Suspect in killing of woman caught Man found at trailer in Hampden

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BANGOR – After he strangled a woman to death on Cape Cod and stuffed her body in the trunk of her husband’s car Sunday night, 20-year-old Leonard Giroux jumped on a bus and sought refuge at his uncle’s Hampden home, police said Tuesday.

Maine drug agents who were familiar with Giroux quickly located him and by 8 a.m. Tuesday, David Giroux’s dilapidated trailer in a mobile home park in Hampden was surrounded by drug agents and Hampden police officers. Meanwhile, detectives from the Massachusetts State Police headed to Hampden.

By Tuesday afternoon, after a brief appearance at 3rd District Court in Bangor, Giroux, a small-framed young man with a crew cut, was on his way back to Massachusetts in the back seat of a Bay State police cruiser. This morning he is scheduled to make an appearance in Falmouth District Court charged with the murder of 40-year-old Cheryl L. Tavares of East Wareham.

Thought to be originally from Massachusetts, Giroux had strong ties to the Hampden area and was well-known to police there, Hampden Police Chief Joe Rogers said Tuesday afternoon.

Neighbors said Giroux showed up periodically, sometimes spending several weeks at a time at his uncle’s home at Crestwood Mobile Home Park off Route 1A in Hampden.

Giroux’s mother lives in Bourne, Mass., and Giroux frequently travels back and forth between there and Hampden, officials said. Massachusetts detectives said his criminal record in the Bay State is extensive and includes assault and drug violations.

Area drug agents said he was involved in drug activity in the Bangor area as well, which is why they knew where he might be when notified early Tuesday morning by Massachusetts State Police that he was wanted for murder and may be in Maine.

Though police believe the murder occurred Sunday night, Tavares’ body was not discovered until about 8 p.m. Monday, when police received a tip that led them to a vehicle in the commuter parking lot near the Sagamore Bridge in Bourne.

At about the same time that police found her body, Tavares’ husband reported her missing, police said.

Rogers said Leonard Giroux arrived at his uncle’s home sometime Monday afternoon.

Police said the murder was not drug-related.

Prosecutors in Massachusetts said Tavares and her husband went out for a drink Sunday night. He went home and she stayed out, which was not unusual for them, according to a report in the Cape Cod Times.

She was last seen at the Fan Club, a bar on Route 28 in Wareham where Giroux was also seen that night, officials said.

Travares reportedly worked at a Cape Cod hair salon. She was the mother of three sons.

After receiving information that Giroux might be at his uncle’s home, Hampden police and Maine Drug Enforcement agents staked out the trailer during the early morning hours.

“At about 7:45 a.m. a female came out of the trailer and at first said [Leonard Giroux] was not in there, but later indicated to us that he was,” Rogers said.

David Giroux initially told police they could not come into the trailer and denied that his nephew was there.

“But just a short time after that, the two men both came out. Lennie came out with his hands up and was arrested without incident,” Rogers said.

Police secured the trailer, on Lot 12 of the park, and searched it late Tuesday afternoon.

It was not immediately known what they were looking for, but police indicated that it would be for anything that might connect Giroux to the Massachusetts murder.

Giroux spent the entire day in a back room at the Hampden police station, where Massachusetts State Police detectives questioned him.

Finally at about 3 p.m., he agreed to waive extradition, freeing police to transport him back to Massachusetts.

From Hampden, Giroux was taken to District Court in Bangor, where he met briefly with Bangor attorney Peter Bos, who was appointed by the court to represent Giroux at the hearing.

Judge Jessie Gunther asked Giroux a series of questions to assure he understood the extradition process and then, along with Giroux, signed the extradition waiver.

Detectives immediately placed him in the back of a cruiser and headed back to Massachusetts.

Giroux was wanted on warrants issued from Maine district courts in Bangor and Newport after failing to appear in those courts on charges of disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and theft. The first two charges stemmed from an incident on Jan. 21 in Bangor where Giroux allegedly discharged a fire extinguisher inside a motel, caused a commotion and taunted several other people to fight him.

One man staying on the same third floor at the Fairfield Inn told police that Giroux was in the hallway challenging people and boasting that he was the “No. 1 fighter in the state,” while another man said Giroux threw a large metal object at his door.

One week earlier, Giroux was charged with stealing DVDs from someone in Newburgh, although the DVDs were returned, said Penobscot County Deputy District Attorney Mike Roberts.

Roberts said that both charges in Bangor were dropped while the theft charge was in the process of being dropped Tuesday afternoon, as a result of the Massachusetts murder charge.

– NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli contributed to this report.