Husband charged in pregnant wife's stabbing death in Norwich
[naviga:img class="img-responsive" alt="Margarette Mady" src="/Assets/news2015/Margarette_Mardi.jpg"/]
Margarette Mady. Photo courtesy of a friend of the victim.
Norwich — Police on Thursday arrested a 39-year-old Norwich man for allegedly stabbing to death his pregnant wife and lighting a fire that burned the bedroom where he left her body.
Patrick Antoine, of 283-285 Franklin St., Apt. 2B, is charged with murder and first-degree arson.
The victim's uncle identified the victim as Margarette Mady. Friends and co-workers said they knew her as Margarette Mardi.
Mady's body was discovered in her second-floor bedroom by firefighters while they were extinguishing a fully involved fire that was first reported at 10:39 a.m.
She was unresponsive, severely burned and suffering from multiple stab wounds, police said.
She was pronounced dead at the scene after initial attempts by first responders to resuscitate her.
While firefighters were fighting the fire, Norwich Police Detective Lt. Mark Rankowitz said Antoine walked into the lobby of the Norwich Police Department headquarters and told officers he had just killed his wife and set the apartment on fire.
[naviga:img class="img-responsive" alt="Patrick Antoine" src="/Assets/news2015/patrick.antoine.jpg"/]
Patrick Antoine. Courtesy of City of Norwich Police Department.
Police did not disclose a motive for the killing but said Antoine told police he had argued with his wife all morning.
A crime investigation began immediately after Antoine’s confession and discovery of the fire and continued into late Thursday evening.
Police closed off Franklin Street, cordoned off the area around the home and erected a privacy barrier to cover where the woman’s body had been placed after it was taken outside the home.
Norwich police detectives were joined by the department’s arson investigation unit, detectives from the state police Eastern District Major Crime Squad, the state's Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit and investigators from the State’s Attorney’s Office.
Police, who had not officially released the victim’s name by Thursday evening, said an autopsy at the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner was scheduled to take place Friday to determine the woman’s cause of death.
By midafternoon, a dozen people gathered at the park adjacent to Mady’s home to grieve and seek answers.
One woman in tears repeatedly wailed the words, “Oh my God.”
Mady was living with her husband and her husband's young son in the second-floor apartment at 283-285 Franklin St., which is owned by her uncle, Sterne Baptiste.
Baptiste, who lives on the third floor, said Mady was in her late 30s, a native of Haiti and a U.S. citizen who was expecting a baby girl within the next month or so.
Baptiste said Mady had two adult children who were not living with her, that she worked in the housekeeping department at Foxwoods Resort Casino and was a devout Jehovah’s Witness.
Baptiste, who works at Mohegan Sun, said it had been a normal morning. He left for work at 9:30 a.m. and got the call about the fire an hour later.
He said it was with a mix of shock and confusion that he learned his niece was dead.
"She was a good person," he said.
Baptiste said Mady had moved to the U.S. from Haiti in about 2000.
Judith Alcide, a supervisor in the housekeeping department at Foxwoods who was also at the park in Norwich, said she had attended a baby shower for Mady last month.
Alcide said she remembered Mady — whom she knew as Margarette Mardi — as “a friendly person you could always talk to.”
Alcide said she came to Mady's home because she was not responding to texts.
When she found out about Mady's death, Alcide said, she just started screaming.
"I cannot believe it," said Mirlande Fleury, a friend of Mady's who worships with the same Jehovah's Witness congregation in Preston.
Fluery said she preached with Mady and had attended her baby shower recently, sharing a hug and making Mady promise to come visit her when she had her baby.
Gina Lanteigne, an employee of the nearby D'Elia's Bakery, said she learned of the fire when a customer came rushing into the store and pointed to the smoke.
"She said someone was still in the house," Lanteigne said.
The customer told Lanteigne that she tried to open the door when she saw smoke, but someone had slammed it back closed, according to Lanteigne.
Lanteigne said after calling 911, she tried to open the door, too, but had no luck.
Norwich Police Sgt. Peter Camp said he thinks there was a language barrier with some of the tenants and that they either had just woken up or did not understand the gravity of the situation.
The Red Cross said in a news release Thursday afternoon that it was assisting two families — five adults and one child — following the fire.
Baptiste said a total of about 10 people lived in the three-family building.
Antoine was held in lieu of $1 million bond and expected for arraignment Friday in Norwich Superior Court.
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