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This is Murder, She Told, true crime stories from Maine, New England, and small town USA. I'm Kristen Sevey. You can connect with the show at murdershetold.com or on Instagram at murdershetoldpodcast. This is part two of the Sean O'Brien story. If you haven't listened to part one, I suggest going back and starting with that one first.
Cranston PD immediately prepared a search warrant application and brought it to a judge for approval. Detective Sergeant Michael Gates wrote in the supporting affidavit, quote, When police consulted with the medical examiner's office, Dr. Cherkoff concluded that the magnitude and extent of the trauma to Sean's head
was inconsistent with a fall caused by a seizure. Furthermore, police found blood evidence inconsistent with a fall. Blood residue and spatter was found in areas of the dwelling away from where Sean was discovered at the time of rescue. If Sean didn't die from an accidental fall during a seizure, what could explain his death?
They brought Armand and Lynn to the station for questioning, and they later told Natalia that Armand was so shaken up that they allowed Lynn to write his statement for him, which he dutifully signed. Natalia later found it strange that they were interviewed together and that she was allowed to write his account for him.
After they wrapped up at the station, three detectives followed Armand and Lynn back to the house, where another officer was already present and had secured the scene. Two of the detectives, Armand and Lynn, sat in the backyard together. Armand had invoked his right to counsel, so the discussion was between the detectives and Lynn.
Natalia later learned that Lynn didn't say much, and she failed to recall many of the details that they were asking about. Armin kept trying to interject, but they reminded him that they couldn't speak to him without a lawyer present.
After this went on for a while, Armand grew impatient and insisted that he be allowed to talk. He filled out some paperwork waiving his right to counsel, and they continued the interview. The detectives asked him about the scratches on his face, and both he and Lynn said it was from a fight on Friday and that it was Lynn who scratched him. While other members of the force were processing the crime, Detective Hall returned to the station and informed his sergeant what he'd learned.
The sergeant told him to track down Lynn and bring her in for domestic assault.
By the time he returned, she had disappeared, so Hall went canvassing up and down Pleasant Street. That same day, detectives admitted to Amy and her sister that they believed Armand and Lynn had coordinated their statements and had additional knowledge that they weren't sharing. But they also said that they were hamstrung because key pieces of evidence were missing in the crime scene after four days had been contaminated.
Lynn was arrested for domestic violence charges against Armand.
According to what Natalia was later told by detectives, Lynn said that she had come by on Friday, the day before Sean was found, in the late afternoon, which was when the violent confrontation between her and Armand had happened. She said that she left later and did not spend the night, but she had to have been there at 7 p.m. because that's when Amy dropped off Sean at the bar after noticing that both her and Armand's cars were in the driveway.
She said she left later and did not spend the night. She said that she came back on Saturday afternoon and left again around 5 p.m., shortly before Karen arrived and discovered Sean's condition. Armand recounted the moments on Saturday afternoon leading to the discovery a couple different ways. Karen recalled that when she arrived, Armand already knew about Sean's condition and ushered her in and downstairs.
In the account written by Sean Parker, the first cop on the scene, Arman told him that Karen arrived and went downstairs by herself, then came back up and told him that Sean was still on the floor and was having a seizure. He said he went back downstairs, noticed some blood, and that it was he who called 911.
Armand also said that he recalled Sean watching a baseball game on TV in his bedroom. But Sean didn't even have a TV in his bedroom. Could he have meant the living room downstairs? Because it was very unlikely that Sean would have been in just his boxers in the living room.
Furthermore, when would Armand have seen Sean in the living room at all that day? He had been face down in his bedroom for quite some time. The truth is unclear, and not just about Saturday afternoon, but everything from when Sean was dropped off at the bar at 7pm on Friday until he was discovered at about 6pm on Saturday.
On Thursday, the day after police started investigating the crime, the Cranston Police Department processed Lynn's car in front of the police station, looking for any forensic evidence.
After Sean's death, his mother, Ellen, handled the arrangements for the funeral. It was held on Saturday, July 29th, 2006, four days after his death. His head was so badly damaged from the surgery and the autopsy that they almost decided on a closed casket funeral. But the embalmers did a great job, and they decided to give everyone one last chance to see him.
He was dressed in crisp new sneakers, ironed jeans, a Red Sox jersey, and a baseball cap. Armand and Lynn did not attend. A neighbor of Sean's many years later remembered that some folks left candles and some memorial writing in chalk on the pavement in front of the duplex. She confided in Natalia that right after people left, Armand came out and washed the chalk away with water.
Lynn Halal had a violent past, and though we don't have Lynn's full criminal background, we have learned a few things. In January of 2005, a year and a half before Sean's death, she was arrested for domestic assault. Lynn was 45 years old at the time and was dating a 69-year-old man who lived on Pontiac Avenue in Cranston. In the report, she was described as his live-in girlfriend.
He reported that she grabbed him by the throat, scratched his throat, and threw a large measuring cup of hot water at him. Because he was over 60, it was an automatic felony. In early 2006, Natalia recalled that Lynn flipped over Sean's table and told him that she was going to kill him while he was downstairs watching a game in his living room.
In May of 2006, Armin told Sean that he had to move out, and Lynn moved in shortly thereafter. Sean was scrambling, looking for a place to stay, when Armin changed his mind. He told Sean, forget it, and allowed him to continue to rent the basement apartment.
Armand was renting the whole unit from a landlord for $800 a month. Lynn was living upstairs with Armand and not paying rent, and Sean was paying $675 a month for just the basement unit, covering all but $125 of Armand's rent. Perhaps the financial benefit of having Sean there trumped Lynn's objections. In one strange incident, Armand approached Sean and asked him, "'Want a turn with a pig?'
Sean refused. In late May of 2006, Amy went to the house to drop off a note for Sean, and Lynn invited her in. She told her in a way that Amy said betrayed her delight. Quote, Sean was up to no good. He was bringing black girls into the house, and he might be HIV positive.
Later that night, Amy relayed everything that Lynn had said to Sean, and he was furious that she was making things up to start trouble. Sean and his sister, Charlene, confronted Lynn about the lies, and Lynn struck Sean in the face and threatened to kill him. The police were called. Sean had a bench warrant for failing to appear at a previous court hearing, and he was arrested.
Armand threw Lynn out over the incident and, according to Natalia, obtained a restraining order against her. But by late June, Lynn was coming around again, and Sean was done living there. He had had enough and was looking for a new apartment. It was in the midst of his search that his life came to a sudden end.
A year later, a local TV news station, NBC 10 WJAR, did a special report on Sean's case. They had three of Sean's sisters on the program. We spoke to them and they emphasized the many times that they followed up with the Cranston police on Sean's case. They also consulted with a private investigator. The whole O'Brien family expressed how much they loved their brother, their uncle, their cousin.
and said that they wanted him to be remembered for the wonderful person he was. Erin said she missed her brother terribly. Quote, he lived every day like it was his last, and I'll always thank God because he was so young. In their interview with the local news, they complained that the police response was subpar. Investigative reporter Jim Terracani sat down with Cranston Police Chief McGrath. Did the Cranston Police secure...
Sean's apartment as a crime scene? No. Why not? We weren't treating it as a crime scene because at that point we were treating it as a rescue call for a seizure victim. He also asked the chief about Armand and Lynn. Did you interview Sean's landlord, Armand Rouleau, and his girlfriend? Yes. And are they people of interest?
They are, yes. He also said that he had a thick case file with, quote, hours of surveillance of possible suspects and hundreds of interviews. Cranston police are certain that Sean O'Brien was murdered in that basement apartment a year ago. They also feel that someone out there might have knowledge of what happened, but so far, that person is not coming forward. And Cranston police say they're not giving up.
Two years after Sean's death, things on the investigation and in the family had quieted down, and Natalia took to pen and paper as a 16-year-old to reflect. "I always thought my dad would live forever. The idea that all little girls have, that their dad is invincible, can battle monsters under the bed, spiders, boyfriends, and college admissions."
Over two years ago, I stepped off an elevator into the intensive care unit at the hospital and I expected to walk out alongside my father. But he was in a deep coma and if by some chance a miracle happened, he would not talk, walk, or even recognize me. That week was also the week I developed depression, insomnia, and an anxiety disorder called PTSD.
I've been battling these disorders for a full two years now. I am left with no father. No father to see me graduate, to walk me down the aisle, or to watch me achieve my dreams. I have no answers, just memories and pictures. What my family and I really need is closure. This is where we need help.
We're reaching out to anyone who's willing to give us any type of assistance. I need to know what took Sean Patrick O'Brien away from us, because he was truly the most important person in my life. Despite Natalia's pleas, her father's case sat mostly dormant for another decade. In 2019, 13 years after Sean's death, as a 27-year-old woman, she decided it was time to do something about it.
A lot of people ask me, like, why now? And yeah, last summer I got to ball bowling, but I haven't had another chance. And I haven't had any momentum to kind of like be dedicated to it. I don't have a motive for this. We've always believed it was a homicide. And if anybody asked or if I talked to anybody and my dad came up, it was like, yeah, my dad was murdered, but nothing's ever been done about it. So I've always believed it to be a homicide. I just I didn't have the time or the resources or like the wits about me to do anything about it.
First, she asked the Cranston police for everything. She wanted the entire case file, anything that they had in their records about the death of her dad. The chief of Cranston PD wrote her a letter and provided a redacted version of the statement from one of the first responders.
But other than that, said that they couldn't release anything further to her. In the letter, the chief said, quote, Your father's death has never been determined to be a homicide by the medical examiner's office, and the investigation has been closed, absent any new information coming to light.
This directed Natalia's focus to the manner of death classification from the autopsy report. She ended up securing a meeting with a medical examiner who prepared the initial report, Alexander Cherkov. Alexander pulled out his file and went over it with Natalia. It didn't take long. There were only two documents from the Cranston police. I asked them how it's happened. They give me the report that he had seizure, he fell. That's it.
And I tell them, "Guys, injury doesn't consist of what your story is." And that's all they gave you? Exactly. And they give me a shitty report which doesn't fit anything and ask me to classify this. And I say, "I can classify this based on what you're giving to me." Sixteen years ago, I found this injury doesn't consist of the story. Why I call this death undetermined.
Because injury and story... Don't match up. Don't match up. In my experience, this type of injury must come and happen if someone hit another person. After their meeting, she wrote a letter to him to document their conversation.
Based on your expertise, the body presented and the story did not match, resulting in an undetermined manner of death. We reviewed the evidence provided to you by the Cranston Police Department, which was minimal at best. It gave you no clear story and provided no evidence of a perpetrator. And absent a compelling story, there was insufficient reason to rule the death a homicide.
I'm sending my brother money directly to his bank account in India because he's apparently too busy practicing his karaoke to go pick up cash. Thankfully, I can still send money his way. Direct to my bank account.
Yes, I know I'm sending to your bank account. Western Union. Send it their way. Send money in-store directly to their bank account in India.
It was a case of both organizations pointing the finger at one another, and Natalia felt like she was being sent in circles. The medical examiner said she needed more information from the police, and the police said that it was the medical examiner that determined that there was insufficient evidence to rule it a homicide. Fighting on multiple fronts, Natalia continued to push for Cranston PD to release more information.
Instead of the broad request she made initially, she submitted a series of very specific requests. Like clockwork, Cranston PD would deny the requests and then later release information after Natalia appealed the decision to the Attorney General's Office and won the appeal. Natalia even managed to get a meeting with the Chief of the Criminal Division of the Attorney General's Office to discuss Sean's case.
The same NBC10 that did the initial story on Sean did a follow-up news story with Natalia 14 years later.
this time with investigative reporter Parker Gavigan. That process was really crazy, and we had like a watch party at my house, and it was kind of like, it was a little morbid, like we ordered pizza and stuff, we were all excited to like watch this news clip. And it was like on the 5 o'clock news one night, and it got a ton of attention. It was crazy to watch, it was crazy to see my dad's name on TV. After speaking with Natalia, he tried to get interviews with Armand and Lynn. Both of them said they didn't want to talk.
They brought on Dr. Timothy Gallagher, an independent forensic pathologist, and asked him to review the autopsy report. He said that the blunt force trauma was unlikely caused by an accident and had all the hallmarks of an assault. Parker got a meeting with the current chief of the Cranston police, who said, "'We re-interviewed some of the people that were involved, but unfortunately, at this point, we haven't gotten any more answers for her or more information helpful to our investigation.'"
He said that detectives tracked down a lead about a missing love seed and a lamp from Sean's apartment and followed it all the way to the state landfill. But it was a dead end. The reason they were looking for the lamp is because Sean's niece, who came by with Sean's sister the day he was found, said that she saw Lynn getting into her car with a gold lamp under her arm.
It's tough because I think the police put a lot of stock in that gold lamp thing. And they went to the dump and they looked for the gold lamp. The gold lamp was like the smoking gun. But I don't know. I always question, like, did Lynn actually have anything under her arm? Because, yeah, the lamp was missing. But so was like a radio. So was a hammer. So was like barbells. Like there was a lot missing from the house. So the gold lamp thing is kind of like, you know, it's like a gray area for me.
The chief said that Sean's case is suspended, not closed. They are open to reviewing new information on the case, and there is a detective assigned to it. The detective assigned to the case was not happy when I went to the news. He was a little frustrated. He made it clear in our next meeting that, you know, now nobody's going to want to talk. I was like, well, nobody's talking anyway, so at least I did something. I mean, I think it painted Cranston Police in a very funny light, and I don't think they liked that.
Natalia has also reached out to other media outlets, like Murder, She Told, getting coverage from other podcasts and popular YouTuber Danelle Hallen. With the help of her husband, she started a website, justiceforshawnobrien.com, where she announced a reward of $1,000.
It was frustrating to me that my dad died and not that nobody even knew about it, but that there were people that I talked to that were around the case that were like, oh, I heard he had a brain injury. I heard it was a seizure. I heard he fell down the stairs. So the website was about like setting a lot of information straight and also being a landing spot for all of our information. So like our anonymous tip line is up there. And then I try to do the blog just once a month as a way to personalize him in a way, because I think when...
It's been this long. It's tough to remember that this is a person. And so I try to, like, share stories of him and keep people updated about, like, what's going on. She also started a Facebook group, Justice for Sean O'Brien. She prints flyers about once a month or so and puts them up on utility poles around the area. If she's feeling spicy, she'll even put one on Armin's or Lynn's car.
In the summer of 2021, Natalia was listening to true crime podcasts and got hooked. Anytime she learned something that she could apply to her dad's case, she wrote it down to work on it herself. She ended up finding an association of forensic pathologists and sent out an email blast to all of them with cliff notes about her dad's case along with an autopsy report. Five or six responded and said that it looked like a homicide.
But the rates that they charged were significant, and it wasn't something she was financially prepared to pursue. Natalia was in Trader Joe's when Dr. Sheeping Bao called her and told her it was medically impossible for these wounds to have happened any other way than a homicide. Don't leave this alone.
He believed that the injury was caused by a single devastating blow, immediately knocking Sean unconscious. He explained that the multiple brain injuries noted in the autopsy were likely caused by the brain ricocheting within the cranium. He said that the blow could not have been made with a hammer or any other narrow blunt object, but more likely from something like a baseball bat. He was adamant, but he was unwilling to put it in writing for her.
Natalia got all of Sean's medical records from the Rhode Island hospital. She got the statements from the initial fire department and rescue personnel. She got the 911 audio and transcript from Karen's initial call for help. She got the photos that her aunt took on her flip phone back from police and forwarded them to the medical examiner's office.
As time went on, she stayed in touch with Dr. Bao, and eventually, just a few months ago, he sent her his opinion in writing. It is my opinion that the manner of death of Sean O'Brien is homicide. It was kind of crazy because I, I mean, I knew it, but it didn't kind of hit me until I had it on paper. It's the first time that anyone has publicly and on paper declared my dad's death a homicide. So it was kind of big.
I asked Natalia why she thinks that the Cranston PD and the medical examiner are resistant to ruling it a homicide. From my perspective, it's a twofold issue. One is that it goes on their stats as an unsolved homicide. Nobody likes that. Obviously, I don't know how they play their numbers game, but I know that if I were in the field, that would not look good for my department. And then two, I think it opens up a can of worms where I've asked for state police to get involved.
And state police will not unless the attorney general orders them to get involved. So I'm kind of working on that. I think it opens them up to being scrutinized as far as what they did right or wrong. And they will stand by like, you know, when I meet with them or when they send me letters, they stand by the work that they did. And that's fine. And like, I get it. You guys assigned probably too many detectives to the case initially and, you know, did all of this legwork and stuff. And I get it. But you still didn't seal the crime scene and you still have an officer writing like
a completely inaccurate report that was the basis for all of the responses afterwards. Like nobody responded because if they went back and looked at Sean Parker's report, everything looks fine. So that's not fair. It's like, you're just playing like keep away with this thing by not calling it a homicide because then what, because then I have like a leg to stand on and say the state police needs to get involved. But if you rule it a homicide, you could work with the medical examiner a little bit more and you could, I don't know. I don't know if the attorney general is like,
Listen, I can't charge anybody with this. I don't know. I don't know what your big issue is calling it a homicide. It is what it is. You investigated it as such. Natalia continues to advocate for her dad, demanding transparency in a criminal justice system that operates in secrecy. The findings in the medical examiner's autopsy report were the spark that ignited the efforts of the police. And Natalia often wonders if the case would have been solved if Sean had died at the scene.
One of the things that I've always said is that my dad's biggest mistake was not dying at the house. It's terrible that I say that, but I think if he was found dead at the house, it would have been sealed immediately. The police would have taken it way more seriously. And the medical examiner would have had his injuries fresh from whatever happened instead of secondhand because he looked different to the medical examiner. It was like,
I wonder if we'd have a different outcome if he had gotten him, like, if he had just died at home. She hears stories of passionate detectives whose doggedness have made a difference in cold cases, and she can't help but yearn for that.
you listen to these cases and like nothing gets solved by accident. Nothing gets solved because somebody decided they have this like conscience all of a sudden. It's always like a detective that wouldn't give up. And unfortunately I don't have that. I don't have somebody that's like really fighting in my corner. I have somebody that is a point of contact and will meet with me if I send enough emails or call him enough times, but I don't have somebody that's like, I am obsessed with this case and I'm going to comb through it truth and now and like make sure that
I've looked at it from every possible angle. Like I don't have that. And that's kind of like what I'm looking for and what I think me and my mom and my cousins, this is what we do. Like we'll sit after we go out and hang up flyers, we'll sit and like dig through every single piece of information.
I asked Natalia what she and her mom thought happened to Sean, and she said that she thought that Sean got home from the bar on Friday night, went to sleep, and at some point during the night was struck in the head while he was in bed. She believes he was left all day downstairs suffering, which would explain why he was found in just his boxer shorts.
Natalia, in her writing, emphasizes her tirelessness and tenacity in pursuing her father's case. She is his next of kin, and she feels the weight on her shoulders to advocate for her father. She asks herself, if not me, then who?
She had shirts made and she wears them every weekend when she's out running errands. She lives and breathes her father's case, and it's making an impact. She got the current detective, Robert Santagata, to go out and knock on some doors with the hope of re-interviewing some people involved with the case. She said to us, I'm not done, and I won't stop. I'm not giving up until the story is over.
After his death, I spiraled a little bit like normal teenage stuff. But then come like senior year of high school, I was like, this is it. I need to make all of the best possible choices that I can. And it didn't feel like, oh, I don't want to end up like my dad or like I don't want to do these things. But it was like everything just had to be perfect. Like if I was going to do something, I was going to do it with my full effort. And I was going to be great at it because I always thought if it happens to me, I want to be able to say yes.
In her writing, she talks about the things that were stolen from her.
My dad had demons he fought every day. Would I have cut ties with him? Would I have asked him to walk me down the aisle? Saved him a seat at my graduation? It doesn't matter what would have happened. Someone took those choices away from me. Someone took the chance for my dad and I to build a relationship. Someone took my dad's life, and in turn, took so much of mine. They took my peace, my ability to sleep through the night.
They took my immaturity that I was owed and made me grow up way too soon. Despite this heavy burden, Natalia maintained focus achieving her own goals. She finished college and went on to get a master's degree. She's now a school administrator. I asked what her goals were with her father's case.
I posted like on Reddit and all of the comments from people in Rhode Island or people from Cranston were like, oh my God, I can't believe this happened. I never heard of this case. And that was so frustrating to me because it was like somebody was killed and nobody knows about it. Like Rhode Island's so small and everyone thinks like this stuff doesn't happen here. So I want people to talk about it because I think, you know, I've looked at it
from every angle that I possibly can, but I think a fresh set of eyes, like a citizen detective that's like, wait a second, did you consider this? And that might prompt the police to open up, you know, a new can of worms. I really just, I want his name out there. Like I want people to know, like he wasn't just some guy from Cranston that like had his struggles. Like, no, he tried his best, but ultimately like he was murdered. So that's my goal.
If you have any information about the death of Sean O'Brien, I encourage you to reach out to the Cranston Police Department at 401-942-2211 or text Natalia at 401-284-9555 with any information.
I want to thank you so much for listening. I am so grateful that you chose to tune in and I couldn't be here without you. Thank you. If you would like to support the show, there's a link in the show notes with options. Another way to support is telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a review. A very special thanks to Natalia for reaching out, trusting me with her dad's story, and sharing her memories with me. Most of this episode was crafted with the research that she's done in original documents.
Special thanks to Aaron and the O'Brien family for sharing their memories. A detailed list of sources and photos can be found at MurderSheTold.com. This episode was co-written and researched by Byron Willis. If you have a story that needs to be told or a correction, I would love to hear from you. My only hope is that I've kept the memories of your loved ones alive. I'm Kristen Sevey, and this is Murder She Told. Thank you for listening.
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