Court orders release of sealed documents about Catholic teen's murder

Published: 2004-07-30

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) -- The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court July 27 ordered the release of most of the sealed court records pertaining to the unsolved 1972 murder of Catholic teenager Daniel Croteau. The only suspect ever publicly identified in the case is a recently laicized Catholic priest who knew Croteau and who in 1992 was convicted of molesting a minor. The sealed records were documents from the 1972 police investigation that were submitted to the courts in 1993 when Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett sought a search warrant to take a sample of blood from then-Father Richard R. Lavigne, a suspect in the murder. Lavigne -- who is registered with police as a Level 3 (highest-risk) sex offender -- was defrocked last year by a decree from Pope John Paul II.

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