Warwick, Rhode Island was rocked on Labor Day weekend 1989 when family members found Joan Heaton and her daughters Jennifer, 10, and Melissa, 8, dead in their home. The house was splattered with blood; investigators reported extreme violence, with kitchen knives used so forcefully that blades broke off in the victims and Jennifer stabbed 62 times.

Police focused on a 15-year-old neighbor, Craig Price, who had prior breaking-and-entering and other offenses. Officers found bloody knives from the Heaton household during a search of Price’s home. Price was arrested and confessed to the murders of the Heaton family and to another killing in the neighborhood, Rebecca Spencer.

Because Price was 15 at the time, he was tried as a juvenile under the law then in effect, which meant release at 21 and sealed records; that provision could not be applied retroactively. Campaigns by the victims’ families and law enforcement led to changes in juvenile prosecution rules, and Price’s confinement has been repeatedly extended for violent behavior and further crimes while incarcerated.

Did anyone in Warwick at the time know the Heatons or the neighborhood dynamics that might shed light on how this unfolded?