What authorities and family say happened to 13-year-old Chloe Ricard

Chloe Ricard.

The last time Deborah Goldsmith-Dolan saw her 13-year-old daughter alive was a Sunday afternoon.

Chloe Ricard was dropped off at a friend’s house, her mother told The Boston Globe. Her friends were an outlet she often embraced when she was feeling down, when anger or sadness crept in, she said.

When Ricard did not come back to their Amesbury home later that night, Goldsmith-Dolan reached out the next morning, May 20, to Ricard’s friends, who told her she was in Haverhill, safe with a friend, the newspaper reports.

But by the end of the day, Goldsmith-Dolan was left with even more questions, and Ricard, mysteriously left at Lawrence General Hospital that afternoon, was dead.

An investigation piecing together Ricard’s final hours culminated Saturday with the arrest of 47-year-old Carlos Rivera, of Lawrence, who pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple charges stemming from the incident.

Rivera, prosecutors allege, brought Ricard — identified by her family last week — to the hospital around 4:47 p.m. that day. She was pronounced dead a short time later.

Rivera is accused of sexually assaulting and giving cocaine to teenage girls, according to Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office.

A Lawrence District Court judge ordered Rivera to be held without bail at his arraignment Tuesday morning.

“I know there’s a little justice coming, but I hope there’s more,” Brian Dolan, Ricard’s stepfather, told reporters after Rivera’s arrest Saturday. “Chloe was a great kid. She was 13 years old — 13. That just sticks in my head. She didn’t even go to prom. She’s not even going to graduate high school. There’s so many things this kid’s not going to do.”

Here’s what we know about the case:

Ricard was brought to the hospital by Rivera, who was accompanied by another girl, authorities say

Between the time Ricard was dropped off by her mother at a friend’s house and when she was identified in a Lawrence emergency room, Goldsmith-Dolan learned that her daughter may have had plans to leave home.

A worker from the state’s Department of Children and Families told her “there was some red flags” and that her daughter might have planned to move out of Massachusetts, Goldsmith-Dolan said, according to the Globe.

Twenty-four hours after she had last seen her daughter, Goldsmith-Dolan was at a police station to report Ricard missing when a text message blurted across the screen of her phone, the newspaper reports.

It was from one of Ricard’s friends, and, suddenly, Goldsmith-Dolan knew where her daughter was: Lawrence General Hospital.

“I walked in and saw her sideways with tubes coming out of her. … I looked at her and said, ‘It’s true, it’s her,'” Dolan recalled.

According to WCVB, Dolan said he was told that Ricard “had no pulse” when she was brought into the emergency room.

“As soon as I heard that I was, like, ‘What? You got to be kidding,'” he said.

In a statement last week, the district attorney’s office said only that a 13-year-old Amesbury girl was brought to the hospital at 4:47 p.m. “and pronounced dead shortly after arrival.”

“She had no pulse in the car, and they abandoned her,” Goldsmith-Dolan told the Boston Herald. “They went to the ER and abandoned her. It’s just so beyond. Why would you hurt a 13-year-old? What did she do to deserve it? I want justice — to the full extent of the law.”

Authorities have not released Ricard’s name because she is a juvenile. Ricard’s family identified her as the victim while speaking to reporters in the days following her death.

Rivera was taken into custody Saturday after investigators determined he brought Ricard to the hospital, the district attorney’s office said in a statement announcing his arrest.

“He was accompanied by a female under the age of 16,” the statement says. “Investigators learned that the 13-year old girl (Ricard) and the other female under the age of 16 were at Rivera’s Lawrence apartment at 59 Bellevue Street on the evening of May 19th and during most of the next day.”

The home of Carlos Rivera.

Dolan said he knows the girl who accompanied Rivera to the hospital, and that she and Ricard were together earlier that weekend before they went to a friend’s house Sunday, the Herald reports.

Rivera, however, is a stranger to Dolan, he said.

As of Tuesday, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had completed an autopsy of Ricard, but officials had not yet made a determination for the cause and manner of her death, the district attorney’s office said.

Rivera was held over the weekend on $750,000 bail, according to officials.

“I hope God has mercy on his soul,” Dolan said.

Rivera allegedly gave Ricard cocaine before her death

In a Lawrence courtroom Tuesday morning, Rivera was arraigned as Ricard’s family somberly looked on.

Prosecutors say Rivera is charged with two counts of distribution of a Class B drug (cocaine) to a minor; two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14; and one count of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over.

Rivera allegedly assaulted a 16-year-old girl sometime before May 20, according to the district attorney’s office.

Authorities, who have indicated Rivera allegedly gave Ricard cocaine, have not identified any of the victims.

Carlos Rivera.

District Court Judge Lynn Rooney ordered Rivera to be held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing slated for June 4, officials said.

Judge orders Rivera not to have any contact with witnesses or victims in case. He is held without bail and has a detention hearing scheduled for next week.

— Jill Harmacinski (@EagleTribJill) May 28, 2019

Prosecutors also filed a motion to impound court documents until July 1 as investigators continue to interview people connected to the case, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney told Boston.com Tuesday afternoon that the case is being presented to a grand jury.

Dolan kept his arm around Goldsmith-Dolan during the hearing as she cried, the Globe reports. The couple was dressed in black.

The husband and wife declined to talk to reporters as they left.

Brian Dolan, left, and his wife, Deborah Goldsmith-Dolan, were at the arraignment for Carlos Rivera in Lawrence District Court.

Ricard was a ‘talented young artist’ who loved to draw, her family says

A student at Solstice Day School in Rowley, Ricard was very creative, and had a particular knack for drawing, her family told the Globe.

She used the hobby to process the loss of her biological father, Raymond, who died six years ago, they said.

Her obituary, which calls her “an avid dancer,” notes that her artistic side took many forms, including through her interests in dance, acrobatics, music, and yoga.

Maine’s Old Orchard Beach and her cat, Moo, held special places in Ricard’s heart, according to the obituary.

“She was just a beautiful, kind girl,” Goldsmith-Dolan said. “Everyone that met her loved her, she was so social.”

Chloe Ricard.

According to the Globe, Ricard was born in Vermont before her family moved to Northborough, where she lived until age 11.

Her parents told reporters that after the family moved to Amesbury, Ricard made friends in the wrong crowd.

“I mean, she did have her problems, of course,” Goldsmith-Dolan told the Globe.

Ricard was a former student at Amesbury Middle School, according to a statement from Superintendent Jared Fulgoni.

“Chloe was a talented young artist,” Fulgoni said. “She was creative and found that she could sometimes best express herself through her artwork. She was kind to the younger students in the school and she showed great empathy for others. We will miss her smile, her creativity and her huge heart.”

Visiting hours were scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Chiampa Funeral Home in Shrewsbury, according to Ricard’s obituary.

Aside from her mother and stepfather, Ricard is survived by two brothers, Kyle and Nicholas and her stepsiblings, Brittany and Patrick Stevens, and Nicholas and Rosie Moulton, the obituary says.

Speaking to the Globe Saturday, Dolan said he wanted justice to be served.

“I hope the charges stick,” he said. “I hope this never happens to a 13-year-old little girl ever again.”