18 Years Later, Hundreds March to Remember Slain Somerville Teen

"She's now been dead longer than she's been alive. A year longer," Katherine Cremin told WCVB Saturday about her daughter, Deanna Cremin, then 17, who was strangled to death in Somerville 18 years ago.

Katherine Cremin and hundreds of supporters took to the streets of Somerville Saturday to remember Deanna and urge anyone with information about her murder to come forward.

The march retraced Deanna's last steps, the ones she took on March 30, 1995, three days after her 17th birthday.

She had gone out with her boyfriend, Tommy LeBlanc, but she never returned. Her body was found dumped behind an elderly housing complex two blocks from her home.

Many suspect LeBlanc. "He didn’t cooperate with the police. He walked her halfway home. I just, I don’t, I don’t believe that he’s innocent," Christine Cremin, Deanna's sister, told WBZ.

LeBlanc was a person of interest in the case, but he was never charged and he hasn't been seen in years, according to press reports.

Saturday's march began after a mass at St. Anne's church and a rally at the Winter Hill School. It then proceeded to 419 Broadway, LeBlanc's former home. Marchers continued to the point where LeBlanc allegedly stopped walking Deanna home, and on to the elderly housing complex where her body was found. It concluded with a walk to her former Jaques Street residence, symbolically guiding her the two remaining blocks home.

Deanna's family hopes that, after all these years, the annual march might draw attention to the case and help uncover new information. "The fact that a killer remains free, and the brutal fashion that she was murdered [in], it's imperative that we don't give up," Katherine Cremin told WCVB.

At the same time, "We're trying to create a very positive and united energy," she said.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Middlesex District Attorney's office.

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• WCVB
• WBZ
• Boston Globe