Granby death a homicide: Autopsy determines woman was strangled

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

GRANBY - Authorities say an autopsy has shown that a woman found dead in her Granby home Monday night was strangled.

After reviewing final autopsy results, Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel said Friday night that an inquiry into the unexplained death of Annamarie Rintala would be deemed a homicide investigation.

Scheibel told the Gazette Friday night that there are no suspects at this time, and that the investigation is active and ongoing.

Rintala, 37, was found dead inside her Barton Street home Monday by police responding to a 911 call placed at 7:12 p.m. Dr. Joann Richmond of the medical examiner's office, who reported the results of Rintala's autopsy, told Scheibel that Rintala's death was a homicide by strangulation.

Granby police said the investigation is ongoing and all inquiries will be redirected to Scheibel's office.

Rintala was an emergency medical technician for American Medical Response of Western Massachusetts. According to the Hampshire County Registry of Deeds, Rintala's wife, Cara Rintala, bought their Barton Street property in 2002. They were married in Northampton in 2007, with Annamarie Cochrane taking the last name of her spouse, according to municipal records.

Cara Rintala has been an employee of the Ludlow Fire Department for the past 10 years, working as a firefighter and paramedic, Ludlow Fire Chief Mark Babineau said earlier this week.

According to court documents, in October 2008, Cara Rintala was charged in Eastern Hampshire District Court with domestic assault and battery following an Oct. 27 incident during which Annamarie Rintala told police that Cara Rintala had struck her hard in the back of the head with a closed fist during a domestic incident in their home. All charges in that case were dismissed at the request of the victim.

Annamarie Rintala's is the first homicide investigation in Granby since 1980, when Reinhold P. Kruger, 49, of East Longmeadow, was found in the woods off of Carver Street two months after he went missing, according to published reports.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.