Left: Nevaeh Goddard (GoFundMe). Shane Curry (WJAR/YouTube).
Massachusetts prosecutors last week charged a 20-year-old man with murdering his girlfriend with a sword before curling up next to her body as cops tried to get inside the home for two hours.
Shane Curry is accused of killing Nevaeh Goddard, 17, in Stow on April 5, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. Curry’s mother went to the police station and requested officers conduct a well-being check on her son. Around 4:30 p.m., Stow police responded to the Great Road home and tried to get inside. But Curry would not let them in.
For two hours, cops tried to coax their way into the home, but Curry steadfastly refused, prosecutors said. When they finally got inside, they found Goddard, who also lived in the home, dead from stab wounds. Cops saw him lying with her body on a mattress in his bedroom. Curry killed Goddard after a fight and admitted to stabbing her multiple times, prosecutors said.
“The bruises aren’t working … hitting her, that’s not working, so OK, I have to knife her, so I do,” Curry told police, according to the criminal complaint obtained by Boston Fox affiliate WFXT.
He allegedly called her his “twin flame,” the affidavit said, according to People.
Prosecutors initially charged Curry with assault and battery on a household or family member and assault and battery causing serious bodily injury before filing the murder charge last week.
Curry reportedly has a known history of mental illness.
Though prosecutors are calling her a female, GLAAD said she identified as non-binary and went by the name River with the pronouns they/them.
“We are absolutely heartbroken to hear of the death of another nonbinary teenager, River Nevaeh Goddard, who had been reported missing for years after reportedly surviving childhood abuse and time in foster care. Too often, young people, and LGBTQ youth in particular, are failed by the adults and systems entrusted to protect them, and do not feel they have anywhere to turn in times of crisis,” said a statement from GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
Goddard grew up in the Providence, Rhode Island area, her grandfather told local NBC affiliate WJAR. She had a tough upbringing, he said. Her mother reportedly gave birth to her in prison, and she spent time in the state’s foster care system.
“There couldn’t have been a nicer, more soulful, and more spiritual person,” Simmons told the TV station.
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