COVENTRY, R.I. — An ex-boyfriend and a man previously convicted of murder have been indicted in the killing of a pregnant Massachusetts woman whose body was found in icy Carbuncle Pond last winter.
A fisherman out at dawn on Dec. 21, 2022, discovered the bludgeoned body of 34-year-old Leila Duarte Da Luz under the ice. Her head had been battered, and her lungs were filled with water. The medical examiner determined that Duarte DaLuz had been alive when she ended up in the pond.
State police investigators turned their attention to Duarte DaLuz’s ex-boyfriend and father of her unborn child, Gary Gromkiewicz, 36, of Lincoln, and his friend, Michael P. Lambert, 46, of Pawtucket. Gromkiewicz had served time for felony assault and robbery, and Lambert had served time for the vicious murder of a homeless man in Providence in 1994. According to prosecutors, the two men had met in prison.
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A statewide grand jury indicted both men on Wednesday, each on a charge of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
According to the investigation, the two men picked up Duarte DaLuz at her home in Brockton, Mass., at 2:30 a.m., on the day she died. Cell phone location data showed they drove throughout Rhode Island that morning, stopping at gas stations and convenience stores, where they were seen on surveillance camera video.
Around 6:18 a.m., the cell phone data tracked them to western Coventry, in the area of Carbuncle Pond.
The two men have been held without bail since their arrests in May. They will be arraigned on the indictments in Kent County Superior Court on Sept. 29.
Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her @AmandaMilkovits.