Elderly Woman Was Found with 60 Stab Wounds Under Mattress. Now, Her Killer Learns Fate By Nicole Acosta

A Rhode Island man was sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing an elderly woman and leaving her body under a mattress.

The sentence, which includes the possibility of parole, was handed down to 28-year-old Matthew Dusseault at Providence Superior Court on Nov. 18, local news outlets WJAR and WPRI reported from the courtroom.

In January, Dusseault was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2016 death of 81-year-old Constance Gauthier, according to a press release from the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office.

Gauthier was found with more than 60 stab wounds under a mattress at her home in Woonsocket, R.I., on March 23, 2016. Police went to Gauthier’s home after a neighbor reported seeing her through the bedroom window lying unresponsive on the floor, the release states.

Police said the home looked like someone tried to make it seem ransacked, but nothing was actually taken, per the release. DNA samples collected at the crime scene were later linked to Dusseault, after a police swab matched the samples. Prosecutors did not share a motive.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha remembered Gauthier as a “vibrant, active woman whose life was tragically cut short.”

“I can only hope that those who loved her feel a sense of closure knowing that justice has been served,” he said in the release.

Dusseault was 18 at the time of the killing and his attorney previously argued his client should be considered for parole due to his age, WJAR reported.

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He has maintained his innocence over the years and spoke in court during his hearing. “For the past seven years, I’ve been labeled as a criminal and treated like an animal, I ask where’s the justice in this world,” Dusseault said, per WJAR.

Following the sentencing, Gauthier’s niece, Sandy Paul, said she’ll “never understand” the “brutality in how she was taken,” WPRI reported.

“It’ll never be enough. She’s not here.”