Almost 30 years after a teenage girl was strangled with a bicycle chain, sealed in a trash bag and left in the woods by her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, the Massachusetts man involved in her killing has been denied parole.
In 1996, Heather Santerre, 18, had become jealous that her boyfriend, Paul Jones, 19, was having an affair with Santerre’s younger sister, 16-year-old Stephanie Santerre. Jones’ lawyers claimed that Heather Santerre bullied Jones into a plot to kill the 16-year-old, according to the Boston Globe.
They began searching for spots to dump Stephanie Santerre’s body.
On Jan. 28, 1996, Jones and Heather Santerre worked together to kill Stephanie Santerre.
Jones lured Stephanie Santerre into his bedroom under the guise of having sex, according to the parole board. He bound her with duct tape, gagged her and strangled her with a bicycle chain. They put her body in a trash bag and left it in a wooded area in Ashby.
Heather Santerre reported her sister as missing, according to the Globe.
Stephanie Santerre’s body was found on Feb. 7, 1996 with a bicycle chain still wrapped around her neck and her ankles and wrists still bound with duct tape.
Jones’ fingerprints were found on the duct tape.
On April 11, 1997, Jones was convicted of first-degree murder in a jury trial in Middlesex Superior Court. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, in January 2024, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Commonwealth v. Mattis that sentencing people, ages 18 through 20 at the time of their offense, to life without the possibility of parole was unconstitutional and amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Massachusetts was the first state in the country to transform the law, experts said.
“Essentially, the brains of what we are calling ‘late adolescents’ or ‘emerging adults’ function very much like juveniles,” Northampton attorney Paul Rudof, one of the lawyers who successfully challenged life sentences for individuals aged 18 to 20, told The Republican.
There were 210 cases that fell into the Mattis decision across Massachusetts, including Jones.
Jones, now 49, went in front of the parole board for the first time on July 30.
During his time incarcerated, Jones has had 37 disciplinary reports. The most recent disciplinary report was in 2023 for a positive drug screen.
The board stated it is most concerned with Jones’ level of insight and accountability regarding the offense.
“Given the nature and circumstances of this offense, the Board reviewed the facts of the offense and his motivation for committing the offense,” the parole board wrote. “The Board was troubled with his responses. He appeared to lack insight and candor, calling into question his level of rehabilitation.”
Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Lynch spoke in opposition to parole during the hearing.
The court’s Mattis decision has been devastating for the families of those killed as they are forced to relive the trauma, often going in front of the parole board and the incarcerated individual to make their own case.
Families have described the process as a “nightmare,” stating they feel betrayed and that the system is treating murderers as victims while their own pain is ignored. One family member during a different hearing walked out, feeling as if his side wasn’t being fairly heard after the incarcerated individual was told they did a good job.
The parole board has so far granted freedom to about 35 people, which is a significant majority of those who have had hearings and decisions released. About 15 people have been denied parole following the Mattis decision.
The Board encouraged Jones, who is currently living in MCI-Norfolk, to engage in multiple programs, including Victim Empathy, which he was on waitlist for at the time of the hearing. The Board also encouraged Jones to invest in programming and/or self-development to advance his insight and address the board’s concerns.
He can ask for another parole board hearing in four years.
