Introduction
On May 30, 1999, 66-year-old Angela Spence Shaw was found dead in the bathroom of her home in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Her friend had gone to check on her after Angela failed to arrive for work at a local greenhouse.
The scene raised several questions. There were signs of a violent attack, but no evidence of forced entry through the front door. A hairdryer was running in the bathtub, and water had leaked from the house into the driveway.
At first, investigators struggled to understand why anyone would target Angela. She was a grandmother with close friends, a loving family, and no known enemies.
The investigation eventually focused on people who had access to her home during renovations. DNA evidence and a suspicious request involving a pair of work shoes helped police identify the killer.
Who Was Angela Spence Shaw?
Angela was 66 years old and had lived in Little Compton for about 20 years. Originally from England, she had built a life in the Rhode Island seaside town.
Her husband had died eight years earlier, leaving her living alone. However, she remained close to her family and friends.
Her son Gerard lived about 30 minutes away with his wife and children. Angela regularly visited them to help care for her grandchildren. Her other son, Justin, lived in Washington, D.C., while much of her extended family remained in England.
Angela also had an active life in her community. She rode horses at local stables, belonged to a garden club, and worked part-time at a greenhouse.
Renovations at Her Home
About two months before her death, Angela had started renovating her house. She wanted to add a wraparound sunroom where she could grow plants and give her grandchildren more room to play.
The work brought noise, dust, and a steady stream of construction workers into her home. Angela looked forward to the day when the renovations would be finished and she could enjoy her privacy again.
However, the unfinished construction would later become a crucial part of the murder investigation.
Angela’s Last Night Before the Murder
On Saturday evening, May 29, 1999, Angela had dinner with Gerard and his family. She then drove home to Little Compton.
Because it was the weekend, the construction crew was not working. Angela expected a quiet evening without workers moving through her house.
She entered her gray, two-story home, went upstairs, washed up, and prepared for bed. She had an early shift at the greenhouse the following morning and wanted to get enough rest.
Within about 30 minutes of arriving home, she was asleep.
Investigators later determined that the fatal attack occurred during the early hours of Sunday, May 30.
A Friend Discovers the Crime Scene
At around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Angela’s best friend, Sally Craig, received a phone call from one of Angela’s coworkers at the greenhouse.
Angela was about an hour and a half late for work, and nobody could reach her by phone. Her absence was unusual because she was normally dependable.
Sally had not spoken to Angela that morning, so she offered to drive to her house and check on her.
The Strange Water on the Driveway
When Sally arrived, she noticed a thin stream of water running down the driveway. It had not rained recently, making the sight unusual.
She walked to the front door and knocked. Nobody answered.
The door was unlocked, so Sally opened it and stepped inside. She called out for Angela but received no response.
Then she heard a strange whirring sound coming from upstairs. It sounded like a small motor running.
Concerned about her friend, Sally followed the noise to the upstairs bathroom.
What she saw made her scream.
Angela was dead in the bathtub, and a hairdryer was running in the water.
Sally immediately sought help, bringing the case to the attention of the Rhode Island State Police.
Police Find Signs of a Violent Murder
Lieutenant Steven Lynch arrived at Angela’s home and began examining the scene with other investigators, including Detective Sergeant Steven Bannon.
The front door showed no obvious signs of forced entry. The rooms downstairs were tidy, and the windows appeared intact.
But the upstairs bedroom told a different story.
Blood in the Bedroom
Investigators found blood on the carpet and along the baseboards near the bed. A bloodstained pillow and pillowcase lay beside the bed, which had been stripped of its sheets.
Blood trails led from the bedroom to the attached bathroom.
Angela’s body was found near the bathtub after investigators removed it from the water for examination. She had suffered severe injuries to her face and body, making her difficult to identify at first.
The amount of blood and the nature of her injuries suggested that she had suffered a brutal assault.
The Hairdryer in the Bathtub
The running hairdryer initially raised the possibility of an accident or suicide. However, the physical evidence did not support either explanation.
Angela’s injuries were too severe to be explained by an accidental electrocution. Investigators believed the hairdryer had been placed in the bathtub to make the death appear accidental.
The running water also explained the strange stream Sally had noticed on the driveway. Water had leaked through the floorboards while the bathtub faucet continued running.
The scene suggested that someone had attacked Angela and then tried to disguise the murder.
DNA Evidence Reveals a Sexual Assault
The medical examiner confirmed that the body belonged to Angela Spence Shaw.
During the examination, investigators recovered semen, indicating that Angela had also been sexually assaulted.
The discovery gave the investigation an important new direction.
Police considered whether robbery could have been the motive. However, jewelry and a wallet containing approximately $500 remained in the bedroom.
The attacker had apparently ignored valuable items.
Lieutenant Lynch believed the extreme violence might point to someone with a history of violent behavior, particularly violence against women. But Angela’s family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers knew of no obvious enemies.
Investigators needed to find someone who could have entered the house without attracting attention.
Two Early Suspects Emerge
Local police provided investigators with two names that appeared relevant to the case: Stanley Gendreau and Ben Farrow.
Both had histories that attracted the attention of detectives, but neither had yet been linked conclusively to Angela’s murder.
Stanley Gendreau
Stanley Gendreau had been convicted of an earlier murder in Little Compton. According to investigators, he had stalked a local girl before killing her with a rock.
He had been paroled in 1980, and his parents lived across the street from Angela’s home.
However, officers who visited his parents learned that Stanley had been in the area shortly before Angela’s death and had subsequently disappeared. His parents did not know where he was.
His past and unexplained absence made him a person of interest, but police still needed evidence connecting him to the crime.
Ben Farrow
The second person of interest was Ben Farrow, a registered sex offender with a history of violence.
When Lieutenant Lynch visited him, Ben appeared nervous and uncomfortable. Before the detective had fully explained the investigation, Ben insisted that he had not killed anyone and did not know Angela.
He also said he did not want his wife to return home and find police at the door.
Lynch asked Ben to provide a blood sample. Ben agreed and appeared eager to cooperate.
At that stage, investigators had no confirmed DNA match connecting him to the murder. They continued examining other possibilities.
The Unfinished Sunroom Becomes a Key Clue
That evening, Lieutenant Lynch returned to Angela’s house to examine the property more closely.
The absence of forced entry had initially suggested that Angela might have known her attacker. But the investigation was increasingly focused on people who might have entered without her permission.
Lynch inspected the unfinished sunroom at the back of the house.
Several window frames still lacked glass. He climbed through one of these openings and entered the construction area.
Inside, he found piles of wood and building debris. Part of the rear wall was covered with a plastic tarp.
When he pulled the tarp aside, he discovered an unfinished doorway leading directly into Angela’s home.
There was no door blocking the opening.
Who Knew About the Hidden Entrance?
The discovery changed the investigation.
Someone could enter the sunroom through an empty window frame and then walk directly into Angela’s house through the unfinished doorway. The person would not need to force open the front door or break a window.
Two groups could have known about this entrance.
Stanley Gendreau might have noticed the construction from his parents’ home across the street. The construction workers, however, knew about it because they had been working on the renovation.
Police now had a specific reason to investigate the workers who had access to Angela’s property.
Police Question the Construction Workers
There were 23 construction workers connected to the renovation. Investigators began interviewing them to establish where they had been on the night of the murder.
Two workers received particular attention early in the investigation: Craig Reicher and Jeremy Motyka.
Craig Reicher’s Alibi
Craig Reicher had worked on the unfinished doorway connecting the sunroom to the main house.
When Lieutenant Lynch visited him on May 31, Craig appeared surprised to learn that Angela had been murdered. He said he had not known about the crime because the crew had last worked at her home on Friday.
Craig told Lynch that he had spent Saturday night at home with his girlfriend.
However, he could not identify any calls or other events that would independently confirm his whereabouts. Lynch wrote down the girlfriend’s name and phone number so investigators could follow up.
Craig’s hands showed no obvious cuts or bruises that would suggest a recent struggle.
Even so, Lynch did not immediately rule him out. Investigators still needed to verify his account.
Jeremy Motyka’s Account
Jeremy Motyka gave investigators a different timeline.
He said he had spent the early evening of May 29 at home alone. Around 9 p.m., he went to a neighbor’s house for drinks and returned home around midnight.
After returning, he said he spoke with a friend on the phone before falling asleep.
The following morning, Jeremy drove to Cape Cod to spend the day with his girlfriend, Patricia, and her family.
Detective Sergeant Bannon contacted Jeremy’s neighbor and girlfriend. Both supported parts of his account, but the investigators could not independently account for every hour between his return home and his arrival in Cape Cod.
Jeremy appeared cooperative, and nothing in the initial interviews established that he had committed the murder.
Police continued investigating all 23 construction workers while also searching for Stanley Gendreau.
Stanley Gendreau Is Brought in for Questioning
In the first week of June, investigators located Stanley Gendreau with help from detectives who specialized in tracking violent fugitives.
By then, police had interviewed all 23 construction workers. Many had strong alibis, and investigators had not matched the distinctive shoe prints found near Angela’s property to any of them.
During questioning, Stanley remained calm. He said he had spent the night of the murder at his apartment reading a book.
He denied involvement and agreed to provide a blood sample and take a polygraph test.
His calm behavior and willingness to cooperate did not establish his innocence. Nor did his criminal history prove that he had killed Angela.
Investigators still needed physical evidence or reliable testimony that could identify the person responsible.
Then someone connected to the investigation arrived at the police station with information that would change the case.
A Suspicious Request Raises Questions About Jeremy
In the days following Angela’s murder, Jeremy Motyka asked his girlfriend, Patricia, to do something unusual.
He wanted her to take a pair of his work shoes from their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, and store them at her parents’ house in Cape Cod.
Patricia initially followed his request and brought the shoes to Cape Cod.
However, she began reconsidering Jeremy’s behavior. When she had seen him after his arrival in Cape Cod, he had appeared extremely hung over. She started to wonder whether his condition might have been connected to something more serious.
Patricia eventually took the shoes to the police and shared her concerns about Jeremy.
Why the Shoes Mattered
Jeremy had reportedly seen police taking impressions of shoe prints near Angela’s property.
Investigators believed his request to move the shoes might have been an attempt to hide potential evidence.
There was an important distinction, however: the shoe prints collected at the scene did not match Jeremy’s shoes. They matched someone else’s footwear.
The shoes alone did not prove that Jeremy was the killer. But his request to move them raised new questions about his actions after the murder.
More importantly, investigators already had another form of evidence to examine: the DNA recovered from Angela’s body.
DNA Evidence Identifies the Killer
The decisive evidence came from the blood sample Jeremy had agreed to provide during the investigation.
Laboratory testing showed that his DNA matched the DNA profile obtained from the semen recovered from Angela’s body.
This result connected Jeremy directly to the sexual assault and provided investigators with powerful evidence against him.
His earlier cooperation had allowed police to obtain the sample, while Patricia’s decision to report her concerns had helped focus attention on his behavior.
The evidence brought the investigation to a conclusion.
Jeremy Motyka was convicted of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
What Investigators Believe Happened That Night
Based on the witness accounts and forensic evidence described in the case, investigators reconstructed the likely sequence of events.
During the early hours of May 30, the attacker entered the unfinished sunroom through an empty window frame. The person then passed through the open doorway into Angela’s home.
The attacker went upstairs to the bedroom, where Angela was asleep.
According to the reconstruction, the attacker brutally beat and strangled her before sexually assaulting her.
The attacker then moved her body to the bathtub, turned on the water, and placed a running hairdryer in the tub. These actions appeared intended to make the death look accidental.
The attacker also removed the bedsheets and took them away before leaving through the same unfinished entrance.
Later that morning, Jeremy drove to Cape Cod to visit his girlfriend and her family.
This account represents investigators’ reconstruction of the crime rather than a complete record of every movement that night. The forensic evidence and subsequent investigation were central to establishing Jeremy’s guilt.
How the Case Was Solved
The investigation shows how several separate clues can become meaningful when examined together.
Access to the House
The unfinished sunroom provided a way into Angela’s home without forcing the front door. Because the construction workers knew about the opening, investigators had a concrete reason to question them.
Physical Evidence
The blood in the bedroom, the stripped bed, and Angela’s injuries indicated a violent attack rather than an accident.
DNA Testing
The DNA match linked Jeremy to the sexual assault. This was the most direct forensic evidence described in the case.
A Witness Who Reported Her Suspicions
Patricia’s decision to bring the shoes to police helped investigators examine Jeremy’s behavior after the murder. Her information did not independently establish guilt, but it contributed to the investigation.
Together, these leads helped police move beyond suspicion and identify the person responsible.
Conclusion
Angela Spence Shaw’s murder shocked the quiet community of Little Compton in May 1999. She was a grandmother who enjoyed gardening, riding horses, and spending time with her family. Nothing in her everyday life suggested that she was in immediate danger.
The unfinished sunroom became an important part of the investigation because it gave the attacker a way into her home. Interviews with construction workers, a suspicious request involving work shoes, and DNA testing eventually led police to Jeremy Motyka.
The case demonstrates the importance of preserving physical evidence, checking alibis, and following up on information from witnesses. A person’s behavior may raise questions, but reliable forensic evidence is essential when investigators need to establish what happened.
For Angela’s family and community, the investigation brought an answer to the question of who was responsible for her death. Her case remains an example of how careful police work and DNA analysis can help solve a violent crime.