Rehoboth murder victim’s sister: ‘Nobody saw this coming’
REHOBOTH, Mass. (WPRI) — For Faith Monteiro, the last month has been a blur.
But she will never forget the last words her 18-year-old sister Kylee Monteiro said to her.
“‘I love you so much,'” Faith recalled her sister telling her over the phone. “We don’t talk like that. Usually, we’re just like, ‘I love you and I’ll talk to you later.’ But she was just like, ‘I love you so much,’ and I remember in my head thinking, ‘Why so much?'”
Faith told 12 News that Kylee was the youngest of their father’s five children.
“My sister was one of my best friends,” Faith said. “She was amazing. I can’t even put it into words. You’d have to know Kylee to understand that she had the biggest personality — bigger than you could possibly imagine.”
Kylee was
reported missing on Aug. 7 by her boyfriend, 22-year-old Gregory Groom. Faith didn’t even know Kylee had disappeared until their other sister reached out regarding Groom’s report.
“My sister does not walk off. She doesn’t do that,” Faith explained. “She’s always in contact with somebody.”
Faith spent the better part of two weeks driving around looking for her missing sister.
“I was driving down those streets for hours,” she said. “I wasn’t eating. I wasn’t sleeping. I was constantly driving around looking for her.”
Faith told 12 News she was with Groom at the Rehoboth Police Department on Aug. 19, the same day investigators extensively searched his property. She rushed over to his County Street home after detectives told her Greg “wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.”
“In my heart I was like, ‘They have her, they finally have her,'” Faith recalled.
Her suspicions would prove to be true.
Police said Groom
admitted to stabbing Kylee to death before burying her body in the woods and covering the freshly disturbed dirt with brush. He then voluntarily drew a map of his property that pointed to where he buried Kylee’s body.
Faith was there when the state medical examiner took her sister’s body away.
“That was the moment I finally let myself break down,” Faith said. “Throughout it all, I was trying to stay strong for the family, and for her … When they found her, it was closure in a way. I was able to let it out.”
Up until that moment, Faith acknowledged she was still clinging onto hope that her sister was still out there.
“I knew my sister was not alive, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that maybe I was wrong,” she continued.
Prior to her death, Kylee had just graduated from Attleboro High School and wanted to be a welder. But she was forced to put her plans on hold after learning she was pregnant.
“She wanted to get her life together and give the baby everything she could. That was her goal,” Faith said.
Kylee lived with Groom and his grandparents in the months leading up to her graduation, according to Faith. She said that’s when their relationship started going downhill.
In an attempt to find stable housing and work her way toward getting her own apartment, Kylee sought refuge at the
Bethesda House. But Faith said her sister’s two-week stint at the shelter was not what she was expecting.
“She tried to give it a chance, but she wasn’t happy,” Faith recalled, adding that her contact with Kylee was limited over those two weeks because she wasn’t allowed to use her cell phone throughout the day.
Faith said her sister was required to wake up at a certain time and had a curfew while at the Bethesda House. Kylee was asked to leave the shelter after spending the entire night at the hospital, where Faith said she was treated for vaginal bleeding.
“She got back to the house at six in the morning,” Faith recalled. “She had fallen asleep, and they came in to wake her up around nine to tell her that she had to leave.”
The shelter gave her two days to pack up her belongings and find a new place to stay. Though Faith told Kylee she could live with her for the time being, her sister was determined to rekindle her relationship with Groom.
“She was adamant that she wanted to stay [with Groom],” Faith said. “She thought that there was a chance they could make it work for the baby’s sake.”
Faith told 12 News her sister later texted her and said that Groom had put his hands on her.
“He threw me on the ground, he pulled my hair and strangled me,” Kylee told Faith via text message the day before she was reported missing. “My phone is at 4% and if I die, it was Greg.”
Faith spoke with her sister and Groom by phone regarding what happened, but everything seemed fine. She never thought it would be last time she’d ever talk to her little sister.
“Nobody saw this coming,” she said. “I didn’t know this was going to lead to what it did.”
Faith told 12 News she has harbored a lot of guilt regarding what happened to her sister and wishes she had done more.
“The relationship was on good terms for the most part, there were no major signs,” Faith said. “That’s the scariest part for me, because it’s hard to trust anyone now.”
Faith said she had expressed concern about their relationship moving quickly. But other than that, Groom treated her well.
“Things moved so fast between them, but she had never been in a relationship like that with anyone before,” she said. “The way he treated her made her feel like the most special person in the world and she just fell in love with him.”
Groom was also looking forward to being a father, according to Faith.
“That’s why none of this makes sense,” she said. “Whether they were together or not, he was going to step up and do what he had to do as a father.”
Groom
has been charged with murder, assault and battery on a pregnant victim, aggravated intimidation of a witness, and domestic assault and battery. He was ordered held without bail.
Faith told 12 New she does not blame the Bethesda House for Kylee’s murder, but still takes issue with how her sister was let go. She’s made it her mission to make sure it never happens to other women in similar situations.
“None of us know what happened the night that she died, but there’s a chance that it wouldn’t have happened,” Faith added. “I want to make a change. I don’t have the ability to help Kylee anymore, but if I can help other women … then that is my new goal and I’m not going to stop.”
12 News reached out to the Bethesda House regarding Kylee’s situation, to which the founders explained in a statement that it is not just a shelter.
“Bethesda House is a private, faith-based, structured program; an opportunity for young women to escape poverty and change their lives and their children’s future,” the statement reads. “It takes hard work, dedication, and commitment. We understand that the program we offer at Bethesda House is not a right fit for everyone. Unfortunately, there are some women who are unable or unwilling to take advantage of this opportunity for a variety of reasons.”
The statement noted that those seeking refuge at the shelter are required to start their day at 8:30 a.m., but missing programming for medical reasons is “obviously excused.”
“After 11 days of trying to engage her in the program, Kylee was notified that she needed to find a place that was right for her,” the statement continues. “Suggestions were made for other options to explore, including reaching out to family, friends and other shelters, and she was given two days to finalize a plan.”
Bethesda House also stressed that the shelter is “heartbroken” over her tragic death and “can’t even imagine what her family is going through.”
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