The mystery surrounding the death of Lori Lee Malloy has haunted her daughter, Lauren Lee Malloy, for three decades.
In 1993, when Malloy was just an infant, her mother was found dead in her East Providence apartment by the police. Initially investigated as a homicide, the death was later ruled natural by a medical examiner who has since been discredited. The case was briefly reviewed in 2020 but never officially reopened.
Malloy is convinced her mother was murdered. She has fought for years to have the case reopened and now devotes much of her time to helping those with similar experiences through Unsolved R.I., which she founded in 2021. The organization has partnered with regional and national groups to gather information, share updates and keep these cases in the public eye.
“I’m grateful for that now because it gave me real insight into the process and helped me see opportunities to do things better,” Malloy said. “I’m fortunate to work with an ethical, intelligent, compassionate group.”
The existence of Unsolved R.I. illustrates what Malloy and others say is a problem in the Rhode Island justice system: there is no dedicated statewide unit to investigate major unsolved crimes. Unless new evidence comes to light, much of the investigative legwork is done through a network of nonprofits and amateur detectives who keep hope alive through the sharing of new leads and theories.
“We absolutely need a statewide unit,” Malloy said. “There is certainly a want and need in the community for this type of effort.”
These pleas have not gone unheard. In December, the R.I. Office of the Attorney General requested an additional $349,960 in its next fiscal budget to create a four-person cold case unit in the office’s criminal division.
The request noted that while prosecutors “are able to process new evidence discovered for cold cases on a rolling basis, given their demanding caseload, it is an unfortunate reality that upcoming filing deadlines and court appearances take precedent.”
Brian Hodge, spokesperson for Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, says the office is prosecuting more than 14,000 open cases, a majority of which are major felonies. This brings the present caseload of the average prosecutor to about 250 apiece, which Hodge said is “an all-time high.”
Still, the proposed $13.8 billion budget released by Gov. Daniel J. McKee included increases in funding for various other departments but level-funded the attorney general’s office for the second straight year.
“The state police has a team that works on ‘cold cases’ in collaboration with the attorney general’s office,” said Matthew Sheaff, a spokesperson for McKee. “Members of the state police Major Crimes Unit are all assigned cold cases in addition to their normal caseload.
“We’ll continue to discuss this topic with the AG’s office for the next budget cycle,” Sheaff added.
In response to the governor’s office assertion that the state police investigate cold cases, Hodge said while it's true that detectives in the Major Crimes Unit are assigned unsolved cases as part of their regular workload, he took issue with the characterization that this in any way equates to what Neronha is seeking.
“There is no cold case unit. There is not a team that is dedicated to this,” he said. “Any assertion or implication that there is a cold-case unit is just wrong.”
Advocates for the AG’s cold case unit point to the success in nearby Bristol County, Mass., where the district attorney created a unit in 2015.
Gregg Miliote, spokesperson for Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III, says the cold case unit collaborates with local police departments and the Mass. State Police and has two full-time investigators and other staff who pitch in when available. Using the latest in forensic technology, the unit has solved five rape cases in the past year, in addition to multiple unsolved homicides. In 2021, using DNA left at the scene, the office solved the 1991 murder of Berkley resident Howard Ferrini. New evidence implicated now-deceased mobster Kevin Hanrahan.
With technological advances now available, Miliote says it’s vital that law enforcement agencies have the resources to juggle more recent investigations with unsolved crimes, which leave behind friends and family members that “are living with these [tragedies] for a very long time.”
And while Rhode Island is small, the lack of such a unit seems starker when compared with other states. Hodge says the attorney general’s office has less than half the number of state prosecutors than Delaware has, which has a smaller population. The same is true for the Washington, D.C., office, which does not handle adult criminal prosecutions, yet has 670 staff and over 300 attorneys.
“As it is, this level of caseload is unsustainable,” Hodge said. “Our office is not able at present to commit dedicated resources to focus solely on unsolved cold cases, nor will it be in the foreseeable future.”
Because there is currently no statewide management of cold cases, it can be difficult to track how many cases remain unsolved in Rhode Island.
“But we know it is in the hundreds,” Hodge said.
Meanwhile, Malloy continues her fight for answers. A state judge last November approved a motion to exhume her mother’s body, which took place at an East Providence cemetery in early February. The body was undergoing a forensic examination, but Malloy said as of Feb. 6, she had not received confirmation that the case has been reclassified as a homicide.
“This is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever gone through,” she said. “But I’m happy my mom is getting a second chance at justice. I’m also grateful for this experience because it’s allowed me to learn more about my mom than I ever thought I would.”
(Story updated to include the R.I. Office of Attorney General's response to the McKee administration's explanation of why funding for a cold case unit was not included in the proposed fiscal 2024 state budget.)
