Deadly Silence

Death in a small town

The slaying of a Berkley mother in 1980 is a mystery everyone in town seems to know the answer to

By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
   BERKLEY — For 28 years, who killed Cheryle LeCornec has been a mystery.
    It is a mystery with the answer whispered by nearly everyone in town.
   “People know him and just didn’t want to get involved,” said her son, Torrey LeCornec. “It is sick to think that there are people around that still know things that could solve this and they just don’t want to.”
   Cheryle LeCornec was a 24-year-old mother of two when she left her Berkley home May, 27, 1980, hopped into a blue car and headed down the street.
   Four months later, she was found by hunters in a muddy makeshift grave. Her skull was crushed.
   In the years since her slaying, three teams of investigators tried to find her killer or killers. The names of potential suspects — and what may have happened — have been widely circulated through word of mouth in town and beyond but no one has come forward with information that could lead to an arrest.
   “A variety of different things went hand in hand,” LeCornec’s son, who was four when she was killed, said.
   There was talk at least one prominent and powerful person in town was involved and a large number of people knew him, he said.
   And, at the time, Berkley was very small. In 1980, there were about 2,500 people in town. There was one school, two full-time police officers — the chief and his son — and a lot of farmland and woods.
   “It may be that it was a close-knit town, where they all agreed to say nothing,” Torrey LeCornec said.
   Berkley is a bigger town now but there are still no answers to what happened to Cheryle LeCornec or who killed her.
   Her son said he wants an answer for his 89-year-old grandmother. “I would like to see something happen for her,” he said.
   He also wants to see justice done, finally.
   “They have had 30 years of freedom,” he said. “If they are caught now, if they are 70 or 75 years old, how much longer are they going to last in prison? If they get locked up for 5, 6 years, it still is not comparable to what they took away.
   “They may have been looking over their shoulder every day but they’re still free. They were still able to live.”