A nonbinary 17-year-old, River Nevaeh Goddard, was found dead earlier this month, and their boyfriend has been arrested in connection to the death. But he’s not being charged with murder.
Police were responding to a welfare check at the home of their boyfriend, Shane Curry, in Stow, Massachusetts on April 3, when Curry blocked the entrance to his home and refused to let police in for two hours. Curry’s mother had called the police for the welfare check. When police were able to get in, they found Goddard’s body.
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Curry, 20, allegedly told police that he stabbed Goddard several times with a sword, according to Boston 25 News. He said that he and Goddard were arguing about the latter’s “cheating and addiction.”
“The bruises aren’t working… hitting her, that’s not working, so okay, I have to knife her, so I do,” Curry allegedly told police.
He has been arrested and is facing several charges, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury and assault and battery on a family or household member, in connection to Goddard’s death. He has pled not guilty and is being held without bail.
He has not been charged with murder.
“I want you to suffer in jail, in the general population,” River Goddard’s mother, Kristen Goddard, said. “I want people know what you did to my daughter, and whatever happens to you, it is what it is.”
“It was the smirk in the courtroom and laugh, like it took everything in me not to get up,” Kristen Goddard said, referring to a hearing where Curry was present.
Curry has had a previous run-in with the law connected to a domestic violence incident in 2023 involving his mother, according to court documents.
GLAAD posted to Instagram that Goddard was nonbinary and pansexual and used they/she pronouns.
“We are absolutely heartbroken to hear of the death of another nonbinary teenager, River Nevaeh Goddard, who had been reported missing for years after reportedly surviving childhood abuse and time in foster care,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “River Nevaeh Goddard was failed in life, and it’s up to all of us to make sure we don’t fail them, or any other LGBTQ youth, now.”
According to Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, news of Goddard’s death was reported in a National Center for Missing & Exploited Children listing, where Goddard’s gender was left blank.
River Goddard spent their childhood in various homes after they were born while Kristen Goddard was incarcerated. They were first placed with their grandfather, but they called child protective services themself due to alleged abuse. They lived with their mother and her fiancee, Heather Coyne, for some time.
The couple said that River Goddard later ran away after they were told they needed treatment for behavioral issues. By April 2022, when they were 15, they were living with Curry, who was 17 or 18.
According to the medical examiner, Goddard weighed only 75 pounds when they were found dead.
“She had an amazing, outgoing personality,” Goddard’s obituary reads. “She was very creative and artistic, she loved to write her own music. Her cuddly nature was only matched by her quick wit, and goofiness.”
Goddard is the twelfth transgender person known to have been killed in 2024, according to Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, and the second nonbinary person. They are the second possible victim of intimate partner or domestic violence on the list.
