By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Eric Windhurst admitted to the 1985 murder of Daniel Paquette to at least five people, some of whom spread the information to others, according to a police affidavit that supported Windhurst's recent arrest.

Windhurst, 37, of 34 Kimball Lake Road, Hopkinton, accompanied by attorney Jonathan Cohen, pleaded not guilty to the murder charge at a Wednesday, Dec. 21, arraignment in Merrimack District Court.

In July 2004, police contacted Paquette's stepdaughter, Melanie Paquette . now Melanie Cooper . who admitted she was with Windhurst when he allegedly shot Daniel Paquette outside his 898 Whitehall Road home in Hooksett 20 years ago, court records show.

Daniel Paquette, then 36, was welding in his front yard when he was shot once in the heart from 150 to 200 yards away.

Prosecutors and police have declined to disclose possible motives for the alleged murder. Cooper "said that in 1985, Eric Windhurst called her (Melanie Paquette) and said he was going to .do it,." the affidavit states.

Windhurst then drove to pick Melanie Paquette up, and the two went to Paquette's home, where Windhurst brandished a "long gun," got out of his car, walked through the woods, and shot Paquette, the affidavit states.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin declined to specify where exactly Cooper was during the alleged murder, other than she was "in the vicinity" and "out of the car."

Cooper also told investigators that she and Windhurst agreed on an alibi if they were questioned about their location on the day of the murder.

"Mrs. Cooper also admitted that she gave false answers to investigators in 1992 when questions about Daniel Paquette's murder were sent to her out West," the affidavit states.

Strelzin said Cooper agreed to cooperate with the state, and will plead guilty to a charge that she misled investigators. She faces a maximum sentence of three-anda- half to seven years imprisonment, he said.

Strelzin offered a broad speculation as to why Cooper finally decided to cooperate with investigators. "Everyone changes with the passing of time," he said.

Based on the information provided by Cooper, police then contacted several of Windhurst's friends and family members who said Windhurst told them he.d murdered Paquette, police said.

The affidavit states that Windhurst's girlfriend, Heather Bouchard, said Windhurst admitted to the murder and asked her to withhold that information when she was subpoenaed by investigators.

Two of Windhurst's sistersin- law, Christine Windhurst and Martha Windhurst, told police that Eric Windhurst admitted to shooting and killing Paquette.

Martha Windhurst, who was married to Eric Windhurst's brother John Windhurst Jr., who died in 2000, told investigators that she and her husband relayed that information to Eric's parents, John and Barbara Windhurst, the affidavit states.

Mathew Quinn, a friend of Windhurst's from Hopkinton High School, told investigators that he spoke to Cooper and Windhurst in the school gym about whether Paquette should be killed.

Quinn said he later took Windhurst aside in a school bathroom and urged him not to kill Paquette, but that later Windhurst divulged details about the alleged murder to Quinn, including that he had used a rifle, according to the affidavit.

Shortly after reviewing the affidavit, Paquette's brother, Victor Paquette, remarked on the alleged involvement of his brother's stepdaughter in the murder.

"Everybody's a different character," he said. "What can you say about people choosing their own path in life?"

Paquette, who regularly urged police not to drop the investigation over the past 20 years, said he wasn't necessarily surprised by any of the new information.

But, he said, "In all of this, I have had to walk away from it to keep it from making me crazy."