joyce pellino crane

Community Gathers to Memorialize Olivia Marchand, 17, Domestic Violence Victim

Mass Memorializes Olivia Marchand, 17, Fatally Shot by her Father, Police Say

by Joyce Pellino Crane

WESTFORD, Mass. – A high school senior beseeched the community to “Live for Liv,” this morning, inside an overflowing church where her fellow classmates, their families, and friends gathered to memorialize a student who died violently this week.

The early morning Mass at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church brought together a community seeking solace over the death of a popular high school senior and the critical wounding of her mother who, police say, were shot Monday by the student’s father, before he turned the gun on himself.

Olivia Marchand, 17, died at her Makepeace Road home from a 9 mm gunshot wound. Her mother, Jody Marchand, 50, was med-flighted to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester where a hospital representative, today, said he had “no information on that patient.”

Brian Marchand, 59, Olivia’s father and Jody’s husband, died at the scene, according to Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

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Serene Community Again Rocked by Apparent Violence

Westford, MA – Two people in a Makepeace Road home died tonight and a third was airlifted to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, according to Westford Police Captain Joseph Roy. The incident occurred at 8:37 p.m. Roy did not identify the victims pending notification of next of kin and would not specify a cause of death.

Regional broadcast media reported that the fatalities were due to gunshot wounds.

The incident remains under investigation, Roy said.

Until recently, violent crimes in this pastoral community were rare. But on January 9, Frederick Leduc of Forge Village Road allegedly shot his wife Karen and sustained a gunshot wound under his chin. Karen Leduc died a few days later and Leduc was charged with first degree murder while recuperating at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

JOYCE PELLINO CRANE