American Roman Catholic priest. A well-liked ecclesiastic, ordained in 1966, he was called “outstanding” and “inspirational.” He was arrested 10/21/1991 on charges of raping two boys and indecently assaulting another. He received a suspended sentence and ten years probation and was ordered to enter an inpatient psychiatric program. Father Lavigne, 51, agreed to never again serve as a parish priest.
The pending charges aroused the re-opening of a 20-year-old murder case, that of 13-year-old altar boy Danny Croteau who disappeared 4/15/1972. At age 12, he had disappeared and his body was found strangled with a piece of clothesline and bludgeoned. The D.A. was convinced that the homosexual priest was responsible for the bludgeoned, strangled death of Danny Croteau but did not seek indictment as key pieces of evidence had been destroyed. Danny was a former alter boy, he was one of five boys in his family, all of whom had served the church as altar boys at the mass. When the investigation began in 1991, three of Daniel’s brothers said they had been sexually molested by Father Lavigne.
Pope John Paul II made the decision to defrock the former priest on November 20, 2003 and notified the appropriate local authority, Bishop Thomas Dupre, on January 9, 2004. Lavigne was removed from active ministry in 1991 when he was charged with sexually abusing children. He remains the prime suspect in the murder of Danny Croteau in 1972.
Link to Wikipedia biography