Celina Cass, 11. N.H. deceased

[Lady Cop]

Boston Herald
COURT DATE: Eunice Richards, above, pictured last summer in Stewartstown, N.H., says she was questioned by New Hampshire prosecutors Friday about her son, Wendell Noyes, before a grand jury hearing testimony in the death of Celina Cass.

A grand jury in northern New Hampshire heard testimony last week about the murder of 11-year-old Celina Cass, the Herald has learned, with two witnesses saying prosecutors grilled them about Wendell Noyes, the estranged husband of the girl’s mother.

Noyes’ mother, Eunice Richards, 77, said prosecutors put her on the stand at the Coos County Superior Court in Lancaster for hours Friday, hammering her on his whereabouts and activities the last night Celina was seen alive — and about anything he said after her disappearance.

“They just kept asking over and over and over and over. It was a living hell that day, just going through the mess that woman put me through,” Richards said, referring to the line of questioning by a prosecutor she identified as New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young, who has been the public face of the investigation since Celina vanished.

Richards, of Canaan, Vt., stayed overnight at Celina’s West Stewartstown home the July night the girl disappeared. After an intensive weeklong search, divers found Celina’s body near a dam in the Connecticut River, about a quarter mile from the house.

Richards said she saw her son only in passing the night Celina was last seen, and that she went to bed about 8:30 p.m.

She said Young asked her persistently about anything Wendell Noyes said after the girl’s disappearance.

“He didn’t say much to anyone,” Richards told prosecutors.

Celina’s mother, Louisia Noyes, separated from Wendell Noyes shortly after the girl’s body was discovered.

Noyes, who now lives in Colebrook, N.H., has said he does not know what happened to Celina. Wendell Noyes could not be reached for comment.

Eunice Richards said the others summoned to court include another son, Josh Richards, his wife, Telina, and Noyes’ sister, Winny O’Neil. Josh Richards, 39, of Clarksville, N.H. confirmed that his wife and sister were subpoenaed but questioned outside the grand jury.

Telina Richards did not return calls requesting comment, and Winny O’Neil could not be reached.

Josh Richards said he agreed to provide a DNA sample, and that “about 80 percent” of the prosecutors’ questions had to do with his brother, Wendell. Investigators also asked about his brother’s past, Richards said, including prior relationships with women.

Noyes was charged with threatening to throw a former girlfriend down a flight of stairs in 2003, according to court records. He was ruled incompetent for trial and committed to a mental institution.

“They asked an awful lot of questions about Wendell,” Josh Richards said. “They made my wife cry, they made my sister cry. We didn’t go there for that. We went there to help.”

“Wendell — I talked to him yesterday. I asked him point blank: Do you know what happened to her, do you know who killed her? He said no.”

Prosecutors, he said, did ask whether he knew Kevin Mullaney, 23, who lived in Celina’s home along with her older sister and mother, Louisia Noyes. Mullaney is the son of Louisia Noyes’ current boyfriend. His attorney, Wendy Roberts, has declined several requests for comment.