NORTH HAVERHILL — The trial of a Lyme man who was charged with murdering his cousin roughly four and half years ago is scheduled to begin on Tuesday morning in Grafton Superior Court.
Lance Goodrich, 40, is facing charges of first-degree and second-degree murder in the November 2021 shooting death of his cousin, Brooke Goodrich, who was 25 years old at the time of her death at her home in Orford.
The affidavit in the case alleged that Goodrich admitted multiple times to police and his then-wife to killing his cousin because she was “telling other people lies about him and his wife” and “running her mouth.”
But during jury selection this week, which took four days to empanel a jury of 12 and four alternates, Goodrich’s defense attorney Mark Sisti frequently asked prospective jurors whether they could embrace the concept of somebody admitting to a crime they didn’t actually commit, mentioning hypotheticals such as insanity, intoxication and covering for another person.
The police affidavit stated that Goodrich admitted to police that he drove to his cousin’s residence on Route 10 on Nov. 20, 2021, took out his 9-mm handgun and shot her in the head when she opened the door.
Goodrich told New Hampshire State Police investigators that he and his then-wife had separated a couple weeks earlier, which was around the time he started taking a new antidepressant medication, the affidavit states.
Before the murder, Goodrich also had written three “suicide/apology letters” to his wife and children, according to the affidavit.
Following the shooting, the affidavit alleged, Goodrich asked police if he would be going to state prison, to which investigators confirmed “was likely.”
Goodrich’s alleged response was: “Going to be a short trial.”
Following his arrest on Nov. 20, 2021, Goodrich entered not guilty pleas to the murder charges and was subsequently incarcerated in Grafton County Jail where he has been held since.
Court records show that a trial originally was scheduled for August 2023, but was cancelled. Another round of jury selection scheduled in 2025 also was canceled.
The case initially was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then by attorney withdrawals, Sisti said in an interview at the courthouse on Thursday.
Court records show that between defense and prosecutors, nine attorneys have withdrawn from the case.
“I couldn’t care less what happened in the past,” Sista said in a phone interview on Friday. “We’re going to put on a case. (The state) is going to put on a case. We’re maintaining innocence.”
A voicemail left for the office of the New Hampshire Attorney General on Friday seeking comment from Assistant Attorney General Bethany Durand, who is prosecuting the case, was not immediately returned.
At the time of her death, Brooke Goodrich worked as a finisher at furniture maker Pompanoosuc Mills in East Thetford, where her twin brothers and late father had also worked.
Born in Lebanon, she had spent much of her teenage and young adult years in Florida near her mother. But in 2020, she returned to the Upper Valley, where her family has longtime ties, to live closer to her brothers. Her father, who died when Brooke was 9 years old, is buried here.
The trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 9 a.m. in Grafton Superior Court in North Haverhill.
