American homicide victim, killed at 16 by the boyfriend of her 18-year-old sister, who watched, 1/26/1996. The 19-year-old boy had been sleeping with both girls, all three living together along with other quasi-homeless and unsupervised teens in a house they appropriately called “the dump.”
Stephanie and her sister Heather had been divided as infants when their mom, Carole Melvin, divorced her first husband, Gary Santerre in 1980. Stephanie, just an infant, stayed with her mom and Heather, age three, was moved to her grandparent’s home, the first of a half-dozen foster homes. At times the girls would visit each other in their unstable environs. They dreamed of having a real home together and often pored over home magazines, imagining how they would decorate it.
Heather was a strapping 15-year-old when she met Paul Jones, a long-haired drop-out who worked in an auto-body shop, known for his temper and rebellion. She quit school to move in with Paul in the shabby house he shared with his mom and her three young kids. Stephanie, a slender blonde with wavy hair and blue eyes, had grown into a confident, sexy rebel with a tough shell, accustomed to avoiding her mom’s beaus and husbands and moving to different schools and foster homes. She had a “J” tattoo on one shoulder for her boyfriend, Jimmy.
Unmanageable at home, she moved in with Heather and Paul in July 1995. Both girls tried to return to high school but soon dropped out again, Heather to work as a cashier and Stephanie as a bagger at a supermarket. The kids began to take over “the dump.” The rooms held bare mattresses and were covered in discarded clothes, cigarette butts and dishes caked in grime. Sex was easy, and Paul ruled the place with no opposition until two other boys moved in. All three boys began to vie for Stephanie.
By December, Paul and Steph were having regular sex whenever Heather was away. He played the girls against each other and reveled in his power over them. By January, the tension was beginning to show with all three teens. Paul and Heather began to talk about killing Stephanie.
On 1/26/1996, the house was empty of other people and Paul and Steph got into a screaming fight over his involvement with both sisters. Paul got a bicycle chain from the basement and when the fight became physical with slaps and punches, he managed to get the chain around her neck. Heather arrived home at this time and stood at the doorway and allegedly watched the attack. She ran downstairs and got a trash barrel into which the two kids stuffed Steph’s body. Finding a trace of pulse, Paul strangled her again to be sure that she was dead. When the other kids came home that evening, he whispered to one of the boys that he had done it. Heather reported that her sister was missing and a week later, one of the girls’ friends told the police what she had heard. Police found Stephanie’s body on 2/07/1996 in the Ashby State Forest, partially stuffed in a trash bag. Paul was charged with homicide and Heather as an accomplice.