The murders of Charlene Ranstrom and Brenda Warner
Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire · 1988
Overview
Charlene Ranstrom, 48, and Brenda Warner, 32, a couple, were found dead on the morning of October 3, 1988 in their second-floor apartment at 7 Mason Street in Nashua, New Hampshire. The medical examiner ruled both deaths homicides caused by multiple stab wounds. Police arrested a neighbor from the apartment below, Anthony Barnaby, 21, within days. He confessed after a roughly 20-hour interrogation and later recanted. Between 1989 and 1990 three juries failed to reach a verdict, and prosecutors chose not to try him a fourth time. David Caplin, 25, who was staying in Barnaby's apartment, was charged in 1990, but in 1991 the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld rulings that excluded the hair evidence and his earlier testimony, and the charges were dropped. Both men returned to Canada. In 2010 a Nashua detective reopened the case with the state's Cold Case Unit. Retested evidence and new and old witnesses led to new murder charges in April 2011. After a four-year extradition fight both men were returned to New Hampshire in May 2015. Caplin pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder on February 14, 2018. Barnaby entered an Alford plea to two counts on August 22, 2018, maintaining his innocence.
How it was solved
The 1988 case had suspects from the first week, so the cold-case work was never about finding a name. It was about building a case that could survive what had broken the first one. Police arrested Barnaby on October 5, 1988, and he confessed after a roughly 20-hour interrogation, but he recanted and three juries deadlocked. The Nashua Telegraph reported that prosecutors dropped the charges against Caplin because courts threw out much of the evidence against him, and the New Hampshire Supreme Court's 1991 opinion shows why: an FBI examiner could not say whether seven hairs from the scene were Caplin's, and a lawyer's mistake at a hearing during Barnaby's trial made Caplin's testimony inadmissible. In September 2010 Nashua Detective Sgt. Frank Bourgeois attended a cold-case school and then asked the state's Cold Case Unit to take another look. According to his 2011 affidavit, three laboratories retested the old evidence. One reported that blood on a denim jacket was consistent with Warner's DNA and hair on the jacket was consistent with Caplin's, and the FBI laboratory found five hairs consistent with Caplin's DNA. Police also re-interviewed witnesses and found others, including people who said Barnaby had talked before the killings about killing the women, and one who could corroborate details of his disputed confession. The Associated Press and the Telegraph both described modern DNA techniques and new witnesses as the basis for the 2011 charges. The DNA work, though, was corroboration of suspects named in 1988. It did not identify them. It also had limits: at Barnaby's plea hearing Judge Jacalyn Colburn acknowledged the lack of DNA evidence linking him to the killings and that several witnesses were dead or had moved to Canada. Caplin pleaded guilty on February 14, 2018, and agreed to give prosecutors a truthful account. Barnaby, facing a fourth trial, entered an Alford plea on August 22, 2018. Sources differ on small points: the Attorney General's office dates Caplin's first arrest to 1988 while the Telegraph dates his murder charge to June 1990, and the state's 2018 press release gives the year as 1998 in its headline and 1988 in its text.
Sources
- Pair from Canada charged in 1988 stabbing murders of two Nashua woman (April 13, 2011)
“Since police already had their suspects, the investigation was able to quickly focus on proving their guilt, Bourgeois said.”
- Barnaby plea anticipated (August 22, 2018)
“Barnaby undergoes a roughly 20-hour interrogation by police; his lawyers argue the confession he eventually gave was the result of the unusually lengthy interrogation.”
- Deposition begins for witness in murder cases (March 9, 2017)
“Barnaby and Caplin were suspected and arrested following the murders, but neither was ever convicted. They returned to their native Canada, only to be rearrested several years ago after a Nashua police detective reopened their cases and discovered new evidence.”
- Caplin to plea in double-murder (February 9, 2018)
“The women reported Barnaby and Caplin harassed them, slashing their car tires, and even stealing their cable.”
- Landmark plea deal sends Nashua cold-case murderer to prison for at least 7 1/2 years (February 15, 2018)
“Caplin, 56, agreed to plead guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, in exchange for two prison terms of 10-20 years each, to be served consecutively.”
- Plea deal sends Barnaby to prison for 4.5 years (August 23, 2018)
“An Alford plea, described by court officials as very rare, allows Barnaby to maintain his innocence, while agreeing to serve his sentence and abide by other terms of the plea agreement.”
- State v. Caplin, 134 N.H. 302 (June 5, 1991)
“Agent Deedrick steadfastly refused to render such an opinion, and testified that it was impossible for him to say whether or not the hairs came from Caplin.”
- Extradition and Arrest of Anthony Barnaby (May 12, 2015)
“At approximately 7:30 am, on Monday, October 3, 1988, Brenda Warner and Charlene Ranstrom were found dead in their home at 7 Mason Street, Apartment D, in Nashua. The medical examiner at the time, Dr. Roger Fossum, determined that their deaths were homicides, caused by multiple stab wounds.”
- David Caplin Pleaded Guilty to 1998 [sic] Murders (February 14, 2018)
“The Nashua Police Department re-opened their investigation into these murders in 2010, with the assistance of the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit.”
- Canadian Man Sentenced In 30 Year-Old Nashua Double Murder Case (August 23, 2018)
“Judge Jacalyn Colburn, in accepting the plea, said she recognized the challenges facing the state including the lack of DNA evidence linking Barnaby to the killings as well as the fact that several witnesses were either dead or had relocated to Canada.”
- Canadian Man Due In New Hampshire Court For 1988 Killings (May 2015)
“Caplin and Barnaby, Micmac Indians, were working construction in Nashua when 48-year-old Charlene Ranstrom and 32-year-old Brenda Warner were bound, beaten and stabbed to death in their home.”