Victim's life torn by abuse, upheaval, her parents say

WOONSOCKET, R.I. -- For a fleeting moment, captured in an undated family photo, Stacie Goulet seemed to have captured the domestic tranquillity and peace that had eluded her for most of her 25 years.

Seated on a living room floor, Goulet is beaming as she holds up a just-unwrapped Christmas gift, a 40-piece set of flatware. Her boyfriend, Steve, is smiling just a few feet away, holding their red-headed son, Dana, in his arms.

But in reality, Goulet's life was much harder. It ended earlier this month, law enforcement officials say, at the hands of a local serial killer who allegedly preyed on prostitutes in this mill town.

Sitting in their small living room yesterday, Goulet's parents, Ray and Debbie Boerger, said that their daughter had been trying to turn her life around in recent months, after learning that she was expecting her third child.

''She wanted to go back to cosmetology school, which she had started once but never finished," her mother said. ''She wanted to change. This guy took that away from her."

The Boergers said they were told by police this week that their daughter's remains were found in a Johnston, R.I., landfill after a six-day search in which police officers combed through tons of rotting garbage. A police car pulled up in their driveway at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday with the news, Ray Boerger said.

During court proceedings, state prosecutors have said that, even though he has not been charged, 33-year-old Jeffrey S. Mailhot of Woonsocket is the prime suspect in the disappearances and murders of Goulet and two other women, Audrey L. Harris, 35, and Christine C. Dumont, 42.

Woonsocket police have so far said only that a ''major part of our search for evidence" in their case against Mailhot had ''come to a conclusion" with the landfill discovery. A spokesman for the Rhode Island Bureau of the Attorney General said yesterday that the new evidence will be presented in Providence District Court during a hearing tomorrow in which Mailhot's attorney will seek to have his $200,000 bail reduced.

Mailhot has been held at the Adult Correctional Institution in Cranston, since last week, when he was charged in a separate assault and battery case with attempting to choke two local women.

Mailhot's court-appointed lawyer, Robert Mann of Providence, declined to comment on the case.

Mike Healey, a spokesman for the Rhode Island attorney general's office, said investigators were also probing whether Mailhot may have played a role in the disappearances of four other Woonsocket women who have been missing since the mid-1990s.

The Boergers said yesterday that their daughter did the best she could after surviving a harsh childhood and enduring a life in which she could never seem to catch a break.

Goulet moved around to live with various relatives as a young girl after her parents split, and she was sexually abused twice, first at age 7 by an acquaintance of her mother's and then at age 14 by a male relative, Debbie Boerger said. Her parents later reconciled. Goulet dropped out of high school in her early teens, more interested in boys than getting a diploma, her mother said.

Her father said Goulet seemed preoccupied with finding someone who would take care of her and treat her well.

''She was always asking me: 'Dad, when will I find a nice guy? How will I know when he loves me?' " he said. ''I said, 'When you find it, you'll know.' "

She thought she had found it in 1997, her parents said, when she met Steve Kreig, a local roofer. They moved in together and had two children: Dana, who is now 6, and Kimberly, who is 3. The relationship didn't last, however, and Goulet, who had trouble keeping a job, eventually agreed to give up custody of the children to Kreig and his new wife.

Relatives said yesterday that the children are just now beginning to understand that their birth mother is gone.

The Kreigs have had to remove the cable box from their television to head off Dana's frequent attempts to turn on the news to hear about her. Kimberly was recently given a new doll and named it ''Stacie," relatives said.

Goulet's forays into prostitution only came recently, her parents said, and her three arrests for solicitation all happened within the last year, when she was under heavy pressure to pay child support.

''I told her to be careful," her mother said. ''But she just said: 'I can take care of myself. Nothing's going to happen to me.' "

Globe correspondent Jack Encarnacao contributed to this report.