Unborn baby's father, alleged accomplice indicted for murder in pregnant woman's death

Jack Perry, Providence Journal
·2 min read

PROVIDENCE – Two Rhode Island men have been indicted for murder in the beating death of a pregnant woman whose body was found by a fisherman beneath the ice of a Coventry pond a few days before Christmas in 2022.

One of the men, Gary Gromkiewicz, 36, of Lincoln, was the former boyfriend of the victim, Leila Duarte DaLuz, and father of her unborn child, according to the Rhode Island State Police.

The other man, Michael Lambert, 46, of Pawtucket was previously convicted of second-degree murder for the 1994 Thanksgiving Day stabbing death of a homeless man under an Interstate 95 onramp in Providence, according to previous Journal coverage.

Gary R. Gromkiewicz, 35, of Lincoln, right, and Michael P. Lambert, 46, formerly of Pawtucket, are accused of fatally beating Gromkiewicz's onetime fiancee, a 34-year-old Brockton woman, last year. They appeared Wednesday in District Court, Warwick.
Gary R. Gromkiewicz, 35, of Lincoln, right, and Michael P. Lambert, 46, formerly of Pawtucket, are accused of fatally beating Gromkiewicz's onetime fiancee, a 34-year-old Brockton woman, last year. They appeared Wednesday in District Court, Warwick.

What are the charges?

Gromkiewicz and Lambert were each charged with one count of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, the state police and Rhode Island Attorney General's Office said in a press release announcing the indictments.

They are being held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions and are scheduled to be arraigned in Kent County Superior Court on Sept. 29, the officials said.

Witnesses, cell phone data helped piece the crime together

Investigators were tight-lipped and released little information after DaLuz's body, with cuts on her head, was discovered on Dec. 21, 2022.

According to the medical examiner’s report, she sustained blunt force trauma to the head. The medical examiner also found water in her lungs, indicating she was alive when she entered the water, the officials said.

Five months later, in May 2023, the state police announced the arrests of Gromkiewicz and Lambert. Information from 53 search warrants and interviews with numerous witnesses helped the police piece together the crime, the police said previously.

According to investigators, Gromkiewicz and Lambert went to Brockton, Massachusetts, at about 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2022, to pick up DaLuz at her home.

Using cell phone data and store surveillance footage, investigators learned that they then drove around Rhode Island, making several stops at gas stations and convenience stores, officials said in the press release.

At about 6:18 a.m., cell phone location data tracked their travel to western Coventry, in an area where Carbuncle Pond is located, and where the victim’s body was later recovered, the officials said.

When Daluz was killed, Lambert was on parole for the 1994 murder and Gromkiewicz was on probation for committing felony assault with a deadly weapon in 2015, the state police said previously.

Previous reporting from Journal reporter Mark Reynolds was used in this story.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Two RI men face murder charges in death of pregnant woman found in pond