Kriti Mehrotra
When 37-year-old Annamarie Cochrane Rintala was found dead in the basement of her 18 Barton Road home in Granby, Massachusetts, it left the entire community shaken to the core. After all, following a life full of laughter and excitement, the paramedic died in arguably one of the worst ways imaginable, as carefully chronicled in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Down the Basement Stairs.’ However, the most harrowing aspect of this entire ordeal is that it eventually came to light that she was killed at the hands of none other than her wife and the mother of her baby, Cara Rintala.
Cara and Annamarie Cochrane Rintala had a Tumultuous Relationship
Although born in Springfield, Cara Rintala was raised in Westfield, where she graduated from Westfield High School in 1984 before attending Springfield Technical Community College. It was from there that she earned an emergency medical technician certificate, which helped her establish a career as a paramedic in the local areas. It is through this job that she first came across Annamarie Cochrane Rintala. They soon developed an incredible friendship that turned into a romantic relationship. They were reportedly head over heels for one another by the mid-2000s.
Therefore, as Cara and Annamarie experienced life together and realized they wished to be together forever, they seriously began planning for a future, which included a family. While the former initially wanted to adopt a toddler boy so as not to jump into the deep end immediately, the latter wanted a newborn baby girl, and they eventually went for the latter. Brianna came into their lives in 2008, and even though the couple tied the knot in a court ceremony mere weeks later, they soon began facing issues of their own. In 2009, Annamaried actually called the cops, citing a domestic violence issue, and Cara was arrested before the charges were dropped.
However, in the aftermath of it all, Cara and Annamarie not only filed for divorce but also restraining orders against one another. When they arrived in court, though, their personal comments to one another led the judge to make it clear that if they could not go through the separation process civilly or make things work, he would have no choice but to contact Child Protective Services, giving them a wake-up call. Annamarie had dated during this period, but she broke up with her girlfriend to reconcile with her wife in late 2009 for the sake of Brianna and her future. They even took a vacation together in early 2010, and it seemed like they were finally on the right track.
There Was a Mountain of Circumstantial Evidence Against Cara Rintala
Everything changed for the Rintalas on the evening of March 29, 2010, as Annamarie was found dead at the base of the stairs in their basement. 2-year-old Brianna and Cara had been out of the home for most of the afternoon after Annamaried had asked for some quiet time so as to be able to sleep before an overnight shift, but when they arrived home at 8:30 pm, they were met with a gruesome scene. Cara immediately rushed to the neighbors, where she dropped off her daughter before asking them to call 911, so when officials arrived, she was in the basement, sobbing, with her wife in her arms.
It initially appeared as if the paramaseoc had slipped, fallen into the basement, hit her head, and knocked over a bucket, but it quickly came to light that she had been killed. After all, officials noticed how her body seemed cold to the touch, but the paint seemed freshly dispersed, and there was also the fact that her autopsy soon confirmed her manner of death as strangulation. The fact that there were bloodstains beneath a nearby laundry basket also made it clear the scene had been tampered with, so the attention immediately went to Cara as she was right there and had been alone with Annamarie in the minutes before officers arrived.
The fact that they had a domestic situation in the past didn’t help Cara’s situation, and neither did the fact that she prioritized getting her daughter away from the scene by taking her to the neighbors despite being a paramedic and knowing every second counts. Furthermore, there was the fact that, by her accounts, she had left home at 3 pm, but medical experts asserted that Annamarie had died around 1 pm. Yet, she was seen on surveillance footage only around five and was also seen throwing away trash at a McDonald’s rather than anywhere else, and the trash comprises rags that had another female’s DNA on them.
After 4 Trials, Cara Rintala is Currently Serving Her Sentence in Prison
It was almost 18 months after the fact that Cara was arrested for her wife’s murder, with the prosecutors claiming that they had had a fight the previous evening, which escalated that afternoon. Their fight, as per phone records, stemmed from Cara having invited a male friend to their home, which Annamarie was not happy with, as she deemed it disrespectful. Cara reportedly tried soothing the situation, but it didn’t pan out, as per prosecutors, and it culminated with a physical altercation that resulted in Annamarie being strangled and falling down a flight of stairs. According to them, Cara then tried cleaning up the scene before leaving home, even going as far as to call her wife and leave voice messages for a likely alibi. However, Cara’s footsteps didn’t align with the time window the prosecutors presented.
On the other hand, per the defense and their medical expert, there was no way to determine precisely when Annamarie had passed; it could be later in the day, too. They even asserted that the couple had to pay for their Garbage in Granby, so it wasn’t unusual for them to dispose of it elsewhere. It was also pointed out that there was no way to ascertain whether the DNA on the rag was Annamarie’s or not. They then indicated that there were two other potential suspects in Annamarie’s murder, but the officials only focused on the wife. They named a fellow paramedic, Mark Oleksak, with whom the victim seemed to have an emotional affair, as well as her ex-girlfriend from when the married couple was separated, Carla Daniele. The fact that Annamarie owed both of them money was also highlighted. Yet, per records, both Mark and Carla had alibis.
Furthermore, Cara admitted that only she had access to their home and knew that Annamarie would be home alone that fateful day. Therefore, while Cara’s first two trials ended in a hung jury in 2013 and 2014, respectively, they deliberated for three days at the end of her third trial before coming forward with the verdict of guilty on the count of first-degree murder. Cara filed for an appeal, which was granted in 2021 after a higher court determined that the expert who testified about the paint was not reliable. She was subsequently released on a $50,000 bail. Thus, she stood trial for the 4th time in September 2024, which ended with a verdict of guilty on the count of voluntary manslaughter. In the end, she was sentenced to 12 to 14 years with credit for time already served. So, today, at the age of 57 and with her appeal for a reduced sentence denied, she remains incarcerated in a Massachusetts state prison, where she is expected to remain until at least 3 more years.
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