Victim: Lisa LaChance, 16
Age at time of murder: 16
Crime date: June 14, 1982
Crime location: Swansea
Weapon: Knife
Murder method: Stabbing nearly 30 times
Convictions: Murder in the first degree
Sentence: Life without parole (LWOP) later reduced to 15 years to life
Incarceration status: Incarcerated at the Northeast Correctional Center
Summary
Bousquet stabbed Lisa to death and left her in the woods. She was not found until two years later. The jury did not agree with Bousquest’s self-defense claim and convicted him of Lisa’s murder. He was sentenced to LWOP but his sentence was reduced when the Massachusetts Supreme Court declared juvenile LWOP unconstitutional. Bouquest’s parole has been denied.
Details
COMMONWEALTH vs. CHRISTOPHER R. BOUSQUET
On June 14, 1982, both the defendant and the victim were sixteen years old. The victim had sold some hashish to the defendant and the two of them went into the woods in Swansea to smoke the hashish together. At some point, the victim took out a knife and demanded that the defendant turn over his money. The defendant pulled out his own knife, which had “brass knuckles” attached to it. He punched the victim and, in so doing, cut his own thumb. He then stabbed the victim in the face. The victim tried to flee, but the defendant pursued her. He continued stabbing the victim all over her body, until the knife blade curled over. The defendant then kicked the victim several times and threw his knife into the woods. Before he left, the defendant took the victim’s “compact,” in which she had placed the money the defendant had given her for the hashish.
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Over two years later, the victim’s skeletal remains were discovered, along with some clothing and personal items. The victim’s parents identified the items as those of their daughter. The skeletal remains were identified as those of the victim. Joseph Amaral, when he heard about the discovery of the victim’s remains, telephoned the police to report that he had found a knife in the same area. Amaral turned the knife over to the police and explained that he had had to straighten out the blade, which was bent like a fish hook when he found it.
In November of 1986, Karl Tyas contacted the police. Tyas was one of several people to whom the defendant had boasted about how he had killed a girl. Detective Robert Furtado of the Swansea police department and Sergeant Natale Lapriore of the State police then went to the defendant’s place of employment and asked the defendant if they could speak with him. The defendant agreed and accompanied the police to the Bristol district attorney’s office. The officers advised the defendant of his rights in accordance with Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). They then told the defendant that there was evidence linking him to the victim’s murder. The defendant denied that he was involved. Sergeant Lapriore then said, “Chris, she must have really pissed you off to do that to her.” The defendant said, “Yes, she did,” and then gave the officers a full account of the murder, as outlined above.
Lapriore and Furtado placed the defendant under arrest. They asked him if he would repeat his confession on videotape, and the defendant agreed. The officers again gave the defendant Miranda warnings and then videotaped his entire confession.
The following day, they obtained a search warrant for the defendant’s house. In the defendant’s bedroom, Lapriore discovered a compact. The victim’s stepsister and one of the victim’s friends both identified the compact as one that had belonged to the victim.
Swansea father opposes parole for his daughter’s killer
SWANSEA, Mass. (WPRI) — A Swansea man is still grieving after his 16-year-old daughter was murdered by a classmate in 1982. Now, he is preparing for the convicted man’s second parole hearing in Natick Thursday morning.
In 2013, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that juveniles convicted of first-degree murder can be eligible for parole hearings after serving 15 years.
Richard LaChance said his daughter, Lisa LaChance, was missing for more than two years before authorities found her body. He said given the nature of the crime, the murderer shouldn’t even be considered for parole.
“This was a brutal murder,” he said.
Lisa LaChance and Christopher Bousquet were 16-year-old high school classmates who met in a wooded area to smoke hashish after school in June of 1982. In 1986, two years after LaChance’s remains were found, Swansea police received a tip from an informant linking Bousquet to the murder. Police questioned him after receiving the tip and he admitted that he had killed her.
He claimed that while they were in the woods, LaChance pulled a knife on him and tried to rob him, so he pulled out a knife of his own and attacked her, ultimately stabbing her nearly 30 times. Bousquet admitted that he had used LSD earlier that day and had been a substance abuser since age 15. He avoided suspicion until police received the tip several years later but, after confessing to them, he was charged with first-degree murder and put on trial.
After a jury rejected his claim of self-defense he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
“You can’t let a guy like that go,” Richard LaChance said Wednesday night.
LaChance said his daughter will never get a second chance, so Bousqet shouldn’t either.
“I’m always angry,” he said. “What am I going to do, forgive him? No way I’m going to forgive him.”
LaChance said his dream was to walk his little girl down the aisle one day.
“I loved her and I wish she was here,” he said. “All I get to do is bring flowers to her grave.”
He is now begging the state to stop making him relive his darkest days with parole hearings for the man who murdered his daughter.
“I wanted grandkids, she was the only one I got,” he said.
LaChance is planning on reading a letter at the hearing on Thursday against Bousqet’s parole. Documents obtained by Eyewitness News show that Bousqet’s last parole request was denied for multiple reasons, including the inmate’s own testimony at the hearing.
Current Swansea Police Chief George Arruda told Eyewitness News that a retired member of the department who worked the case has also submitted a letter to the parole board strongly opposing Bousquet’s release.
The hearing is set for 10 a.m. Thursday.
