A routine call to a Kingwood Avenue apartment became a homicide case involving a mother and her 21-year-old daughter.
CRANSTON, R.I. — The police call that opened one of Cranston’s most troubling homicide investigations of the summer did not begin with a report of violence. It began with a landlord reporting a water emergency at a Kingwood Avenue apartment on the morning of July 27.
By the time officers finished their initial sweep of the first-floor home, 21-year-old Alexandra “Aly” Straccia had been found dead in one bedroom and her mother, Anna Maria Angelosanto, had been taken from another with apparent self-inflicted injuries. Investigators would spend the following days gathering medications, a handwritten note, electronic devices and statements from relatives. They eventually accused Angelosanto, 62, of intentionally killing her daughter before trying to take her own life. She is charged with domestic violence first-degree murder and has been ordered held without bail.
Police said officers were sent to the residence shortly after 8:30 a.m. after the property owner reported the water problem. The seemingly ordinary reason for the call is significant because authorities had not announced an active violent incident at the apartment before police entered. Later court reporting said relatives and a neighbor were present outside or near the residence as officers arrived. The landlord’s call therefore became the unexpected entry point into a case that investigators would later describe as an alleged homicide within a family home.
Inside, officers first encountered Angelosanto suffering from injuries police believed she had inflicted on herself. Cranston Fire Department personnel provided emergency aid, and she was transported to Rhode Island Hospital. Officers continued checking the residence and found Straccia in a separate bedroom. She was already dead. The state medical examiner’s office responded and assumed custody of her body while Cranston detectives began securing the apartment and examining the circumstances surrounding her death.
There was no immediately announced cause of death. That uncertainty remains an important part of the case. Police did not publicly describe an obvious fatal injury when they announced the murder charge, and the medical examiner’s final findings have not been disclosed in the reporting reviewed for this story. Instead, the publicly known case has developed through circumstantial and physical evidence that prosecutors say connects Angelosanto to an intentional killing. Those allegations have not been proven at trial.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for the apartment and recovered prescription and over-the-counter medications along with a handwritten note, police said. Investigators also interviewed family members and later spoke with Angelosanto while she was hospitalized. Police Chief Michael Winquist said those investigative steps eventually gave detectives probable cause to believe Angelosanto intentionally caused Straccia’s death and then attempted to take her own life.
The picture became more detailed when Angelosanto appeared in Rhode Island District Court on Aug. 11. Prosecutors said detectives had found computer searches related to prescription overdoses. They also described the handwritten document as a suicide note that included burial instructions and language indicating Angelosanto expected herself and Straccia to remain together after death. Investigators also removed bags of pills and several electronic devices from the residence, according to the prosecution’s presentation.
Those details gave prosecutors a possible evidentiary framework but did not answer every medical question. A search involving overdose information is not itself proof of what happened to Straccia, and the presence of medications does not establish which substances, if any, contributed to her death. Toxicology findings have not been publicly detailed. The prosecution will have to connect the physical and digital evidence to the alleged killing through admissible evidence as the criminal case proceeds.
Another part of the investigation concerns Straccia’s level of dependence. Cranston police said she had severe autism and relied completely on her mother for around-the-clock care. Prosecutors told the court that Straccia was unable to give herself her prescribed medication. That claim could matter if the state ultimately argues that a drug or combination of drugs caused or contributed to her death. At the August hearing, the prosecutor said Straccia appeared to have regurgitated an unknown substance before she died, though no public laboratory identification of that material has been reported.
The investigation also looked backward from July 27. Prosecutors told the judge that Angelosanto had canceled appointments with caregivers who were expected to assist Straccia that Monday. Family members tried to see Straccia over the preceding weekend but were told she was sleeping, according to the prosecution. Authorities have not publicly established exactly when Straccia died, but court records described by news organizations suggested she may have been dead for some time before police entered the apartment.
That chronology is likely to receive close attention because it could help prosecutors argue when Straccia was last seen alive, when outside caregivers stopped having expected contact and when Angelosanto allegedly took steps that reduced contact between Straccia and others. Defense attorneys will have the opportunity to challenge those conclusions, the interpretation of the electronic evidence and the prosecution’s reconstruction of events.
Before the criminal charge, Angelosanto was publicly known within the family’s circle as Straccia’s primary caregiver and advocate. Reports examining older social media posts found that she had written about her devotion to her daughter and about efforts to secure services and environments suited to Straccia’s needs. Other records cited in court-related reporting showed that the household had experienced financial strain and was facing housing difficulties. Authorities have not publicly presented those circumstances as a proven explanation for the killing, and financial problems alone do not establish criminal intent.
Police announced the first-degree murder charge after consulting the Rhode Island attorney general’s office. Angelosanto was arrested after her release from the hospital and brought into custody. Officials classified the charge as a domestic-violence homicide because the accused and the victim were mother and daughter. The classification describes the relationship and the charge; it does not resolve the disputed facts of the case.
Winquist called the death extraordinarily tragic and said it had affected Straccia’s family, the community and investigators. Cranston Mayor Kenneth Hopkins also described the case as heartbreaking. Their statements came after detectives announced the arrest and emphasized the human impact of Straccia’s death rather than offering additional evidence about the allegations.
Neighbors interviewed after the charge described disbelief that a homicide investigation had emerged from the apartment. Their reaction reflected the case’s unusual public progression: a landlord called about a maintenance emergency, emergency responders encountered an injured resident, officers found a young woman dead, and detectives then spent days trying to understand what had happened before anyone outside the home knew there was a suspected killing.
Angelosanto’s Aug. 11 court appearance moved the case from the investigative phase into a more public legal process. A magistrate ordered her held without bail and referred her to a public defender. The proceeding allowed prosecutors to describe some of the evidence they intend to rely upon but was not a trial and did not decide guilt.
The case therefore remains defined by both what investigators say they found and what has not yet been made public. Police have accused Angelosanto of an intentional killing, prosecutors have described evidence they say supports that allegation, and she remains jailed without bail. But the exact medical cause of Straccia’s death and the ultimate legal resolution of the first-degree murder charge remain unresolved.
Author note: Last updated September 21, 2026.