Jaimie Cates is the survivor of the October 2009 home invasion in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, in which four teenagers broke into her family’s house and killed her mother, Kimberly Cates. Jaimie was 11 years old, asleep beside her mother, when Steven Spader and Christopher Gribble attacked them both with a machete and a knife. She survived by pretending to be dead, then crawled from the bedroom and called 911 herself. She has since finished college, returned to playing field hockey, and helped her family run a scholarship in her mother’s name.
What Happened in Mont Vernon
In the early morning hours of October 4, 2009, a group of teenagers broke into the Cates home at 4 Trow Road, a house they had targeted because it looked remote and had no security system.1Nashua Telegraph. Murder Details Reveal Planning, Bragging They cut the power at the circuit breaker and used an iPod taken from Jaimie’s room to see in the dark.2NBC News. Kimberly Cates Murder Trial
Spader, then 17, and Gribble, then 19, went into the master bedroom where Kimberly and Jaimie were sleeping. Kimberly, a 42-year-old nurse, was killed. Jaimie was stabbed, slashed, and beaten. According to an arrest affidavit, Gribble stabbed her in the right lung and back trying to reach her heart, threw her against a glass door, kicked her, and slashed her face with a machete.3WMUR. Mont Vernon Murder Case Background Two other teenagers, William Marks and Quinn Glover, were with them; Marks had climbed through a basement window to let the others in.1Nashua Telegraph. Murder Details Reveal Planning, Bragging
Prosecutors called it a planned thrill killing. On the drive to the house, Spader allegedly told the others, “We’re about to do the most evil thing this town has ever seen.”2NBC News. Kimberly Cates Murder Trial
How Jaimie Survived
Jaimie stayed still until the attackers left. Then she crawled out of the bedroom and called 911. Milford Police Sergeant Kevin Furlong reached the house around 4:15 a.m. and found her inside. She was trying to scream and could not, because her jaw was broken. Furlong carried her out.4Nashua Telegraph. Prosecutors, Police, Others Describe How Mom, Girl Cut What she managed to tell him was, “They killed my mommy.”3WMUR. Mont Vernon Murder Case Background
Her injuries were catastrophic. She had a cracked skull, a punctured lung, a broken jaw, a fractured elbow, and a partially amputated foot, along with deep stab wounds and long slashes across her torso, forehead, thigh, side, and cheek. An ambulance took her to a Nashua hospital, and she was then transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital, where a team of surgeons led by Dr. Amir Taghinia operated on her for several hours. The severed part of her foot could not be reattached, and surgeons used the tissue as a skin graft instead.4Nashua Telegraph. Prosecutors, Police, Others Describe How Mom, Girl Cut Dr. Taghinia later testified that Jaimie could walk on the foot and use it, but the injury would permanently limit her physical activity and leave lasting scars.
Who Attacked Her, and What Happened to Them
Spader and Gribble had bragged about the crime to an acquaintance, whose parent called police.1Nashua Telegraph. Murder Details Reveal Planning, Bragging On October 6, 2009, two days after the attack, four suspects were arrested at a fifth person’s home in Hollis: Spader, Gribble, Marks, and Glover. The homeowner, Autumn Savoy, was arrested weeks later, on November 18, 2009, for helping dispose of bloodied clothing and weapons in the Nashua River and putting together an alibi for the group.5WMUR. Timeline: Mont Vernon Murder Case
Spader was tried first. On November 9, 2010, after an 11-day trial, a Nashua jury deliberated about 90 minutes before convicting him on all six counts, including two counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder.6CBS News. Guilty Verdict for Steven Spader in NH Home Invasion Death Judge Gillian Abramson sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole and told him, “You will stay in that cage for the rest of your pointless life.”
Gribble went to trial in early 2011 and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. On March 25, 2011, after less than two hours of deliberation, the jury rejected the defense and convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit burglary, and witness tampering.7WBUR. New Hampshire Murder Verdict Judge Abramson sentenced him to life without parole, saying, “Infinity is not enough jail time.”
The three others received lesser sentences. William Marks was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, burglary, and first-degree assault and sentenced to 30 to 60 years; the Adult Parole Board denied his parole request in August 2024.8AOL News. Parole Granted for One Man, Rejected for Another in Mont Vernon Murder Quinn Glover was sentenced in 2011 to 20 to 40 years for burglary, robbery, and conspiracy to commit burglary, was paroled on his first sentence in 2017, and was granted parole on a second count in August 2024 so he could begin serving a third consecutive sentence, with an earliest possible release date of 2029.9CBS News Boston. Mont Vernon Murder: Quinn Glover Parole Autumn Savoy pleaded guilty to two counts of hindering apprehension and was granted parole in 2015.
Life After the Attack
Jaimie’s father, David Cates, raised her in the same Mont Vernon house where the attack had happened, a home Kimberly had loved.10WMUR. David Cates Shares Letter About Life After Attack By 2011, at 13, she was earning straight A’s and playing lacrosse and field hockey.11CBS News Boston. Mont Vernon Family Establishes Kim Cates Scholarship Fund She has said she avoided traditional counseling, preferring to work through her grief by talking to people who cared about her.12CBS News Boston. Kimberly Cates Family Makes Something Positive on Fifth Anniversary of Murder
By October 2019, Jaimie was 21 and a senior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington studying public health, with one internship left before graduation. She had gone back to playing field hockey at the university.13WMUR. Ten Years After Violent Attack, Jaimie Cates Living for Every Day At the ninth annual Kimberly Cates Memorial Scholarship golf tournament that year, she told the crowd, “Today is not about what happened 10 years ago, but rather about love and community and healing.” Her own summary of her outlook was simpler: “Just living every day like it’s the last.”
The Scholarship in Her Mother’s Name
David Cates set up the Kimberly Cates Memorial Scholarship Fund to honor his wife, who had been a nurse, by helping students go into medicine and nursing. The fund held its first benefit events in 2011 and raised $12,000 for 11 students in its first two months.11CBS News Boston. Mont Vernon Family Establishes Kim Cates Scholarship Fund An annual golf tournament at the Amherst Country Club in New Hampshire became its main fundraiser. By 2019, the fund had awarded more than $250,000 in scholarships.14WMUR. Jaimie Cates Doing Well Ten Years After Violent Attack
David has spoken publicly about what the work has meant to the family. “It’s making something positive out of such a negative event,” he said in 2014. In a letter that year, he wrote, “I found hope in Jaimie, family, friends and in this scholarship.”15WCVB. David Cates: My Life Changed in the Blink of an Eye