By Tiffany Williams –
Two cold-blooded murders that haunted Rhode Island for decades are finally closed — thanks to a relentless Cold Case Unit that connected the dots long after both killers were dead.
The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office Cold Case Unit, working with the North Providence and Narragansett Police Departments, cracked the unsolved homicides of 49-year-old Cynthia McKenna in 2007 and 24-year-old Debra Stone in 1984. In both cases, investigators say the evidence now proves what had been suspected for years — the killers were men close to the victims, and they got away with murder until the grave.
On September 2, 1984, boaters on the Narrow River in Narragansett found the body of 24-year-old Debra Stone. The state medical examiner ruled her death a homicide — asphyxiation by strangulation. Witnesses told investigators that Stone had visited Robert D. Geremia at his Johnston apartment on August 29 — the last time anyone saw her alive. An informant later admitted being in Geremia’s apartment that night and helping him move Stone’s body to the river the next day. The statement lined up with physical evidence and other witness accounts. Another witness said Geremia confessed he “had to” kill Debra because she was stealing from him. Geremia told police at the time that Debra overdosed, but the medical examiner ruled that out after finding severe neck injuries.
When the Cold Case Unit reopened the file in 2023, detectives reexamined the evidence, reviewed every record, and interviewed 32 witnesses. Nearly four decades later, every story matched. Investigators concluded Geremia strangled Debra to death. Geremia died in 1995 — beyond the reach of justice.
On February 21, 2007, North Providence police found 49-year-old Cynthia McKenna dead in her apartment. The state medical examiner said she died from asphyxiation — her airways blocked. Witnesses described years of violence and financial tension between McKenna and her ex, Robert J. Corry Jr. Investigators built a timeline around Cynthia’s murder and found troubling gaps in Corry’s whereabouts.
Then, in late 2007, two letters and an envelope appeared to be written by Corry, confessing to killing Cynthia. The Department of Health pulled DNA from the envelope but couldn’t make a match in any database — Corry wasn’t in the system. In 2024, the Cold Case Unit reopened the case, using new Y-STR DNA technology to test male relatives of Corry. The result — a direct male relative’s DNA matched the envelope, confirming Corry wrote the confession.
Investigators say the DNA, the letters, and Corry’s own words prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he suffocated Cynthia McKenna. Corry died in 2014 — and took his guilt with him.
Two killers. Two decades-old crimes. And one message from Rhode Island’s Cold Case Unit: time doesn’t bury the truth.