On August 15, 2002, seventeen-year-old Stacy DeGrandchamp went to a party at 1353 Guthrie Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Stacy was a student at the nearby Wayne High School and planned to go on to enroll at Ball State University and work as a computer technologist. On the weekends she attended St. Therese Catholic Church with her family, who were well known and liked in the local community. The teenager’s dreams and aspirations would be stolen from her that night and her murder would remain unsolved for almost two decades.
On the night of August 15, Stacy DeGrandchamp got into an altercation with another girl, 15-year-old Holly Boisvert. The two were separated by other teenagers at the party, a gathering of around twenty attendees in total, but what started as an argument soon broke out into a physical altercation outside. DeGrandchamp had went to meet a boy that night at the party and had no history of fighting or being involved in conflict. On the contrary, she was serious about her studies and church and generally didn’t find herself at the center of any drama.
Boisvert would later go on to claim that the fight was a result of DeGrandchamp being rude about one of her friends and said what began as a verbal argument soon got out of hand.
The second scuffle, which had moved into the backyard, was broken up once again and Stacy stumbled backwards a few steps before falling back to the ground. Those watching on noticed that her clothes were saturated with blood after the fight, blood that was not there before.
Fort Wayne Police were soon on the scene and found the injured teenager laying down on the driveway bleeding. She had been stabbed in the left mid-chest and right upper abdomen and would later die as a result of her injuries. Her death was ruled as a homicide, but the case would soon go cold.
When interviewed by the police the following day, Holly Boisvert admitted to fighting with the victim but denied having or using a knife that night. She instead offered that DeGrandchamp likely fell on something sharp outside during the scuffle. “She probably landed on something when she got knocked into a recycle bin.” She told investigators.
Boisvert was not arrested that night. She would go on to relocate to Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin up until 2019 when she was eventually arrested.
Eighteen years after the fatal stabbing Boisvert, now 33-years-old, was contacted by Fort Wayne police. They had reopened the case and had managed to track down multiple witnesses who still lived in the local area.
Witnesses at the party had seen DeGrandchamp and Boisvert fighting and one had overheard Boisvert saying: “She’s going to take a whipping tonight.” Another attendee claimed to have seen Boisvert placing a knife next to one of the cars parked outside and another had seen the fifteen-year-old wash her hands after the fight. Another stated Boisvert tie back her hair and change clothes before the fight.
“I think I killed my best friend and that’s why you’re here” she told the officer. “If I had just walked away and not turned around to fight, she'd still be alive” she added. She was interviewed for two hours. The affidavit of Probable cause detailed that Boisvert had a conversation with the maintenance man from the apartment building she lived in asking him how quickly one could get out a lease if they had to move urgently. She also asked him if a knife used in a crime could be connected to the scene by measurements alone.
Stacy DeGrandchamp's family denied the claim that the girls were best friends. Stacy was best friends with her cousin who lived a couple of blocks away and the two had grown up together like sisters.
Holly Boisvert also still had the knife she allegedly used to fatally stab DeGrandchamp with that night and handed it over to police as evidence. The police handed the weapon over to a pathologist in Allen County, who concluded that it was consistent with the murder weapon when compared to the injuries detailed in DeGrandchamp’s autopsy report and pictures. Investigators collected enough evidence to place Boisvert at the party at the time of the victim’s death. She was arrested in connection with the murder and is currently awaiting extradition to Fort Wayne.
The victim’s family were happy to receive the news that an arrest had finally been made. They were pleased that Stacy was finally getting justice but have not lived a day without grief since her murder.
