Ex-Mayor ID’d as One of the Bodies Found in Her Rhode Island Home

One of two “severely decomposed” bodies discovered this week in the home of Susan Menard, once the mayor of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was confirmed to be her, state officials said Wednesday. The identity of the second person, believed to be a man in his 70s, has not been confirmed, and an investigation into the pair’s cause or causes of death is ongoing, according to the Office of State Medical Examiners. Menard was Woonsocket’s longest-serving mayor, as well as its first female one. She took up office in 1995, serving until she stepped down in 2009. Her body was found on Monday afternoon by police officers who forced their way in through a rear window after a neighbor reported that he hadn’t seen Menard or the man who lived with her for “a couple of weeks,” Woonsocket police said. “She certainly had her own style, but the people of the city of Woonsocket certainly liked and enjoyed her leadership, electing her to seven terms,” Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, the current mayor of Woonsocket, told The Providence Journal on Wednesday.