I'll Be Watching You (44 page)

On January 6, 2002, a decomposed body was found in the woods off Route 138 in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, just over the Connecticut border.
(Photo courtesy of the Connecticut State Attorney’s Office, Hartford, Connecticut)

Hopkinton Police Department Detective Kevin McDonald, one of the first on the scene, points to where the body, later identified as Carmen Rodriguez, was discovered bound and wrapped in plastic garbage bags.
(Author photo)

Carmen’s badly decomposed body had gone unnoticed for what turned out to be nearly four months.
(Photo courtesy of the Connecticut State Attorney’s Office, Hartford, Connecticut)

These ropes were cut from Carmen’s body.
(Photo courtesy of the Connecticut State Attorney’s Office, Hartford, Connecticut)

Dental records later proved that Carmen was hit in the mouth at some point during the altercation that killed her.
(Photo courtesy of the Connecticut State Attorney’s Office, Hartford, Connecticut)

Renowned forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee testified that these plastic garbage bags had been carefully wrapped around Carmen’s body and stapled tightly so no animals could get at the body.
(Photo courtesy of the Connecticut State Attorney’s Office, Hartford, Connecticut)

Edwin Fales Snelgrove—the last person seen with Carmen—was arrested on January 24, 2002, three weeks after Carmen’s body was discovered. To everyone’s surprise, however, Snelgrove was arrested for trying to kidnap a different woman.
(Photo courtesy of the Hartford Police Department)

Authorities believe Snelgrove used this vehicle to kidnap Carmen Rodriguez and later murder her.
(Photo courtesy of the Connecticut State Attorney’s Office, Hartford, Connecticut)

While searching Snelgrove’s house, law enforcement uncovered these bizarre Styrofoam heads, which they believe Snelgrove used to practice strangling females and fulfill his sexual fantasies when a live victim wasn’t available.
(Author photos)

Authorities also found this stapler, which they believe Snelgrove used to staple the garbage bags he put Carmen’s body in. Oddly enough, forensic scientists found a pubic hair—not Edwin’s or Carmen’s—on the stapler. (
Photo courtesy of the Connecticut State Attorney’s Office, Hartford, Connecticut)

After the Rodriguez family buried Carmen, they made it their mission to see that Snelgrove was brought to justice for her murder. The bottom photo shows a laminated tag the family wore to court every day.
(Photos courtesy of Kathy Perez and the Rodriguez family)