MILFORD – Even as the suspects tried to establish alibis, do away with evidence and pawn stolen items in the hours after the Oct. 4 Mont Vernon home invasion and murder, state and local police had already begun closing in on four of the five suspects in the horrific crime, according to investigative documents released Tuesday.

The documents tell a sordid, disturbing and sometimes graphic tale of how the four men arrested Oct. 6 – Steven Spader and Christoper Gribble of Brookline and Quinn Glover and William Marks of Amherst – plotted and then carried out their plan to break into a relatively remote Trow Road home, steal things and, according to the documents, “… kill anyone if there were residents home.”

The crime, carried out shortly after 4 a.m., spurred a series of vigils and memorial services for 42-year-old Kimberly Cates and an unprecedented outpouring of support and get-well wishes for 11-year-old Jaimie Cates, who continues to recover from her near-fatal injuries. Husband and father David Cates was away on a business trip at the time.

The murder was the first in living memory in Mont Vernon, but there has been at least one other in the history of the town, which broke away from Amherst and incorporated as Mont Vernon in 1803.

That one took place way back in September 1840, when Elias Thomas, a reportedly intoxicated and disruptive would-be patron at McCollum’s Tavern – which was on Route 13 just north of the village – fatally stabbed Charles Small “on the road leading to New Boston (now Route 13)” as Small tried to lead Thomas away from the tavern, according to a report in the old Farmer’s Cabinet.

Then, as now, the sudden, apparently random and brutal nature of the attack shocked the community.

Anticipating the presence of disturbing, graphic details in the documents, educators and parents across the Souhegan Valley, especially in Mont Vernon and Amherst, have been meeting with trauma and crisis recovery experts for tips on the best ways to mete out and filter the information for children of different age groups.

Documents show that police were on to at least some of the suspects less than a day after the crime, aided in part by Jaimie Cates’ descriptions and the suspects’ desire to recount their experience to several friends and acquaintances.

In fact, it was just such a conversation that led to the suspects’ undoing and their subsequent arrests.

The suspects and their charges

Christopher Gribble, 20, of 23 Oak Hill Road, Brookline, and Steven Spader 18, of 7 Wallace Brook Road, Brookline, are charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to murder, and each faces life in prison, without chance of parole, if convicted.

William Marks, 18, of 464 Boston Post Road, Amherst, and Quinn Glover, 18, of 34 Blueberry Hill Road, Amherst, each have been charged with burglary, conspiracy to burglary, and robbery, though prosecutors could seek additional indictments when they present the case to a grand jury.

A fifth suspect, Autumn Savoy, 20, of 88 Runnels Bridge Road, Hollis, was arrested in November and charged with lying to police by providing false alibis for his friends and helping them try to destroy evidence.

The Documents

The documents, which became public Tuesday morning upon the expiration of Milford District Court Judge Martha Crocker’s order to seal them for 90 days, consisted of copies of roughly two dozen search warrants and an affidavit filed to support the searches and the charges against the youths. State police Sgt. James Geraghty, a member of the department’s Major Crimes Unit, summarized what police had learned about the case in a 13-page report, called a Gerstein affidavit, which was filed in the court Oct. 6, two days after the murder.

Geraghty’s report reveals that police were on to at least some of the suspects within 14 hours of the commission of the crime, aided in part by Jaimie Cates’ descriptions and the suspects’ desire to recount their experience to several friends and acquaintances.

In fact, it was just such a conversation that led to the suspects’ undoing and their subsequent arrests.

The Affidavit

Geraghty’s affidavit spells out interviews with each of the suspects, including Savoy, and several other individuals identified as friends, acquaintances, and witnesses.

While they vary in some of the details, the suspects’ statements paint a similar picture of the course of events leading up to the crime and what took place in the hours afterward.

Gribble, who was interviewed by Encarnacao and Trooper Jeff Ardini, initially waived his Miranda rights, but his account of his whereabouts and actions on the night of Oct. 3 into early Oct. 4 fell apart when the troopers, citing a number of inconsistencies, challenged his version, according to the affidavit.

Later, however, after Encarnacao answered several of Gribble’s questions about “the different types of murder…the difference between capital murder and first-degree murder,” Geraghty wrote, indicating that Encarnacao left the room, then returned and re-administered Gribble his Miranda rights.

He wrote: “(Gribble) told police the crimes were a conspiracy … Gribble described himself and Spader as sociopaths (and) Spader had been a member of the gang The Crips.”

Gribble told police that he and Spader, within the last week, had robbed a house near Spader’s home for items, which they pawned in Milford. When they began to run low on cash, they planned another robbery, according to Gribble’s statements, and “Spader and Billy Marks had located a house in Mont Vernon in a remote location,” the affidavit states.

Spader and Gribble agreed that they would break into that house,” it continues, “and if anyone was home, they would just kill the people in the home for fun.”

Gribble said that Spader, Marks and Glover were all in on the plan, and all knew that the plan was to break in and kill anyone there. Autumn Savoy would be their alibi, the documents indicate.

Savoy, meanwhile, told police during his interview that Spader slept over at his Hollis home the night of Friday, Oct. 2, and shortly after noon the following day, Gribble showed up to pick up Spader, who told Savoy “that they are going to murder someone,” the affidavit states.

Savoy told investigators he didn’t believe Spader, though, and that he had no contact with Spader until he sent him a text message late Saturday night asking him if he “was doing a job,” meaning a burglary or robbery, at the time.

Spader responded around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Savoy told police, writing, in effect, “Busy, will hit you when I can,” the document states.

Eventually, Geraghty wrote, Savoy agreed to be their alibi and claimed they’d been at his home when police first questioned him.

Spader, in his police interview, initially denied any involvement in the murders, telling investigators in substance “that he did not commit the charged crimes, that he did not know who did it, that whoever did it should get the death penalty,” Geraghty wrote.

Likewise, Glover denied any involvement in the plan or the crime, telling police that he, Spader and Marks had gone to Walmart in Amherst around 2 a.m. Sunday, then “drove around Milford and Mont Vernon” for awhile.

Glover told police he experienced an anxiety attack during the drive, and asked to get out of the car “to go for a walk,” Geraghty wrote.

Glover said the car stopped on a dirt road, drove away, after which Glover “blindfolds himself, smokes a cigarette, and meditates,” Geraghty wrote.

The crime

Milford Police Sgt. Kevin Furlong, who was the first responder to arrive at the scene, was dispatched along with Milford Officer Eric Wales at 4:15 a.m. on a mutual aid call for a home invasion and possible robbery, Geraghty wrote, adding that the call had come in via 911 and that the caller had left the line open.

Upon arrival, Furlong began looking through windows and eventually spotted Jaimie Cates on the floor and bleeding profusely, according to Furlong’s statement that’s included in Geraghty’s affidavit. Though she was suffering from machete and knife wounds, the girl was able to tell police what had happened.

“They killed my mommy,” she told them, Geraghty wrote, adding that she described one of the intruders as “a bald man.”

Furlong called for medical personnel, left the girl outside with Wales, broke through the front door and eventually found Kimberly Cates’ body in her bedroom, where she and her daughter had gone to bed the night before.

Kimberly Cates, who’d suffered numerous large cuts and stab wounds all over her body, was dead, Geraghty wrote.

Details from suspects

Gribble, meanwhile, told police that the group first broke open a basement window and lowered Marks inside, but Marks “got lost” and found himself locked in the basement. Spader then got inside and let the others in through a door, Gribble told police.

They got Marks out of the basement, shut off power to the home at the circuit breaker and used the light from an iPod to find their way around and approached a closed, bedroom door.

Spader told the others there were people inside, but his friends misheard, and they all started talking more loudly, Gribble told police. Kimberly Cates woke up and called out, “?‘Jaimie, is that you?’?” Gribble told police.

Gribble was carrying a long dagger and Spader had a machete when they went into the bedroom, each to opposite sides of the bed. Marks and Glover hung back by the doorway as Kimberly Cates tried to turn on a light.

“Spader then started hacking at the woman,” Geraghty wrote, citing Gribble’s interview.

Gribble attacked the girl, stabbing at her face, neck and then her back, trying to pierce her heart, he told police. He threw her against a door, where the girl lay still, pretending to be dead, she told police.

Gribble then stabbed Kimberly Cates a few times, while Spader kicked Jaimie Cates, and “gave her a whack” with his machete, Gribble said.

Satisfied that Cates and her daughter were dead, they turned the power and lights back on and ransacked the house for jewelry and other things they could steal.

After gathering what they could find, they went back to Gribble’s car, where they removed their bloodied clothes, wiped down the blades, and drove to Walmart, where Marks had left his car. Gribble, Glover and Spader then went to Savoy’s home, where they spent what was left of the night.

Later that day

Shortly after 5 p.m. on Oct. 4, an Amherst police officer questioned Gribble and Spader after seeing them stopped near an industrial park that had been struck by burglaries. He noted their identities and registration and sent them on their way.

Later that evening, Amherst police got a call from a resident, Carol Fenton, whose son had told her Gribble and Spader had come by their house after their brush with police and told him all about how they had broken into a house in Mont Vernon and killed a woman and child there. They even showed off two knives, her son later told police.

After Spader and Gribble departed, the affidavit states, Fenton and a youth identified as Jamie Hollins looked online for news of the murder that Spader and Gribble described to them. What they found, the affidavit states, “seems like it could match what they just learned from Gribble and Spader,” prompting Fenton to inform his mother.

Police began looking for the 1995 Oldsmobile. Trooper Encarnacao, after first checking Gribble’s house, went to Spader’s residence where, the affidavit states, he spotted Spader, Gribble and Savoy walking toward the car. Encarnacao spoke with the three, and was granted consent to search the car.

At that point, the affidavit states, Spader, Gribble and Savoy agreed to go to state police headquarters in Milford to speak with investigators.

Once contacted, Marks and Glover also agreed to speak with police, Geraghty wrote.

During the investigation, Gribble and Savoy each led investigators to places where the youths had hidden evidence, Geraghty wrote.

The conspirators had hoped to burn their clothes, empty jewelry boxes, David Cates’ wallet and other evidence at Savoy’s house, but they instead opted to toss the bag into the nearby Nashua River. Police found the bag wrapped around a tree a short way downstream, soon after speaking with Savoy, Geraghty wrote.

The conspirators went to the Pheasant Lane Mall that afternoon, where they sold jewelry at the Cash 4 Gold kiosk, witnesses told police. Gribble told police he got $130 for the jewelry, though at the time he was claiming to have picked it up at yard sales, Geraghty wrote.

At some point, Gribble and Spader got worried about showing their knives off to so many of their friends and decided to bury them in a wooded area along with a pearl necklace that the shop wouldn’t take and the iPods they’d used as lights. Gribble later brought police to the spot to dig it back up, Geraghty wrote.

That evening, the young men learned from The Telegraph’s Web site that the girl had survived the attack, and Spader and Savoy teased Gribble about it, Gribble told police.

Gribble told troopers John Encarnacao and Jeff Ardini he felt badly about having failed to kill Jaimie Cates, Geraghty wrote.

“Gribble told the officers that he had wanted to kill someone for a long time,” Geraghty wrote. “Gribble said that he was disappointed that he did not feel any emotion after the murder.

He said, ‘It’s cool because it is different.’ Gribble stated his only regret was that he did not kill the child because now she has to live with this. Gribble stated that if he realized that she was alive he would have killed her.”

Staff Writer Andrew Wolfe contributed to this report.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 673-3100 Ext. 31 or dshalhoup@cabinet.com.