DUDLEY — A witness told police that she watched as Joseph P. Kenadek knocked a woman to the ground with one punch early Sunday morning. He walked away for a moment, the witness said, and then returned, punching the woman three more times before stomping on her head.
Brenda L. Hatheway, Kenadek’s longtime girlfriend, died hours after the attack. Kenadek pleaded not guilty to assault and domestic violence charges Monday afternoon.
Both Hatheway and Kenadek had prior criminal records, and both were arrested in a domestic violence dispute last June after fighting with each other in several public places around town. Hatheway had also recently been in the news to plead for information about her missing daughter. According to the National Missing Persons Data System, Sabrina Hatheway, 23, was last seen in 2014 with her former boyfriend.
After Kenadek’s arraignment in Dudley District Court, Hatheway’s relatives shouted at reporters to “Go find Sabrina.”
According to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., Sunday’s “violent domestic dispute” started in the Webster apartment shared by Kenadek and Hatheway, spilled out onto a second-floor porch, and then onto the street.
Webster police arrived about 8:45 a.m. and found Kenadek attempting to sit Hatheway up. According to police, Hatheway’s right eye was open, but her left eye was shut, and her left cheek was swollen.
Officers quickly administered Narcan after Kenadek told police that he and Hatheway had used heroin that evening, according to the police report. Kenadek’s face, hands, and shirt were bloody, police said.
One neighbor told police she woke up at 3 a.m., and heard the couple arguing loudly, and it continued for several hours.
Hatheway was taken to Hubbard Regional Hospital where she was pronounced dead at about 9:30 a.m. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of death.
Kenadek pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and domestic assault and battery during his arraignment. Dressed in a white jumpsuit, Kenadek sobbed, sometimes loudly and uncontrollably, before collapsing as the prosecutor recounted the details of Hatheway’s death. He was ordered held on $200,000 cash bail.
Relatives and friends of Hatheway sobbed in the courtroom and shouted, “we love you, Joe,” and “be strong, Joe.”
Family members later said that Kenadek adored Hatheway, and that the couple had a “love-hate relationship.”
“We know this was an accident,” said Lisa Hatheway, the victim’s sister. “We’re trying to wrap our heads around what happened.”
One of Brenda Hatheway’s children, Toni Usher, 23, said “they loved each other but it was a toxic love.”
Neighbors said it was normal for the couple to fight several times a week, and sometimes daily. “They always get into arguments and fight with each other,” said Chris Langlois, 25, who lives across the street from the couple.
The incident Sunday morning appeared to mirror an incident last June that ended with both Kenadek and Hatheway bloodied and arrested on domestic violence charges.
According to a Webster police report filed in the Dudley courthouse, both Kenadek and Hatheway were arrested June 17 when they fought at multiple spots in the central Massachusetts town.
According to the report, officers responded to Worcester Road in Webster around 10:55 p.m. where the couple was loudly arguing. The responding officer noted that it was the same couple he had just told to go their separate ways after arguing in front of the Price Chopper supermarket.
Webster Police Department Sergeant Tobby M. Wheeler wrote that Hatheway approached Kenadek and began arguing with him. When Wheeler intervened, he learned the dispute was about Kenadek’s refusal to go home and that Hatheway had followed her boyfriend after he left their residence.
The officer said he saw dried blood on her cheek.
When asked why she returned to Kenadek, Hatheway allegedly told the officer that “they have been together a long time and [because] she loved him and just wanted him to come home,” according to the police report.
The pair had been together for 10 years, and had a child together, according to the police report. Hatheway told police she did not want to press charges and did not want to seek a restraining order.
Kenadek was bleeding on his arm and cheek, according to the report, injuries he blamed on Hatheway. A witness told them that they had seen both Hatheway and Kenadek assaulting each other, and at one point during the struggle, Kenadek was on top of Hatheway as he punched her in the face, according to the report.
Both were arrested and charged with battery and assault of a household member. Kenadek was sentenced to probation and the case was eventually dismissed.
Tim Connolly, spokesman for the Worcester district attorney’s office, confirmed Monday that Hatheway is the mother of Sabrina Lee Hatheway, who has been missing since 2014.
Sabrina Hatheway’s boyfriend, Kevin Crozier, 30, is awaiting trial on arson charges. According to news reports, Crozier is accused along with two other men of burning down the house where he and Sabrina Hatheway lived.
Prosecutors have said that Crozier paid the two men to set fire to the house on Dixifield Road.
Sofia Franco, a neighbor of Hatheway and Kenadek, said Hatheway talked about her missing daughter all the time and discussed her efforts to find her. Her sister said that finding her daughter became Hatheway’s “life mission.”
But Lisa Hatheway said her sister also began partying and drinking to numb the pain.
“She was trying to forget,” she said.
Jan Ransom can be reached at jan.ransom@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jan_Ransom.