Somersworth woman indicted in shooting death of former partner

Haydee Rivera-Nadeau, left, and Lisa Rocheleau (Rivera-Nadeau/police mugshot; Rocheleau/courtesy photo)

DOVER - The Somersworth woman accused of fatally shooting her former lover has been indicted by a Strafford County grand jury.
Haydee Rivera-Nadeau, 65, of 212 Old Rocheter Road, stands charged with two counts of second degree murder, one count of falsifying physical evidence and one count of stalking.
The two murder counts allege that she either "knowingly caused the death of Lisa Rocheleau, 50, of Rochester, by shooting her with a gun" or she "recklessly caused (her) death under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life by shooting he with a gun."
The falsifying physical evidence charge alleges River-Nadeau "moved and concealed the firearm."
The stalking charge alleges Rivera-Nadeau stalked Rocheleau between April 19 and May 1, "confronting and/or threatening her" at a friend's house on April 20. The indictment further alleges that on May 1 Rivera-Nadeau followed her to her place of employment on Winter Street in Rochester, where she "aimed a firearm at Ms. Rocheleau's face ... and shot her."
The two murder charges are special felonies, the stalking charge is a Class A felony while falsifying physical evidence is a Class B felony.
Either murder charge can draw up to a life sentence.
According to a Rochester Police affidavit, Rivera-Nadeau told an acquaintance the day after the shooting that her former lover's death was an accident.
Rocheleau died at Portsmouth Regional Hospital a few days after she was shot.
The bullet - likely from a small caliber handgun - was still in her head, according to the affidavit.
Rivera-Nadeau and Rocheleau had been in a longtime "toxic" relationship, according to a Gofundme page set up to help the family, which includes three sons.
"Lisa was finally happy for once in her life, after working up the courage to leave (the relationship)," the Gofundme page states.
A member of Rocheleau's family who discovered her on the floor of her title business inside the Winter Street Professional Arts building in Rochester told police that Rivera-Nadeua "had a history of being verbally and physically violent," however no law enforcement agency had documentation of such.
A digital extraction of Rocheleau's phone revealed that Rivera-Nadeau had texted her regarding the possibility of her "cheating on her" within the week preceding the shooting.
On the day of the shooting an employee of the suspect's pest control business said she got a call from her boss around 7:45 a.m. during which she said, "I love you, I'm sorry, I'm going away, please take care of my dog," the affidavit states.
Surveillance video at the 40 Winter St. building shows that a person identified as Rivera-Nadeau arrived at 6:39 a.m. and left the property at 7:16 a.m.
Police spoke with another acquaintance of the suspect on May 2, who said Rivera-Nadeau called her that day to tell her that the shooting was an accident, the affidavit states.
Also that, "she didn't mean to hurt anyone, that she just went to Lisa's office to drop off a plant" and "that they got into an argument."
According to the affidavit, "At some point she (Haydee) had the gun in her hand and it clicked. Lisa then got scared and went towards her (Haydee) and the gun accidentally went off and hit Lisa in the head."
Rivera-Nadeau then told the acquaintance she was on the run, because "the police won't believe it was an accident."
Rivera-Nadeau remains held at Strafford County Jail on no bail.

The Strafford County indictments were handed down on Aug. 17 and released to the public today.

An indictment is not an indication of guilt, rather that enough evidence has been presented to a grand jury to warrant moving forward to trial.