The boyfriend of a pregnant Massachusetts teen whose remains were found on his property 10 days after he reported her missing was charged with her murder Wednesday and held without bail.
Gregory Groom, 22, was arrested late Tuesday after police in Rehoboth, a Massachusetts town about 10 miles east of Providence, R.I., found the remains of 18-year-old Kylee Monteiro on his family’s 20-acre wooded property. On Wednesday he pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, assault and battery on a pregnant victim, aggravated intimidation of a witness, and domestic assault and battery, WPRI-TV reported.
Monteiro had last been heard from on Aug. 7 when she texted with her sister, Faith Monteiro, about an argument, Assistant Bristol District Attorney Jason Mohan said. She was 11 weeks pregnant and excited about being a mother, family said.
“He threw me on the ground, he pulled my hair, and strangled me,” Kylee wrote, according to WBTS-TV. “My phone is at 4%, and if I die, it was Greg.”
Monteiro’s phone later relayed the message to Faith that she would be staying with Groom that night, and that was the last anyone heard from her.
On Aug. 8 Groom reported her missing. But investigators dug in, “sensing something might not be right with this call,” Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn told reporters after Groom’s arraignment. Monteiro’s absence from social media sparked alarm among family and friends.
Police interviewed Groom last week and searched the property but came up dry, prosecutors said. In a second interview on Tuesday, he admitted that an argument with Monteiro had turned physical. He had pushed her backward and she’d hit her head, and he had knocked her phone from her hand. When cops told him they were bringing in an excavator and cadaver dogs, he drew a map showing where the argument had happened, admitting he had also stabbed his girlfriend twice in the neck and once in the chest.
“The stab wound to her chest actually broke the blade off,” Mohan said, according to The Herald News.
Over the next several hours, Groom dug a hole in the woods, dragged Monteiro’s body there and buried her under brush, he said. That led police to her remains, 10 days after Groom first reported her missing.
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