On a summer day in Auburn, Maine, the lives of two young people were brought to a violent end. A 21-year-old Black male named Pierre Langlois from Meriden, Connecticut, was found deceased on June 19, 2022, inside an apartment at 49 Fourth Street. Alongside him was 21-year-old Kelzie Caron of Auburn. The initial call to the police was for a cardiac arrest, but first responders discovered a double homicide.
The state's chief medical examiner later confirmed that both deaths were the result of foul play.
The investigation into the deaths of Langlois and Caron quickly became a multi-state effort involving law enforcement agencies from Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Maryland. Investigators were also searching for a black 2018 Hyundai Tucson connected to the case. A suspect was identified as David Barnett, a 34-year-old from Bristol, Connecticut, who was also known by the street names "Slim" and "Cash". In addition to the murder warrant, Barnett was wanted on a nationwide warrant for a probation revocation related to a prior robbery charge in New York. On July 1, 2022, the manhunt came to an end when Barnett was arrested without incident outside an apartment complex in Rockville, Maryland.
In August 2023, David Barnett, then 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional or knowing murder. He was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences. During the court proceedings, the harrowing details of the crime were revealed. Barnett stated he had come to Maine to sell drugs and had met a man dating Kelzie Caron. Barnett claimed to believe Langlois posed a threat to this friend. Caron had allowed Barnett into her home, and Langlois had reportedly given Barnett his gun to hold. Barnett confessed to shooting Langlois while he was asleep. When Caron awoke from the gunshot, Barnett killed her as well because she had witnessed the first murder. Following the killings, Barnett stole the victims' cellphones and fled in Caron's vehicle, leaving Caron's two young children, ages two and four, locked inside the apartment with the bodies for hours until they were discovered by their grandmother.
