Rhode Island
Local Man Found Murdered on Sailboat After Violent “Macroburst” Storm Slams Rhode Island | Oxygen Official Site
When a harbormaster spotted what was believed to have been an abandoned sailboat in the cove, he didn’t anticipate he’d come upon a homicide.
The gruesome discovery came after a violent macroburst storm battered the seaside town of Warwick, Rhode Island, on August 4, 2015, a destructive force that caused power outages and structural damage around the New England cove. Detective J.P. Toussaint of the Warwick Police Department recalled to Deadly Waters with Captain Lee that high winds and rain “caused havoc” in the area, an event with the potential of reaching wind speeds of 100 miles per hour.
“Often occurring during a thunderstorm, a macroburst is an intense downdraft of air that spreads out in all directions when it hits the ground,” said Deadly Waters host Captain Lee. “They’re comparable to — and in many cases can be worse — than tornadoes.”
The next morning, in the calm light of day, Chief Harbormaster Jeffrey Baris inspected the harbor for damage and spotted a vessel he “hadn’t recognized:” a yellow-and-white Columbia 26 sailboat called the Star Capella.
“I assumed that it had come in to get away from the weather, so I watched it for a while, and then I realized it was moving; kind of floating out there up against another person’s boat, causing some damage,” said Baris.
Baris used a patrol boat to approach the vessel, briefly boarding it and finding no one. Inside, items everywhere had been strewn about to create a mess, presumably the result of the storm. The harbormaster towed the sailboat and moored it at the mouth of Warwick Cove, believing someone would come around to claim it.
When no one came forward, on Aug. 15, 2015, Baris returned to the boat for further inspection, finding a “foul odor” and “considerable insect activity.”
Inside was a dead body concealed under a foam mattress, but because the decomposition was so advanced, responders couldn’t determine the sex, age, or race of the decedent.
“It’s not something I ever expected to find,” said Baris. “My mind, it’s spinning at this point. How could this have happened?”
Police look into missing man Fernando Silva
Inside the boat, authorities with the Warwick P.D. found documentation for 70-year-old Fernando Silva, and so they contacted relatives who said Silva had been out of reach for some time. According to Silva’s sister, Dolly Packard, Silva was expected to help his son paint his house about three days before the storm hit, but wasn’t overly concerned when he was a no-show.
“We didn’t worry too much ’cause he was always out there sailing, doing something,” Packard told Deadly Waters. “And so sometimes you don’t hear from him for a long time.”
Silva, whom friends affectionately knew as “Captain Fredy,” had a cell phone, but it wasn’t always reliable at sea. Loved ones grew increasingly concerned, however, in light of the storm. Investigators, including Warwick P.D. Detective Sergeant Scott Robillard, believed Silva was the man on the boat, and one day later, a medical examiner used DNA to confirm the identification.
Due to the decomposition, which Captain Lee said happened at a “rapid rate” on account of the atmospheric conditions creating a greenhouse-like effect, experts called on a forensic anthropologist to help determine a manner and cause of death, forcing investigators to wait “an extended period of time” for the results, according to Robillard.
By then, there was still no conclusive determination that Silva met with foul play, and it was possible that he was injured in the storm or suffered a fatal heart attack.
“He lived the life of a sailor on the ocean,” said Silva’s sister. “He just loved that life.”
Investigators find an eyewitness at the marina in Silva case
While waiting for the results of a postmortem examination, detectives went to the marina in search of locals who might have seen something out of the ordinary. Stephen Emerson, who — like Silva — lived on a boat, claimed Silva had an arrangement with Donald “Ducky” Waterman to use his private dock.
“Ducky Waterman’s name was a familiar name to us, and we had had several prior contacts with that subject,” Robillard told Deadly Waters. “Most of the people who had resided in the Waterman house were transient, which required neighbors summoning the police to his address several times over my 20-year career.”
Emerson also told detectives that on Aug. 1, 2015, he ran into two unknown men who’d parked a loud maroon Dodge Ram pickup truck at the marina. The men told Emerson that while Silva was reportedly away to play the lottery game, Keno, they’d been sent by Ducky Waterman to work on Silva’s boat motor.
“Mr. Emerson remembered that the two subjects were carrying a cooler, some gas, and what appeared to be a motor,” said Det. Robillard. “And he believed that approximately 30 minutes later, the two subjects were seen leaving.”
Meanwhile, Silva’s postmortem examination was completed, and it was determined by a broken hyoid bone that the victim was strangled and likely stabbed.
The manner of death was homicide.
Two men at the marina are identified and questioned in Silva case
Ducky Waterman voluntarily went with police to answer their questions, as seen in a videotaped interview published by Deadly Waters.
“The only thing I know is that the Harbormaster found him,” Waterman told detectives.
He also claimed that Silva had recently won some money from Keno and asked Waterman to find him a new motor for his boat. He admitted he sent two men to install it, one of them being Troy Gunderway, while he wasn’t sure of the other man’s name. Waterman described Gunderway as a man with a tattooed head who’d been working on a fence in a nearby neighborhood.
Police found Gunderway, and Gunderway gave them the same story as Waterman. He also identified the second unknown man as Richard Baribault, the purported owner of the Dodge Ram pickup.
Police spotted Baribault’s truck, and when they ran the plates, they came back as stolen, giving officers cause to pull him over and arrest him. During a body search, authorities also discovered a knife greater than three inches, which was illegal in Rhode Island, and charged Baribault with possession of a weapon.
“We looked closely inside the protective sleeve of the folding knife; you could see what appeared to be dried blood,” Robillard said.
When questioned by police, Baribault admitted to being with Gunderway on Aug. 1, 2015, though his story contrasted his buddy’s. He said he was “tipsy” on the night in question and agreed to go with Gunderway to Silva’s boat when asked. Baribault claimed Gunderway had every intention of robbing Silva.
“He said he just wanted me to keep an eye because he wanted to see if Fredy had money,” Baribault told detectives.
According to the suspect, Silva allegedly bragged about recently winning $800 in Keno. Baribault said he attempted to grab Gunderway after Gunderway allegedly attacked Silva.
Gunderway reportedly pushed Baribault aside and continued attacking Silva.
“So then, I just said, ‘I’m out of here, dude,’ and I left,” Baribault said in his taped confession. “I said, ‘You never told me you were going to do that to him.’ And he said, ‘Ah, he’s allr ight. I’ve left him, and he was breathing.’”
Electronic evidence and Gunderway’s contrasting statements
As far as electronic evidence, Det. Toussaint had more than a decade of experience working with video surveillance around the city of Warwick. He began inspecting footage from the Warwick Cove Marina, where on Aug. 1, 2015, a truck matching Baribault’s was captured leaving the marina in the early morning hours.
Unfortunately, according to Toussaint, any recordings angled at the Star Capella had been “overwritten,” and all footage from before Aug. 2, 2015, was lost. However, he was able to dig up “over 26,000 video files” from Aug. 2 to Aug. 20 “at an angle which captured the Star Capella from a distance.”
On Aug. 4, the Star Capella traveled east on the cove, and the travel time matched when the truck matching Baribault’s came to and from the marina. The pickup, in fact, made a dozen or more trips between Aug. 1 and Aug. 4.
Next, police brought Gunderway in for questioning, and his statements didn’t line up with Baribault’s previous claims.
“Richard, he’s the one that beat the dude up,” Gunderway said. “When I held him down, I remember him pounding on this legs, and f-cking, with his feet… He was just grabbing him, with a knife, too, going, ‘Where’s your f-cking money?’ I didn’t expect it to go that far, to be honest with you … He just went crazy on him.”
Both men were now accusing the other of killing Silva in a robbery gone wrong, an attempt to steal the boatman’s Keno winnings.
According to Det. Robillard, however, Gunderway changed his story once confronted with electronic and eyewitness evidence. This time, Gunderway said Baribault went inside the boat first, accidentally waking and startling Silva. When Silva began yelling, Baribault “punched Mr. Silva approximately five times” in the face before pulling out the knife.
Neither suspect could find Silva’s winnings, so they “quickly left,” according to Robillard.
Gunderway confessed to helping move the Star Capella to keep the smell of decomposition from signaling those nearby.
“On August 1, they never called police, they never asked for help, all they wanted to do was get rid of the evidence,” Robillard told Deadly Waters.
The microburst storm ripped through the bay just three days later.
Warwick police placed Richard Baribault and Tory Gunderway under arrest.
Closure for Captain Fredy
Gunderway quickly sought out a plea deal and was charged with second-degree murder and conspiracy in exchange for his cooperation by testifying against Baribault, who denied taking any part in Silva’s murder. Around this time, Warwick investigators executed search warrants for cell phone records and Google accounts.
One of Baribault’s chilling voice searches, as obtained and published by Deadly Waters, confirmed for investigators that they had the right guy.
Baribault said, “Does bleach kill everything, including skin cells?”
Coupled with the fact that the blood on Baribault’s knife matched to Silva, plus Gunderway’s convincing testimony, investigators had a “strong case” against Baribault, according to Det. Robillard. On June 30, 2017, nearly two years after the murder, a jury found Baribault guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and several lesser charges.
Baribault was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years, while Gunderway was handed a 55-year sentence with 20 years suspended.
“The severe microburst storm that rocked Warwick, Rhode Island, allowed two cold-blooded killers the cover to almost get away with brutally murdering an innocent 70-year-old sailor over just $800 in Keno winnings,” said Captain Lee. “Thankfully, the greedy perps were not clever enough to outsmart technology or local detectives.”
Dolly Packard said she continues to pray “every day” for her brother and laments that Silva’s grandson will never know “what a wonderful person he was.”
Watch all-new episodes of Deadly Waters with Captain Lee, airing Saturdays at 9/8c on Oxygen.
Rhode Island
Liz McGraw Cries Revealing Unaired Details From Her and Jo-Ellen’s RHORI Clash (EXCLUSIVE) | Bravo
For anyone wondering if Liz McGraw is still reeling from her clash with Jo-Ellen Tiberi on The Real Housewives of Rhode Island, she is, ma. In fact, Liz even broke down into tears while revealing unaired details from their Episode 10 fight on The Real Housewives of Rhode Island After Show.
Although the core drama that ignited during a car ride to South Boston was actually between Liz and Alicia Carmody, Jo-Ellen inadvertently entered the fray by trying to mediate their conflict. Even after they arrived for Rosie DiMare’s husband Rich DiMare’s Frank Sinatra-themed dinner show, Jo-Ellen’s peacekeeping efforts continued to rub Liz the wrong way, culminating with them sparring before, during, and after the performance.
“She’s yelling at me and simultaneously trying to fix my face,” Liz recalled. “Get your f–kin’ hand off me … It’s actually burning a hole through me. I don’t feel the love from your hand right now, or good intentions.”
A Complete Guide to the RHORI Cast’s Families, Friendships, Feuds & More (EXCLUSIVE)
Appearing to become emotional, Liz added, “I think, at the time, with all the s–t I was going through, my heart really just couldn’t handle it. That’s the truth. I just wanted away from it. I was steaming.”
After returning to her home in Rhode Island, Liz admitted that she’d “rage texted” Jo-Ellen, however. “I was just so mad,” she explained.
Why Liz McGraw felt misunderstood amid her arguments with Jo-Ellen Tiberi and Alicia Carmody on RHORI
Ultimately, Liz chalked up her explosive reaction to the fact that nobody seemed to understand where she was coming from as they debated whether or not Alicia was ever actually “homeless” during her childhood.
From Liz’s point of view, the term “homeless” implied that she was living “on the street,” which she felt was insulting to Alicia’s “big, beautiful family” that opened their doors when her father sold their home and “abandoned” her and her mother. Either way, Liz previously insisted during Episode 9 that she wasn’t trying to be “insensitive,” but rather, she simply wanted to protect Alicia’s family members, whom she’d known her whole life.
RHORI Midseason Trailer Teases an Arrest, Video Proof of Cheating, and More Drama
“I don’t know. I just really wanted to be, like, understood,” Liz tearfully added on the RHORI After Show.
When a producer asked why she was getting so upset, Liz elaborated, “Um… I know the way it looks. I know that this looks like I demand this absolute loyalty s–t. I don’t. I don’t need anyone’s loyalty. Just stop f–king with me. That’s it.”
She continued, “My harsh nature makes it easy to say … I’m like the attacker or something. But, like, I really don’t mean to be. I’m not trying to be the heavy-hitter, I’m not trying to, like, get karma on people. I’m not trying to do any of those things. I’m literally just trying to, like, survive and feel OK.”
Where Liz McGraw and Jo-Ellen Tiberi’s friendship stands after their RHORI fight
Jo-Ellen, for her part, doubled down on the After Show that she was simply “trying to deescalate the situation” between Liz and Alicia. She couldn’t help but remember how Liz had referred to her as “the devil” and “a demon,” however.
When Alicia, meanwhile, questioned why she’d let Liz speak to her that way, especially when she’s usually “so strong with everybody else,” Jo-Ellen explained, “Because I care about her and because I want her friendship … We have fun when we have fun. And then when she turns that switch, it’s turned.”
During their meetup at the end of Episode 10, however, Jo-Ellen and Liz were unable to work through their issues. In a separate RHORI After Show clip, Jo-Ellen echoed her earlier comments about caring about the friendship, while Liz opened up more about their dynamic and why their initial reconciliation attempt had failed.
“Every time we have these fights, this is what ends up happening,” Liz said. “She’ll do something really f–ked up to me … And when I react or retaliate or say ugly things back, she will become the victim and be like, ‘You really hurt my feelings with that.’”
She added, “If you didn’t do it, there would be no feelings to be hurt, like, you know what I mean? And she rapid-fired these insults at me that I was not prepared for at all. I thought we were, like, trying to, like, work it out. But what did you expect from what you were just saying to me? I’m ‘so mean and nasty.’ I don’t hear that often. But do I feel the need to defend myself when it comes my way? Yeah.”
As Liz concluded, “I think I show how much I care by being hurt. I want you to understand me. I want you to understand where I’m coming from. But I think I am learning that people don’t have to understand me all the time. You know, I’m like, whatever. I am who I am.”
As you wait to see if Liz and Jo-Ellen can repair their friendship, don’t miss a sneak peek at more drama ahead in the RHORI midseason trailer.
Rhode Island
9 Offbeat Rhode Island Towns To Visit In 2026
In Charlestown, a garden village called the Fantastic Umbrella Factory sells no umbrellas. What it has instead is bamboo paths, a flock of emus, and a greenhouse of carnivorous plants, all down a back road as though it needs no explanation. That matter-of-fact oddness runs through the nine towns here. Some keep working relics going rather than roping them off as exhibits, like a windmill in Jamestown still open to the climb and a portrait painter’s birthplace in North Kingstown with its waterwheel still turning. Others trade in the genuinely strange: troll sculptures hidden in the woods, and a stretch of open sand that locals call Rhode Island’s desert. None of them sit far apart, which is the quiet advantage of a small state.
Little Compton
Little Compton’s village of Adamsville holds Gray’s General Store, founded in 1788 and run by the same family for seven generations until it closed in 2012. Rhode Island officials once proclaimed it the oldest continuously operating general store in the country, and its marble soda fountain and penny candy still live in local memory. The store sold johnnycakes made from cornmeal ground at Gray’s Grist Mill, which sits about 100 yards down the road and just across the state line in Westport, Massachusetts. Elsewhere in town, the Whitehead Preserve at Dundery Brook runs a boardwalk trail through ponds and wetland forest. Sakonnet Gardens opens its tightly planted garden “rooms,” hidden pathways, and water features by limited reservation, so anyone hoping to see it should book well ahead.
New Shoreham
New Shoreham is the town that covers Block Island, reached by ferry from the mainland. The Southeast Lighthouse, built in 1875, stands above the Mohegan Bluffs on the island’s south side, where a long stairway drops to a beach beneath the clay cliffs. People scoop the natural wet clay, let it dry in the sun, and rinse it off in the surf, a ritual that has become part of a Block Island summer. Inland, the 1661 Farm keeps a small menagerie of exotic animals, including alpacas, emus, and kangaroos, and rents rooms on the property along with a wellness center. Cars come over on the ferry, though the island is small enough to cover by rented moped or bicycle.
Charlestown
Charlestown is a quiet coastal town whose strangest stop is the Fantastic Umbrella Factory, the garden village named at the top of this list. Bamboo paths wind past small teepees and rock mazes to pens of emus, goats, and ducks, with bohemian shops and a greenhouse selling carnivorous plants such as the Venus flytrap. A few minutes away, Ninigret Park holds two of the giant recycled-wood trolls that the Danish artist Thomas Dambo has installed around the world, and tracking them down feels like a treasure hunt. The same park is home to Frosty Drew Observatory, which opens on Friday nights under some of the darkest skies in the state for views of the Milky Way, the planets, and distant nebulae. East Beach adds clear water and white sand for a quieter afternoon.
Jamestown
On Conanicut Island, the Jamestown Windmill is the town’s signature landmark, a three-story octagonal mill built in 1787 to replace an earlier 1730 windmill on the same hill. Its sails turned until 1896, and the structure still stands in the Windmill Hill Historic District, open for a climb up the winding stairs into the bonnet where the gears sit. The town marks it with Windmill Day each July. The shoreline carries a different kind of history: Beavertail, Fort Getty, and Fort Wetherill state parks hold concrete passageways and gun emplacements left from the island’s coastal defenses, with coves below for swimming and offshore wrecks for certified divers. Watson Historic Farm, a 265-acre colonial-era farm, runs hiking trails toward the water.
Lincoln
Lincoln Woods State Park is studded with glacial boulders that climbers know by name, among them Ship Rock, Buddy Boulder, and Bear Hug. Deeper in, an overgrown section locals call the “post-apocalyptic” woods hides old stone walls, abandoned structures, and roadbeds swallowed by trees. Olney Pond anchors the park with hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking, and the whole place stays quiet because it takes some effort to reach. Along the Blackstone River, the Blackstone River Bikeway follows the old canal past preserved 19th-century mill villages such as Ashton, including an elevated boardwalk over the Lonsdale marshlands.
Johnston
Johnston keeps its oddities in the woods. Snake Den State Park is scattered with ruins and relics that turn an ordinary walk into a low-key treasure hunt, while Johnston Memorial Park adds more open ground for a morning outside. Dame Farm and Orchards works year-round, with apple picking and a corn maze in fall, blueberries and peaches in summer, and wagon rides through the orchard’s wooded hills. The farm’s apple cider donuts have a following of their own.
Bristol
Bristol runs the oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration in the country, first held in 1785 and still drawing crowds that dwarf the town. Its Main Street is painted red, white, and blue year-round, and on the holiday the bands and floats parade for hours before the fireworks close the night. The rest of the year, Bristol looks the part of a waterfront New England town, with historic architecture, the 18th-century Coggeshall Farm Museum at Colt State Park, and the open-air Chapel-by-the-Sea. The East Bay Bike Path runs 14.5 paved miles through coastal and wooded stretches, and the Beehive Café serves pastries and lunch by the water. On the strength of that July tradition, Bristol has been called America’s most patriotic town.
West Greenwich
West Greenwich holds something a small New England state has no business having: a patch of open sand dunes that locals nickname The Dunes, or “Rhode Island’s desert.” It sits inside the Big River Management Area, roughly 8,300 acres where dunes meet woods and green swimming holes. Stepstone Falls is a multi-tiered cascade with an accessible swimming hole, and Breakheart Ponds opens onto horseback and mountain-biking trails. Just outside town, another of Thomas Dambo’s trolls hides near Browning Mill Pond in the Arcadia Management Area.
North Kingstown
North Kingstown was the birthplace of Gilbert Stuart, the painter behind the portrait of George Washington that appears on the dollar bill. His restored 1750s home and mill still run a wooden waterwheel and gristmill, set among gardens, a millpond, and a stream where river herring migrate in from the Atlantic Ocean each spring on their way to Carr Pond. Nearby, Smith’s Castle preserves nearly four centuries of history on a site that traces back to a 1630s trading post, which makes the present house one of the oldest standing in Rhode Island. Casey Farm, an 18th-century working farm, overlooks Narragansett Bay, and the seaside village of Wickford, laid out around 1709, fills its blocks with eclectic shops and local eateries.
The Quieter Side of Rhode Island
What ties these nine places together is not a postcard version of New England but the opposite: working mills, a year-round painted Main Street, troll sculptures in the trees, and a desert that has no business existing. The state’s size means a person can string several of them together in a single day without much planning, and each one repays the detour with something genuinely its own.
Rhode Island
RI Lottery Powerball, Numbers Midday winning numbers for May 30, 2026
The Rhode Island Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 30, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from May 30 drawing
01-27-35-44-52, Powerball: 12, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Numbers numbers from May 30 drawing
Midday: 0-6-8-1
Evening: 7-6-1-2
Check Numbers payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Wild Money numbers from May 30 drawing
01-11-21-25-36, Extra: 05
Check Wild Money payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 30 drawing
05-14-22-28-30, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes less than $600 can be claimed at any Rhode Island Lottery Retailer. Prizes of $600 and above must be claimed at Lottery Headquarters, 1425 Pontiac Ave., Cranston, Rhode Island 02920.
- Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot winners can decide on cash or annuity payment within 60 days after becoming entitled to the prize. The annuitized prize shall be paid in 30 graduated annual installments.
- Winners of the Millionaire for Life top prize of $1,000,000 a year for life and second prize of $100,000 a year for life can decide to collect the prize for a minimum of 20 years or take a lump sum cash payment.
When are the Rhode Island Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Midday): 1:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Evening): 7:29 p.m. ET daily.
- Wild Money: 7:29 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Rhode Island editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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