Rhode Island Closes Decades-Old Cold Cases With Confession Letters, DNA Advances By Christina Coulter

Debra Stone was discovered strangled and dumped in a river in 1984; 23 years later, Cynthia McKenna was found suffocated in her North Providence apartment. Now, after decades without answers, Rhode Island authorities say both women’s killers have finally been identified through new forensic work.

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced Wednesday that Robert J. Corry Jr. was responsible for McKenna’s death, while Robert D. Geremia killed Stone. Both suspects died years ago — Corry in 2014 and Geremia in 1995 — so neither can face charges, according to Neronha’s Office.

According to The Providence Journal, The Boston Globe and Rhode Island Current, McKenna had filed domestic-violence charges against Corry in 2005, though the case was later dismissed after she failed to appear in court.

Per the investigative report, McKenna, 49, was found “tucked tightly in her bed with two pillows over her face,” with a sock in her mouth and tissues in her nostrils. The state medical examiner ruled she died from “asphyxia due to obstruction of the airway by a foreign body.”

Her apartment manager told police she’d been at odds with a man she called “Gunner,” later identified as Corry. Investigators intercepted letters Corry wrote in 2007, apparently confessing to the murder.

A document examiner and handwriting analyst later determined the letters were Corry’s “genuine writing,” and new Y-STR testing in 2024 linked DNA from a direct male relative to the envelope, confirming the confession, per the AG’s report.

“Her absence has always been magnified during the major milestones in my life, but it’s in the small day-to-day moments where all is quiet, that I miss her the most,” McKenna’s daughter, Jaclyn, said in a statement. “The late-night phone calls, her always wanting just ‘one more’ hug, packing me a brown bag lunch with my name on it for a big meeting at work. This is the end of the criminal investigation, not the end of her memory.”

In Stone’s case, the 24-year-old’s body was found wrapped in a floral sleeping bag with a cinder block attached, floating in Narragansett’s Narrow River on Sept. 2, 1984. She was last seen Aug. 29 after visiting Geremia at his Johnston apartment.

An informant later told police he helped Geremia move her body and said Geremia admitted he “had to” kill Stone because she was stealing, according to the AG’s office.

A re-examination by the Cold Case Unit determined Stone was strangled, not overdosed as Geremia had claimed, and that witness statements from 1984 remained consistent decades later. Detectives interviewed 32 witnesses over 11 months and found there was “then, and there is now, more than sufficient evidence to charge and convict Geremia,” though he died before any arrest could be made.

Narragansett Police Chief Kyle Rekas said in the release: “For over four decades, Debra’s family remained without answers after her life was tragically cut short. Through re-examining evidence and re-interviewing witnesses, our collaboration with the Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit has delivered answers for all who loved Debra.”

Neronha called the findings a reflection of renewed resources for unsolved homicides. The Cold Case Unit, created in 2023, has documented more than 150 cases and is currently working 21 open homicide investigations, with forensic-genealogy results pending in three, according to his office.