Late summer 1989 in Warwick, Rhode Island, ended with a triple homicide that left the community reeling. On September 4, 1989, the bodies of 39-year-old Joan Heaton and her daughters, 10-year-old Jennifer and eight-year-old Melissa Heaton, were discovered in their Metropolitan Drive home by family members who had gone to check on them after the Labor Day weekend. The scene was described as extremely violent, with blood throughout the house.

Melissa had been stabbed multiple times and suffered severe blunt force trauma when her skull was crushed with a kitchen stool; one knife blade reportedly broke off in her neck. Joan was stabbed 57 times, bludgeoned, and strangled; Jennifer suffered 62 stab wounds. Investigators identified a neighbor, 15-year-old Craig Price, who confessed on September 17, 1989, saying he had entered through an open window intending to steal a VCR and then killed Joan and her daughters after being discovered. He also admitted to a 1987 murder of Rebecca Spencer.

At the time, Rhode Island law limited juvenile incarceration to the age of 21 and would have allowed sealing of the record, which provoked public outrage. While incarcerated, Price was reported to have committed further assaults and threats that resulted in additional sentences and extended his time behind bars. Does anyone have information about the Heatons or the neighborhood from that period that could shed more light on this case?