Searchers find body of missing woman

Search teams last night found the body of a Spencer woman who had been missing for nearly a month, buried in a shallow grave behind an abandoned school.

Cheri O. Robinson was reported missing by coworkers at Allegro MicroSystems in Worcester on May 15.

Police went to her home on School Street, where they encountered her husband, Paul W. Robinson . During a stand off, Robinson admitted burying his wife somewhere in the woods behind the former Pleasant Street School in Spencer. He then fatally shot himself.

Tim Connolly, a spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., said authorities found the body about 345 yards from the rear of the school yesterday evening, not far from Paul Robinson's parents' home.

Connolly said search efforts were slow because the area behind the school spans 70 acres of densely wooded, hilly terrain.

In recent weeks, State Police, local authorities from across the region, and volunteer search teams had repeatedly combed the area without success.

Yesterday, more than 80 people searched the woods for nine hours before finding the body.

"It was a hilly, muddy, overgrown . . . area," Connolly said. "They had been through there several times and [the grave] hadn't been found."

News of the death and suicide had shocked the neighborhood, where the couple was well known.

The couple's landlord, Pauline Allen, who lived next door, said in an interview shortly after Paul Robinson killed himself that the news was "scary" and a "shock."

Spencer police Chief David B. Darrin said in a press statement yesterday that he hoped the discovery would "offer some closure to family."

Connolly said officials did not give a cause of death. An autopsy has been scheduled for today.

Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com.