Doreen Pickard's Murder, Susan Laferte's Assault - What Happened After the "Unsolved Mysteries" Episode

By: Shane Lambert

On May 18th, 1988, "Unsolved Mysteries" aired an original episode. One of the mysteries ("Rhode Island Amnesia") included the murder of Doreen Picard and the assault of Susan Laferte. Laferte, as a surviving witness to the murder, unfortunately, went into a coma from her injuries and could not remember the attack when she came out of it.

03 Apr 1998, Fri The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware) Newspapers.com

More modern versions of the "Unsolved Mysteries" episode indicate that one Raymond Tempest was convicted of the crimes, was sentenced to 85 years in prison, but has since been released. Naturally, that should raise some questions for fans of the television series: why was he convicted, and if his sentence was for so many decades, how is it that he could be released already?

The episode was the 7th "Special Edition" of "Unsolved Mysteries." This was a time period in the show's history when they appeared to be feeling out the ratings. The following preview of the show appeared in the News-Press out of Fort Myers, Florida on May 18th, 1988.

18 May 1988, Wed News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida) Newspapers.com
With the newspaper databases I used, Raymond Tempest's name starts to enter journalism related to the crime in June of 1991. The following article is the earliest journalism I found that associated Raymond Tempest with the case.

09 Jun 1991, Sun The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

Later journalism suggested that Raymond Tempest benefited from having family ties involved in law enforcement in the community that Picard was murdered in:

 
21 Apr 1992, Tue Record-Journal (Meriden, Connecticut) Newspapers.com

The conviction came in what would have been late June of 1992.

05 Jul 1992, Sun The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

The conviction was vacated in July of 2015:

 
14 Jul 2015, Tue The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

After the vacation of the conviction in July 2015, I did not find any more newspaper coverage. However, there are online news articles as this saga appears to be ongoing even in very modern times.

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