Episode 97: The Murder of Michelle Norris
On May 28th, 1988, 7-year-old Michelle Norris was headed out the door to play with her brothers and her cousins. Michelle was a first grader at Captain G. Harold Hunt Elementary School in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and before she left she went to check on her mom. Julia Tagger-Norris had been resting in bed recovering from a kidney infection, and Michelle asked her if she wanted Tylenol before she left. Michelle was then on her way to the park behind the elementary school on Kendall Street. This was the last time she was seen alive.
On May 30th, 1988, Michelle’s small body was found naked and badly beaten less than a half mile from where she was last seen and just 1500 feet from the elementary school. She was left on top of a debris covered hill in a wooded area and was found by volunteers that were helping to search for her.
The clothing she was last seen in, a pink t-shirt and purple shorts, were neatly folded up next to her body. Autopsy conducted by Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Kristin Sweeney determined that Michelle was beaten, sexually assaulted and then suffocated from having her face pushed down into the dirt.
In light of new technology and DNA testing methods, in 2019 Detective Jeffrey Araujo said that the soil Michelle was forced to inhale did not match soil samples from the location where her body was found, indicating that she was murdered somewhere else before she was dumped on top of the hill. Michelle’s mother as well as police believe the perpetrator was someone Michelle knew as she wouldn’t go willingly with a stranger.
This case is still cold, and anyone with any information on the murder of Michelle Norris is asked to please call the Rhode Island State Police at (401) 444-1046 or the Rhode Island cold case tip line at 1-877-RI-SOLVE.
Image sources:
instagram.com @/unsolvedri