about us
preserve the child
child focused documentary research 1987-1991
Return to the Record is the research framework underlying this work. It is a structured, source-driven investigation into historical cases of child homicide in Rhode Island — returning to original documents, court records, newspaper archives, and official reports to reconstruct what is actually known.
The project does not begin with a conclusion. It begins with a question: what do the primary sources actually say? From there, each case is rebuilt carefully, document by document, until the shape of what happened and what remains unknown, becomes clear.
Frankie
Frankie Lee Barnes Jr, a 9 year old third grader at Asa Messer School in Providence.
Disappeared while riding his bike around his neighborhood, November 1987.
A court resolution left much of what happened unexplained.
Jason
Jason R. A. Wolf, a 6 year old Kindergartener at William D.Abate School in Providence.
Disappeared while checking the mail, December 1987.
A court resolution left much of what happened unexplained.
Lori
Lori Marie Leone, a 16 year old resident of Providence.
Last seen by her family the day after Christmas, December 1987.
A court resolution left much of what happened unexplained.
Christine
Christine Anne Cole, a 10 year old third grader at Eleanor Baldwin School in Pawtucket.
Disappeared while running an errand for her mother, January 1988.
Her homicide remains unresolved.
Michelle
Michelle B. Norris, a 7 year old first grader at Capt. Hunt School in Central Falls.
Disappeared while playing at the playground, May 1988.
Her homicide remains unresolved.
Juston
Juston C. Ellinwood, a 9 year old third grader at Wyman School in Warwick.
Left with an adult family friend late night, April 1988.
A court resolution left much of what happened unexplained.
Lauren
Lauren Lee Morris, a recent graduate of Bristol High School in Bristol.
Last seen as a bank in Providence, July 1988..
Her homicide remains unresolved.
about the researcher
Jessica Pink
Jessica Pink is the Rhode Island born researcher and writer behind Return to the Record and Remember. Dont Forget.
She reconstructs children’s stories through archival records, contemporaneous reporting, public documents, and court records, preserving contradictions rather than forcing certainty where the record does not provide it.
WHY I RETURNED TO THE RECORD
I grew up in Central Falls and Pawtucket, close to the streets, schools and neighborhoods where many of these stories unfolded. Michelle Norris was my first-grade classmate. Other children lived in places woven into my own childhood.
Years later, when I returned to their cases, I found stories that had become fragmented, conflated, or reduced to the circumstances of their deaths.
Return to the Record grew from the belief that these children deserve to be remembered as children, and that their histories should be reconstructed with care, honesty, and respect for what the documented record can and cannot establish.
