Maureen was born June 14, 1982, in New London, to Marie Ducharme of Groton and late William A. Vieu Sr. Maureen lived with her mother and stepfather Stepfather Robert Senecal.
Maureen’s siblings include a sister, Melissa Vieu of New London; a Brother, William A. Vieu Jr. Who passed away due to a motorcycle accident; and a half-sister, Bryona Senecal.
- Marie Ducharme (mother), worked in a nearby hotel
- Bob worked in lumber, and occasionally as a mechanic.
2003, he died on Maureen’s twenty-first birthday. He was walking on a train trestle late at night, tripped, and drowned in the shallow water where he had fallen.
Marie quit her hotel cleaning job and got a job at Mohegan Sun as a slot attendant. It helped her afford the down payment on a tan Ford Taurus, which allowed her to drive to a second job cleaning offices. From that
point on, she was rarely home. Maureen and her younger sister and brother, Missy and Will, would take care of one another.
Maureen dropped out of high school when she was sixteen, As soon as she learned she was pregnant. She became a mother at 17 and married Jason Brainard-Barnes in 1999. They moved into Jason’s grandparents’ place in Pawtucket,
then went south for two years when Jason enlisted in the army.
2001 They came back to Mystic, but the marriage fell apart only lasting two years, but there were no fights and no lawyers. Without drawing up papers, they decided that Caitlin would live most of the time at her
father’s place in Mystic, where the schools were better.
Maureen got a job at Foxwoo, went through Black Dealer School offered at Foxwoods and moved in with her sister, Missy, and her children in Branford Manor housing development in Groton. The three of them were reunited—Maureen,
Missy, and Will grown up, each with their own children.
2004 Maureen moved out of Missi’s place and moved in with her new boyfriend, Steve, who ran a pawnshop in Norwich. Tall with a mustache and beard, Steve was white but dressed and talked ghetto. He never wanted to be
around Maureen’s friends or family, not Missy and Will. Their relationship seemed strained almost from the start.
She had been using MySpace to market her music and network with other rappers when she noticed ads for modeling there. Those ads led her to a site called ModelMayhem.com, inviting her to send in a portfolio bookers
could reference. She’d found a friend to take some photos for free, as long as he got to keep the negatives.
After she enrolled on ModelMayhem.com, she started getting dozens of e-mails from places purporting to be modeling agencies that, after a few clicks, turned out to mean nude modeling and sometimes escorting. She wasn’t
exactly surprised. What surprised her was the money. However Maureen did not want to share the money with the agency, so she started advertising on Craigslist.
Advertised under Juliana or M5c1f.webp?size=96)
Maureen posted her ads on the Eastern Connecticut/Adult Services page of Craigslist for a few years, but there was a problem: all the men she saw were either working or attending the Foxwoods casino where her Mom Mari
was working.
2005 Maureen met a Chrissy—a boy dressed as a girl. Chrissy invited Maureen on her first trip to New York. But Maureen’s plans to NY halted when Maureen got pregnant. Steve was a good father. Maureen returned to work
at the Casino, but it didn’t last long.
2006, the relationship fell apart, and Maureen left Steve. But Steve was paying all the bills, and Maureen had nothing. She picked a telemarketing job at Atlantic Security but didn’t pay enough, so Maureen started providing
massage services. But it wasn’t enough, and Maureen was facing an eviction if she didn’t come up with $1200 by July 10, 2007. The court was scheduled for July 10, 2007
July 6, 2007, Maureen, her friend Sara Karnes, and Mat (Steve’s friend and Maureen’s bodyguard) traveled to Manhattan by train. As soon as they arrived at their hotel room, they learned their Craigslist ads were flagged
as inappropriate.
July 9, 2007, 10 am – Maureen only made $700, which wasn’t enough to pay her back-due rent. So Maureen decided to stay, but her friends Sarah and Mat were not fond of that idea, but Maureen refused to leave.
July 9, 2007, at 11:43 p.m., Maureen called Sarah Marquis to tell her she was going to meet someone outside of the motel. (edited)
July 14, 2007, Sara reported Maureen to the Norwich Police Department. The NYPD assisted the Norwich Police Department in the missing person investigation, eventually taking it over.
Maureen Phone Records
Cellphone data indicates that LISK started calling Brainard-Barnes on July 6th, which was the Friday that she traveled to Manhattan. This means that he may have spotted her ad and initiated contact before it was suspended.
Considering they had 16 separate interactions over that weekend period, it seems plausible that they were haggling over the particulars of an outcall. It is also possible that this outcall was the sole reason that she
decided to remain behind by herself when her friend returned home.
Cellphone activity
Brainard-Barnes was picked up outside the Super 8 motel shortly before midnight on July 9th, 2007. Her last cellphone activity occurred near the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge (59th Street Bridge). Coordinates: 40.756861,
-73.954445
Map of Cell Phone Activity:
December 13, 2010 Brainard-Barnes was found on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach GPS Coordinates: 40.757108, -73.981304
- Her killer had restrained her using three leather belts, one of which had been tied around her legs.
- One of the belt buckles contained a single strand of female hair that did not belong to the victim.
- This hair was later proven to have the same mitochondrial DNA profile as Rex Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup.
- According to the police, the belt buckle may have picked up Ellerup’s hair while it was inside the couple’s residence.
Computer and a Cop
When Norwich Police Detectives went through Maureen’s computer, they discovered the officer was one of the last people to contact Maureen through Craigslist. No name of the officer was released.
I went through old archives and found an article on two cops; one got arrested during a sting operation, and the other was stripped of the gun and was placed on modified duty.