Boston Herald: Medical examiner: Celina Cass was murdered

Eleven-year-old Celina Cass of New Hampshire vanished on the evening of July 25th, reportedly last seen on her computer in the home she shared with her mother, step-father, and sister. More than one hundred searches to find the young girl were conducted in the days that followed by multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

On August 1st her body, wrapped in a blanket, was discovered in a river near her home. An autopsy shortly afterwards failed to pinpoint the cause of her death. And then, for over a month, nothing, no news at all. No hint of how she died, no whisper of why she died. The Celina Cass case became the exclusive province of rumor and slid from first the national, and then the regional news.

Today, toxicology reports have been completed which finally confirm that Celina Cass was murdered. Authorities are not releasing the exact cause of her death to the public. Nor are they giving any hints as to the direction their investigation is taking, or how close they believe they are to finding her killer.

The murder has shocked the community of West Stewartstown, New Hampshire, whose residents must grapple with the knowledge that, unless the crime was the act of a transient, there is a murderer in their midst. The Cass family has been destroyed by the tragedy. The 9-month-old marriage between the girl's mother, Louisa Cass, and her step-father, Wendell Noyes, has disintegrated. Noyes is said to have suffered a breakdown and is receiving care in Berlin, New Hampshire.

Celina Cass