Can You Help Solve the Horrific Murder of Little Michelle Norris?
Read Time:2 Minute, 32 Second
by Michael John Scott
It was a beautiful day in May, when Michelle Norris, a precocious seven-year-old, decided to hang with her two brothers at a nearby school playground. After a day of fun, the boys came home but said they lost track of their little sister. Tragically, four days later, Michelle was found naked and badly beaten. So far, no one has been arrested for her murder.
May 26, 1988, was a fine Rhode Island afternoon in the Central Falls busy suburban neighborhood and no one noticed anything out of the ordinary when Michelle vanished.
It wasn’t uncommon to see the local kids playing at the school. Michelle’s grandmother lived on the same block and regularly kept an eye on Michelle and the children. On that day in May, however, her granddaughter didn’t come home.
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Once it broke that Michelle had gone missing, authorities flew into action, with neighbors and family members joining in a massive hunt for answers. After four frantic days, a searcher came across Michelle’s remains under a tree. Her clothes lay neatly folded next to her body. She had suffered a horrific sexual assault and died from asphyxiation.
The worst case scenario had come true. Then, as justice proved elusive, it got worse.
Investigators initially looked hard at William Norris, Michelle’s father, who no longer lived in the family home. Julie Harris said she split from William over his alleged alcoholism, but that he still visited Michelle about once a week.
In a note to the police, William wrote that he picked up Michelle from the playground and drove the child to her grandmother’s house, but he didn’t actually see her go inside. If true where did she go?
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William ended the note by stating that Michelle seemed distracted by a friend of hers across the street, who was on a porch with a man “who I didn’t know” a curious claim indeed since no one else in the neighborhood corroborated his account.
Police Sergeant Derrick Levasseur — who grew up in Central Falls and personally knows many of the individuals involved in this tragedy — is joined by forensic psychologist Kris Mohandie to embark on a fresh pursuit of justice for Michelle Norris.
Derrick and Mohandie talked to Michelle’s mother, brothers, friends, local residents, and others with first-hand involvement in the case. Among the duo’s most stunning discoveries is the possible identity of that “man on the porch,” how dangerous he is, and how he may be the key to learning the ultimate truth about what happened to Michelle.
In the meantime, this case remains open and very active. If you have any information regarding the unsolved murder of Michelle Norris, please contact the Rhode Island State Police at (401) 444-1046.
For more on the Michelle Norris case, watch the “Little Girl Lost” episode of Investigation Discovery’s Breaking Homicide on ID GO now!
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There are times when I wish I was rich enough to go to the places and try to help. During my 30 years of working capital cases I became quite good at solving the cases after they had grown cold. Most of the cases were at least two years old but I found that I was really good at recreating the crime scene and correctly relating what had happened. I was not always successful in clearing the client but I found that the police in a lot of these departments had simply gotten lazy or were just massively untrained. In a number of cases I was able to show that it was not a capital case even though the defendant was charge with capital murder. The D.A.s became quite irritated at me.