that'sselling a car.
So basically, oh well, I'mplanning on buying a car after
work.
My friend has a friend that'sselling a car.
So basically, like I'm going tobring the money with me if I'm
interested, I want to buy thecar immediately, just to make
(22:47):
sure that you know I can snagthe car.
And right before she left thehouse, my mom was like you know,
make sure you leave the cashhere.
Maybe you see the car first andsee if you like it.
Don't walk around with so muchcash on you, because you don't
want people to kill you for themoney, which is crazy that
(23:08):
that's the last thing, like mymom pretty much got to say to
her in you know, seeing her inperson the way that it played
out, because something similarhad happened to a woman in
malden.
So when my mom said that, itwas in reference to like this
happened to this lady, I don'twant you carrying cash, so
nothing bad happens to you.
So she did end up going to work.
The thing is the way that thehouse is set up the front door
is away from the kitchen.
So my mom didn't get to againreiterate like don't bring it
(23:29):
with you.
She had said that and hope thatmy sister didn't.
But in turn she did bring themoney with her.
So she did go to work regular.
Day after work she called mymom and they spoke a little bit,
cause she spoke to my mom allthe time.
Eventually I don't know if mydad just had like a gut feeling
or something.
He called my sister, was like,oh, I need my car to go
somewhere.
He really didn't, but he justwanted her home Again.
(23:50):
I don't know if it's somethingthat a parent just feels like
you know what, safer to be athome.
He called her and said comehome.
She was like OK, I'm at the gym, I'm leaving the gym, I'll be
there shortly.
This was around six, seven inthe evening, so nobody kind of
thought anything of it.
We figured she'd get homeeventually.
The night came and the nightwent and what really stuck out
(24:11):
to us was the next morning whenwe realized she never came home.
Anngelle Wood (24:14):
And that right there had to have been a red
flag, because she's typicallyvery regimented, very
responsible, very veryresponsible.
Rose Rosemond (24:23):
Again, I wanted to always be like my sister.
She was very responsible.
No matter, it was always workhard, play hard, so as hard as
she works she would have a greattime.
But she was always responsible.
She was definitely a scheduledperson.
She was definitely kind ofstrict on exactly if I'm going
to be here at this time I'mgoing to be here.
And another thing was whichreally worried us in addition to
(24:45):
that is my dad is very lenientwith letting us use his car, but
when he needs to go to work thecar needs to be there.
You want to use it on his dayoff, not a problem.
The next day was the day thathe had to go to work and she had
never came home, meaning hewould not have his car to go to
work, and that he had to go towork and she had never came home
, meaning he would not have hiscar to go to work.
And we never did that to my dad.
So my dad knew it was a problembecause we just knew dad will
(25:06):
let you use his car, just got tobring it back when he has to go
to work.
And she didn't.
Anngelle Wood (25:09):
That was out of character for her in every way.
Rose Rosemond (25:13):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And then you know we tried to.
Not I mean, we were freakingout, but we tried to hold on a
little bit.
At this point it's like sixo'clock in the morning because
my mom's an early riser and shewoke me up and said oh, your
sister didn't come home.
I'm thinking maybe she didn'tcome home but maybe she stayed
out, but she'll be back reallyearly.
She has to go to work.
I think she usually left thehouse around seven, seven,
(25:37):
thirty.
Again.
She didn't play about work.
The same way we didn't playabout my dad in his car.
My sister was going to be atwork on time when she worked at
Herb Chambers in Boston and shehad worked there for years, very
reliable.
She was a great employee thereso she would never miss work.
So I said to my parents let'swait till about 7, 30, 8 o'clock
, when it's the time that shetypically would start work.
Why would she skip home andjust go to work?
(25:59):
It wasn't the case.
But we were trying to like notthink the worst of the worst,
because it would make no sensethat she, even if she slept out,
to not bring my dad his car andthen go straight to work from
where she, it just wasn't athing.
But I didn't want to likeassume and my parents didn't.
So once we called her job andwe were like hey, is Charlene
there?
And they said no, we reallyknew something was wrong,
(26:19):
because not only did she notcome home, she didn't bring my
dad's car Now, her being theresponsible person that she is
she didn't show up to work.
That's when my parents startedfreaking out.
Anngelle Wood (26:28):
Just so I get my facts straight how much time
passed before your concernreally started to manifest as
like panic and you thought youreally should get the police
involved?
I mean your family's fromEverett.
She was later found inSomerville where you used to
live.
We'll get into that.
But what was the process foryour family when you finally
(26:51):
decided like okay, we have toreport this?
Rose Rosemond (26:56):
So again, my mom was worried around six.
At the time me and my dadweren't awake, but then
eventually she woke me up, Iwould say after we called her
job, about seven, thirty eighto'clock, still holding out like
maybe I don't know what we werethinking.
We weren't thinking anything.
We just didn't know what tothink.
But we didn't think anythingper se.
We would never think murder.
I know that we would definitelynot think she was dead.
(27:17):
She was dead and so I think Iwould say about 10 o'clock, I
remember I was in my room and Iwas panicking, but again, I'm
younger and I'm not sayingthat's something she would do.
But I'm like I hope she juststayed out extra although she
typically doesn't do that andmaybe she'll just come in and
all of this will blow over.
However, when 10 o'clock came,I'll never forget my dad, and my
(27:39):
dad's a super chill person.
He's usually very optimistic,but he came in my room and he
had tears in his eyes and he waslike, please can you come with
me to the police station?
Like we have to report hermissing.
At that point it turned fromokay, well, she just didn't come
home to like, oh my God, likewe have to file a missing
persons report.
Like is this something thatseems so unrealistic?
(27:59):
Nobody thinks that's going tobe what they have to do.
You see it on TV, you see it onthe news, you see it on shows,
but you never think it'll hithome where you have to go file a
police report.
So we go to the police station,we try to file a police report.
Of course they're like oh,she's 23, she's of age.
What if she just ran away?
We obviously try to reiterateseveral times that this is not
like her.
(28:19):
This is something she wouldnever do.
There was no trouble at home.
It's not like we had any issues.
We're a very tight knit familyand we tried to explain that.
And of course they reallyhonestly they didn't do anything
.
They're just like well, we'lljust wait and see.
We'll wait and see, which wasdiscouraging.
So we took that upon ourselves.
I started calling mutual friendshave you seen her?
One of them ended up sayinglike oh, I talked to her
(28:43):
yesterday.
She was with some people thatwere going to show her like the
Lexus, and she was around theSomerville area.
So of course I'm like oh, letme talk to them.
And so eventually I ended uptalking to the friends that she
was supposedly with.
The thing is like they didn'tshow any concern whatsoever.
Like you know, my sister'sresponsible, me and my dad are
at your house telling you she'smissing.
(29:04):
My dad is crying in tears, likethis is not a normal situation,
yet, very unfazed, they're likeoh yeah, she's probably I don't
know somewhere, I don't thinkshe's just somewhere.
So that was really suspicious.
But at the time, so much ishappening that you don't, it's
kind of like you put it in theback of your mind, you keep it
in your back pocket that this isweird behavior.
However, you're on a hunt tolook for her.
(29:25):
So it's not really like I hadtime to exactly examine it until
like after the fact.
So we're looking for her.
At this point, we're callingeveryone that we know, we start
making missing flyers.
At this point, it's just likefor me, being eight months
pregnant, I and I still am I'mkind of like the backbone of the
family my parents.
It's too much for them to bear,so I do all the heavy lifting.
(29:49):
Not to mention, I was close inage with Charlene.
I knew her mutual friends.
I knew where we hung out,because we always hung out.
My parents had no idea.
Your parents don't know exactlywhere you hang out to know like
, oh, this is the park they goto sometimes.
I knew all that because we hungout as sisters.
So I kind of did all that inprinting out the missing flyers,
like my dad.
It was in between sadness andanger and pain because he's like
(30:14):
why are you printing out missmissing flyer?
She's not missing.
It's like she was missing, butit's like hard for you to accept
.
Why is my daughter on a missingflyer and we're passing it out
to people?
It was just too much for him tohandle.
But we started doing that.
We would call the state policeand they were like we can't help
you, we can't help you, whichwas frustrating because again
they're like she's 23.
She's probably not missing, butwe were trying to say she is
(30:36):
missing, like we're telling youshe's missing, but they wouldn't
listen.
So we just continued for sixdays and the crazy thing is like
despite how much you hang outwith someone or how much time
you spend, it isn't untilsomeone goes missing that you
realize like it's so hard to tryto find where they are.
You think of like the first fewplaces that we typically hang
(30:56):
out and then, once they're notthere, your brain is kind of
foggy, like I don't know whereelse to check, although you know
you've hung out several places.
But the world becomes such alarger place when someone goes
missing and you're looking forthem.
So we continue to look for herand for six days we couldn't
find her.
Each day, in and out, in and out, more family members are coming
trying to help, from like allover, and finally on day six
(31:20):
that's when.
So on day six, we had of familythat by at my house.
By then there were so manypeople just around and my
brother, my dad, gets a phonecall from his cousin who's a
taxi driver.
But my dad is kind of like,again, there's a lot of family,
he can't talk, so he hands thatphone over to my brother-in-law.
(31:40):
My brother-in-law then takesthe phone to a different room
and everybody's just kind of,you know, flyers, people are
eating, trying to keep theirenergy going, so we can continue
to look for my sister.
Finally, at some point mybrother-in-law comes and he
starts calling me and my parentsone by one, and my sisters, my
other sisters that were there,and he's like can you guys all
(32:01):
come in the room?
So it's not again.
The house is packed.
But he specifically wants thedirect folks my parents, me and
my siblings and he calls us intothe room and he closes the door
and he can't speak.
And my dad's just staring athim like what is it?
And he's just staring at us.
He cannot get the words out.
So my dad just says to him isit Charline?
(32:23):
And my brother-in-law justshakes his head, yes, but he's
not verbally saying anything.
And my dad said just tell mewhat it is, is she dead?
And my brother-in-law then saysyes, my mom fell to the ground,
my dad ran outside.
It's like no matter how longit's been once I talk about it,
(32:43):
it's like I feel like I'm backin that moment.
Of course, by then everyone inthe house finds out.
And then right after that, myfriend, her grandma, actually
lived in that building inSomerville where Charline's body
was found behind.
So she called me like fiveminutes after was like I think
(33:05):
we need to call the police.
And I'm like we already know,because she obviously got news.
And so we all headed over toUnion Square in Somerville and
you know, they had it taped off.
It was behind the Mid NiteConvenience Store in Union
Square we all used to go to thatconvenience store because
Charline and I went to LincolnPark Community School, so we
(33:27):
that was just a conveniencestore we frequented, so we knew
the area because we had lived inSomerville for five years prior
to moving to Everett and we gotthere and they had it blocked
off and for me I needed to seethe car.
They wouldn't let us go to thecar but I needed to confirm the
license plate in order for thereality to hit me and so of
(33:48):
course I tried to go to the car.
They wouldn't fully let me goto the car but once I was able
to see my dad's car and confirmthe license plate, that's kind
of when it hit everybody likethis was really real and it was
just.
It was just like a nightmarestarting from then.
It was just like a nightmarestarting from then.
Anngelle Wood (34:02):
At any point during this, these hellish six
days you were looking for her?
Were you ever able to file amissing persons report?
Rose Rosemond (34:10):
No, they never took it as a report.
They would not.
They would not take it as amissing case.
We couldn't get any help.
At the time.
I was calling the news stationstrying to do the story and
again, this is new to me it'snot like every day you wake up
and you're like, oh, I have thisnews anchor that I could just
call.
So a lot of places like youhave to email, a lot of places
(34:31):
you call.
They never emailed back.
You left a voicemail.
There was only one guy I don'tknow his last name or I can't
pronounce it, but I know hisname is Todd and he finally
picked up.
I think he either emailed usback or he picked up and I was
like my sister's missing, canyou do a story?
He was the only news report atthe time that would even
entertain my family, which tillthis day, we are super grateful
(34:52):
because we outreach to so manypeople.
We just couldn't get an answerbut official missing report.
We weren't able to do.
However, we did have Todd whowas willing to run the story,
which he did about my sistermissing, probably a few days in.
So a lot of people were justlike on the lookout for my dad's
car.
The license plate yeah, thatwas pretty much it From what I
(35:14):
know.
I believe someone said thatthey saw her in the car that
morning, kind of slumped over.
Someone that lived in thebuilding said that they saw
someone in the car next to theircar slumped over.
It's a very small parking lot,very tight, so they didn't think
anything of it.
I believe they left.
They either went to church orwent to run errands, something
(35:34):
of the sort, and when they cameback they realized the person
was in the same position, whichis why they then called because
this was abnormal, like I'vebeen gone for hours and this
person's still in the car.
That's what they said.
I don't know if that's exactlythe truth, but that's what I've
heard, which is how we cameabout to finding my sister's
body in the car.
Anngelle Wood (35:53):
What did the investigation into her death
entail?
I mean, were you able toconclude how long she was there?
Because when I think about thatarea Somerville Union Square
it's very populated and I wouldthink someone would notice.
I mean, I hope I would notice.
(36:14):
And I mean, think about it,it's the city.
Parking is unreal.
A car's been there for a while.
It's probably going to gettowed or ticketed.
Rose Rosemond (36:25):
At the very least someone might leave a nasty
note the thing is because shewas found in the driver's seat
of my dad's car, shot in thehead.
How could you have beentransferred there if you were
found shot in the front seat, inthe driver's seat?
It's not the passenger seatwhere someone might've driven
you there.
You were in the same seat.
(36:47):
The blood was in the same area.
So in my mind, all of this tookplace there.
How did it go six days withoutpeople noticing?
It could be a matter of peopleminding their business, but it's
such a tight parking lot Ican't get it's a super tight
parking lot Parking next toanother car.
It's like you might as welljust jump in the car.
So the fact that six days wasable to go by without folks
(37:10):
noticing that this woman wasthere but again, who knows,
maybe people are like, oh, she'ssleeping.
Maybe I don't know what peoplethought, but to me it had to
have taken place there.
I don't know how the six daysended up with no one seeing it,
but based on the facts and Iwatch a lot of crime shows as
well and I'm very into a lot ofit it just seems like it's not
(37:32):
possible for you to have drivenher there because she was found
in the driver's seat.
Anngelle Wood (37:36):
I hear this and my red flags go up.
I think about.
You know, a tow truck driverbeing called.
It was a small lot.
She was there in your dad's carand I'm sure your family has
had these questions and many,many more, but you got no
conclusive information about howlong she may have been there,
how long she may have beendeceased at that point.
Rose Rosemond (37:59):
No, I mean based on what I can remember.
I think they also agree with me.
I can't exactly say like oh,the facts 100 percent state this
, but if I can recall myself aswell as the folks that were
working on the case, do believethat she was there the whole
time.
They do believe she was therethe whole time and they
(38:20):
obviously may have more detailsonto why exactly they think that
.
I think that based on the factsof what I know but they have
further information I may nothave.
However, they do agree with me.
So I think that says a lot thatyou know that she was there the
whole time, which is prettycrazy, I feel like, because I've
been back to that area.
(38:41):
I like to frequent it sometimes.
I don't know just to kind of, Idon't know what.
I think I may be back to thatarea.
I like to frequent it sometimes.
I don't know just to kind of, Idon't know what I think I may
be able to find.
Obviously, it's been 15 years.
Times have changed.
I know they have cameras therenow.
I don't think they had camerasthen.
The convenience store is there.
They have cameras.
Crazily enough, they said thatit wasn't working, that one day,
which was the day that ithappened or around that time
(39:02):
they said it was working, wasn'tworking.
So to answer folks' questionson if there was any surveillance
apparently their cameras werenot working at the time.
That was facing behind thebuilding, which sucks because
you know watching shows andeverything.
Having surveillance a lot oftimes help families solve things
rather easily, but the factthat we didn't have that it was
(39:23):
another roadblock.
Anngelle Wood (39:24):
Well, and nowadays, I mean, our complete
digital footprint is mapped out.
We have a phone.
Yeah, there's typically cameraseverywhere.
We follow people's social mediapathways, right, it's just
infuriating, and I hear you tellme this, and once you clarified
it for me, they wouldn't evenallow you to file a missing
(39:46):
persons report.
Rose Rosemond (39:47):
My dad would call we left, we stopped calling the
Everett police stationthroughout the six days.
My dad would call the statepolice and they would hang up on
him Sorry, sir, we can't helpyou click.
And my dad is like in distress,like please help me.
He's crying, my daughter ismissing, can somebody help me?
And they'd like we can't helpyou and they'd hang up on him.
He'd call back, he'd do itevery day and they would just
continue to hang up on him andat that point we're like we
(40:07):
don't know what to do.
This is not something you planfor.
If you can't go to the police,yeah, she's 23.
But at some point we're lettingyou know like this is not
normal and I mean that it doessuck.
(40:30):
I understand people are adultsand they're able to do as they
please, but at what point arepeople able to report an adult
missing knowing that they arenow doing something that is not
normal?
We know most folks are routinefolks and I just think it just
did a disservice.
I don't know if we would havefound her any sooner.
I don't know, because ifthey're saying that she was
deceased the whole time, maybeit wouldn't have made a
difference.
She could have been deceasedthe same night.
We expected her to come homebut at the same time we would
never know, because nobodyallowed us to file a missing
(40:53):
report and get the extra support.
All of the searches andeverything we did was literally
me and my family and friends.
We didn't get any support bythe community.
We didn't get any support fromthe police station.
On Okay, the first day you wantto say wait 24 hours, but she
went missing six days and we gotno support the whole six days
until after we found her.
Then it was like we startedhearing from news stations, you
(41:14):
know cause.
Now it's like okay, the story'sout there, but I just declined
to speak to them.
We reached out to you guyswhile she was missing.
Now you want to talk to myfamily and she's deceased.
What can you do for me now?
You could have helped when wewere looking for her and you
choose not to reply.
So I did take that personally.
I know this is a business theyrun it but I felt disrespected
that the same news stations Ireached out to prior to finding
(41:35):
her never gave me the time ofday, aside from Todd.
However, right after everybodywas outside and everybody wants
a word and it's like at thispoint we weren't in the mood to
speak to you guys.
We found her deceased.
We wish you guys were able tohelp us much sooner to get the
story out there.
Who knows?
Again, we don't know what theresult would have been had we
had earlier support, but we'llnever know.
Anngelle Wood (41:55):
So here we are.
We're 15 years out.
Charline's murder remainsunresolved.
What kind of information do youget?
Do you get information from theauthorities?
Do you get any kind of updates?
If someone in your family callsto check in, I don't want to
(42:16):
call it support because itdoesn't sound like much is
available to you, unfortunately.
Do you have any means ofcommunication with authorities
about Charline's case?
Rose Rosemond (42:26):
Nowadays.
No, for a good while there wasa detective that was working on
it.
He has since retired.
He was so amazing to my family,like such a blessing.
He worked hard, day in and dayout and even as he's retired he
would call on her anniversaryday and call and say you know,
thanking you guys, even afterretirement.
Calling to say you know,thanking you guys, even after
retirement.
Calling to say you know,thanking you guys.
So one day I did go to thepolice station.
(42:47):
This was maybe five, six yearsago.
I went to the police station.
I had asked for this detective.
At that time they told me oh,he's no longer here, he's
retired, but we have someone newon the case.
I didn't know that because thattook me by surprise, and so I
said OK, let me talk to the newdetective.
The new detective comes outafter a while and we go in the
back, we start talking about thecase and he starts basically
(43:09):
asking me questions.
So I'm giving him the wholerundown again.
If this is the person workingon the case.
He knew nothing about the case,but I knew, but I didn't quite
know it at the time.
I could feel that like he wastrying to mask the fact that he
knew about Charlene's case.
But he kept asking me detailswhere I'm like don't you guys
have that in the file, fastforward.
I left there.
(43:29):
I was super pissed because it'slike nobody's working on the
case.
Like don't lie and tell me thatsomeone's working on the case
and no one's.
So I ended up posting somethingon Facebook, a long paragraph,
pretty pissed off, saying youknow, I went to the police
station no one's working on mysister's case.
They gave me this guy.
He didn't even know anythingabout my sister's case and I
(43:50):
tagged the police department.
They obviously notified thisdetective, who then called me.
He apologized but he did tellme I'm not gonna lie the day you
came in.
I will say I had never evenopened your sister's file prior
to that day, so I didn't knowanything.
So you guys telling me how wehave someone new on the case.
Meanwhile the new person nevereven opened the file, like he
never looked at it again.
(44:10):
They probably like we have newthings to worry about, but this
is something that is literallyhaunting my family and you guys
haven't even had the audacity toopen the file, and so after
that we did keep in touch for alittle bit me and that detective
and you know cause.
I think he probably realized,like how bad that looked.
Not to mention, how are youtaking over a case and you
(44:31):
haven't even opened the file?
He literally told me verbatim Inever even opened her file,
like it's back there somewhereprobably collecting dust and
it's like that's really not whatmy parents and I wanted to hear
.
I understand you may not beworking on it each and every day
.
However, I do think it's asolvable case, but someone has
to be working on it for it to bea solvable case.
I do think it's a matter offolks knowing what happened to
(44:52):
my sister, considering the factshe was supposed to meet up with
a friend to buy a car, like alot of the things kind of align.
However, it's just a proof thatwe don't quite have in order to
figure out exactly whathappened.
But if you're not working onthe case, you're never going to
find out what happened.
What do you think?
A fairy is going to come andtell you what happened?
Granted, I would hope, as wecontinue to get the story out,
maybe someone, even if theydidn't know my family, heard
(45:15):
about this and didn't realize aminor detail that they know
could possibly help us, but atthe same time, I just feel like
if I'm not working on gettingthe story out and the police are
not working on trying to getdetails and access to things
that me as a civilian cannot,we're going to continue to have
it 15, 20, 30 years when it'ssolvable, and these people are
(45:36):
still out there.
This is not going to be thefirst time they kill or the last
time.
Anngelle Wood (45:40):
Do you know or are you, do you have any
familiarity with these peoplethat Charline was set to be out
with when she disappeared?
I do, and do you believe youknow at least some of what
happened and do you believe thatyou know at least some of the
details about what happenedleading up to her murder?
Rose Rosemond (46:03):
I feel like I have a very vague idea.
I don't know.
I just know that you'resupposed to meet up with these
people to buy a car or whateverhang out.
These are the people you'resupposed to buy a car.
I know that it's usually a fewof them at a time.
I know you were shot in theback of the head, which leads me
(46:28):
to believe there were at leasta couple people there.
If I get in the car with you,I'm not sitting behind you, I'm
sitting beside you, unlesssomeone is already in the
passenger side.
So for me I've concluded.
Okay, more than one person,that's for sure.
Two there is someone that wascharged with perjury for my
(46:48):
sister's case and he ended upgoing to jail for about a year
and a half and some change.
But the reason he got calledinto the court of law was
because he provided an alibi forthese folks where the
scientific facts in the towersand et cetera were able to prove
(47:08):
that he was in fact at his ownhome.
He was never with these people.
So basically, he was providingan alibi for these folks.
And why would you be providinga fake alibi if said folks had
nothing to do with the situation?
But there again allows me tofurther conclude that these
people were in fact involved,because why do you have fake
alibis?
If you were really doingsomething, you were nowhere near
(47:30):
my sister and you don't knowanything that happened to her.
Why did you get a fake alibi?
Anngelle Wood (47:35):
One of the many questions that comes up for me,
Rose, about this story.
Was there even a Lexus for sale?
Was the car story real or wasthis a ruse?
Rose Rosemond (47:47):
If I'm not mistaken, I think she had a
picture of a car.
However, I'm not going to liethese folks.
From what I heard, one of them,I think, told someone and this
is, of course, after the fact isthings that I've been hearing.
One of them told someone oh,I'm about to come up on some
money.
Prior to my sister beingmurdered and shortly after my
(48:08):
sister was murdered, this personhad money that they didn't have
before.
Anngelle Wood (48:15):
This is quite a story, Thank you, Rose, but this
is just the first part of thestory.
There's a lot more to tell.
So this is part one of theunsolved murder of Charline
Rosemond in Somerville,Massachusetts, in April 2009.
(48:38):
We are working on.
It is live now.
Who Shot Charline Rosemond?
The name might change I'm goingto leave that up to the family
to decide if they want to keepthat but we will be activating
that page and sharinginformation and reminding people
and jogging people's memoriesabout what happened in that time
(49:03):
frame where Charline wentmissing and was found murdered,
that six-day span in 2009.
Thank you for listening.
My name is Anngelle Wood.
This is Crime of the TruestKind, Massachusetts and New
England crime stories.
I add a little history, tinybit of snark, because that's who
(49:29):
I am and I'm not going tochange now but always, always
advocacy- focused, alwayscentered on the people most
affected, which is thesefamilies.
Support the show, whatever thatlooks like, simply telling
people about it, posting aboutit, sharing the Apple Podcasts
(49:52):
link or the Spotify link or theAmazon Music link or the Good
Pods link.
However you listen, you canfind it on YouTube and come to
the live show next Thursday,October 10th, Off Cabot, North
Shore Crime Cases.
There are certainly a lot ofcases to talk about Salem,
(50:15):
Peabody, Lynn, Beverly, Rockport, Gloucester and we'll see what
we have time for.
If you have a suggestion, emailat crimeofthetruestkind@ gmail.
com.
I feel like there was somethingelse I wanted to tell you.
I have some really interestingshows on the way to collaborate
(50:37):
with a couple of other truecrime creators in the advocacy
space.
Really looking forward to that.
I will tell you more about itas we confirm, well, we've
confirmed.
We just need to set up the timewe're actually going to talk.
Thank you, Rose.
Thank you to the Rosemondfamily, thank you to all of you
for caring about these stories.
(50:57):
I must be going now.
It's been quiet tonight.
Lock your goddamn doors, I meanit.
That's how the bad people getin.
As a reminder as to why I saythat, when you watch some true
crime documentary and they'reinterviewing some killer,
they'll often say I got inbecause their door was unlocked.
(51:19):
Their windows were open.
It was an invitation for me tocome into their home.
So to that I say lock yourmotherfucking doors.
Well, hello, my name is Anngelle Wood and this
is Crime of the Truest Kind.
(00:24):
Hey, everybody, it's spookyseason, officially October,
Rocktober as I have been knownto call it.
My name is Anngelle Wood.
This is Crime of the TruestKind.
Massachusetts and New EnglandCrime Stories, history, always
advocacy- focused, because thatis the most important part of
(00:46):
all of this.
We borrow these stories frompeople who lived these
experiences and, at the veryleast, we can treat them with
respect, at the most, help thesepeople sort through and be a
support.
A couple things at the top.
Thanks to our supporters,including Michelle, who supports
(01:12):
the show via drop a tip in thejar, I don't know what I call it
.
Give the dogs a bone, it's "Buyme a coffee.
That's what that platform is.
And certainly to all thefriends, the wicked cools, the
solid golds, the total gems, thesuperstars, our EP Lisa
McColgan.
Your support goes directly intothe production of the show.
(01:34):
Like everything, leaving thehouse costs money.
Hell, staying inside the housewith the internet costs us money
.
We are in it.
istory is season four of Crimeof the Truest Kind and we kick
off this new season with a liveshow.
I am back at Off Cabot inBeverly next Thursday, October
(01:56):
10th.
North Shore Crime Cases, byrequest.
That's what you asked for.
That's what we will do.
We will talk about crimes fromthe vicinity - Beverly, Salem,
Peabody, Lynn.
There are, unfortunately, a lotof things to talk about, but
(02:23):
these shows have been enjoyablein terms of being able to meet
all of you who are local toMassachusetts and New England
who come out.
So thank you for that.
So next live show next Thursday, October 10th.
Tickets are available offcabot.
org.
Crime of the Truest Kind.
com, all linked there.
Thank you, cannot wait to seeyou.
If you have some questions inadvance, you can email the show:
crimeofthetruestkind@gmail.
com Thank you.
(02:47):
This week's episode deals with acase that I've been talking
about a lot.
I've talked about CharlineRosemond for a couple of years
and always intended to do anepisode dedicated to her story.
But I really wanted to reach afamily member and I had really
tried to reach her sister, rose,and I wasn't able to make
(03:14):
direct contact.
Enter Emily Sweeney of theBoston Globe, who does the Cold
Case Files.
Emily and I did a live show afew months ago at Faces in
Malden where I talked aboutCharline's case.
Emily then wrote a feature inthe Cold Case Ciles for the
Globe about Charline, got intouch with Rose and then put
(03:36):
Rose and I in touch.
So, Rose and I have hadconversations about Charline's
story.
I will keep in touch with Roseand the Rosemond family for as
long as they'll have me.
The advocacy work I want tocontinue to do as part of this
coalition that we are startinghere in the state of
Massachusetts, MassachusettsMissing and Murdered Persons
(03:59):
Advocacy Coalition, MMMPAC, it'slong, but that's what we're
calling it.
With the express purpose ofsupporting families like
Charline's.
Families don't know what to dowhen their loved one goes
missing.
Truly, there is no playbook.
We want to help.
I've learned a lot about whathappens to families.
(04:19):
It ain't good.
And Charline's case is one ofthose cases that bothers me.
For all of these reasons thatyou will learn, and more so
today, episode 71, I ask thequestion who shot Charline
Rosemond?
, Somerville, Massachusetts,Somerville, Massachusetts has,
(04:57):
has seen its share of headlines.
The city next to Boston wasrocked by a still unsolved
sexual assault and murder of17-year-old, Deanna Cremin.
I talk a bit about Deanna'sstory in episode 65 when I talk
about the fight that crimevictims' families have when
their juvenile lifer goes up forparole in the Commonwealth.
Now, while Deanna's killer isat large, four months later, a
(05:22):
Somerville mom named JanetDowning was brutally killed in
her Somerville home on July 23,1995.
Shocking, yes, Janet's killerwas found, arrested, tried and
convicted and handed a lifewithout parole sentence.
He was 16 years old.
Eddie O'Brien, the grandson ofthe former Somerville police
(05:44):
chief, Eddie O'Brien, thegrandson of the former
Somerville police chief O'Brien,went before the parole board in
June of this year and we areanxiously awaiting their ruling.
I check for a decision aboutonce a week.
I still haven't seenone.
safe.
I mean there's crime, like mostcities theft, drugs.
According to Neighborhood Scout, chances of becoming a victim
(06:07):
of violent crime is 1 in 395 inSomerville, it's 1 in 311 in
Massachusetts.
And amber is the color of yourenergy.
Sites that sell securitysystems will tell you there are
home invasions nightly.
No such thing.
Bestplaces.
(06:29):
net lists Somerville propertycrime as 26.4.
The US average is 35.4.
With a violent crime rate inSomerville 13.
A national average 22.7.
In 1987, the City of SomervilleCity Council adopted a
resolution establishingSomerville as a sanctuary city.
(06:51):
That is defined as amunicipality that limits or
denies its cooperation with thenational government in enforcing
immigration law.
A city's council and mayor willusually declare itself a
sanctuary city and subsequentlyenact measures and policies that
are welcoming and favorable tomigrants.
(07:12):
I know that is a hot buttonissue, thank you, but I'll tell
you what.
I am not talking about politics, we are talking about Charline.
Some fast facts about Somerville.
Bobby Pickett wrote the oldieshit, " the Monster Mash.
He's from Somerville.
Here's something I learned LeonRussell plays piano on that
(07:33):
1962 Halloween classic.
What Alex Rocco from theGodfather from Somerville, mo
Green character Somerville, oneof the most ethnically diverse
cities in the US.
over 50 languages are spoken inpublic schools.
Somerville has the most artistsper capita in the U.
(07:57):
S.
Everywhere you look inSomerville there's somebody who
makes something, and I know alot of those people.
And those people are wickedcool.
The beloved New England staple,Fluff, invented in Somerville.
Fluff is a marshmallow-likesticky, ooey-gooey substance
that we put on bread with peanutbutter.
(08:19):
There is a Fluff Fest everyyear.
It was in September in BowMarket in Union Square.
ver mob kingpin James Joseph"Whitey Bulger was the leader of
the Winter Hill Gang, holdinghis post for decades.
Then he split town in 1994 whenthe heat was coming down.
He was caught eventually whileon the lam, many years later,
(08:43):
sentenced to prison for all hismisdeeds and many murders, and
then he was beaten to death bythree men in federal prison
Karma.
He was moved into a veryviolent federal prison in West
Virginia.
That's a whole other story.
I talk about it in my first twopodcast episodes.
By the way, you can listen toone and two.
(09:07):
Charline Rosemond, born February5th 1986 in Boston, one of six
siblings.
Charline and her younger sister, Rosalie, who goes by Rose, are
the youngest and the twosiblings who share the same
parents.
The Rosemonds are a very closefamily and the youngest
daughters lived at home at thetime Charline went missing.
(09:28):
It was incredibly hard for themand still is.
The family lived in Somervillefor about five years before they
moved to Everett.
Now, Everett is a smaller cityabout four miles away.
I didn't do a lot of work onthis part of the research, but a
couple notable mentions EllenPompeo, Meredith from Grey's
(09:48):
Anatomy, is from Everett andTeddy Peanut Butter.
That's a Fluffanutter waitin'to happen.
49,000 people in Everett in2022 to Somerville's almost
80,000 in 2022.
The Rosemonds lived near UnionSquare and the Mid Nite
Convenience, about 10 minutesaway.
(10:10):
That is the area where Charlinewould be found, so it was
familiar to all of them.
There isn't a lot about Charlinenot her life that's available
online.
I sent her sister a series ofquestions so I could fact check
and try to tell her story, toadd to her presence.
(10:32):
Her story is upsetting.
Charline was killed, a victimtargeted possibly and the person
or persons who did this to herperhaps planned it, set her up
(10:53):
and they're still out there.
Charline was a driven andfocused woman with big dreams,
dreams that I have no doubt shewould have achieved,
outperformed, making way forwhat she would accomplish next.
A word her sister used abouther is savvy.
At 23, she had mapped out hermoves.
I wish I could have been thatmotivated at 23.
(11:15):
Oh, I was not.
In an attempt to illustrate thekind of person Charline was, a
vibrant, light-up-the-room kindof woman, and I say that about
absolutely no one, but you cansee it in her photos, always the
best-dressed in the room- tothe nines- with that kind,
(11:38):
bright smile.
Charline was a cosmetologist.
She studied that in high schoolas part of the CTE vocational
program as a Somerville Highgrad class of 2004,.
(12:00):
There is a career in graphicarts, drafting, culinary arts,
metal fabrication, healthservices, auto repair.
I'm repeating myself Trades area game changer for many, many
kids, students, young people.
Do not scoff at trade school.
(12:24):
Someone needs to know howthings work, how to make them
work when they stop working andhow to perform services.
Now, this brings to mind thebrilliant South Park episode
from last year, where none ofthe men, the dads, the business
executives, none of them knowhow to do or fix anything, so
they are desperate for thesetradespeople.
It's called "Call the Handymanand I linked it in the show
(12:46):
notes atcrimeofthechewestkindcom.
So trades very good.
One of Charline's passions wasstyling ha hair and her love of
that spilled over to others,like her younger sister, and
Charline knew how to put a looktogether.
She had style, she had presence.
A fashionista.
(13:08):
Is that a good thing?
I don't know if I like thatword.
Demure, oh no, no.
She was chic.
Her favorite show, America'sTop Model.
Music, the great uniter, as Ilike to call it, Reggae was her
thing.
She went to school and studiedbusiness accounting.
She had an entrepreneurialspirit.
(13:30):
She set her sights on openingher own hair salon.
When I think of Charline an theway that I've gotten to know
her a little bit.
I envision her on Shark Tankwith some invention, some beauty
regimen or some hair care item,because let's call it what it
(13:53):
is.
Charline had hustle.
At the time of her death,Charline was working for a car
dealership in Brighton.
She had money saved.
She had a lot of money savedand she took some of it with her
with the plan to look at a carlater in the day.
She left her home on thatmorning of April 6th, speaking
(14:15):
to her mom that night around 7,saying she'd be home.
There was no mention of seeingthat car that was allegedly for
sale.
No one saw or heard from herever again, no one in her family
anyway.
I spoke with Charline's sister,Rose.
With thanks to Emily Sweeney ofthe Boston Globe Cold Case
(14:39):
Files.
There is a new CharlineRosemond Facebook page created
by me, with the permission ofCharline's family.
Rose will be a part of it todrive some new attention and
more presence for her story andto help push this case.
(15:01):
Charline and Rose were veryclose.
They were both living at homewith their parents in Everett
and Rose was expecting a babywhen Charline went missing.
That is a sorrow on a level thatno one should ever have to
experience, and I certainly wishthat they had not had to
(15:26):
experience what they experiencedin 2009, when Charline
disappeared and when Charlinewas found murdered six days
later, and what they have had todeal with since the unknowing,
or at least the longing forsomeone to be held responsible
(15:47):
for what happened to theirsister and their daughter.
I want to thank Rose for takingthe time to speak with me and
answer my questions, becausewhat people who have never
experienced what Rose and herfamily have experienced don't
know or understand is that itdoesn't go away.
(16:08):
Even 15 years later.
15 years have passed sinceCharlene was murdered, 15 years
of hoping and wondering andwaiting and second-guess,
guessing themselves.
That's what we do.
That's our nature as humanbeings.
We break down and dismantleevery single thing that we did
(16:33):
or said before that loved onewent away.
It's very difficult and somefamily members who have
experienced this kind oftraumatic loss, like the
Rosemonds, have speaking aboutit is re-traumatizing.
It is a real thing.
Someone who has had this kindof event.
(16:55):
I'm grateful for her time.
I'm grateful for her having alittle bit of faith in me that I
will do some justice to thisstory.
Coming up is my conversationwith Rosalie Rosemond, sister of
Charline.
Please support Crime of theTruest Kind, and there are a
(17:17):
number of ways to do so.
Listen to the show, tell yourfriends about it, share it on
social media, leave a five-starrating and review on Apple
Podcasts.
Go to the merch store, buy somemerch.
Drop a tip in the jar.
Give the dogs a bone.
Really, my dogs are obsessed.
Become a patron on Patreon withfour tiers starting at just one
(17:41):
dollar.
All links atcrimeofthetruestkind.
com.
When I first heard Charline'sstory or first learned about
Charlene's story, I may havebeen researching another case,
Deanna Cremin's story.
Rose Rosemond (17:57):
They always say Deanna Cremin's and Charline's
case are like the biggestunsolved cases, in Somerville
specifically, and I had heardabout it throughout the years.
But unfortunately it's sad thatonce something similar happens
to you, you hear about it butit's not exactly hitting home,
so it's easy to forget.
However, once your family getshit with that type of you know,
(18:19):
unfortunate situation, that'swhen you start diving in and you
learn so many similar detailson other families.
I know at some point I wastrying to get things together,
maybe with me myself andDeanna's sister, and maybe see
if we could form something Foundout she passed away shortly
after probably not shortly after, but some time ago which was.
(18:39):
It was one of those cases thatif you hear one, you tend to
hear the other, which it seemslike is the case now for some of
them.
Anngelle Wood (18:47):
One of the things I really aim to do when I cover
a case like this and I get totalk to a family member or
someone who knew the person well, is get to know them, to learn
about them.
Charline was on her way toreally great things.
Rose Rosemond (19:05):
She was.
It's interesting that we'retalking about it now, because I
was just talking to my dad abouther, how far she probably would
be in life now.
She was just.
She was always the life of anyparty, any gathering that my
family had.
She was the big sister that Ialways wanted to grow up and be
exactly like till like now, alot of my sense of style, a lot
(19:29):
of the things that I'minterested in, because I had to
kind of like follow her around.
Being that we were two yearsapart, it was kind of like, well
, she can't go, then If I can'tgo, then she can't go.
So I learned so much from herbecause she had to drag me
around pretty much.
And then there are just so manythings that I learned to learn
from her.
And she went to school.
She wanted to open up her ownhair salon.
(19:50):
She was a cosmetologist, tookthat in high school.
I'm not as savvy as she was,but I still remember all the
things that she taught me, evenso long ago that I'm able to
apply it and actually do hair.
Now we had it all figured out.
She went to school for businessaccounting.
She was going to open up thehair salon because I'm not as
hands-on.
I was going to handle the frontdesk and the decorating and she
(20:12):
was going to be the hairstylist.
Anngelle Wood (20:19):
It's unfortunate that we weren't able to see that
play out, but she wasdefinitely everything I wanted
to be.
She had an amazing sense ofstyle.
Any picture that I've seen ofthis woman, she looks incredible
.
Gorgeous all of the time.
Rose Rosemond (20:29):
Anytime we'd go somewhere sometimes it's the
smallest gathering she wouldcome in with the hottest outfit
and people are like, do you know, it's not like the biggest
event and she's like.
Well, I have to dress up, nomatter where it is, you never
know when you're going to seepeople, and she definitely did
that, so it was easy to catchgreat photos of her.
Anngelle Wood (20:44):
And the clothes.
I mean, she had a tremendoussense of style.
She must have had an amazingwardrobe.
Rose Rosemond (20:53):
She did and of course, being the little sister,
I wanted to borrow this.
Borrow that Didn't really goover well, but every now and
then she'd let me wear somethings, but that she definitely
had a great sense of style.
Anngelle Wood (21:04):
Your family seems very close, like you were very
close-knit.
Rose Rosemond (21:07):
We were.
We are very close Me andCharline we are.
We have the same parents.
I do have additional siblings,but they're my mom's children,
but Charline and I were myparents' only two children.
So we always grew up very, veryclose together and we were
always in the same householdfrom the day that I was born.
So we were definitely atight-knit family.
We will always have been.
Anngelle Wood (21:29):
Let's talk about that time when Charline left the
house for that last day.
So, as I understand it, sheborrowed your dad's car.
She had money in her pocket.
And then what came next?
Rose Rosemond (21:42):
That morning she did have my dad's car.
She had been using it for a fewweeks.
She had a car at the time, butthen, I don't know, maybe the
transmission or something blewout.
So she was out of commissionwith that car and was like, okay
, I'll just work on getting anew car.
So for the past few weeks priorto her disappearing she was
(22:06):
using my dad's car to go to andfrom work and my dad didn't have
to go to work that day.
So he let her borrow the car.
And that morning I was sleepingbecause at the time I was eight
months pregnant and my mom andmy sister were in the kitchen.
But I remember hearing theconversation slightly and my mom
did tell me what they end upspeaking about and she had
spoken to my sister and Charlenehad the $4,000 cash on her and
she had brought it to my mombecause she was giving my mom
(22:26):
some money for one of the bills.
So that's why my mom wasvisibly able to see the money
with her.
So before she left the house mymom said make sure you don't
take that money with you.
And she's like oh well, I'mplanning on buying a car after
work.
My friend has a friend that'sselling a car.
So basically, oh well, I'mplanning on buying a car after
work.
My friend has a friend that'sselling a car.
So basically, like I'm going tobring the money with me if I'm
interested, I want to buy thecar immediately, just to make
(22:47):
sure that you know I can snagthe car.
And right before she left thehouse, my mom was like you know,
make sure you leave the cashhere.
Maybe you see the car first andsee if you like it.
Don't walk around with so muchcash on you, because you don't
want people to kill you for themoney, which is crazy that
(23:08):
that's the last thing, like mymom pretty much got to say to
her in you know, seeing her inperson the way that it played
out, because something similarhad happened to a woman in
malden.
So when my mom said that, itwas in reference to like this
happened to this lady, I don'twant you carrying cash, so
nothing bad happens to you.
So she did end up going to work.
The thing is the way that thehouse is set up the front door
is away from the kitchen.
So my mom didn't get to againreiterate like don't bring it
(23:29):
with you.
She had said that and hope thatmy sister didn't.
But in turn she did bring themoney with her.
So she did go to work regular.
Day after work she called mymom and they spoke a little bit,
cause she spoke to my mom allthe time.
Eventually I don't know if mydad just had like a gut feeling
or something.
He called my sister, was like,oh, I need my car to go
somewhere.
He really didn't, but he justwanted her home Again.
(23:50):
I don't know if it's somethingthat a parent just feels like
you know what, safer to be athome.
He called her and said comehome.
She was like OK, I'm at the gym, I'm leaving the gym, I'll be
there shortly.
This was around six, seven inthe evening, so nobody kind of
thought anything of it.
We figured she'd get homeeventually.
The night came and the nightwent and what really stuck out
(24:11):
to us was the next morning whenwe realized she never came home.
Anngelle Wood (24:14):
And that right there had to have been a red
flag, because she's typicallyvery regimented, very
responsible, very veryresponsible.
Rose Rosemond (24:23):
Again, I wanted to always be like my sister.
She was very responsible.
No matter, it was always workhard, play hard, so as hard as
she works she would have a greattime.
But she was always responsible.
She was definitely a scheduledperson.
She was definitely kind ofstrict on exactly if I'm going
to be here at this time I'mgoing to be here.
And another thing was whichreally worried us in addition to
(24:45):
that is my dad is very lenientwith letting us use his car, but
when he needs to go to work thecar needs to be there.
You want to use it on his dayoff, not a problem.
The next day was the day thathe had to go to work and she had
never came home, meaning hewould not have his car to go to
work, and that he had to go towork and she had never came home
, meaning he would not have hiscar to go to work.
And we never did that to my dad.
So my dad knew it was a problembecause we just knew dad will
(25:06):
let you use his car, just got tobring it back when he has to go
to work.
And she didn't.
Anngelle Wood (25:09):
That was out of character for her in every way.
Rose Rosemond (25:13):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And then you know we tried to.
Not I mean, we were freakingout, but we tried to hold on a
little bit.
At this point it's like sixo'clock in the morning because
my mom's an early riser and shewoke me up and said oh, your
sister didn't come home.
I'm thinking maybe she didn'tcome home but maybe she stayed
out, but she'll be back reallyearly.
She has to go to work.
I think she usually left thehouse around seven, seven,
(25:37):
thirty.
Again.
She didn't play about work.
The same way we didn't playabout my dad in his car.
My sister was going to be atwork on time when she worked at
Herb Chambers in Boston and shehad worked there for years, very
reliable.
She was a great employee thereso she would never miss work.
So I said to my parents let'swait till about 7, 30, 8 o'clock
, when it's the time that shetypically would start work.
Why would she skip home andjust go to work?
(25:59):
It wasn't the case.
But we were trying to like notthink the worst of the worst,
because it would make no sensethat she, even if she slept out,
to not bring my dad his car andthen go straight to work from
where she, it just wasn't athing.
But I didn't want to likeassume and my parents didn't.
So once we called her job andwe were like hey, is Charlene
there?
And they said no, we reallyknew something was wrong,
(26:19):
because not only did she notcome home, she didn't bring my
dad's car Now, her being theresponsible person that she is
she didn't show up to work.
That's when my parents startedfreaking out.
Anngelle Wood (26:28):
Just so I get my facts straight how much time
passed before your concernreally started to manifest as
like panic and you thought youreally should get the police
involved?
I mean your family's fromEverett.
She was later found inSomerville where you used to
live.
We'll get into that.
But what was the process foryour family when you finally
(26:51):
decided like okay, we have toreport this?
Rose Rosemond (26:56):
So again, my mom was worried around six.
At the time me and my dadweren't awake, but then
eventually she woke me up, Iwould say after we called her
job, about seven, thirty eighto'clock, still holding out like
maybe I don't know what we werethinking.
We weren't thinking anything.
We just didn't know what tothink.
But we didn't think anythingper se.
We would never think murder.
I know that we would definitelynot think she was dead.
(27:17):
She was dead and so I think Iwould say about 10 o'clock, I
remember I was in my room and Iwas panicking, but again, I'm
younger and I'm not sayingthat's something she would do.
But I'm like I hope she juststayed out extra although she
typically doesn't do that andmaybe she'll just come in and
all of this will blow over.
However, when 10 o'clock came,I'll never forget my dad, and my
(27:39):
dad's a super chill person.
He's usually very optimistic,but he came in my room and he
had tears in his eyes and he waslike, please can you come with
me to the police station?
Like we have to report hermissing.
At that point it turned fromokay, well, she just didn't come
home to like, oh my God, likewe have to file a missing
persons report.
Like is this something thatseems so unrealistic?
(27:59):
Nobody thinks that's going tobe what they have to do.
You see it on TV, you see it onthe news, you see it on shows,
but you never think it'll hithome where you have to go file a
police report.
So we go to the police station,we try to file a police report.
Of course they're like oh,she's 23, she's of age.
What if she just ran away?
We obviously try to reiterateseveral times that this is not
like her.
(28:19):
This is something she wouldnever do.
There was no trouble at home.
It's not like we had any issues.
We're a very tight knit familyand we tried to explain that.
And of course they reallyhonestly they didn't do anything
.
They're just like well, we'lljust wait and see.
We'll wait and see, which wasdiscouraging.
So we took that upon ourselves.
I started calling mutual friendshave you seen her?
One of them ended up sayinglike oh, I talked to her
(28:43):
yesterday.
She was with some people thatwere going to show her like the
Lexus, and she was around theSomerville area.
So of course I'm like oh, letme talk to them.
And so eventually I ended uptalking to the friends that she
was supposedly with.
The thing is like they didn'tshow any concern whatsoever.
Like you know, my sister'sresponsible, me and my dad are
at your house telling you she'smissing.
(29:04):
My dad is crying in tears, likethis is not a normal situation,
yet, very unfazed, they're likeoh yeah, she's probably I don't
know somewhere, I don't thinkshe's just somewhere.
So that was really suspicious.
But at the time, so much ishappening that you don't, it's
kind of like you put it in theback of your mind, you keep it
in your back pocket that this isweird behavior.
However, you're on a hunt tolook for her.
(29:25):
So it's not really like I hadtime to exactly examine it until
like after the fact.
So we're looking for her.
At this point, we're callingeveryone that we know, we start
making missing flyers.
At this point, it's just likefor me, being eight months
pregnant, I and I still am I'mkind of like the backbone of the
family my parents.
It's too much for them to bear,so I do all the heavy lifting.
(29:49):
Not to mention, I was close inage with Charlene.
I knew her mutual friends.
I knew where we hung out,because we always hung out.
My parents had no idea.
Your parents don't know exactlywhere you hang out to know like
, oh, this is the park they goto sometimes.
I knew all that because we hungout as sisters.
So I kind of did all that inprinting out the missing flyers,
like my dad.
It was in between sadness andanger and pain because he's like
(30:14):
why are you printing out missmissing flyer?
She's not missing.
It's like she was missing, butit's like hard for you to accept
.
Why is my daughter on a missingflyer and we're passing it out
to people?
It was just too much for him tohandle.
But we started doing that.
We would call the state policeand they were like we can't help
you, we can't help you, whichwas frustrating because again
they're like she's 23.
She's probably not missing, butwe were trying to say she is
(30:36):
missing, like we're telling youshe's missing, but they wouldn't
listen.
So we just continued for sixdays and the crazy thing is like
despite how much you hang outwith someone or how much time
you spend, it isn't untilsomeone goes missing that you
realize like it's so hard to tryto find where they are.
You think of like the first fewplaces that we typically hang
(30:56):
out and then, once they're notthere, your brain is kind of
foggy, like I don't know whereelse to check, although you know
you've hung out several places.
But the world becomes such alarger place when someone goes
missing and you're looking forthem.
So we continue to look for herand for six days we couldn't
find her.
Each day, in and out, in and out, more family members are coming
trying to help, from like allover, and finally on day six
(31:20):
that's when.
So on day six, we had of familythat by at my house.
By then there were so manypeople just around and my
brother, my dad, gets a phonecall from his cousin who's a
taxi driver.
But my dad is kind of like,again, there's a lot of family,
he can't talk, so he hands thatphone over to my brother-in-law.
(31:40):
My brother-in-law then takesthe phone to a different room
and everybody's just kind of,you know, flyers, people are
eating, trying to keep theirenergy going, so we can continue
to look for my sister.
Finally, at some point mybrother-in-law comes and he
starts calling me and my parentsone by one, and my sisters, my
other sisters that were there,and he's like can you guys all
(32:01):
come in the room?
So it's not again.
The house is packed.
But he specifically wants thedirect folks my parents, me and
my siblings and he calls us intothe room and he closes the door
and he can't speak.
And my dad's just staring athim like what is it?
And he's just staring at us.
He cannot get the words out.
So my dad just says to him isit Charline?
(32:23):
And my brother-in-law justshakes his head, yes, but he's
not verbally saying anything.
And my dad said just tell mewhat it is, is she dead?
And my brother-in-law then saysyes, my mom fell to the ground,
my dad ran outside.
It's like no matter how longit's been once I talk about it,
(32:43):
it's like I feel like I'm backin that moment.
Of course, by then everyone inthe house finds out.
And then right after that, myfriend, her grandma, actually
lived in that building inSomerville where Charline's body
was found behind.
So she called me like fiveminutes after was like I think
(33:05):
we need to call the police.
And I'm like we already know,because she obviously got news.
And so we all headed over toUnion Square in Somerville and
you know, they had it taped off.
It was behind the Mid NiteConvenience Store in Union
Square we all used to go to thatconvenience store because
Charline and I went to LincolnPark Community School, so we
(33:27):
that was just a conveniencestore we frequented, so we knew
the area because we had lived inSomerville for five years prior
to moving to Everett and we gotthere and they had it blocked
off and for me I needed to seethe car.
They wouldn't let us go to thecar but I needed to confirm the
license plate in order for thereality to hit me and so of
(33:48):
course I tried to go to the car.
They wouldn't fully let me goto the car but once I was able
to see my dad's car and confirmthe license plate, that's kind
of when it hit everybody likethis was really real and it was
just.
It was just like a nightmarestarting from then.
It was just like a nightmarestarting from then.
Anngelle Wood (34:02):
At any point during this, these hellish six
days you were looking for her?
Were you ever able to file amissing persons report?
Rose Rosemond (34:10):
No, they never took it as a report.
They would not.
They would not take it as amissing case.
We couldn't get any help.
At the time.
I was calling the news stationstrying to do the story and
again, this is new to me it'snot like every day you wake up
and you're like, oh, I have thisnews anchor that I could just
call.
So a lot of places like youhave to email, a lot of places
(34:31):
you call.
They never emailed back.
You left a voicemail.
There was only one guy I don'tknow his last name or I can't
pronounce it, but I know hisname is Todd and he finally
picked up.
I think he either emailed usback or he picked up and I was
like my sister's missing, canyou do a story?
He was the only news report atthe time that would even
entertain my family, which tillthis day, we are super grateful
(34:52):
because we outreach to so manypeople.
We just couldn't get an answerbut official missing report.
We weren't able to do.
However, we did have Todd whowas willing to run the story,
which he did about my sistermissing, probably a few days in.
So a lot of people were justlike on the lookout for my dad's
car.
The license plate yeah, thatwas pretty much it From what I
(35:14):
know.
I believe someone said thatthey saw her in the car that
morning, kind of slumped over.
Someone that lived in thebuilding said that they saw
someone in the car next to theircar slumped over.
It's a very small parking lot,very tight, so they didn't think
anything of it.
I believe they left.
They either went to church orwent to run errands, something
(35:34):
of the sort, and when they cameback they realized the person
was in the same position, whichis why they then called because
this was abnormal, like I'vebeen gone for hours and this
person's still in the car.
That's what they said.
I don't know if that's exactlythe truth, but that's what I've
heard, which is how we cameabout to finding my sister's
body in the car.
Anngelle Wood (35:53):
What did the investigation into her death
entail?
I mean, were you able toconclude how long she was there?
Because when I think about thatarea Somerville Union Square
it's very populated and I wouldthink someone would notice.
I mean, I hope I would notice.
(36:14):
And I mean, think about it,it's the city.
Parking is unreal.
A car's been there for a while.
It's probably going to gettowed or ticketed.
Rose Rosemond (36:25):
At the very least someone might leave a nasty
note the thing is because shewas found in the driver's seat
of my dad's car, shot in thehead.
How could you have beentransferred there if you were
found shot in the front seat, inthe driver's seat?
It's not the passenger seatwhere someone might've driven
you there.
You were in the same seat.
(36:47):
The blood was in the same area.
So in my mind, all of this tookplace there.
How did it go six days withoutpeople noticing?
It could be a matter of peopleminding their business, but it's
such a tight parking lot Ican't get it's a super tight
parking lot Parking next toanother car.
It's like you might as welljust jump in the car.
So the fact that six days wasable to go by without folks
(37:10):
noticing that this woman wasthere but again, who knows,
maybe people are like, oh, she'ssleeping.
Maybe I don't know what peoplethought, but to me it had to
have taken place there.
I don't know how the six daysended up with no one seeing it,
but based on the facts and Iwatch a lot of crime shows as
well and I'm very into a lot ofit it just seems like it's not
(37:32):
possible for you to have drivenher there because she was found
in the driver's seat.
Anngelle Wood (37:36):
I hear this and my red flags go up.
I think about.
You know, a tow truck driverbeing called.
It was a small lot.
She was there in your dad's carand I'm sure your family has
had these questions and many,many more, but you got no
conclusive information about howlong she may have been there,
how long she may have beendeceased at that point.
Rose Rosemond (37:59):
No, I mean based on what I can remember.
I think they also agree with me.
I can't exactly say like oh,the facts 100 percent state this
, but if I can recall myself aswell as the folks that were
working on the case, do believethat she was there the whole
time.
They do believe she was therethe whole time and they
(38:20):
obviously may have more detailsonto why exactly they think that
.
I think that based on the factsof what I know but they have
further information I may nothave.
However, they do agree with me.
So I think that says a lot thatyou know that she was there the
whole time, which is prettycrazy, I feel like, because I've
been back to that area.
(38:41):
I like to frequent it sometimes.
I don't know just to kind of, Idon't know what.
I think I may be back to thatarea.
I like to frequent it sometimes.
I don't know just to kind of, Idon't know what I think I may
be able to find.
Obviously, it's been 15 years.
Times have changed.
I know they have cameras therenow.
I don't think they had camerasthen.
The convenience store is there.
They have cameras.
Crazily enough, they said thatit wasn't working, that one day,
which was the day that ithappened or around that time
(39:02):
they said it was working, wasn'tworking.
So to answer folks' questionson if there was any surveillance
apparently their cameras werenot working at the time.
That was facing behind thebuilding, which sucks because
you know watching shows andeverything.
Having surveillance a lot oftimes help families solve things
rather easily, but the factthat we didn't have that it was
(39:23):
another roadblock.
Anngelle Wood (39:24):
Well, and nowadays, I mean, our complete
digital footprint is mapped out.
We have a phone.
Yeah, there's typically cameraseverywhere.
We follow people's social mediapathways, right, it's just
infuriating, and I hear you tellme this, and once you clarified
it for me, they wouldn't evenallow you to file a missing
(39:46):
persons report.
Rose Rosemond (39:47):
My dad would call we left, we stopped calling the
Everett police stationthroughout the six days.
My dad would call the statepolice and they would hang up on
him Sorry, sir, we can't helpyou click.
And my dad is like in distress,like please help me.
He's crying, my daughter ismissing, can somebody help me?
And they'd like we can't helpyou and they'd hang up on him.
He'd call back, he'd do itevery day and they would just
continue to hang up on him andat that point we're like we
(40:07):
don't know what to do.
This is not something you planfor.
If you can't go to the police,yeah, she's 23.
But at some point we're lettingyou know like this is not
normal and I mean that it doessuck.
(40:30):
I understand people are adultsand they're able to do as they
please, but at what point arepeople able to report an adult
missing knowing that they arenow doing something that is not
normal?
We know most folks are routinefolks and I just think it just
did a disservice.
I don't know if we would havefound her any sooner.
I don't know, because ifthey're saying that she was
deceased the whole time, maybeit wouldn't have made a
difference.
She could have been deceasedthe same night.
We expected her to come homebut at the same time we would
never know, because nobodyallowed us to file a missing
(40:53):
report and get the extra support.
All of the searches andeverything we did was literally
me and my family and friends.
We didn't get any support bythe community.
We didn't get any support fromthe police station.
On Okay, the first day you wantto say wait 24 hours, but she
went missing six days and we gotno support the whole six days
until after we found her.
Then it was like we startedhearing from news stations, you
(41:14):
know cause.
Now it's like okay, the story'sout there, but I just declined
to speak to them.
We reached out to you guyswhile she was missing.
Now you want to talk to myfamily and she's deceased.
What can you do for me now?
You could have helped when wewere looking for her and you
choose not to reply.
So I did take that personally.
I know this is a business theyrun it but I felt disrespected
that the same news stations Ireached out to prior to finding
(41:35):
her never gave me the time ofday, aside from Todd.
However, right after everybodywas outside and everybody wants
a word and it's like at thispoint we weren't in the mood to
speak to you guys.
We found her deceased.
We wish you guys were able tohelp us much sooner to get the
story out there.
Who knows?
Again, we don't know what theresult would have been had we
had earlier support, but we'llnever know.
Anngelle Wood (41:55):
So here we are.
We're 15 years out.
Charline's murder remainsunresolved.
What kind of information do youget?
Do you get information from theauthorities?
Do you get any kind of updates?
If someone in your family callsto check in, I don't want to
(42:16):
call it support because itdoesn't sound like much is
available to you, unfortunately.
Do you have any means ofcommunication with authorities
about Charline's case?
Rose Rosemond (42:26):
Nowadays.
No, for a good while there wasa detective that was working on
it.
He has since retired.
He was so amazing to my family,like such a blessing.
He worked hard, day in and dayout and even as he's retired he
would call on her anniversaryday and call and say you know,
thanking you guys, even afterretirement.
Calling to say you know,thanking you guys, even after
retirement.
Calling to say you know,thanking you guys.
So one day I did go to thepolice station.
(42:47):
This was maybe five, six yearsago.
I went to the police station.
I had asked for this detective.
At that time they told me oh,he's no longer here, he's
retired, but we have someone newon the case.
I didn't know that because thattook me by surprise, and so I
said OK, let me talk to the newdetective.
The new detective comes outafter a while and we go in the
back, we start talking about thecase and he starts basically
(43:09):
asking me questions.
So I'm giving him the wholerundown again.
If this is the person workingon the case.
He knew nothing about the case,but I knew, but I didn't quite
know it at the time.
I could feel that like he wastrying to mask the fact that he
knew about Charlene's case.
But he kept asking me detailswhere I'm like don't you guys
have that in the file, fastforward.
I left there.
(43:29):
I was super pissed because it'slike nobody's working on the
case.
Like don't lie and tell me thatsomeone's working on the case
and no one's.
So I ended up posting somethingon Facebook, a long paragraph,
pretty pissed off, saying youknow, I went to the police
station no one's working on mysister's case.
They gave me this guy.
He didn't even know anythingabout my sister's case and I
(43:50):
tagged the police department.
They obviously notified thisdetective, who then called me.
He apologized but he did tellme I'm not gonna lie the day you
came in.
I will say I had never evenopened your sister's file prior
to that day, so I didn't knowanything.
So you guys telling me how wehave someone new on the case.
Meanwhile the new person nevereven opened the file, like he
never looked at it again.
(44:10):
They probably like we have newthings to worry about, but this
is something that is literallyhaunting my family and you guys
haven't even had the audacity toopen the file, and so after
that we did keep in touch for alittle bit me and that detective
and you know cause.
I think he probably realized,like how bad that looked.
Not to mention, how are youtaking over a case and you
(44:31):
haven't even opened the file?
He literally told me verbatim Inever even opened her file,
like it's back there somewhereprobably collecting dust and
it's like that's really not whatmy parents and I wanted to hear
.
I understand you may not beworking on it each and every day
.
However, I do think it's asolvable case, but someone has
to be working on it for it to bea solvable case.
I do think it's a matter offolks knowing what happened to
(44:52):
my sister, considering the factshe was supposed to meet up with
a friend to buy a car, like alot of the things kind of align.
However, it's just a proof thatwe don't quite have in order to
figure out exactly whathappened.
But if you're not working onthe case, you're never going to
find out what happened.
What do you think?
A fairy is going to come andtell you what happened?
Granted, I would hope, as wecontinue to get the story out,
maybe someone, even if theydidn't know my family, heard
(45:15):
about this and didn't realize aminor detail that they know
could possibly help us, but atthe same time, I just feel like
if I'm not working on gettingthe story out and the police are
not working on trying to getdetails and access to things
that me as a civilian cannot,we're going to continue to have
it 15, 20, 30 years when it'ssolvable, and these people are
(45:36):
still out there.
This is not going to be thefirst time they kill or the last
time.
Anngelle Wood (45:40):
Do you know or are you, do you have any
familiarity with these peoplethat Charline was set to be out
with when she disappeared?
I do, and do you believe youknow at least some of what
happened and do you believe thatyou know at least some of the
details about what happenedleading up to her murder?
Rose Rosemond (46:03):
I feel like I have a very vague idea.
I don't know.
I just know that you'resupposed to meet up with these
people to buy a car or whateverhang out.
These are the people you'resupposed to buy a car.
I know that it's usually a fewof them at a time.
I know you were shot in theback of the head, which leads me
(46:28):
to believe there were at leasta couple people there.
If I get in the car with you,I'm not sitting behind you, I'm
sitting beside you, unlesssomeone is already in the
passenger side.
So for me I've concluded.
Okay, more than one person,that's for sure.
Two there is someone that wascharged with perjury for my
(46:48):
sister's case and he ended upgoing to jail for about a year
and a half and some change.
But the reason he got calledinto the court of law was
because he provided an alibi forthese folks where the
scientific facts in the towersand et cetera were able to prove
(47:08):
that he was in fact at his ownhome.
He was never with these people.
So basically, he was providingan alibi for these folks.
And why would you be providinga fake alibi if said folks had
nothing to do with the situation?
But there again allows me tofurther conclude that these
people were in fact involved,because why do you have fake
alibis?
If you were really doingsomething, you were nowhere near
(47:30):
my sister and you don't knowanything that happened to her.
Why did you get a fake alibi?
Anngelle Wood (47:35):
One of the many questions that comes up for me,
Rose, about this story.
Was there even a Lexus for sale?
Was the car story real or wasthis a ruse?
Rose Rosemond (47:47):
If I'm not mistaken, I think she had a
picture of a car.
However, I'm not going to liethese folks.
From what I heard, one of them,I think, told someone and this
is, of course, after the fact isthings that I've been hearing.
One of them told someone oh,I'm about to come up on some
money.
Prior to my sister beingmurdered and shortly after my
(48:08):
sister was murdered, this personhad money that they didn't have
before.
Anngelle Wood (48:15):
This is quite a story, Thank you, Rose, but this
is just the first part of thestory.
There's a lot more to tell.
So this is part one of theunsolved murder of Charline
Rosemond in Somerville,Massachusetts, in April 2009.
(48:38):
We are working on.
It is live now.
Who Shot Charline Rosemond?
The name might change I'm goingto leave that up to the family
to decide if they want to keepthat but we will be activating
that page and sharinginformation and reminding people
and jogging people's memoriesabout what happened in that time
(49:03):
frame where Charline wentmissing and was found murdered,
that six-day span in 2009.
Thank you for listening.
My name is Anngelle Wood.
This is Crime of the TruestKind, Massachusetts and New
England crime stories.
I add a little history, tinybit of snark, because that's who
(49:29):
I am and I'm not going tochange now but always, always
advocacy- focused, alwayscentered on the people most
affected, which is thesefamilies.
Support the show, whatever thatlooks like, simply telling
people about it, posting aboutit, sharing the Apple Podcasts
(49:52):
link or the Spotify link or theAmazon Music link or the Good
Pods link.
However you listen, you canfind it on YouTube and come to
the live show next Thursday,October 10th, Off Cabot, North
Shore Crime Cases.
There are certainly a lot ofcases to talk about Salem,
(50:15):
Peabody, Lynn, Beverly, Rockport, Gloucester and we'll see what
we have time for.
If you have a suggestion, emailat crimeofthetruestkind@ gmail.
com.
I feel like there was somethingelse I wanted to tell you.
I have some really interestingshows on the way to collaborate
(50:37):
with a couple of other truecrime creators in the advocacy
space.
Really looking forward to that.
I will tell you more about itas we confirm, well, we've
confirmed.
We just need to set up the timewe're actually going to talk.
Thank you, Rose.
Thank you to the Rosemondfamily, thank you to all of you
for caring about these stories.
(50:57):
I must be going now.
It's been quiet tonight.
Lock your goddamn doors, I meanit.
That's how the bad people getin.
As a reminder as to why I saythat, when you watch some true
crime documentary and they'reinterviewing some killer,
they'll often say I got inbecause their door was unlocked.
(51:19):
Their windows were open.
It was an invitation for me tocome into their home.
So to that I say lock yourmotherfucking doors.
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