Tears, disbelief engulf
Chicopee community

By June Greig and Ted LaBorde

Chicopee ­ Terry Grimaldi cried.

She was one of dozens of Williman­sett residents who waited outside the apartment at 980 Chicopee St. yester­day as police investigated the shotgun slayings of two adults and a child.

Four bodies were carried out.

Police said Daniel Bessonette of Holyoke went to the third-floor apart­ment early yesterday morning looking for his former girlfriend, Karen Du­pont, who was not there. He shot her son, Keith, a pupil at Lambert-Lavoie School, her sister Karina Twombley, and Twombley's boyfriend, Jesse Mitch­ell, before turning the shotgun on himself.

Residents astonished

Residents of this blue-collar com­munity of homes and businesses said they were astonished by the brutal killings. “It is a shock,” said Joe Brow, a cook at C & T Pizza, 982 Chicopee Street. “This is a quiet neighborhood. This was unusual.”

Grimaldi said she knew both sisters.

The sisters, who had attended Chic­opee Comprehensive High School in the mid-80s, were living together in fear.

Both had obtained restraining orders against their ex-boyfriends. Dupont had obtained such an order Monday night, hours before the slayings.

A resident of 269 Chicopee St., Grimaldi said she knew the sisters for years, dating back to when they lived on Grattan Street.

She heard about the shooting on the radio and rushed to the scene.

Bonnie Benard of 990 Chicopee St. heard about five gunshots and scream­ing just before 5 a.m. Almost immedi­ately, there were six cruisers on the scene, she said.

She said she had also noticed a police officer parked on Chicopee Street at two different times Monday night around 9 p.m. Police records show Bessonette was served with the restraining order at 9:20 p.m.

Brow said the victims were regular customers at the pizza parlor.

Victim ‘cool guy'

He said he knew Mitchell for more than a year, but did not know the others. “He was a pretty cool guy and would come in and hang out,” Brow said. “I guess last night that guy Dan (Bes­sonette) was over,” Brow said. “Until that, everything was fine.”

Robin Gosselin of Chicopee St. said she used to hang around with Twom­bley and thought she was a nice per­son. She said she was also aware that Twombley was having trouble with an ex-boyfriend.

Sisters fled abuse

Twombley had obtained a restrain­ing order against her former boy­friend, Stephan Cormier Sr. of Worces­ter, and that case was due in court yesterday.

A Chicopee Street resident who asked to remain anonymous said he once dated Dupont and that she had lived on the street for about a year after moving from Grattan Street.

He said he had heard rumors to “be on the lookout” for Bessonette, who had made threats to damage Dupont's car.

The curious continued to walk and drive past the building at the corner of Chicopee and Riverview Place after police left the scene yesterday morn­ing.

Twombley attended Chicopee Comp­rehensive High School from 1984 to 1986. Dupont graduated from the same school in 1984.

Courtesy of Springfield Union-News 9/30/92

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