American dental assistant who married her boss, dentist and supermarket heir Robert D’Amour. He was killed the night of 3/05/1993 during a major snowstorm. His body was found the next day, shot five times. There had been a prior attempt on his life 12/07/1992. He had been attacked and shot in the back of the head while he was in his car, stopped at a red stop light, 3:00 AM.
Jurkowski was a suspect and was taken to trial. The prosecutor claimed that she had planned the murder with her lover, Alex Rankins, 48, for his $3 million in life insurance. D’Amour was the son of the founder of the Big Y Supermarket chain, but financially and emotionally troubled. He had lost his dentist license in the late ’80s for taking nude photos of his female patients and the case had cost him $250,000 in legal fees. He had married Jurkowski in 1986, his second marriage, and they had three sons, 12, 9 and 5 at the time of his death.
Jurkowski was a 23-year-old dental assistant married to Freddie Swiecanski when she set her sights on bigger game and started an affair with D’Amour. She got pregnant with Paul, their first boy, who was born February 1986. She and D’Amour both divorced and they married 4/12/1986.
At the time of D’Amour’s death, she was having an affair with Rankins, a black man, and had given him more than $100,000 over a period of time. Her love letters to Rankins were submitted as evidence. She was referring to D’Amour by then as a slimeball.
Rankins was convicted of first degree murder and Jurkowski was acquitted of conspiracy to commit murder.