An illegal immigrant, who has a history of run-ins with the law is alleged to have strangled a 49-year-old teacher’s aide in her Boston, Massachusetts home.
According to the Worcester district attorney’s office, DNA recovered at the crime scene pointed to Jose Melendez, 54, of Worcester. According to prosecutors, the DNA collected from a beer can and Hehir’s clothing matched DNA from a Worcester rape case in 2000, which was never solved, and Melendez was a suspect in the rape case.
Melendez was arrested last week on a warrant out of Lynn District Court after he defaulted on probation that he was serving on a 2014 breaking and entering conviction, according to the office of Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.
Melendez was arraigned in Worcester Central District Court last week on that charge, as well as two Worcester drug cases and a charge of giving police a false name.
Jose Melendez will not have to appear in the public eye at future court hearings
Melendez was shielded by a courtroom door during his arraignment on Monday after a judge allowed a motion by his attorney, Michael Hussey, to keep him out of public view. Melendez will return to court on April 13, and the judge approved the motion for future court appearances.
Any why not? Why does this illegal alien, who is not only in the US illegally, but violated his parole of a conviction of breaking and entering. Has he not already forfeited any right to privacy in this matter? This is an outrage!
Telegram.com reported on friends and family who remembered Hehir.
“All her life she was a very kind person,” Superintendent Maureen F. Binienda said Thursday of Sandra L. “Buffy” Hehir, a middle school instructional assistant. “I really hope that people join together and try to find who did this.”
“She was just a wonderful person,” said John Bradley, Ms. Hehir’s former brother-in-law and close friend. “Very friendly, sociable, very healthy – very into running and taking care of herself.”
“All the kids loved her,” Mr. Bradley said, describing how she would walk to school every day. “She was just a wonderful girl,” Mr. Bradley said, and tough, too. She recently fought off a person who tried to mug her, he said.
If you ever needed a good laugh, she was the one that would give it to you,” said Ms. Gladden. “She really would give you the shirt off her back.”
“She loved kids. She wanted to make an impact on all the kids she taught, and she did,” Ms. Gladden said.
Luisito Portillo Reyes, who said Ms. Hehir was an aide in his freshman algebra class, called Ms. Hehir a “great friend” in a remembrance posted to Facebook. Another former student, who could not be reached online Friday, wrote on Facebook that Ms. Hehir helped her to graduate.
“My heart breaks,” the student wrote. “Everyone loved her so much I can’t believe (anyone) would (want to) harm such a good woman.”
Indeed, it seems a good citizen to the community has lost her life to a long time criminal and so far, all we can see is that the people don’t get to see his face in court.
