In the News

Call for help was too late to save her: Haverhill slaying tied to domestic violence
Boston Globe
By Milton J. Valencia
February 11, 2010

HAVERHILL - Her screams could be heard by the 911 dispatcher, by her neighbors, and by the police sergeant who rushed to her aid.
Her husband was attacking her, stabbing her repeatedly, she said. But despite their efforts, help was not able to arrive Tuesday in time to save her.

Standing in the hallway outside the couple’s apartment, bloodied and in his pajamas, with a knife by his side, Craig Mulgrave reportedly told the police sergeant in a calm voice that he had just killed his wife and that she was in the nearby room.

“He was just covered in blood,’’ said Tim Allen, a neighbor who had directed the sergeant to the apartment. “He acted so calmly, just saying, ‘I killed my wife.’ ’’

In the front living room, police found Christina Mulgrave, a 45-year-old mother of two who returned to Massachusetts just months ago to be closer to her family, soaked in her own blood and unresponsive. She was rushed to Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill, where she soon died.

Her death Tuesday afternoon is at least the sixth related to domestic violence across the state since Jan. 9, a troubling statistic that has alarmed victim’s rights advocates, who fear the pattern could become a trend.

It is also startling for this work ing-class city of just over 50,000, which sees on average one homicide a year - and few as sensational as this.
“What hits hard on this is that it’s a husband-and-wife relationship, and the neighbors knew these people,’’ said police Detective Sergeant John Arahovites. “It was a very traumatic event for everyone involved.’’

The emergency calls started at 3:08 p.m. Tuesday, with Christina Mulgrave telling the 911 dispatcher that she was being stabbed by her husband. Allen, the neighbor, could hear banging and then screams from the apartment above him.

“It was just gut-wrenching screams,’’ he said yesterday. He knocked on the door, to see whether he could disrupt whatever was going on.
“Maybe, if I got there in time, I could have knocked him out of his state of mind,’’ Allen said somberly, standing at the door to his home.
But no one answered when he knocked, he said.

Allen had started to call 911 when police Sergeant Dana Burrill rushed inside the building, a Victorian home converted into four apartments. Allen directed him to the second floor, and at first Burrill burst into the wrong apartment.

Then they saw the 33-year-old Mulgrave standing in the hallway, wearing no shoes, his socks covered in blood.

“It’s in here, I just killed my wife,’’ he told police.

They said he had a large carving knife by his side, also covered with blood.

Burrill told him to drop the knife and lie on the floor, and he obeyed.

Mulgrave was arrested without further incident.

During his arraignment yesterday in Haverhill District Court, Mulgrave said nothing as a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf, and he was ordered held without bail. The case was continued to March 10.

Dressed in blue medical clothing, Mulgrave appeared to glare back at his wife’s family, seated in the courtroom, as he was escorted away. Family members could not hold back their tears, but did not speak.

Outside the courtroom, they declined to be interviewed.

Edward Hayden, Craig Mulgrave’s court-appointed lawyer, said yesterday that he had only started to interview his client and could not describe his mental status. Hayden said Mulgrave was aware of the charges against him.

“He’s very upset, very distraught,’’ Hayden said. He said that his client, a native of Jamaica, is not employed.

Neighbors said that Craig Mulgrave was not very social and that he always seemed to walk around in his pajamas.

Christina Mulgrave worked as a visiting nurse, and she and her husband had moved back to the area in December, according to court records and interviews with neighbors, police and friends. She wanted to live closer to family in the area, including her children from a
previous marriage, Nicole McCain, 23, and Evan McCain, 21.

Their father, Michael McCain, said that his former wife had lived in Illinois and then in Las Vegas, but that she had missed her children.
“The love she had for her kids was immeasurable,’’ he said.

McCain said he never received any indication from their children that she feared for her safety.

The killing was at least the sixth connected to domestic violence in just over a month, and the second in just over a week in which a victim had tried to call 911. In other cases, victims have been seriously injured but survived the attacks.

Toni Troop, with Jane Doe Inc., a consortium of victim’s rights groups, said yesterday that any killing is alarming, especially when there is little explanation.

Too often, she said, victims continue to suffer violence without telling anyone until it is too late.

She said agencies have worked to reach out to victims, and that resources are available.

However, she added, “It’s knowing of these moments that forces us to hold up a mirror of hope, and say what are we doing, what do we need to be doing differently, what new approaches do we need to take.’’

John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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