Denise Robert was murdered in Manchester in August 2015. Her case remains unsolved.
August 30, 2015, progressed like any other Sunday for 62-year-old Denise Robert. An avid fitness fanatic, she exercised at the Executive Health Club in Manchester that evening until 6 p.m. From there, she stopped briefly to pick up vitamins at a store on South Willow Street before going to Walmart and then to Hannaford Supermarket. Security footage showed Denise leaving the Hannaford’s on John Devine Drive at 8:21 p.m.
Roughly 39 minutes later, she was found dead from a single gunshot wound on Ray Street in the city’s North End. A 9-1-1 call was placed at 9 p.m., and responding officers pronounced her deceased at the scene. Her murder came as a shock to everyone who knew her, and to those who lived in the affluent neighborhood. Though Denise was alone at the time of the incident, several witnesses reported hearing a gunshot ring out through the night air. Some said they initially believed it was a firecracker going off.
One resident said they saw a man drive hastily down Carpenter Street and turn onto Union Street around the time of the shooting. He was reportedly a white male with a close-cropped haircut who may have been in his 20s or 30s. He was driving a pickup truck and wearing a sleeveless shirt. It’s believed the truck may have been red, or it appeared that way because it had rusted with age. The man was never found, but John Robert, Denise’s brother, told us that his family learned from conversations with people in the neighborhood that a nearby resident owned a red pickup truck. It’s believed this resident was involved in drug-related activities, with one neighbor reportedly telling John that he saw a man driving a red pickup truck in the area a week prior to Denise’s murder. The neighbor said he got a bad feeling from the man driving the vehicle and focused on getting himself and his dog home safely.
John said the Manchester Police Department cleared this individual of any wrongdoing, though they were unable to communicate why, citing the need to protect their ongoing investigation. It’s one of several leads that were pursued but ultimately disregarded. Over a decade has passed since then, and Denise’s brother said they are no closer to finding the person responsible for her death. During our conversation, we posed the same questions that John and his siblings have been asking themselves and each other for years: How could a woman who was well-known and highly regarded be senselessly gunned down in a nice neighborhood, seemingly for no reason? She made that walk every Sunday for at least six years. Why was August 30 different?
The person responsible may be the only one who can shed light on a persistently devastating situation. John is still clinging to the hope that someone will develop enough of a conscience to finally explain why Denise was killed so that he and his family can find some closure. In the meantime, they’re going to continue advocating for her case and making sure the people of New Hampshire know that her killer is still at large.
Denise Robert lived a full life
As the oldest of 12 children, Denise Robert understood the importance of being present. Whether it was to take care of her siblings, or to secure ads for the New Hampshire Union Leader as the newspaper’s advertising executive, she knew that showing up was half the battle … even if she got there late. She was a loving, outgoing person who treated others with genuine kindness.
The 62-year-old was passionate about being healthy and staying active, and she was a creature of habit. Every Sunday, Denise would park at the Brookside Congregational Church in Manchester and walk through the North End neighborhood where she grew up. Her brother, Tom Robert, said in an interview for the “Dark Downeast” podcast, “She used the full day. She would take the time she needed to accomplish what she needed to accomplish. It could be any time.” Because of this, Denise would often work odd hours at the Union Leader office, and incorporated late-night habits like her gym trips and solo walks. John Robert said, “She had her own schedule and her own routine.”
In the wake of Denise’s murder, investigators, family members, and internet sleuths all began to wonder whether this routine contributed to her potentially being targeted by someone who knew where she would be and when. Speculation is oftentimes counterproductive, but according to the host of “Dark Downeast,” Kylie Low, and her extensive research, the Manchester Police Department believed there was a specific intent or motive behind Denise’s murder. Kristen Seavey, who hosts a true crime podcast of her own, “Murder She Told,” spoke with the New Hampshire Union Leader in 2025 about this line of inquiry.
“This one has so many blanks. It’s tough to really pinpoint, but I do feel like it was somebody who knew her routine, whether loosely because she was talking about going for a walk while she was at the gym. Or somebody who actually knew her and had a reason, but I just don’t know why,” Seavey said. Not knowing why Denise was murdered is the continued mystery at the heart of this case. From what investigators and family members were able to determine through surveillance video, it doesn’t appear as though anyone was following Denise on the night of August 30. She seems happy in footage recovered from Walmart—not tense, or nervous, or scared. But roughly an hour later, she would become the victim of a shooting that has irreparably impacted her family.
Tugging on that why thread has only, over time, led to more questions and fewer answers. When I asked John why he thinks Denise was murdered, he said, “It’s conjecture, but if I had to guess, it was probably somehow related to the drug trade.” He cited an episode of “20/20” from 2016 that focused on the opioid epidemic in New Hampshire, particularly in Manchester. I wondered out loud whether it might have been a robbery gone wrong, since Denise had left her purse and other belongings in her car that night and was only carrying a key fob as she walked. These motives seem plausible, but with no physical evidence and nothing tying anyone to the crime scene aside from the sighting of the red pickup truck, it has remained impossible to tell.
Trying to solve a crime with limited resources
John Robert said the process of dealing with the investigation into his sister Denise’s death has shed light on the myriad flaws within New Hampshire’s criminal justice system. He and his family know the detectives are and always have been doing their best, but with limited budget and resources, it’s difficult for them to keep up sustained efforts to investigate her case and countless others. In terms of their experience, John said, “We are totally reliant on the attorney general’s office. We’re supposed to only communicate with them. Every six months we have a meeting with them.”
During these meetings, the Robert family receives updates on the investigation, which John says have become increasingly stagnant. He thinks the problem is ultimately a lack of department funding. “If you need more money,” John said, “We’ve got 12 people in our family—we could have a whole conga line into the New Hampshire State Legislature beating the drums for more money.” Another contributing factor is how the Granite State differs from others in New England in regard to how cases are investigated and advocated for. “You go down to Mass, where you are across the border, and the detectives are more of the quarterbacks there, right? They’re more willing to speak out, they’re more willing to ask the tough questions and share things with victims’ families.”
The Roberts are aware of this key difference because of their partnership with Shayna Richard and her foundation, the Light The Way Missing Persons Advocacy Project. “She reps families from all over the United States, but particularly up here in the Northeast. She’s a victims’ advocate for missing and murder cases,” and she’s observed that New Hampshire is stricter and more tight-lipped about investigations than other areas. The Roberts aren’t the only ones who have taken note of this, either. The NH Coalition of Families of the Missing and Murdered holds a rally every August to call “on the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the Cold Case Unit to implement seven key reforms focused on communication, accountability, and meaningful progress.” Without these reforms, John and other families are concerned they’ll indefinitely remain in the dark about any progress being made on their loved one’s investigations. He’s also fearful of what will happen if people from other areas start traveling to the state to commit crimes because the local criminal justice system won’t have the money or resources to prevent them, let alone solve any related cases.
“With the pathetic money that New Hampshire has earmarked for investigating these types of cases, how long is it before guys in other areas come up and use New Hampshire as their personal dumping grounds? You’ve got the entire North Country in the woods, right? It’s perfect, even if the body is found,” John said, because the police departments don’t have the staff or time needed to devote to bringing more criminals to justice. John added that he’s sympathetic to them because he knows they have a lot to contend with here, especially amid the continued opioid epidemic, but it’s disheartening all the same. Especially since the Roberts were recently told by the attorney general’s office that if they “don’t get any more actionable information, this is heading for the cold case department. So Denise gets lumped in with the hundreds of others that are still unsolved.”
If that happens, John said he and his siblings will continue their own independent efforts to find Denise’s killer. “I would love to quit everything and do this full time,” he told me, “but I can’t. I don’t think anyone else in my family could. We’ve got our own lives to live, we have jobs we have to keep, we have houses we have to keep.” However, he emphasized that the most important thing to remember through all of this is, “She was a person, and her life didn’t have to end that way.”
Anyone with information is encouraged to come forward
As of writing, Denise Robert’s case remains open, but not cold. In detective speak, this essentially means that police are not actively investigating her case every day because all immediate, available leads have been exhausted.
In 2017, authorities searched several backyards in the area of Ray Street with metal detectors in an effort to locate the bullet that killed Denise. They were unable to find anything, or, if they did, they did not disclose it to the public due to privacy regulations surrounding the investigation. John Robert told me they couldn’t determine the type of gun used to murder his sister without this crucial piece of evidence, which further complicates the department’s ability to track down the killer. That same year, a search warrant was executed at a Londonderry home on Kendall Pond Road in connection with the case, but any evidence found was inconclusive.
In the years since her tragic death, the Manchester Police Department and Denise’s family have continued their work to solve the case, and a $40,000 reward is still being offered to anyone with valuable information leading to an arrest. If you or anyone you know has any information about what happened to Denise Robert and why, please contact the anonymous tipline for this case directly at 603-624-4040. New evidence will be pursued diligently if and when it becomes available.
