Constance Chaput-Raby was just 10 years old the last time she saw her mother. Louise Chaput had left her Sherbrooke, Quebec, home to go hiking alone for a few days in the White Mountains. When she did not return home as expected, her family notified authorities. She was found just off the Glen Boulder Trail, dead from multiple stab wounds.

This week marks 20 years since Louise Chaput was murdered and no one has ever been charged in her death. The case remains active with the N.H. Cold Case Unit.

The details of the case have been told many times over the years. The 52-year old self-employed psychologist left her home on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001, to spend a couple days hiking Mount Washington alone after a planned fall hiking trip with friends had fallen through.

She had a reservation at the Appalachian Mountain Club Pinkham Notch Lodge for Thursday night. While she never signed in, authorities believe that at about 3 p.m. she asked a clerk at the visitors center to recommend a short hike.

When Chaput did not return home by the evening of Nov. 19, her longtime boyfriend reported her missing. Her body was discovered three days later, 200 feet off the Glen Boulder Trail.

In a Skype interview with The Berlin Sun, Chaput-Raby joined two of her mother’s longtime friends, Denis Masson and Marie Pinault, in talking about the anniversary.

Chaput-Raby said at the time of her mother’s murder she was really too young to understand the finality of the act. She had remained in Sherbrooke during the search in New Hampshire.

But time has changed her perspective. A documentary filmmaker, Chaput-Raby said this year she has been thinking about doing a documentary on her mother’s story. She has been reading some letters her mother wrote to her. The letters, which her mother started when she was pregnant with Constance, were written to her as an adult.

Since her memories of her mother are childhood ones, she said it has been special to read the letters.

Chaput-Raby said she has learned more about her mother from family members and her mother’s friends like Masson and Pinault.

The three describe Chaput as an independent free-spirit with a love of adventure.

Chaput-Raby said both her parents enjoyed the outdoors and she and her older sister were raised to enjoy being outside.

Masson and Pinault, who are married and live in Ottawa, have been devoted to keeping the case active and hoping that their friend’s killer will eventually be brought to justice. Over the years, they have made regular trips to Pinkham Notch to meet with police, hand out posters, and generate stories. Some years, one or both of Chaput’s daughters have joined them.

Two years ago, Pinault was instrumental in getting the Canadian crime podcast Syntheses to do a six-part series on the case.

Boris Proulx of “Syntheses” said he and his team were interviewing Pinault, a medical doctor who was the coroner on an unsolved case in Canada.

She told Proulx about the unsolved murder of her friend in New Hampshire. Proulx said the podcast on Chaput was very popular in Canada but has not been translated into English so it has not gotten play in this country.

The Chaput case remains on the state’s Cold Case Unit’s Victims List, which is devoted exclusively to unsolved murder cases. No one from the unit responded to multiple calls and emails from the Sun for an update on the Chaput case.

In the past, they have called the case a tough one because Chaput was hiking alone, hours from her home in a foreign country. No witnesses to the stabbing have ever surfaced.

Records confirm her car entered the United States in Norton, Vt., at 11:45 a.m. on Nov. 15, 2001. A credit card receipt found in her car put Chaput at a Colebrook convenience store roughly an hour later.

Otherwise, there was limited evidence.

Chaput’s dark blue internal frame backpack with a Canadian flag on the outside has never been found, nor has her green down sleeping bag and the keys to her silver Ford Focus. Her car was found parked at the Diretissima Trail Head.

Proulx said authorities told him they believe it was a random killing, that it was unlikely Chaput knew her attacker. It was also clear from the scene that she put up a fight.

“She fought hard for her life,” he said.

The more time passes after a crime, in general, the colder the trail gets and the harder it is to solve the case. But police have also said time can work to law enforcement’s favor. A witness may be willing to come forward who was afraid to do so earlier for various reasons. The perpetrator or perpetrators may get overconfident or careless. Masson and Pinault hope the latter is true.

Pinault said in part their devotion is because Chaput was a very dear friend and they care about her two daughters. It is also a way of keeping Chaput’s memory alive among her friends as they share stories. But Masson and Pinault said they also worry that the killer is still out there and poses a threat to others.

“It’s important to us to stop this person and that person is put away so this doesn’t happen again,” said Masson, adding, “It would be great to have closure for us but it wouldn’t bring back Louise.”

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.]]>