Criminals Killing Criminals

A man was found dead in his Salem, N.H. apartment on September 18, 1990.

After a life of criminal activity, who killed John Pond Sr.? Lily Geber looks into this complicated case with many twists and turns. 

Transcript

Track 1 In September of 1990, Sandra Boerner stopped by her brother’s house in Salem 
New Hampshire for a visit… Tragedy struck when she walked through the door and found her 
brother, John Pond Senior stabbed to death next to his wheelchair. Yet The answer to who dunnit
…. wouldn’t be revealed for another 22 years.
 
Music
Track 2 Make sure to listen very closely this story can get pretty confusing very quick. 
To help make it easier to listen to everyone will always be referred to as their full name. You’re 
listening to Gone Cold New Hampshire I’m Lily Geber and this is Criminals Killing 
Criminals…. the Story of John Pond Sr. 
Music 
Track 3 At the young age of just 19 John Pond Sr, already had a long list of run ins with 
the police. His criminal history was lengthy... He spent six months in jail after a long trail of 
arrests that all coincide with breaking and entering. One of John Pond Sr. run ins with the police 
left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life... 
This happened back on May 19, 1984, while on parole after six-months in jail. John Pond
Sr was running from Police. He claims that he was just smoking marijuana with people he didn’t 
know and that he was not armed. Police say differently… they say he was armed and fired at 
them, so Police fired back… Pond was left with a bullet in his spine chest and arm. 
Music 
Track 4 Police charged him with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, two 
counts of armed assault with intent to commit murder and a count of illegal possession of a 
firearm. Yet John Pond Senior only admits to smoking a joint and stood by his story that he had 
no gun... no gun was found but police reports say they found shell casing around the crime scene.
John Pond Senior believed that he was falsely charged and sued the city police. 
Music
Track 5 John Pond Senior was acquitted of all charges and a judge in Boston awarded 
him 300,000 dollars…. 
Music
Track 6 Patricia Jackson, John Pond Seniors girlfriend, says that the money went 
quick though. There were a multitude of trips to the hospital months after the shooting. 
Patricia Jackson and John Pond Senior had a rocky relationship.
Burning through the money didn’t help.
Despite that, Patricia Jackson said he was still trying to be a good father to their son, and he was 
a good-hearted person. 
 
Music
Track 7 Before his sister found him dead in his trailer in 1990, family members say that John 
Pond Senior was getting his life on the right track…but police have another story…
 Music 
Track 8 John Pond Senior had limited mobility, so police say he adapted his criminal 
ways... he was working with his neighbor to sell stolen property. But that wasn’t all he was 
doing; he was sharing his wealth of criminal knowledge with kids in the trailer park where he 
lived...

He was teaching them to break and enter. The kids would break into trailers and bring John Pond

Senior electronics…

 he would then sell the electronics for drugs and cash. As you can imagine... this made a lot of 

enemies for John Pond Senior… 

 MUSIC

Track 9 Remember when I told you that this story gets complicated? Well, John Pond 

Senior wasn’t the only criminal in the family. John Pond’s brother Michael Pond also had a 

rocky relationship with a woman.

…. There is little information about Michael Pond, but, we know that he had an off 

again on-again relationship with Paula Gauthier, they had two children. 

Pond had a lengthy criminal record and spent time in prison in the month of September 

1990 for a felony charge. You’ll remember that September of 1990 was the same month that his 

brother John Pond Senior was killed.

While Michael Pond was in prison, it turns Paula Gauthier was seeing another man, his 

name, was Mark Craig.….

Mark Craig was a tall very muscular man who had pale blue eyes, short brown hair, and a

scruffy beard, he looked like an ordinary guy, nothing about him screamed different. But he too 

had lengthy criminal record… this included robbery, threatening, possession of a dangerous 

weapon assault of a police officer and more… In September of 1990 this Love Triangle was 

headed for danger...

Music 

Track 10 Days before Michael Pond would be released from prison on September 13th

, 

1990, Paula Gauthier cut things of with Mark Craig.

She wanted to raise a family with Michael Pond. No matter how much Mark Craig 

pleaded, Paula Gauthier said no. One night after an argument Mark Craig stormed out of the 

apartment. He walked back into Paula Gauthiers apartment a little while later with a piece of 

glass sticking out of his hand. We don’t know how he hurt his hand.. but we know that Paula 

Gauthier bandaged it up for him and let him spend the night.

Music

Track 11 When Michael Pond was released from Prison, he and Paula Gauthier moved in 

with one another. 

Music 

Track 12 On the night of September 18th, 1990, Michael Pond and Paula Gauthier spent 

the night at Michael Pond’s sister’s house. This is the same sister, who would come to find her 

brother’s body the next morning.

Sandra Boerner lived at 48 Arthur Street, in the same trailer park as her brother.

Mark Craig, Paula Gauthier’s ex-lover was also in the trailer park that night, at John Pond

Seniors…. 

 Police say Mark Craig went to John Pond senior house trying to get information on 

where Michael Pond was. 

This wasn’t the first time Mark Craig had a run in with John Pond Senior. Back in 

February, cops were called to John Pond Seniors house about a disturbance. At that time, John 

Pond Senior told cops that he didn’t know where Mark Craig was.. but then Mark Craig came 

out of the bathroom and was arrested. 

When the cops took Mark Craig away reports say he was screaming about burning John Pond 

seniors trailer to the ground. 

John Pond Senior later told his sister Sandra Boerner that he was scared of Mark Craig.

Shouting 

Track 13 So on the night of September 18th, Mark Craig was in John Pond Seniors home, 

screaming that he wanted to know where Michael Pond was..

John Pond Senior refused to tell him about his brothers’ whereabouts.

It was around 11pm and there was a knock at the door.

Knocking 

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Track 14 The man at the door was Dennis Razis.

Dennis Razis was looking to buy a stereo from John Pond Senior. and happened upon the tense 

scene.

Door Opening 

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Track 15 When the door opened a crack, a tall man stood at the door telling Dennis Razis that 

John Pond senior was busy and wouldn’t be able to help him. Dennis Razis heard screaming 

from John Pond on the other side of the wall. 

John Pond Senior was screaming telling him to go to 48 Arthur Street and call the police, John 

Pond senior was screaming that he was going to be stabbed. Yet Dennis Razis decided to mind 

his own business… and he left. 

Door Close 

Track 16 Dennis Razis assumed that it was some sort of drug deal gone bad. So, he left, shaken, 

and went home, without the stereo.

Music 

Track 17 The next morning on September 19th, 1990, Sandra Boerner John Pond Senior’s sister 

who lived at 48 Arthur Street went over as she usually does to check on her brother. Yet what 

she found was out of the usual. 

Music 

Track 18 Sandra Boerner found her brother slumped next to his wheelchair. He was stabbed. 

Police Siren 

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Track 19 When police showed up, they found that John Pond Senior had been stabbed 26 times 

… Blood ran across the whole trailer. Police noted it saying that it was very plausible that he was

tortured and then killed slowly….

While Police looked around the crime scene they found something significant. A bloody 

footprint of a new balance sneaker. They also found a sample of blood that showed two blood 

types. One blood type that proved to be John Pond Sr. and the other unknown. 

Music 

Track 20 Salem Police designated rookie officer Paul Marchaud who started with the 

police department just two weeks before John Pond’s body was found...

 Officer Marchaud’s job was to help out the seven other detectives on the case. He would take all

their notes and type them into reports. 

Senior Assistant Attorney general Benjamin Aggati says it’s important to devote 

resources at the beginning of the case. 

“as time goes on the chances get worse –- so you want to hit a case very hard with as 

many resources as you can as quickly as possible”.

As you can imagine Officer Marchaud had a very special perspective of the case. 

While in John Ponds Seniors house, police found a collection of electronics, stolen items,

and drugs. 

Detectives automatically saw drug dealers as the potential suspects... Yet after some 

investigation police came to find out that the usual pushers had no problem with John Pond 

Senior, and he had no outstanding debts… 

Music

Track 21 Then… while looking for more information Officer Marchaud found something 

unusual... 

Music 

Track 22 Only ten minutes south of the trailer park in Methuen Massachusetts a landlord 

got a complaint that water was dripping down from the apartment above them. 

That apartment, belonged to Paula Gauthier. Mark Craig had let himself in and stabbed 

Paula’s waterbed.. police later found out he had been looking at the apartment for Michael Pond..

Pause 

Track 23 It seemed as if Mark Craig was the prime suspect. Neighbors in the trailer park 

had told police they had seen a red pick-up truck around 11pm that night. Mark Craig didn’t 

drive a pick-up truck… so, police stopped looking into him and started looking for the person 

with a red pick-up truck. 

Pause 

Track 24 It took police around two weeks to figure out that red pick-up truck was a 

Salem Village Pizza delivery truck.

John Pond’s neighbor Dennis Razis was part owner of the pizza shop.. but didn’t 

cooperate when police questioned him.

Dennis Razis said he was getting married soon and didn’t want anything to ruin his 

reputation before his big day. 

After the wedding, Dennis Razis started talking to police.. he said he had heard John 

Pond Senior yelling that night that he was going to be stabbed… 

But time had passed.. and Dennis Razis couldn’t remember what the man in the doorway 

looked like. 

Hoping that Dennis Razis could remember that man in the doorway, police had him 

hypnotized, he worked with a sketch artist, and they tried a police line-up…but he couldn’t 

identify who the man was.

Even though the police had high suspicion it was Mark Craig, he didn’t drive a red 

pickup truck, Dennis Razis couldn’t pick him out of the police line-up and when police 

questioned Mark Craig he denied any involvement. 

Music 

Track 25 Weeks passed, and police still didn’t have enough evidence to arrest Mark 

Craig, so the case went quiet for over two decades. 

The case was dropped into a drawer, filed with other New Hampshire Cold Cases. Here’s AG 

Agati again:

“for a case to go cold it really has to have a time period of 2 years (of) no new tips, no 

new leads, no new investigative avenues that can be pursued.”

Music

Track 26 As years went by Officer Marchaud would frequently pick up the case in hopes to look

for a new angle. While in 1990 DNA testing was readily available, in 2003 Officer Marchaud 

tested the blood sample and again found John Pond senior and a unknown person. No matter 

how bad Officer Marchaud wanted to test the unknown blood against Mark Craig he didn’t have

the legal grounds to collect it. 

Music 

Track 27 Craig had died of an overdose at 37. 

Music

Track 28 Officer Marchaud said he felt defeated, he thought the case would never be solved and 

it was looking like justice for what happened on the that night September night of 1990 may 

never be served.

Music 

Track 29 Detective Sergeant James Chase was also very curious about the case and would 

sometimes help Paul Marchaud with the case. While officer Marchaud felt defeated, dectective 

Chase felt that the case could still possibly be solved. He just needed a reason to reopen the case.

Drawer opening 

Track 30 19 years later in 2009 The State of New Hampshire decided to open a cold case unit. 

The hope was to use the new technology and a designated group of investigators to try and solve 

these cases. Detective Chase used this as his reasoning to open John Pond Seniors case. 

 Sound 

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Track 31 Dectective Chase got straight to work and very quickly found out that since the dead 

had no right to privacy it wouldn’t violate Mark Craig’s right if they tested his DNA with the 

blood sample they found back in September of 1990. By the time they had reopened the case 

Paul Marchaud had retired. Yet officer Marchaud was so invested in this case he decided to 

come back as a part time special investigator. 

Music 

Track 32 It took weeks for the DNA comparison to come back..

Music

DNA proved to Police that Mark Craig was the one that murdered John Pond Senior. 

Music

Yet detectives weren’t done. One theory was that Mark Craig did not work alone. So twenty 

years later they brought Dennis Razi’s back in for questioning. This time he told police that after 

he left John Pond seniors house he called his then fiancé on a nearby payphone to tell her how he

Music 

Track 33 Even though Mark Craig had died they still needed to convene a grand jury to close the

case. Paula Gauthier testified to bandaging up Mark Craigs hand that night, telling the jury how 

bloody it was. She also told them how Mark Craig always wore New balance sneakers. 

Sound 

Track 34 Using the new technology, the Salem Police department was able to find out that all of 

the bloody sneaker impressions they had found did in fact belonged to Mark Craig.

Mark Craig was the killer. Joelle Donley Wiggins is a victim advocate with the New Hampshire 

cold case unit. She was able to help tell the Pond family that case was closed. 

(16:00)

So After twenty two years the case of John Pond Senior was finally closed. 

Drawer Closing 

Thank you to the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit for contributing information for this 

story. 

Music in this episode was provided by Blue Dot Session’s 

Sound effects were provided by Word Press.org 

 On the next episode of Gone Cold New Hampshire, The City never sleeps. We learn about Lin 

Brennan a quiet girl who is found dead one day in her Manchester apartment. But will police be 

able to find out who done it? Stay tuned to the City Never Sleeps my Tommy Doe to find out. 

than one killer.