Two Men Indicted in Carbuncle Pond Murder

PROVIDENCE, RI —  The Statewide Grand Jury has returned indictments charging two Rhode Island men with the Carbuncle Pond murder of Leila Duarte DaLuz, whose body was recovered from the Coventry pond Dec. 21, 2022.

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and Colonel Darnell S. Weaver announced the indictments today in the murder of the pregnant Brockton, MA woman, charging them with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. On Sept. 6, 2023, the Statewide Grand Jury returned indictments charging Michael Lambert, 46, of Pawtucket and Gary Gromkiewicz, 36, of Lincoln each with one count of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.

RI State Police charged the two in the Carbuncle Pond murder in May. The defendants are held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions and are scheduled to be arraigned in Kent County Superior Court on Sept. 29.

As alleged in court proceedings, at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2022, Gromkiewicz and Lambert traveled to Brockton, Mass. to pick up the victim at her home. The victim was Gromkiewicz’s ex-girlfriend and was pregnant at the time. According to cell phone location data, they then drove throughout Rhode Island over the course of the morning, making multiple stops at gas stations and convenience stores as captured on surveillance footage.

At approximately 6:18 a.m., cell phone location data then tracked their travel to western Coventry, in an area where Carbuncle Pond is located, and where the victim’s body was later recovered, according to court documents.

The victim was found by a local fisherman in Carbuncle Pond, beneath the ice, with lacerations on her head. According to the medical examiner’s report, the victim sustained blunt force trauma to the head. The medical examiner also found water in her lungs, indicating she was alive when she entered the water.

Detectives James Hudson and Robert Hopkins of the Rhode Island State Police and Criminal Division Chief Stephen Dambruch and Assistant Attorney General John Corrigan of the Office of the Attorney General are leading the investigation and prosecution of the Carbuncle Pond murder case.