Stephen Marfeo’s suicide

It was still dark in the early morning hours of Saturday, July 31st, 1999. It was the dead of night (around 3:00 or 4:00AM). A state trooper had noticed a sportscar that was parked in an unusual spot in a remote area in the woods about 40 minutes northwest of Hartford, Connecticut. He called in the car’s plate and description to dispatch and they shot back over the radio that the registered owner of the vehicle was Stephen Alan Marfeo, a 50-year-old white male, and that he was wanted for murder. He was to be considered armed and dangerous. He had shot two people in Rhode Island just a matter of hours before, and he had fled the scene. They were about 2 hours away from the scene of the crime.

The trooper called for backup, but didn’t wait. He got out of his patrol vehicle and approached the car. He saw some movement. He yelled some orders. But it was too late. A shot rang out. The trooper found Stephen slumped over, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. Stephen was mortally wounded.

EMS arrived and the paramedics worked in vain to save his life. As the sun was rising at 6:00AM, Stephen died at Hartford Hospital.

It appeared that the decision to take his own life had been planned well in advance—Stephen had left a will in the vehicle and written instructions for his funeral arrangements. He also wrote a note that explained his decision to take his own life and how sorry he was for the people he hurt.

Laura Vincent and Salvatore arriving home and getting killed by Stephen

Stephen had been living with his mom in Johnston, Rhode Island—a suburb west of Providence. His mom recalled that her 50-year-old son was home more than usual because he wasn’t dating anyone. On Friday night—the night of the violence—Stephen left around 9:30PM with an overnight bag.

Stephen took his Pontiac Firebird and drove 10 minutes to another nice suburban neighborhood in nearby North Providence. He parked his car near 103 Homewood Avenue—the address of a man named Sal Puleo. It was there that he waited for Sal and his girlfriend, Laura, to return home.

Stephen and Laura had dated off and on for 4 years, but Stephen had ended things with her for a final time in March of 1999. It was now Friday, July 30th, and she had been dating 55-year-old Sal for several months.

Just after Sal pulled into his driveway in his Lincoln automobile and parked, Stephen appeared with a Glock 9mm handgun and started firing. Laura was struck several times in the head and the torso. Sal had been hit multiple times in the head.

When police arrived, they found Sal sitting on a retaining wall that bordered his driveway. His will to live was strong, and somehow, he had remained conscious. He was unable to speak and was bleeding from several gunshot wounds to the head, but he gestured to the still-running vehicle where Laura lay dying, encouraging the police to attend first to his mortally-wounded girlfriend.

There would be no saving Laura—she was pronounced dead in the passenger seat of the Lincoln.

Sal was rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.

Sal and Laura

Sal Puleo was a divorced father to 6 children.  He had a used car dealership called Manville Motor Sales in North Providence that he had owned and operated since 1976. He was a biker who enjoyed riding Harleys. He was a drinker who enjoyed going to a local drinking hole called Parker’s Pub. He turned up for breakfast on Sunday mornings at Cal’s Corner restaurant. He was born in Providence. He was a dyed-in-the-wool Rhode Islander.

Angelo Rossi, owner of Rossi’s Deli, two doors down from Sal’s dealership, said that Sal was, “Just the sweetest guy. He always reached into his pockets to pay for other people. He was the best.” Another friend of Sal’s named Bill said, “If you walk in the bar and he’s eating there, he’s going to pick up your tab and buy you a drink.”

Sal turned 56 while in the hospital, fighting for his life, surrounded by his family.

Incredibly, over the days and weeks that followed, Sal recovered. It’s not clear what day in August, but by the 30th, Sal had been discharged from the hospital and was healing at home. But a family friend and the owner of Cal’s Corner (Gina Califano) told the Providence Journal that he would require more surgeries.

Sal would go on to live to 71 years old and continue to run his car dealership.

Laura Vincent wasn’t so lucky.

Laura was 38 when she was shot and killed. She was a single mother of two teenage girls. She had a huge family—she was one of 11 kids. She had worked for five years as a manicurist at her sister’s business—Ace in the Hole Hair Salon. She was described by those who knew her as independent and hardworking.

Her landlord told the Providence Journal that she was the ideal tenant—heaven-sent. Her landlord said, “She was a very beautiful woman, inside and out. She was the nicest person in the world. We all loved her. I always said how lucky we were (to have her as a tenant).”

Three North Providence businesses were all near one another—Manville Motor Sales (Sal’s business), Cal’s Corner (Gina Califano’s diner, and Ace in the Hole Hair Salon (Laura’s sister’s salon)—and all of them loved to party together. They would all get decked out in leather motorcycle outfits and go riding together on their Harleys. Gina Califano said, “We laughed. We joked. We acted like a bunch of crazy idiots. And it won’t ever be the same again.”

Laura and Sal were both in the honeymoon stage of their fairly new relationship.

Sal would often swing by Brook Florist—a local flower shop—and buy roses for Laura. A worker there told the Providence Journal that “He was the happiest I’d ever seen him. And it was because of her.” Another local businessman—Angelo Rossi—said that they had told him that “It was the best thing that ever happened to both of them.”

Stephen’s motive

Even though Stephen and Laura had split, Laura’s death is still classified as domestic violence because of Stephen’s likely motive: jealousy.

Providence Police Department Major Albert DeCristofano said, “I think you can draw a conclusion that the motive was jealousy. What else could there be?”

Stephen had dated Laura for the better part of 4 years. Ultimately, he broke up with her, but soon after, she started dating their mutual friend, Sal Puleo. And that may have been too much for Stephen. He withdrew from the group and grew angrier in his isolation.

In the suicide note that he left in the car, he addressed his mother, writing,

“I knew I would not live to be an old person all my life—but just recently I realized I will die by my own hand. And unfortunately, I will take a couple of people with me. I know it’s an insane thing to say, but I feel it’s the only way it can be. I’ve finally lost it. I don’t want help. I must do what I have to do. Talking with a professional, you, or my friends is not in the plans. I have committed myself to eliminate Sal, Laurie, and me, in that order. It’s the only way. The more I think about it, the stronger I feel that it’s justified. I realize that this is a sick person talking, but I’ve finally crossed over, forever, to the dark side. I’m not afraid to die. I have nothing to live for.”

For the police, it was an open and shut case. Everyone knew that Stephen Marfeo was the perpetrator and would never stand trial for his crimes.

What cops really wanted to know was what happened to Stephen Marfeo’s wife, Doreen, who had vanished 9 years prior without a trace. 

Stephen Marfeo meets Doreen Dobson

Doreen Dobson met Stephen Marfeo in Rhode Island in 1976. She was 21 years old, and Stephen was 27. It was a storybook romance. Doreen later said that she was attracted to his “daredevil smile.” Stephen was a gym-rat with an athletic physique, and loved working on muscle-cars. He was drawn to her beauty, intelligence, and class. She was neat, punctual, and cared about her appearance.

Doreen and Stephen enjoyed a life of romantic dinners, weekend shopping sprees, and sun-filled vacations.

On Friday, July 7th, 1978, after two years of dating, Stephen and Doreen got married, and she became Doreen Marfeo. They got a house together in Johnston, Rhode Island on Hartford Avenue—just west of Providence.

Doreen was working full time in the personnel department at the Rhode Island School of Design. According to a coworker, “she was always at work and always early, and she always looked the same—dressed in a beautiful suit with matching shoes and perfect hair.”

Doreen and Stephen’s relationship on the rocks

A couple of years into their marriage, around 1980, they had a big problem: Doreen had an affair.

Her older sister recalled Doreen coming to her, asking for advice. Lorna, Doreen’s sister, was two years her senior and also married. Doreen confessed that she was considering divorcing Stephen and moving away from the area with the new man. Lorna and her husband encouraged her to end the affair and return to Stephen, which is what she decided to do.

Stephen and Doreen remained married, and in 1989, celebrated their 11th anniversary. But things were not going well.

In May of ’89, Stephen hired two private detectives to follow Doreen because he believed that she was having another affair. The first PI told Stephen after six weeks that Stephen was wasting his money—his wife was always where she said she would be. The second PI tracked Doreen for eight months, working a few hours a month, but he, too, came up with nothing.

In October of ’89, amidst the secret investigation Stephen was conducting, Doreen suddenly quit her job. It was a good job—she was an operations manager in the personnel department at RISD, and she was well-respected by her colleagues. Her coworkers later said that Doreen had told them she was having issues with Stephen and needed to focus on her marriage. Stephen later said that Doreen had “mentioned a job-related problem,” but kept it a secret from him. He said that her personality changed.

Doreen made no effort to get a new job. After she quit, she hardly left the house. Stephen later told Unsolved Mysteries that she seemed like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Late at night he remembered her, “becoming hysterical... she would get the shakes. Then she’d get the dry heaves, and she’d go to the bathroom and everything.”

Doreen misses her weekly visit

The only regular contact she had was with her mother, Laura Dobson, a petite white-haired woman who was quite a bit older than her daughter—in 1989, Laura was 74 years old, and Doreen was 33. Doreen would visit her mom every Saturday like clockwork. They were very close.

On Saturday, March 24th, 1990, Doreen visited her mother like usual. Laura recalled that during this visit Doreen was very quiet. She later said, “I knew something was wrong.” When Doreen left, she told her mom, “See you next week.” But the following Saturday, Doreen didn’t show up. This wasn’t like her—she would always call if she couldn’t make it.

That same day, Stephen called Laura in the morning. She thought that something seemed off in the way he was talking on the phone. He called again in the afternoon and admitted to Laura that her daughter was missing—he hadn’t seen her since Thursday at noon, 48 hours prior. She told him to call the police immediately, which he did. So Stephen Marfeo reported his wife missing on the afternoon of Saturday, March 31st, 1990, and they issued a nationwide alert to be on the lookout for her.

Doreen Marfeo disappears

This is the account of what Stephen told the police:

He said that when he came home from work around noon on Thursday, March 29th, for his usual 20-to-30-minute lunch break, that Doreen was on the couch watching television. She was wearing jeans and a blue shirt. They made small talk and had lunch, and then Stephen left to go back to work.

He said there was nothing unusual about Doreen during that lunch break. She was a little bit down, but otherwise seemed fine. Based on how she’d been acting since she quit her job, seeing her in a slightly blue mood wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

Stephen said he returned home around 4:00PM or 4:30PM; Doreen’s car, a 1984 Ford Tempo, was in the driveway, and the house was locked, but Doreen wasn’t home. After looking through the house and the backyard, he thought that maybe she had gone for a walk, met up with a friend, or went shopping to get her mind off things. Everything seemed tidy and normal inside.

Around 5:00PM, he realized that some things were missing: a suitcase, clothing, Doreen’s Visa card, and about $600 from their safe.

When she didn’t return later that evening, Stephen just assumed she needed space and time alone. Stephen went to bed that night without hearing from his wife.

Friday passed without a peep.

By Saturday morning, Stephen started to get restless. For two days, her makeup, hair curlers, and toothbrush had sat on the bathroom counter where she had left them.

Apparently not wanting to alarm her friends and family, Stephen hadn’t called them looking for Doreen over the 2-day period. He later said he was confident she’d return home after she cleared her head.

One week after Doreen is missing

A week after Doreen’s disappearance, Johnston PD showed up at the Marfeo residence for a search. This caught Stephen off-guard. Police would later recall he was sweating and nervous. They didn’t collect much from the home other than some mail and writing samples, and nothing was collected from the search of Doreen’s car.

The night before police showed up at the Marfeo doorstep, there had been a severe rainstorm—the kind you didn’t want to be out driving in. The car in the garage was wet, so police asked Stephen where he’d gone. Stephen denied leaving home at all.

When police found a pair of jeans that were wet from the knees down, he changed his story, explaining that he had actually gone out for a walk.

Investigation at his work revealed that on the day of her disappearance, Stephen took an unusual 70-minute lunch break—about three times longer than his typical 20-30 minutes. He blamed his tardiness on car trouble.

June 1990 – Police receive a letter

In June of 1990, an anonymous, undated letter arrived at the Johnston Police Department. One week later, another arrived. They were mailed from the Boston area, they were addressed to the detectives on Doreen’s case, and they were both written on a typewriter.

The first letter—which was briefly shown on Unsolved Mysteries—was mostly blurry, but it claimed to have information on her alleged affairs with coworkers, listing them all by name.

It began,

“Considering myself a good Christian and citizen, I feel a moral obligation to impart my knowledge of Mrs. Marfeo. Although on the outside she personifies class, beauty, and professionalism, in reality she is nothing more than a cheap harlot.... Her promotions were achieved by her sexual prowess rather than her leadership abilities.”

The unknown author then wrote about a Christmas party at RISD in 1988 that Stephen Marfeo had apparently attended uninvited.

“While her husband was leaving in his Santa Claus suit on one side of the building, [Doreen] was on the other side with [another man]… his lips pressed against hers passionately.”

But police found no evidence of any affairs, and furthermore, they believed all of the allegations in the letter slamming her character were false. Additionally, RISD stated they weren’t aware of any issues that had been going on with Doreen during her time there, and all the coworkers named in the letter denied ever having a romantic relationship with her. Nobody believed she was having an affair.

The second letter was chilling, and described Doreen’s fate the day she went missing. Most of it is legible, and it has been edited for clarity. It read:

"Regarding Doreen Marfeo, missing person:

Stephen Marfeo left his workplace, [and] drove home to have lunch with his wife. There was no lunch. Doreen [was] sleeping on couch in living room. Stephen got hot under the collar. He made for the couch and strangled Doreen. Stephen acted fast—he stuffed Doreen's shoes and handbag in a shopping bag and tied it around her waist. He wrapped the body in a blanket, [and] secured it with clothesline rope. Marfeo got in [his] car [and] crossed the Providence line. [He went] two miles on [a] narrow dirt road. He stopped and deposited [his] wife's body in reeds in a pond. Marfeo returned to work. A flat tire excuse [was offered] for [the] extended lunch hour. Marfeo [got] home at 4pm. [He called police and reported his wife missing]. Marfeo is highly skilled in the fine art of deception. He can make [give] a lie hear a [the] ring of truth."

Johnston PD sent the letters to Syracuse University to their Professor of Psycholinguistics, Dr. Murray Miron. Police suspected Stephen was the author of the letters, and they wanted Dr. Miron’s expert opinion. In his response, he wrote:

“Stephen Marfeo is the person most likely to have authored these communications and to be the logical suspect in the murder of his wife.”

Eventually police would receive 4 more letters, two of which were typed, and two handwritten.

Police confiscated a number of typewriters that Stephen may have had access to, to see if any of them could have produced the typed letters. They sent them to the US Postal Service investigation division to make the comparisons. In July of 1991, police announced that they got a match. The first letter received by the Johnston PD—the one maligning Doreen—was produced by a typewriter that was found in Stephen’s mother’s house. Captain O’Donnell said,

“linking the typewriter to one of the letters was a significant breakthrough because it strengthened our suspicions about the suspect.”

Stephen was questioned about the letters, but he denied writing any of them. He eventually hired an attorney and stopped cooperating with the cops.

Unsolved Mysteries

It had been 3 years and 3 months since her disappearance when the popular TV show, Unsolved Mysteries, picked up the case. On November 17th, 1993, the episode aired.

Stephen was prominently featured in the 16-minute segment, speaking clearly and confidently (even a little cocky). Detective Nardolillo took a strong stance, saying, “There’s no doubt in my mind that Stephen is responsible for his wife’s disappearance.”

Doreen’s sister participated and said with conviction, “I don’t believe that [Stephen is guilty] at all. There is no evidence.”

Doreen’s mother was interviewed and she said, “When I see the way he acts when the mail arrives... when the phone rings... He still thinks she’s alive.” But she stopped short of ruling him out as the perpetrator, saying that there was a possibility he was responsible. Stephen, addressing the continued suspicions of the police, said, “I’m getting really tired of the accusations and the innuendos.” But just as he finished his sentence, a smile started to form and then vanished, giving the impression that he either had something to hide or enjoyed the game of cat and mouse with Detective Nardolillo.

Search for Doreen’s remains

In 1995, Stephen found love again—with Laura Vincent.

After 4 years of romance, Stephen broke up for the last time with Laura Vincent, and she began dating Sal Puleo. Stephen’s mother, Angelina, recalled him talking about wanting to punch Sal. In later reflection, she wished he had (rather than the violence he carried out).

Later that night, on Friday, July 30th, 1999, Stephen carried out his brutal plan, killing Laura, attempting to kill Sal, and taking his own life.

To John Nardolillo, Stephen had always been guilty. He was devastated that Stephen had not confessed in his suicide note, but he believed that Stephen may have given them an important clue to the location of Doreen’s remains.

Stephen had no ties to rural Barkhamsted, Connecticut as far as the police could tell, and the state police told Nardolillo that the location where Stephen was found wasn’t, “a place that people stumble upon.” They believed that Stephen had to have some experience with the area—experience, perhaps, of dumping a body. Detective Nardolillo said, “I’m very interested in the spot where he took his own life.”

On Tuesday, August 3rd, just 4 days after the shooting, police performed a 3-hour search with scent dogs near Saville Dam in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, where Stephen took his life. Though nothing was located during the search, they weren’t finished: a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police said the area would be searched again in the upcoming weeks.

Two days later, on Thursday, August 5th, police searched the Hartford Avenue home in Johnston. Police used heavy machinery to pick up a shed on the property and kept it suspended with cinder blocks. Nothing was found.

Doreen Marfeo is still missing

Laura Dobson lived a long life, passing away at the age of 96 in October of 2010. She died not knowing what happened to her youngest daughter.

She lived in the 2000’s in Central Falls, Rhode Island, with her 4 cats. One of them, an old pure white one named Frosty, belonged to Doreen. She said of Doreen, “Everybody loved her. She was so smart. I know if she were alive, she would have gotten in touch with me.”

Doreen Ann Marfeo was born July 7, 1955. If she were alive today, she would be 68 years old. She was 5 foot 6 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds. She was pale-skinned with a freckled complexion. She had a large chicken pox scar on the front of one of her shins. She had medium-length brown curly hair. If she died in 1990, her remains, which have never been discovered, would be 33 years old.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Doreen Marfeo, please contact the Johnston Police Department at (401) 231-4210.

This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, Doreen Marfeo is Still Missing. To hear Doreen’s full story, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.

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Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Boston Herald, Providence Journal, The Boston Globe, and The Hartford Courant, here.

Written by various authors including Barbara Polichetti, Celeste Katz, David Owens, Jerry O'Brien, Jody Ericson, Joseph Driscoll, Joseph R. LaPlante, Karen Lee Ziner, Lorna M. Dobson, Marion Davis, Melanie Lefkowitz, Michael Maynard, Neil Shea, Raghuram Vadarevu, Richard Salit, and Tom Mashberg.

Photos

Photos from Google Maps, FindaGrave, Unsolved Mysteries, Providence Journal, Facebook, and BCTV.org.

Online written sources

'Unsolved Mysteries: Season 6, Epsiode 9' (Unsolved Mysteries), 11/17/1993

'Doreen Ann Marfeo' (The Charley Project), 10/12/2004, by Meaghan Good

'1077DFRI - Doreen Ann Marfeo' (The Doe Network), 1/27/2008

'Doreen Ann Marfeo' (NAMUS), 11/17/2010

'Laura Bogacki Dobson' (FindaGrave), 11/14/2014

'Raymond Dobson' (FindaGrave), 11/14/2014

'Frank Marfeo' (FindaGrave), 4/6/2015

'Salvatore Puleo' (Legacy), 6/3/2015

'Salvatore J. “Junior” Puleo Jr.' (FindaGrave), 2/26/2016

'Stephen Alan Marfeo' (FindaGrave), 7/8/2016

'Laura D. “Lori” Daigle Vincent' (FindaGrave), 10/1/2017

'Doreen Marfeo- Rhode Island- 1990' (America's Most Wanted Fans), 4/18/2019

'Doreen Marfeo' (Unsolved Mysteries Wiki), 1/18/2020

'Susan M (Bamford) Puleo' (Nardolillo Funeral Home), 8/20/2022

'Doreen A. Marfeo Went Missing In Johnston Rhode Island in March 1990' (National Missing Person Directory), 1/1/2023

Video sources

'Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 9 - Full Episode' (YouTube), 3/11/2019

'Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 6, Episode 4' (YouTube), 3/8/2017

Credits

Vocal performance, audio editing, research, and writing by Kristen Seavey

Writing, research by Byron Willis

Research by Ericka Pierce and Amanda Connolly

Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey