Time served, sex offender who killed 6-year-old girl has come to live in Derry

Union Leader ^ | February 1,2008 | PAT GROSSMITH AND NANCY WEST

[KeyLargo]

Time served, sex offender who killed 6-year-old girl has come to live in Derry

By PAT GROSSMITH AND NANCY WEST New Hampshire Union Leader

DERRY – A man who strangled, then sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl and stuffed her body into a storm drain in 1981 is living near the Derry Montessori School, a park and the public library.

Douglas Allen Simmons, 47, moved into 71 East Broadway, Apt. 3, Derry, over the weekend, according to police. Yesterday, his name and photo were posted on New Hampshire's child sex offender Web site.

Simmons was a 20-year-old sailor when he lured freckle-faced Michelle Spencer, 6, into his apartment July 19, 1981, and murdered her in Norwich, Conn., according to The Hartford Courant account of his sentencing. Simmons lived with his wife in the same building as Michelle.

Simmons strangled Michelle with a paint-speckled gray telephone cord, then sexually abused her and disposed of her body in a sewer drain near her home, according to the newspaper.

Michelle was last seen playing in her front yard wearing green shorts and a red T-shirt with a "Wonder Woman" emblem on it.

At Simmons' sentencing, a prosecutor said Simmons hit the child's hand when she reached for his stereo and, when she began to cry, covered her mouth with his hand to quiet her. She collapsed to the floor. Simmons grabbed a telephone cord, wrapped it around her neck and strangled her, The Hartford Courant reported.

The 6-year-old lived in the same building as Douglas Allen Simmons in Norwich, Conn. On July 19, 1981, he strangled her with a telephone cord, sexually abused her and disposed of her body in a sewer drain, according to the Hartford Courant.

The prosecutor said Simmons then molested the girl before putting her body in a cardboard box and dumping it in a storm drain, the newspaper reported. Simmons, a Michigan native, was a fireman's apprentice aboard the USS Fulton in New London, Conn., and had just returned home from drinking with friends.

Amid controversy, Simmons was released on probation in 2003 in Connecticut after Michigan officials scuttled his attempt to move there to be near his mother, Jacqueline Dean, of Grand Rapids.

"The facts of the case suggest that Mr. Simmons is a serious predator who will likely commit similar crimes if released," Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm said at the time. A judge ordered Simmons to complete probation in Connecticut.

Simmons' mother spoke briefly with the New Hampshire Union Leader yesterday.

"He served his time. He's doing fine. He's been out of prison over five years," Jacqueline Dean said. "He just wants to live his life." Asked whether Simmons has friends in New Hampshire, Dean said she believes he does.

Simmons is free to live wherever he wants because his sentence and probation are completed; in New Hampshire, he is required to register for the child sex offender list. He came into the Derry police station Monday and registered, police said. There is no mention of his murder conviction on the New Hampshire state police site.

Simmons was never charged with sexual assault, but later admitted it. And there were errors in his original sentence when he pleaded guilty, according to Connecticut officials.

Philip Fazzino, of the New London, Conn., state's attorneys office, said the state erroneously added probation to Simmons' murder sentence, so he was brought back to court in 2003 and re-sentenced on a new indictment of second-degree kidnapping in connection with Michelle's murder.

Simmons essentially ended up with a 35-year sentence and five years probation, but earned time off for good behavior because of laws in effect when he was sentenced, Fazzino said. Simmons served about 22 years in prison and completed probation.

Yesterday, people in Derry remained on edge.

Cheryl Lynch, director of the Derry Public Library, said security at the library is already tight. "We're vigilant every day," Lynch said. "We ask the patrons to be aware of their surroundings."

Union Leader Correspondent Adam Benson contributed to this report.

[socialismisinsidious]

I was incensed for her children when she first said this and then I realized that Liberals are people who support and applaud abortion, even partial birth! so the fact that she would put some perceived “right” of a pervert over her own child makes perfect sense and falls in line with her, with Liberal ideology/agendas. They are a pathetic group who believe the ends justifies the means.

[CDFingers]

Liberals are so PC'ed and dumbed down that they no longer have a self preservation bone in their bodies. It's not enough to say their passive. Liberals are active in their self destruction (and in the destruction of everything that is good and right about America.)

[metmom]

ping

[AmericanMade1776]

Douglas A. Simmons in custody in this 1981 photo, with unidentified officers, after being arrested in connection with the murder of 6-year-old Michelle Spencer in Connecticut. After serving 22 years in jail and five years of probation for the crime, Simmons moved to Derry during the weekend. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEW LONDON (CONN.) DAY)

The victim: Michelle Spencer The 6-year-old lived in the same building as Douglas Allen Simmons in Norwich, Conn. On July 19, 1981, he strangled her with a telephone cord, sexually abused her and disposed of her body in a sewer drain, according to the Hartford Courant.

[mvpel]

In theory this idiot should have been hanged. Problem is, at this point in time, a death penalty in America would simply amount to handing the Mike Nifongs and Ronnie Earles of the land licenses to kill people; those three lacrosse players could easily be dead.

Bears repeating.

[Raebie]

I was thinking the same thing. Derry, dead kids, storm drain.

Creepy.

[mvpel]

What’s even sicker than his crime is the crime against humanity committed by our legislators when they dictate that women under the age of 21 may not purchase or carry a handgun for self-defense.

Rape enablers deserve a lower circle of Hell than the rapists themselves.

[KoRn]

"Derry? Isn’t that the location of the town in the Steven King horror novel “It”?"

Yes it is.

[AmericanMade1776]

DOUGLAS P. SIMMONS Alias: DOUG SIMMONES Last Reported Address: 71 East Broadway #3, Derry 03038

Is this the guy?

[AmericanMade1776]

http://www.egov.nh.gov/nsor/display.asp?offenderID=3924

[vox_freedom]

Do the crime....do the time. And then you’re a free man. It sucks in this case but them’s the rules.

The rules should be that this animal ought to have been put to death. Why is it that he wasn't?
If I was the father of this young innocent victim, this guy would be dead.

[robomatik]

bingo!

[johnny7]

Liberals are so PC'ed and dumbed down that they no longer have a self preservation bone in their bodies.

And when the non-PC become the minority... they fear being labeled kooks and stay silent.

[Condor51]

**** Being the father of five children, three of them girls, which my wife and I have raised to maturity, I believe if I had been the Dad of this little girl that I would have had some temporary insanity go on and this aniumal would have never been in any position to be freed. His next tribunal would have been before a non-earlthy bar. ****

Ditto.
However since he is now 'free', if I was the father (or Grandfather) I 'think' I'd be in my car right now heading to 71 East Broadway, Derry, NH.

The same goes now for my Grandkids - hurt them and I will be your worse nightmare. Whatever or however long it takes, there will be a 'Reckoning'.

(no threat of violence intended, just a 'be forewarned notice' to perverts)

[metmom]

So another child has to die before something is done about these guys?

Funny, I thought that NOT giving the child rapist the death penalty would give them more incentive to let the child live.

I guess someone forgot to tell this scum.

[Calvin Locke]

He murdered someone, ...

Oh, how far the Union Leader has fallen since the days of William Loeb.

In fact, it would be appropriate to describe him as a murdering pedo-necrophile, would it not?

[wita]

I couldn’t agree more, and guess what? As far as I know there is not a convicted murderer list to warn the neighbors.

[Bon mots]

So much for the theory that inmates kill/maim child rapists/murderers in prison.

[Huntress]

I know of a liberal mother of two, who, when she was sent a link to the database of sex offenders, got angry b/c she felt that it was an "invasion of privacy" against the offenders and she "wouldn't want to discriminate".

I have a problem with sex offender databases, but it's got nothing to do with discrimination. Rather, I think the databases get diluted (for lack of a better word) with the addition of offenders who shouldn't be included in them. Offenders like the guy in this article should be listed because they are a genuine threat to society. But when these guys are lumped in with teenage boys who fooled around with their underage girlfriends, it's hard to tell from the database who's dangerous and who is not.

[MrB]

the destruction of everything that is good and right about America

IE, traditional western culture, values, and traditions.

Yes, they work ACTIVELY to destroy our culture, with the idea in mind that they will replace it with their dystopia when it's gone.