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January 7, 2008
Update: 3 bodies removed from S. Providence house

projo.com photo / Brandie Jefferson
A third body was loaded into a medical examiner's vehicle this afternoon from a house at 345 Blackstone St. in Providence, which police are treating as a murder scene.
PROVIDENCE -- The bodies of an adult male, adult female and a "younger male" were removed from a South Providence house this afternoon, and police are treating the deaths as homicides.
The three were taken out of the house at 345 Blackstone St., one after the other on stretchers carried through the front door and loaded into state medical examiner's vehicles.
Police said if the deaths are determined to be homicides, they will be the city's first murders of the new year. Asked if they were seeking suspects, police would only repeat that they are treating the deaths as homicides.
Mayor David N. Cicilline, who was at the scene, called it a "terrible tragedy for the city."
Deputy Police Chief Paul Kennedy described the two adults as a couple. He said the police would not comment on identities until the medical examiner has looked at the bodies.
The police went to the scene after getting a call at 12:14 p.m. today from a neighbor asking to check on the well-being of the people in the house. A family member had not been able to get in touch with them and had contacted the neighbor to check on them. The neighbor apparently did not get a response.
The Colonial-style house is green with pale trim, red steps and brownish door, with two, possibly three stories. It's in a neighborhood of similar homes, described by police as single-family and owner-occupied, southwest of the Rhode Island Hospital campus. According to the city's online tax assessment database, the property at 345 Blackstone St. is owned by Sonia M. Flores.
Click here for a panoramic view of the neighborhood.
Police Lt. George Stamatakos called the area is a very good street, not one that sees troubles.
At 6 o'clock tonight, the mayor and Police Chief Dean Esserman will meet with area residents at the Davey Lopes Recreation Center at 227 Dudley St. to talk about what happened.
-- With reports from projo.com staff writer Brandie Jefferson and Journal staff writers Amanda Milkovits and Gregory Smith

projo.com photo / Brandie Jefferson
The house at 345 Blackstone St. is in a neighborhood of similarly designed homes, several with mesh fences around them.
The police Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is used at the scene of serious crimes, was at the scene today. Staffers went in and out of the house wearing protective gloves and other protective clothing.
Early this afternoon, at least 15 police officers, including detectives, were there. Some were outside in shirtsleeves, in today's unusually mild weather.
The bodies were loaded into medical examiner's vehicles by about 3:20 p.m.
Students were also starting to return from school at that time, congregating at the edge of the area, which had previously been eerily quiet.
Triple murders are unusual in Rhode Island.
A Foster police officer was convicted of shooting three teenagers to death in 1993.
The Brendels of Barrington -- mother, father and daughter -- were killed in 1991 by former family friend Christopher Hightower.
And Craig Price of Warwick admitted to killing a mother and her two daughters in 1989 when he was 15, and under questioning confessed to killing a neighbor two years before that.
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